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UK record store owners are pissed off at the news (actually it might still be a rumor) that Prince will be giving away his new record for free in the British Daily Mail as a "covermount." This is in addition to his plans to include free copies of Planet Earth with tickets to his upcoming 21-show London residency. The spin on this is that the people at Prince's label (Sony BMG's UK arm) aren't any more psyched about this than the British record retailers. The Guardian has the story, but if you're not a registered member, Idolator has a good summary.
It's hard to argue with the logic here, if logic is the way you like to argue. Last.fm is a big company, now owned by a much bigger company, and as such they have no choice but to abide by the rules. Royalties in every other country they stream to have been a reality for some time, and they have the clout to be able to negotiate more favorable rates than the CRB-imposed ones with most of the major copyright holders. And it's an admirable thing these days to grind though a tough situation with nothing but elbow grease, rather than cry about it as the Last.fm'ers seem to suggest everyone else is doing.We do not want to punish our listeners for our problems, period.
If a commercial challenge comes up, we have to deal with it. We have always done that, as many people who have been using Last.fm for a while can attest to. And we’ve had our fair share of challenges. (Like the server growth problems we’ve been battling recently. Mischa was overheard grumbling that “we’ve probably put in two days of silence!” over the last couple weeks; a heartfelt thanks our users for their patience.)
Since Last.fm started we’ve engaged in negotiations with the music industry, leading to our recently reaching an agreement with several major record labels for the use of music on our service. As a legal and responsible provider of music, we’re continuing discussions with record labels and music publishers. At the same time, we’re negotiating with royalty collection societies to make sure we can get rates that make sense to us.
The only solution to this dilemma is commercial; make a commercial argument and see it through. What benefit does music have if no one is playing it anymore? There are various opinions about the promotional benefits of playing music on the radio, but having your music heard by more people instead of less can’t be wrong, no?
What I am saying is: it’s in no one’s interest to let online radio die. But people want to make money from their music. And we want to pay artists for the music we play. It’s only fair.
We think – and this is the opinion of the whole Last.fm office, who you can meet on our lovely team page – that turning off the radio is just plain wrong. This has been a no-brainer from day one for us: the users rule, and we serve them. If only one person wants to listen tomorrow, we should serve them. I for one want to listen every day.
Online radio won’t die in a hurry, but it will be hard work. And we don’t deal in silence.
Mucca Pazza -They're going on a short tour later this summer culminating in a show at NYC's Highline Ballroom August 9th. Hopefully they'll make good on their promise of lost bladder control.
File under: Punk Circus Marching Band
Or: Nerd-Core (Nerd Corps?)
See slide trombones, marching drums, accordions and other romantic icons wielded by musicians with the purpose of making music, instigating spontaneous dancing, loss of bladder control, and horn honking. You may find it sexy if you like uniforms or anything dork-ass.
"The arbitrary and drastic rate increases set by the Copyright Royalty Board on March 2nd threaten the very livelihood of thousands of webcasters and their millions of listeners throughout the country," said Jake Ward, a spokesperson for the SaveNetRadio Coalition. "The campaign to save Internet radio - a genuine grassroots movement comprised of hundreds of thousands of webcasters, artists and independent labels, and Net radio listeners - has quickly brought this issue to the national forefront and the halls of Congress, but there is still more to be done before the approaching deadline of July 15th. On Tuesday, thousands of webcasters will call on their millions of listeners to join the fight to save Internet radio and contact their Congressional representatives to ask for their support of the Internet Radio Equality Act." (Day of Silence (pdf))5 years ago on May 1, 2002, Internet Broadcasters staged another Day of Silence when faced with an eerily similar ruling from the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel. That protest led (either directly or indirectly) to a last-minute reprieve from the Librarian of Congress and the passage of the Small Webcaster Settlement Act for 1998-2005.
Store specific exclusive bonus tracks, like the ones awarded to Best Buy, Target, and iTunes for the latest Smashing Pumpkins record Zeitgeist*, are an insult to consumers and another in a long line of blunders by the panicked record industry.Dubber failed to see the problem with the link and offered blog space for a rebuttal, and eventually it comes down to the IFPI board member threatening a formal complaint to Dubber's university (the aforementioned Government funded institution, which Dubber's blog is not directly affiliated with). The argument, amazingly, is that because of careless posts by the likes of Download Squad, individual representatives of the RIAA member organizations have been subjected to generalized nastiness from the hoi polloi.
Andrew
Looking at your site I do think allowing indiscriminate criticism of the RIAA is inappropriate for a Government funded institution.
