Amity Lane, the new project featuring founding Trust Company guitarist/vocalist Kevin Palmer and bassist Josh Moates, have signed a deal with Corporate Punishment Records. The band’s debut album will be released on October 31st through Corporate Punishment in conjunction with its newly formed sister label Then Music.  Trust Company released their debut Geffen LP, “The Lonely Position of Neutral”, in 2002, marking the start of a whirlwind year for the Alabama quintet, as the Don Gilmore-produced (Linkin Park, Pearl Jam) LP debuted at #11 on the Billboard charts, selling over 78,000 copies in its first week (it was eventually certified gold) and spawned the hit singles “Downfall” and “Running from Me”.  Amity Lane is the name of the street Kevin grew up on and the band decided a new identity was needed. Check out the tracks Million Miles Away and Drown You Out.

For more information contact Thom Hazaert c/o Corporate Punishment.

Google snapped up YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion Monday in deal that catapults the Internet search leader to a leading role in the online video revolution.

The price makes YouTube, a still-unprofitable startup, by far the most expensive purchase made by Google during its eight-year history.

“We are natural partners to offer a compelling media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive officer.

 

• U2 has left the Island Records. Sources say U2 and Island Records were suffering from a detoriating relationship.

Insiders claimed yesterday that the band’s members, led by Bono, became fed up with the Island Records’ senior management’s “hands-off” approach towards them, despite their having generated hundreds of millions of pounds for the label.

Friends said yesterday that the final straw came during a recent recording session in London. While Bono and the band worked on new tracks to add to their latest Best of compilation, no one from Island Records dropped by to meet them. One observer claimed this “put their noses out of joint” and did nothing to help the deteriorating relationship. Their closest ally at the label, the former general manager Jason Iley, was appointed managing director of Mercury Records last year, and the band have now followed him there.

• Universal Music Group strikes a deal with YouTube.
  UMG and its artists will be compensated as well as for the unique, user-created content that incorporates UMG music. YouTube has also agreed to a use its technology to filter out unauthorized content

The NYC punk venue CBGB’s that could barely pack in 300 people will be closing this Sunday after operating for 33 years. CBGB’s assisted in launching the careers of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Blondie, the Talking Heads and the Ramones. The ’80s hardcore band Bad Brains and the ’70s punks the Dictators are both scheduled for the final week (Oct 13-14th). Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein are scheduled to appear.

I had an artist manager ask me a new one yesterday:  How do I get live performance footage of new songs recorded on someone’s cell phone removed from YouTube?  This isn’t really a new request, we have to have material taken down from websites fairly often.  What is new about it is that the recording was made on a handheld digital recorder by a fan at a show where the artist was trying out new material.   

Until YouTube, it was possible to “open in Philadelphia� to try out new material, a time-honored tradition in our business.  Artists frequently try out material in small clubs in small towns, and may completely rewrite songs based on how they “feel� live or simply not use certain songs.  (This is obviously not limited to artists, but also would include comedians, broadway shows, any number of performers.)  

My artist client now has to pay me to write notice and takedown letters to YouTube to exercise rights under the DMCA—the same week that YouTube is rumored to be fetching an asking price over $1 billion dollars.  That’s billion with a B.  My artist asked me to explain to him how it is that YouTube is able to make more money from infringing his work than any artist will ever see in their lifetimes, yet he has to take the time to send a cease and desist to YouTube in some kind of grotesque game cyber shakedown.  

Of course it is true that anyone can record an artist’s performance anywhere, that’s not the problem.  The problem is not with the fan, and I refuse to allow YouTube to try to make it so.

The problem is that YouTube makes no apparent effort to filter videos that are of obviously questionable origin.  Riddle me this:  If an artist wanted to make their video available on YouTube, would they typically want to post a poor quality video, or would they more likely be interested in keeping that kind of video off of YouTube.

The lawyers for YouTube have tried to get around this issue by implying that they have no way of knowing whether a video that is uploaded is secretly being uploaded by the artist themselves to start a grass roots campaign.  The same is true of movie studios or record companies.

There’s a very easy fix to that problem:  Ask them.  Ask the artist’s permission before YouTube permits the video to be posted.  But of course YouTube can’t do that.  Asking permission doesn’t “scale�.    

What YouTube means when they say that something doesn’t scale is that in order to accomplish a particular thing, they would have to spend money they don’t have on resources they don’t want to achieve a goal for which they have contempt.  It’s like saying, yes I know I may be stealing from you, but it’s too inconvenient for me to find out.  Sounds infantile when you think of it that way right?

If a child said that to their parents, they would likely be grounded for a good long time.  It’s time to ground YouTube. CONTINUE READING