Label news……………………………….

According to Sources Def Jam is laying off 40 staffers. “Jay-Z, L.A. Reid and Jermaine Dupri are still getting paid millions … and running the company into the ground,” says a source

And….

WEA is cutting 70 staffers serving the traditional brick-and-mortar marketplace. Warner’s goal is to become digitally focused.

Artist news….

Sounds Under Radio will be showcasing for several major labels on May 29th at 10pm at the Mercury Lounge.

KOAR will be talking about NEW artists’ shortly…stay tuned.

Music videos haven’t been the central part of programming on MTV and VH1 in EONS, but thanks to YOUTUBE and MYSPACE they have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity.

Check out the Wall Street Journal Article ‘Bands Walk Fine Line With Contests That Invite Fans to Shoot Music Videos’

Today, artists aren’t turning to Big Directors to shoot their videos, instead they are turning to fans. Björk, Red Hot Chili Peppers , Ozzy Osbourne, and the Decemberists, are holding video-making contests in conjuction with the release of their latest albums.

Epic Records was ready to prepare to produce a new Incubus video for the song dig just in case the contest failed to garner results. Lee Stimmel, Epic’s senior vice president of marketing, said the label was impressed with the submissions, which totaled more than 800. Also, Fans have submitted more than 350 videos for “Charlie,” a new Chili Peppers song.

The labels also see the contests as a marketing opportunity and an opportunity to cut costs.

Epic’s Mr. Stimmel said the contests are a relative bargain compared with the cost of producing a full-blown music video. He estimates the label spent about a quarter as much on the Incubus contest as it might have spent producing a video, which can cost $150,000 to $250,000. And with a traditional video, there’s a risk the fans won’t like it, he said. In the contests, “your fans, or your potential fans, are part of the process.”

Check out one of many fan directed Incubus videos.

I have been trying to think of a movie that has been as overhyped as Spiderman 3 that actually turned out to be halfway decent. Er… I can’t think of anything. The last movie this hyped was Mission Impossible, which was a steaming pile. Now, I’ll admit, I was looking forward to the new Spiderman. I liked the first two and after hearing they spent over $500 million on this third one, I thought it would be a non-stop roller coaster of action and adventure. I was very wrong.

What did Sony get for their $500 million? A two and a half hour long chick flick which sets records for both most expensive movie ever made, and most man tears shed in a film. Now, Sony is well aware that they will be lucky to break even. They didn’t allow any pre-screenings, and there were no free tickets to anything. God forbid they let some theatre ushers in for free. Anyway, despite the fact that Spiderman 3 is a $500 million disappointment, they still managed to dominate the box office this weekend, grossing $151 million.

Although Spiderman 3 got asses in the seats, there’s no telling whether this film will be able to break even. They have to rely on people not telling their friends it sucked, which is harder and harder to do in this technological age. I saw it early, but by the time I got on MySpace to warn my friends against it, there were already 9 other posts saying the same thing. The level of turd burgery in this movie is so high, it seems the cast can’t even get excited about it, with some of them skipping premieres and bashing the movie in interviews. Even the ‘complimentary’ reviews aren’t THAT complimentary. Most of them reek of Sony ad money, remaining completely neutral throughout the review with a few well placed quotes that could be easily taken out of context and a rating of A+ or 5 stars or something else not reflected in the text.

Hey, all of this sounds really familiar. Maybe when the majors finally fold up, execs can find a new career in film, where its all about overblown budgets and egos, low quality products, pandering to the lowest common denominator, and blowing smoke up each others asses! See? There is a silver lining…

AJ, KOAR

Who will buy EMI?

EMI the third largest record label is still a target for a take-over. EMI recently hired Roger Ames giving them some new talking points to potential buyers. Still, Warner Music is the only company with a solid offer on the table.

Warner Music Group will LAYOFF 400 employees and place further emphasis on digital strategy and distribution, sources say. Also Warner Music will jump on the bandwagon and engage the ALTERNATE industry by partnering up with Snocap and selling music on myspace.

Google’s YouTube will now begin paying top users for the video content they submit under a new revenue haring partner program that will let the creators share in AdSense revenue generated by their videos.

The Takeover UK has officially signed with Ryko Records

Ann Coulter sounds off and doesn’t paint Rage Against the Machine members as liberals but a bunch of ‘losers’ and “dopey, hippy rock ‘n’ roll numb nuts”. She goes on to say that unlike Rage Against the Machine, people care what she says. Ann lastly says they broke up 10 years ago, the frontman has a flop of a solo career and she is looking forward to the VAN HALEN reunion.

Verizon has pulled sponsorship from the Gwen Stefani tour and severed their partnership with her opener, Akon, after the artist was caught on tape dry humping a 15 year old during a recent show in Trinidad. Actually, that’s putting it a tad lightly. It looked more like dry raping. In Akon’s defense, it was an 18+ show and the young Pastor’s daughter had no place there to begin with. However, the young woman was under the impression that she was participating in a dance competition to win a “trip to Africa,” only to find out it was a sex contest, and Akon considers himself to be ‘Africa.’

The ‘dancing’ that was caught on tape and spread virally across the internet depicts Akon throwing the young woman into several lewd positions while essentially humping the hell out of her. It was very reminiscent of the Tara Reid video where Akon and cohort double team the ‘actress’ in a rather vulgar display…vulgar even for her. Actually, it is reminiscent of just about any Akon show footage, since his ‘dance contest’ is a regular feature at his concerts. I suppose no one from Verizon bothered to checking into this before putting him in all of their commercials and sponsoring his tour with Gwen.

Watch the video below (borders on NSFW)