Paul
Out September 18th, From The Screen To Your Stereo Part 2 includes covers of "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None The Richer from She’s All That, "Stay" by Lisa Loeb from Reality Bites, and "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls from City Of Angels. The disc features vocals from special guest musicians with more to be announced, including Lisa Loeb, Adam Lazarra from Taking Back Sunday, Will Pugh from Cartel and Sherri DuPree from Eisley. NEW FOUND GLORY recently visited Pugh on the set of Cartel’s upcoming reality show on MTV "Band In A Bubble" to record vocals.If you don't care to hear what NFG has to add to "Stay" with Lisa Loeb's implicit blessing, then I just don't know what to say to you anymore.
MSN has a great article on Bonnaroo's continuing efforts to make their festival as green as possible. This year, one stage was powered completly by the sun, all non-music stages were powered by ethanol generators, all goods sold by festival vendors were completely recyclable or compostable, and organizers zoomed around on zero emission electrical golf carts. A bunch of carbon credits were purchased to offset the festival's footprint even further, and the folks at Clif Bar chipped in to help environmentally conscious festival attendees to buy renewable energy credits to offset the impact of getting to and from the Tennessee farm. Next year, they plan to push the envelope even further.
An anecdotal curiosity that I'd like to share:
There's an interesting If you said no to streams, you are, plain and simple, not an intelligent person.Idolator is concurrently tackling a similar issue:
Also, if you treated the question as "Streams Vs. MP3s," you're potentially not an intelligent person. Of course it's nicer to have something you can "take" with you.
You're here because you like music. If you won't listen to new music because of some childish irrational preference, don't, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be posted. It just means you're spoiled and entirely too picky about the way you listen to something for free.
From now on, we will not host "leaked" pre-release tracks that have not been sanctioned for posting by record labels. However, because a leak is newsworthy, we'll continue to link to sites that carry them when we come across them in our websurfing, and we'll maintain our "Leak Of The Day" feature, albeit in a new format.When tracks from the new White Stripes record leaked, I was amazed to see how quickly the blogs Hype Machine was linking back to were being shut down -- Not "track removed at label's request"-ed. Shut down. Cool new music blog community Mog allows users to upload songs they blog about for streaming (and embedding anywhere!) via flash player, simultaneously covering their ass and making users question whether it's worth the effort to create a new zShare account. Is it too soon to claim that the pendulum is beginning its slow, deliberate swing back towards piracy-as-unfashionable?
Anyone in the radio business claiming to be surprised at this latest development is simply lying for incredulous effect, but the RIAA is now officially setting its sights on terrestrial radio, emboldened by the still-reverberating CRB decision to hike rates for Internet radio stations earlier this year.
The image I have in my head right now is one boney, mangy hyena turning on his boney, mangy companion. A to-the-death battle that neither party wants, but one can see no alternative to.
Pete Wentz tells the decent-looking-now-that-it's-html-again mtv.com that his latest throwdown was in self defense:"The truth is on the way out the door I had to pass directly next to the guy and I knew it, so I kept my head down and walked out. As I did, the guy reached out and grabbed me and said something I couldn't really hear — it was a glorious use of the English language, though," he continued. "As he grabbed me, I punched him. Yell all you want at me, say whatever, but in a situation like that I will defend myself. After that, of course, it got chaotic, [but] we have several independent witnesses that gave statements saying he grabbed me first ...Of course when Pete says "it got chaotic" what he probably means is "I got the F out, and our security guys took care of him." A nameless concert-goer tells mtv:
"They did their last song, walked off the stage and headed toward a side door to go out onto the sidewalk. But that's when the scuffle happened," the concertgoer told MTV News. "The crowd surged back, then snapped forward. From my vantage point, I could see Fall Out Boy security was pounding on the guy. The guy was down on floor, shirt ripped, bleeding from ear and nose. There was a lot of blood."What ever happened to security just breaking up fights, and not always finishing them? Twist the guy's arm or something and drag him away. There's just a lot of blood in that picture, is all.
London, June 12th 2007 – International rock band Ash, have announced bold new plans to cease releasing future albums in the traditional way.Some clarification is in order (still from ash-official.com):
On the eve of what will become their final album, ‘Twilight Of The Innocents’, the band have taken the decision to only release singles in the future.
Known for consistently writing hit singles since the early 90’s (17 top 40 hits, an Ivor Novello award and five Top 10 albums), the band feel it is time to make a stand in the future digital arena by only releasing singles. Periodically, the band will release compilation cd’s featuring the aforementioned singles.
Famously known for their pro-active stance on the internet (the band were the first to cultivate a huge loyal following using their online message board, were the first to use the internet via a fledgling nme.com, to get fans to vote for which tour towns they should play and had the first ever number one single in the download charts), the band feel it is now time to fully embrace the digital future of the music industry.
Owning their own recording studio means that the band will be able to write, record and release their music almost instantly, their fans will then benefit from not having to wait the usual ‘years’ between albums.
At a time when the music industry is in flux and with record sales at an all-time low, marketing music in the traditional sense is becoming increasingly less financially viable. The band hope that by harnessing the power of the internet and by being more creative in the way their singles are marketed, the record company can maximise sales, increase profits and enhance their already impressive 13 year career.
