Check out the article in Fortune Magazine titled
‘Big musicians flex their muscle with record labels’. Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO of the Firm says he is trying to diversify the Firm into a company that not only manages music clients but can produce and promote their records and oversee publishing, touring, and merchandising. He says this is what record companies did in the 1960s and ’70s.
After meeting with various labels, Ice Cube one of the Firms clients chose to release his record himself. Ice Cube felt it was only fair that he own the music and reap all the profit from its sale in the U.S.
“We have ring-tone checks coming in. We’ve licensed music to TV shows. We’ve licensed music to films. It all goes into his pocket.”Says Kwatinetz.
Radiohead’s contract with EMI’s Capitol label has expired, and the band seems to be in no rush to sign a new one. In July, Thom Yorke, Radiohead’s lead singer, released a solo album, “The Eraser,” on an indie label. It was promoted on the homepage of Apple’s (Charts) iTunes Music Store and became the No. 2 record on the Billboard 200 without a major label.
Record sales became so profitable that the labels gave up their revenue streams from ticket and T-shirt sales. Napster came along and CD sales plummeted. Kwatinetz argues that now these same companies are so focused on making their quarterly results from album sales that they can no longer build long-term careers for their artists.
Let’s put this all together. If your a megastar or use to be a megastar with somewhat of a fan base, then yes, you don’t need a major label given you have enough capital. The same platforms labels use (I Tunes, MTV, Internet) to launch artists are available to anybody. The problem isn’t with megastar artists, the problem remains with new artists.
-Check out a new track called Here from KOAR favorite Mighty Six Ninety. Full length will be released in Japan and the UK.
-Several labels including Virgin, IDJ, Columbia, Epic and Universal attended the Powerspace performance in Chicago, IL. For more information contact
Dan Friedman. Check out the track Right On Right Now.
-Lawer Chris Castle is a repping a new artist called Civilian. Check out the tracks here.
–My Favorite Highway just finished recording new tracks. Check out the track Your Making it Come Alive
Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group Plc, and Warner Music Group Corp. has sued LimeWire. The lawsuit has been filed in a Manhattan federal court. LimeWire has promoted digital piracy by letting users share digital content without permission from the owners. The RIAA said in a statement that they had tried numerous times to engage LimeWire but the site owners have “shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model�.
The labels are demanding $150,000 in damages for every song digitally pirated on their service.
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Tower Records who just launched its own digital download store is in serious trouble.
Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI Group confirmed each had stopped sending albums to Tower Records, and record executives said the the cutoff is due to unpaid bills, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. If the music companies shut off Tower Records for long, the company might have to shut down its 89 locations, including their famed location on Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip, the Times said. The writing is on the wall, the sale of physical CD’s is at its tipping point.
If I could only use one word to describe The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ major label debut it would be “relevant.” Not many albums come out these days that can cross demographic borders without some level of selling out, however ‘Don’t You Fake It’ does so with a professionalism beyond the young band’s years. Strongly rooted in power pop, but certainly not oblivious to other genres, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus have created an impressive album of hook-laden rock, leaving even the most jaded critics hard-pressed to find error. The band jumps from arena anthem to mainstream radio hit to power ballad to a nearly 8-minute prog-core epic without missing a beat or breaking a sweat. This album hits on all cylinders, musically, vocally and lyrically with David Bendeth’s production pulling out the absolute best in front man, Ronnie Winter’s composition. The public and critical response since the release of ‘Don’t You Fake It’ has been overwhelmingly positive, promising a very bright future for this KOAR alumn. (4.7/5)
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