• KOAR hears that at a hearing on tuesday, the judge ruled in Hawthorne Height’s favor stating that the band could terminate for cause, as such, the lawsuit is not over per victory’s previous press release
• Sony/BMG Nashville exec Mark Wright will take over as president of Universal South Records, replacing the label’s founders, Tim Dubois and Tony Brown.
• Microsoft Strikes Deal With UMG.
  Microsoft will pay UMG a fee for every Zune player sold. Microsoft will also pay UMG for thesale of its music. “It’s a major change for the industry,� David Geffen told N.Y. Timesreporter Jeff Leeds, who broke the story. “Each of these devices is used to store unpaid-for material. This way, on top of the material people do pay for, the record companies are getting paid on the devices storing the copied music.�
• German Music Publishers Demand YouTube Royalties
  A spokesman for GEMA told Germany’s Handelsblatt that the popular video service needs to delete all videos with non-licensed German music, or pay up.
• Victory Records signs another emo screamo band Driver Side Impact. Read our article the Broken Music Scene. Â

• Universal Music Group Reports Q3 Numbers
  Downloaded music sales rose 88 percent and is 12 percent of total music revenue for Universal.

`We have an online music business which is strong,” Hennin said. “The more traditional music business, the distribution business, is suffering.”

• Google Entering into Radio Market.
  Google is hiring radio sales people and is spending heavily in a bid to expand its position in the $20 billion radio industry. Google is hiring salespeople in most major markets and they’re hiring sales people to sell radio. They’re paying about 50 percent more than a typical radio sales person might make. Google was in talks to buy about $1 billion in radio advertising inventory from Clear Channel
• Disturbed is #1 on the active rock chart with the Genesis cover “Land of Confusion”. My Chemical Romance “Welcome to the Black Parade” is #1 on the Alternative Rock Chart.

Back to Square One – The Lack of Indicators.

Check out KOAR’s article we posted earlier this year regarding ‘indicators.’

As previously discussed, the 2004 to present music game has been mainly about numbers. Especially when dealing with unsigned artists and A&R, in many cases a band’s worth has been measured by their stats, ranging from MySpace friends to page views to an overhyped show and radio translating to record sales. However, as our society becomes more technologically ‘with it’ we find some of the top rated unsigned bands on MySpace are among the worst out there. Anybody can purchase a spamming program. We raised the question sarcastically before, but feel it is time for a serious answer. Today, the A&R is left with little to no indicators. The internet exploded and forget about radio. Without relying on indicators like statistics how is anyone supposed to know if a band is worthy? good? or great?

Anthony Rollo A&R at Universal tells KOAR:

 “It used to be much easier to correlate airplay and retail reaction. Less and less people are going into record stores, making it much more difficult to guage the marketplace. On the Rock side of things, the Rock radio stations just do not hold the same influence over the consumer that they once did. Getting a read on an Urban or Pop record is easier than trying to guage the impact of a Modern or Active track. With more indie shops closing everyday, the research resources on the retail side are dwindling. It’s tough to get a read on a local artist from a Best Buy or Wal-Mart.”

Relying on a bunch of kids to tell you what the public wants has proven fruitless. Buying into hype and fads has proven to not only be a waste of time, but has given labels a black mark with the record buying public. “Listening to the market and trying to see which ones raise their heads� is, again, burning up the precious little resources labels have anymore. Overall, let’s say that outsourcing your opinions is a bad thing.

Good ear: adjective. The natural ability to predict the potential success of a given song or artist. Ability to identify ‘hits.’

Once upon a time, A&R guys were the ones with the good ears. They could hear a band or a song and could predict the success of that act. Today, they fly out to see bands because they have high MySpace numbers. They weren’t buying into the hype, because they didn’t have to. They didn’t have to go to the streets and ask kids who to sign. They were hired specifically to know who should be signed and who shouldn’t. If that’s who labels are going to for advice, why not just cut out the middle man and hire a staff of teenagers? In reality, teenagers don’t know what’s going on other than their ‘small universe.’ Rememer, Teenagers are in highschool learning about George Washington.

We’re aware that it’s slim pickins when it comes to brilliant unsigned music, but there is no reason why any A&R executive should say, “there are more and more records on our release schedule that don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.� Some of this failure can be attributed to poor marketing strategies, but most can be attributed to the band not deserving to be signed in the first place. Relying on indicators to tell you what is good will always fail you. You’ve got to have the ears.

Elton John has launched a furious attack on his record label, who he claims have made no attempt to promote his new album. The pop legend used the words “f–k Universal” from the stage at his show in New York on Wednesday evening for their perceived lack of support.

Sir Elton claims the enormous entertainment company has not backed The Captain And The Kid since its release, and wants the label to drop him.

He told the crowd at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum: “Nobody would know the album has been out since September. My record label isn’t doing anything to help. F–k Universal.

Please drop me. I’m 58 and I don’t care anymore.”

Universal has not yet responded to Sir Elton’s comments.

• With YouTube’s recent sale to Google and multiple deals with music labels, the company is now having to deal with the difficulties of going legit. licensing issues are becoming a nightmare for the company, as legal realities begin to catch up to the new technology.
• Independent music digital distributor The Orchard has announced a deal with digital licensing management company Snocap and MySpace.
• Rumors are suggesting that Google could be a potential buyer for at least a minority stake in Clear Channel, which has been surrounded by talks of a potential buyout.