The free, ad-supported music download site SpiralFrog has launched today.
The songs can’t be played on iPods or burned onto CDs.
The Hint has entered the studio with Zack Odom and
Kenneth Mount (Cartel, Mayday Parade) to record a new six-song EP. (AP)
Los Angeles based pop rock band Billy Boy On Poison have signed to
Kiefer Sutherland and Jude Cole’s record label Ironworks Music.
Legal rep is Ben McLane.
Hinder sound a-like Jet Black Stare who comes from Vancouver, Canada has signed to Island Records.
 
Guy Hands the CEO and founder of Terra Firma, vowed to keep EMI’s recorded music division and to invest in artists big and small to restore the company’s fortunes following its £2.4bn buyout.
Guy Hands said that he was confident of overhauling EMI’s model
to make it less reliable on huge selling artists.
“We’re determined to keep that part of the business and
we’re determined to make it viable,”
He made clear that EMI would have to be restructured
so that it could generate a profit even
when an artist sells “only†200,000 records.
EMI is expected to create a structure in which lower selling artists
with more niche appeal can still be profitable….
“The independent record labels are a lot livelier,” said Mr Hands.
“The vision of EMI is to be big enough to do everything we can for every artist,
but small enough to care for every artist.”
Peter Chernin, the CEO of News Corp says senior executives must be willing to undergo a huge cultural shift and not be afraid of failure.
Broadcasters have been wrestling with the challenge of
maintaining revenues and viewers in the face of exploding choice
and fragmenting media options. But, said Mr Chernin, media groups
were well placed to benefit from an unprecedented period of technological change.
Fragmentation was having a positive effect on creativity, he
believed. “The middle is dead, and
that’s the greatest thing that has ever happened.
The bland, safe, central middle is never coming back.”
Mr Chernin echoed Mr Hands by saying companies should
concentrate on big blockbusters at one end of the market
and high quality niche offerings at the other. (TheGuardian)
The Bottom Line: Reality seems to be setting in that Major Music Labels need to restructure their finances so lower selling artists can be profitable.
Lower selling artists would no doubt require job cuts. Everyone is interested if Hands can turn this plan into a reality. I couldn’t agree more that the MIDDLE is dead. The MTV VMA’s was a perfect example…
 
Prince plans to sue YouTube and other major web sites for unauthorized use of his music in a bid to “reclaim his art on the Internet”.
Prince said that YouTube could not argue it had no control over which videos users posted on its site. “YouTube … are clearly able to filter porn and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success,” says Prince
YouTube responded by saying it was working with artists to help them manage their music on the site. We have great partnerships with major music labels all over the world that understand the benefit of using YouTube as another way to communicate with their fans.”
Prince plans legal action against online auctioneer eBay and Pirate Bay, a site accused by Hollywood and the music industry as being a major source of music and film piracy.
The legal action is the latest bid by the music industry to wrest back control over content in an age here file sharing, mobile phones and video sites make enforcing copyright increasingly difficult.
“Prince strongly believes artists as the creators and owners of their music need to reclaim their art,” “In the last couple of weeks we have directly removed approximately 2,000 Prince videos from YouTube,” said Web Sheriff managing director John Giacobbi.
“The problem is that one can reduce it to zero and then the next day there will be 100 or 500 or whatever. This carries on ad nauseam at Prince’s expense,” he told Reuters.
Prince’s latest initiative is likely to please record industry executives and music retailers, who have not always seen eye-to-eye with the 49-year-old.
He has referred to the record industry as “the speculation business” and gave away copies of his new album “Planet Earth” for free with a British Sunday newspaper.
Many claim that people are listening to music more but enjoying it less, some people in the recording industry say they know why. They blame the iPod and the compressed MP3 music files.
Producers,engineers, and mixers assume their recordings will be heard as MP3s on an iPod music player and has become a “reference platform” used as a test of how a track should sound – thus engineering music to a technical lowest common denominator.
“Right now, when you are done recording a track, the first thing the band does is to load it onto an iPod and give it a listen,” said Alan Douches, who has worked with Fleetwood Mac and others. Today, young artists think MP3s are a high-quality medium and the iPod is state-of-the-art sound.”
L.A. engineer Jack Joseph Puig (Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton) says “Ten years ago, music was warmer; it was rich and thick, with more tones and more ‘real power.’ But newer records are more brittle and bright. They have what I call ‘implied power.’ It’s all done with delays and reverbs and compression to fool your brain.”
Producer Howard Benson, who has worked with Santana, My Chemical Romance and Chris Daughtry, says members of a studio recording crew will sometimes complain after a session, “I just spent all this time getting the greatest guitar and drums solo, and it ends up as an MP3.” (WSJ)
The Bottom Line – Advancement in technology is supposed to improve or enhance. Although new music technology has made it easier to organize and deliver, it hasn’t enhanced or improved sound. We have alot of mountains to climb…
Simon Cowell on Britney Spears…..The Worst Comeback in History.
“[MTV] they exploited Britney in helping to end her career. When Britney was opening, near the end, I felt so bad for her. I said, ‘Man, it’s a dirty game. This game will chew you up and spit you out.’†– Kanye West to NYZ’s Z100
Speaking of Kanye, he will do just fine as arrogant as he is – but his genre is having trouble..
As we already know, rap sales are in trouble. The music biz is hoping 50 Cent and Kanye West can revive the sinking genre although its highly doubtful.
Through the first half of the year rap albums are down 30% according to Neilson Soundscan with 26 millions sold to date.
Not to long ago hip hop acts were selling close to 100 million albums in the U.S.
Rap has declined the fastest among all genres but radio doesn’t seem to look at that trend. If top 40 Radio really wanted to make an attempt to keep its influence then HIP HOP wouldn’t DOMINATE the playlists. At least keep the playlist balanced.
Mayfield said hip-hop is also showing its age as a genre. It had practically 20 straight years of growth but it has finally gotten to the point for that it is an established genre prone to the same the cyclical issue that other established genres face. (NYPOST)
Rap Music Sales in Units
2004 – 81.4M
2005 – 75.1M
2006 – 59.5M
2007 – 26M
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