Kelly Clarkson drops 60 percent…
Kelly Clarkson’s “My December” dropped off 60 percent in sales for its second week (116k), bringing the total to 416,000 copies. Sober recently went to radio. Will it resonate with the public? not only that, according to insiders RCA pulled Clarkson’s summer campaign off of tv and print spots and have moved on to Underwood’s much anticipated fall release.
Will Bruce Springsteen save Columbia Records?
Springsteen is planning an album release for late fall. Former Sony Music CEO Andy Lack helped Bruce land a contract worth $100 million over several years. Insiders are claiming that layoffs are continuing, with several departments in publicity and marketing gutted. (Fox)
The new Smashing Pumpkins record ‘Zeitgeist’ could sell 150k in its first week.
Union Entertainment Group who manages Nickelback has struck a deal with EMI Music to form a joint venture record label to go through Caroline Music. The first artists signed to the label include the rock bands Cinder Road and The Black Summer Crush.
Avril Lavigne has been in the press last month regarding the song GIRLFRIEND.
Avril is being sued for copyright infringement for allegedly plagiarizing a substantial part of “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” a song by ’70s new wave group the Rubinoos.
The debate spilled over at YouTube. You can view the song comparison here.
Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald who co-wrote GIRLFRIEND has lashed out at the plaintiffs — songwriters James Gangwer and original Rubinoos member Tommy Dunbar denying allegations that he and Lavigne “copied” “Boyfriend.”
“I never heard of the Rubinoos before the lawsuit,” said Gottwald, an in-demand producer who has crafted hits for Kelly Clarkson, Pink and Daughtry, among others. “I never heard of the song and neither has Avril. I would take a polygraph on that in front of them.”
This drama began with the June issue of Performing Songwriter magazine, in which Chantal Kreviazuk, who co-wrote much of Lavigne’s 2004 triple platinum-selling album “Under My Skin,” ridiculed the notion that Lavigne writes her own material.
Girlfriend” has sold 2.6 million copies worldwide
It’s also been noted that Avril Lavigne’s song ‘I Don’t Have To Try’ that comes off her new album The Best Damn Thing sounds identical to the track I’m The Kinda by a Canadian artist known as Peaches. Song comparison here.
Is it a coincidence? or a perfect crime?
(LA Times)
Avenged Sevenfold will be producing their next record, and dubbed it the ‘Heaviest’.
“We were going to do it with Rob Cavallo,” said Shadows, referring to the producer behind Green Day’s 2004 LP American Idiot and My Chemical Romance’s 2006 effort The Black Parade. “It was such a great match — he loved the songs we’d been working on. But he was too busy working on Kid Rock’s next record, and he wasn’t going to be able to work on ours until later on in the year.”
Music Licensing companies are getting ‘serious’ collecting royalties.
‘ Whether it’s a professional recording taken from a Web site or an accordion player singing a Jimmy Buffet tune in a small venue, the industry is working to collect royalties for whoever wrote the songs.’
Nighclubs and coffee shops are facing crackdowns by the industry to those who refuse to pay BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC.
Last.fm has signed a content agreement with Sony BMG, meaning it can now carry music from three of the four major labels. Last.fm inked deals with EMI and Warner, and has deals with several indie labels, allowing it to play tracks through its embedded web player and personalized radio streams.
New Music coming soon…….
 Many industry executives noted that when peer-to-peer took hold in 2001-2003 thats when sales began to decline. “That’s when we went from music having real value in people’s minds to music having no economic value, just emotional value.”
The flood gates are now open and Sprint has signed on as the first company to underwrite a song to be distributed on file-sharing networks, agreeing to embed its logo on copies of tracks from Atlantic Records hip-hop artist Plies.
Sprint and Atlantic Records are teaming with ArtistDirect’s Media Defender division for the initiative, which essentially amounts to an advertising buy for the telecom company.
According to sources, Media Defender will push 16 million Plies song files embedded with the Sprint logo onto peer-to-peer networks over a three-month period in return for a “substantial six-figure” fee to be divided between Media Defender, Atlantic Records, Plies and his publishing company.
Once embedded, the Sprint logo will be attached to the files forever and will appear alongside Plies’ name and the song title on the screen of a desktop computer, iPod, cellphone or any other digital music player.
The vast share of music consumption, particularly for the under 35 set, is done on file-sharing networks. ArtistDirect CEO Jon Diamond said the initiative serves the triple purpose of generating advertising income for record labels, curtailing piracy and allowing brands to associate with key artists to reach a desired demographic.
According to Steve Yanovsky, a former record industry executive who consults for Mindshare Interactive, which counts Sprint as a client, the deal positions Sprint “as an innovator and will help drive perception of them in the marketplace.”
How it works…………..
1) Sprint pays for the right to embed its logo in 16 million song files
2) People download the song for free from file-sharing sites
3) When song is played, the artist’s name, song title, and sprint logo will appear on screen
4) Money is split between technology company, record label, artist and music publisher
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Swearing, confused messages, the failure of sing alongs, an unimpressive bill….
Check out and read an in depth observation of Live Earth:
Neil McCormick finds confused messages and an unimpressive line-up at London’s Live Earth concert “If you wanna save the planet, jump up and down!” urged Madonna.
Can global warming be stopped by an out-of-breath, middle-aged, super-rich narcissist in a leotard and high heels?  Â
The superannuated pop queen Madonna was certainly up for the challenge, but judging by the negligible response to the text message number displayed on stage, I suspect the public may have been justifiably confused by the link between aerobics and the environment.
As global satellite multi-media musical entertainment, Live Earth was just about adequate.
As a platform for stadium politics, it was a dismal affair. “Can you help save the earth?” bellowed Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles. Cue muted murmur of support. “We might be screwed if that’s the response,” he half-joked.
The whole tone felt misjudged: Al Gore appeared by satellite, to no great reaction in the stadium, and seemed to be addressing a small audience of native Americans, not seizing the world by the reins.
The message itself was confused: Keane performed in front of the legend “Insulate your ceilings and walls”. Razorlight performed America to footage of penguins. Duran Duran stuck to supermodels, but somehow tried to turn Girls on Film into an ecological anthem. Simon Le Bon urged the crowd to sing “Change, change, we gotta start the change” without much success, perhaps because he was having trouble singing it particularly well himself.
The failure of singalongs became something of a theme of the day, bands appearing to expect a much greater familiarity with their hits than was apparent. Only a smattering of acts made any genuine attempts to engage with the issues.
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