-Civilian has signed with Russ Rieger and Pipeline Management
and are getting love from Kat Corbett at KROQ, who said this about the band -  “I can’t believe these guys haven’t been snatched up yet. The amount of crap SIGNED music I get sent to me is ridiculous – these guys are a no brainer. I handed over tracks directly to Lisa Worden and Rodney on the Roq. Now if these fu**s would only get a myspace page I could get my nephew off my back.â€? Legal is Chris Castle
-Alternative solo artist Adam Richmand is officially out of his deal with OR/Sony. For more information contact Dan Friedman.
-Canadian rock band Cauterize, formerly on Wind Up, have signed to High Four Records (distributed by Fontana/Universal); Legal rep: Ben McLane, Esq
–Universal Music Group has reached a tentative agreement with German media company Bertelsmann AG to acquire BMG Music Publishing for $2.05 billion (Ђ1.6 billion).
–Robbie Williams has threatened to quit singing for good. The Angels singer says he no longer wants to be part of the “pop machine” because he feels it has turned him into a “monster”. The 32-year-old, who is believed to be worth around £100-million, said: Â
“I’ve got to take the view over the next 18 months and see if I want to be part of the machine any more, because I don’t see me singing again. “It’s a question of what I want and where I want to be. Can I live without the radio picking my song and putting it on the playlist? Or is this fame thing something I’m addicted to?”
–Major Labels are now embracing mobile technology
Warner Music Group recently introduced its first mobile videogame on T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. Capitol Records is supporting the debut album by Dave Navarro’s new band the Panic Channel with a first-of-its-kind mobile-TV promotion in conjunction with Sprint and GoTV. Warner Music and Sony BMG have developed their own mobile-game publishing divisions, rather than licensing the rights to existing game developers
In 2004, I asked an executive in a major label sales department what the dominant configuration was that fans used to listen to music. His reaction was predictable, which was why I phrased the question the way I did. The dominant configuration was the compact disc. I suggested to him that the dominant configuration that fans used to listen to music was the mp3 file—the dominant configuration that he used to sell music was the compact disc.  Not the same thing at all. My friend looked at me like a dog on a mirror.
Then I asked him if he thought he would be doing a good job if there was a configuration that resulted in hundreds of millions of “listensâ€? a month and he wasn’t selling music in that configuration. Again, dog on a mirror. But I knew the truth: The lawyers won’t let him. He has to sell digitally in either Microsoft’s or Apple’s DRM.Â
Locks Keep Out the Honest People
In case it hasn’t dawned on anyone—DRM, like locks, keeps out the honest people, whether it’s Microsoft’s, Apple’s, or whatever’s DRM. The DRM for sound recordings on digital files will always be relatively weak if for no other reason than the simple fact that you can’t put a $99 security solution on something that sells for $0.99 and the computer manufacturers refuse to cooperate with developing copyright-respecting protections. Plus, copy protections on CDs have not been uniformly successful (to be extraordinarily kind). The fact that DRM is hackable is not a reason not to use it. The day man invented fire the first arsonist was born, but thankfully that did not stop the use of fire.
-“The music industry these days tends to not take musicians and make stars out of them. They tend to take stars and make musicians out of them. That’s just the way it is…For now there is one thing people can’t download, and that’s us. Now it’s about staying out there on the road. That’s how you’re a rock band these days.”- Robby Takac Goo Goo Dolls
-Check out new music from Aphasia. For more information contact Drake Shearer at drake@zigzagcommunications.com
Check out some new music from unsigned artist Rides Again who we talked about several months ago. New song is called Apology (mp3). For more information contact Garry Francis c/o Prize Fighter Management at or 416-434-4244. Legal is Chris Taylor
Universal Music is backing a start-up called SpiralFrog that will allow consumers to download songs for free. It will rely on advertising for its revenues, offering a different business model from that of Apple Computer’s popular iTunes music store.
The service, SpiralFrog, represents a departure from Apple’s 99 cents-a-song business model and other legal download services which charge a subscription fee by being completely free. It is due to start up in December.
“Offering young consumers an easy-to-use alternative to pirated music sites will be compelling,� said Robin Kent, SpiralFrog’s chief executive and the former head of the Universal McCann advertising agency.
Perry Ellis, the fashion company, said it would advertise on SpiralFrog. Levi’s, Aeropostale, Benetton and others have expressed interest. “Our audience is into music and can be more easily reached on the web,� said Oscar Feldenkreis, president of Perry Ellis International.
Remember when MTV use to show your favorite videos?
Websites including Yahoo, Myspace and Youtube are using music videos and stealing MTV’s market share.
The music video strategy is a smart one for online companies, says David Hallerman, a senior analyst at eMarketer. After all, Internet advertising is a fast-growing market expected to bring in $16 billion this year alone, according to eMarketer projections, and advertisers particularly covet the teenage and young adult market.
Analysts say MTV can’t afford to be complacent. “Right now I don’t really view (competition) as a problem because MTV has an Internet presence and they are the main brand,” says Robert Routh, a managing director at Jefferies & Co. “Could it become a problem if Viacom doesn’t carefully monitor the situation as time goes on? Sure. If MTV continues to focus more on the television product, then it could become a problem. We saw that with AOL, which was the dominant player online for years. Now look at what has happened.”
Last week, MTV Networks purchased gaming site and online video outlet Atom Entertainment for $200 million (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/11/06, “I Want My GTV?”). Earlier this month, MTV’s college campus network acquired Y2M: Youth Media & Marketing Networks, a publisher of online college newspapers (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/3/06, “Viacom: I Want My Demographic”).
It has also acquired gaming sites Xfire and GameTrailers, along with indie film site IFILM. Last year, Viacom tried to acquire social networking giant MySpace, which also streams music videos from independent and major artists, but lost out to News Corp. (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/19/05, “News Corp.’s Place in MySpace”).
YouTube is handily beating nearly all of the traditional media outlets for traffic.
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