The film industry obsesses over first week numbers and if the film isn’t an instant cash cow, they will bury it. Sound familiar?

The double Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman has made an angry attack on the “euthanasia� of the film industry, which he complains tries to “bury� any film that is not an instant cash cow.

“If the film doesn’t make money over that first weekend of its release, they will bury it,� said Hoffman

“Euthanasia is legal in Hollywood. They just kill the film if it doesn’t succeed immediately.�

Hoffman criticised the film industry for being obsessed with looking almost hourly at the box-office takings of a film in its first few days of release, meaning poor quality but populist films could push out higher-quality productions

“If the movie doesn’t make money it must therefore be a bad work,� said Hoffman, who won best actor Oscars for Kramer vs Kramer and Rain Man. “I don’t remember a time when there was so much respect for bad work.�

Hoffman was encouraged by the more recent success of some American films. “You cannot stop the artists.�

For Hoffman, “the most exciting film I’ve seen this year� is the small-budget Little Miss Sunshine, which tells the story of a dysfunctional family driving across America

Key Quote: “I don’t remember a time when there was so much respect for bad work.â€? So it’s not only in the music industry that bad art is respected and rewarded. Has it always been this way? no way. The problem isn’t with the old films it’s with the “new” films. The problem isn’t with the old music, it’s with the ‘new’ music. Both the film and the music industry is struggling to re-invent itself. It’s not the technology, its the lack of inspiration. As Sting said, “Today’s rock music is a bore”.

Janet Jackson’s boyfriend, producer Jermaine Dupri, is out at Virgin Records. Dupri was head of urban music at Virgin. According to sources, Dupri quit—i.e. was forced out—after disappointing sales of Jackson’s comeback album called “20 YO.” Three weeks into its release, the album is a dud with less than 500,000 copies sold. The CD had dropped an astonishing 77 percent in sales in its second week. Also, ’20 YO’ was the last album on her Virgin contract and now faces the task of negotiating a new deal with little leverage.

KOAR Higher Learning artist Fermata has been picking up airplay with their single ‘Frustrated‘ on stations like WDYL, WKGB, WRIF and many more. In support of their recently released EP ‘Vessel,’ Fermata have been touring across the US. Check out the new demos Four Letter Words and When The Hero Dies.

• Army of Freshman was picked up by lawyer Dan Friedman. They just finished a 60 date tour with Bowling for Soup and have a string of dates in the UK 2007. Labels reps are expected to attend the November 11th performance in Dallas, Texas.
• KOAR’s Higher Learning artist My Favorite Highway will be performing for labels on November 11th at Jammin Java in Virginia.

• Sting Says Today’s Rock is a Bore
  Sting said contemporary rock music is so stagnant that he prefers to sing 16th century English ballads. Rock music has come to a standstill — it’s not going forward any more, it only bores me,” Die Zeit quoted Sting as saying.

Today’s rock music a bore. You think?

• KOAR recently talked about 90’s grunge band Sponge that wrote new songs and looking for a partner. Sponge is now confirmed on the “Rock Never Stops” tour that features headliners Motley Crue. For more information email lawyer Dan Friedman.
  Check out the tracks Fame and Glory and No DOA on Sunday.
• Labels Profited Directly from YouTube Buy – Will Artists See the Money?
  The New York Times reports that YouTube gave each label an equity stake that just hours later was valued at up to $50 million from the Google acquisition. Three of the four major music companies — Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Sony and Bertelsmann’s jointly owned Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and the Warner Music Group — each quietly negotiated to take small stakes in YouTube as part of video- and music-licensing deals they struck shortly before the sale, people involved in the talks said yesterday.
• Labels Market to Illegal Music Fans.
  A video clip from Jay-Z’s live concert in June at Radio City Music Hall is popping up on all sorts of illicit music-sharing hotspots. But Jay-Z isn’t upset.
  In a tactic little known outside the music industry, record labels have hired outside companies to plant “decoy,” or fake, files on the sites. (One such company, ArtistDirect Inc.’s MediaDefender, says it has deployed decoys for as many as 30 of the top 100 Billboard songs at any given time.) Audioslave, Ice Cube, Yellowcard and other music groups have used decoy files for their own version of viral marketing.
• Yoko Ono sued music company EMI Group PLC and a subsidiary for $10 million Wednesday, claiming she was cheated out of royalties due from the sale of music recordings by her late husband, John Lennon.

Still the same..Great Rock
Rod Stewart
TW 184,304
**Clive Davis did a great job cultivating his career.

Open Door
Evanescence
TW 164,042
612,988

Sam’s Town
Killers
TW 101,657
Total 417,531
The guitar line in “When You Were Young” is one of the best written. Unfortunately the whole record doesn’t speak.

Extreme Behavior
Hinder
76,204
Total 972,260

All the Right Reasons
Nickelback
TW 54,606
Total 3,759,854

Crusade
Trivium
TW 31,156

Shine On
Jet
TW 15,546
Total 66,709