Tim Wheeler from the band:
"The way people listen to music has changed, with the advent of the download the emphasis has reverted to single tracks. It hasn't helped that most people have forgotten how to make a decent album. I'm constantly disappointed with records I buy.
I believe our new album is the pinnacle of everything we've done thus far, and I'm proud that this will be remembered as our last album. The future lies elsewhere and we can have a lot of fun by changing things up. It's like the Wild West at the moment, a time to take chances and try out new ideas.
When you're tied to the album format, you find yourself waiting six months between finishing a record and releasing it. By leaving this behind we can enter a new phase of spontaneity and creativity. We have our own studio in New York, we can record a track and release it the next day if we feel like it, give it to people while it's fresh. We're the first band to do this , but I very much doubt we'll be the last.
We've been one of the best singles bands of the last two decades and we're still younger than a lot of bands on the current scene. I’m excited to push this claim further by dedicating ourselves wholly to the art of the single for the digital age."
But to avoid confusion, this does not signal the end of physical releases. Things are just gonna be different and we're gonna have a lot of fun with formats and you the fans will get more content a lot quicker... it also does not state anywhere that we're going independant.I don't know if Ash was really the first to do all those things and they're certainly not the first band to be rethinking the way music is released. But this is a good move for them. Ash has never been a band prone to concept albums; their records have always been collections of songs that stand alone, some songs better than others.
Cartel emerged yesterday from their bubble in NYC and unleashed "Lose It" upon the world. Have a listen to it (it's the song that starts streaming when www.cartelrocks.com loads) and decide for yourself whether or not the Atlanta band can claim victory.I'm being led to believe that the bloodstain pictured over at Chicagoist is the result of Pete Wentz's latest public tantrum. It's unclear from the account whose blood we're really looking at here, but does it matter? From what we could see, Pete decided to have a “word” with a heckler who teased him about his relationship with Ashlee Simpson on his way out, and the shit (and a well-aimed beer bottle) then promptly hit the ‘fan.’ It wasn’t immediately clear what Wentz down, but we caught a glimpse of Pete on the floor with the other dude on top of himReally great punnage from Chicagoist's writing staff, no?
Tireless touring machines ZOX are taking a rare break from the road this summer to work on their new record. Although their most recent record, The Wait, was released on Side One Dummy Records, it was a re-release, and had been originally produced for Armo Records prior to the Side One Dummy deal.
Although they were listed on the bill as "Beat Up Old Fellas," We Are Scientists stepped out on stage at The Mercury Lounge over the weekend to try out some new songs. Songs they introduced with titles like "Altered Beast" and "Russian Attack" (which I suspect might actually be spelled "Rush'n Attack"). "Bad Dudes" apparently didn't make the set list.
I've been listening to it forever because I'm a drooling fanboy, but I just read on Stereogum that Roddy Woomble's amazing solo record My Secret Is My Silence will be released in the US in July. Head over there to download the title track, which should give you chills if blood courses through your veins. Especially if any of it is Scottish blood.I've lived in many different rental flats in various cities over the years, and in each one I've always, sooner or later, discovered mice. Hiding behind the cooker or Fridge, behind wardrobes, or in the case of a flat Allan and I shared in Edinburgh in the late 90's, wandering around carefree in broad daylight, hanging out in-front of the stereo, generally having a good time at our expense.
Now that I own an abode, whenever I see a mouse (for if you live in any building over a hundred years old, they’re living in the walls whether you like it our not – and can always find a way into a warm house), it feels more and more like an uninvited guest than it used to. When I rented, I accepted that I shared the rent (non-financially speaking) with some mice, but now as a 'homeowner' I'm not as immune to all the psychological pitfalls as I thought I'd be. For better or for worse, I see the home as 'belonging to me/us', which is a strange confession. The property ladder. Give me a real ladder any day.
'a man can have everything he desires in his own home yet have nothing outside the door'. I think wild child beat poet hipster Gregory Corso was right on when he wrote this line down in his notepad.
Anyway, we've killed a few in the very old fashioned Grandpa Broon style non humane traps. I'm not proud about it, but despite their cute little faces, they're bullet-quick vermin with persistence. It's a myth that they like cheese though. Don't know who made that one up.
So I guess we're meant to assume that a new Rage Against The Machine record is going to come out on August 24th. Their last real record (the one with all the cover songs doesn't count) was The Battle of Los Angeles and while it wasn't stellar, it wasn't bad.
The New York Times is picking up on the Lala.com on demand streaming story, revealing a little more about the dynamics of the deal with respect to licensing. Unsurprisingly, it's shaping up pretty much how I figured it would. In other words, the labels (just Warner at this point) get paid no matter what, and it's incumbent on Lala to pull a gigantic rabbit out of a Lego man's hat (my bolding):For Warner, the deal with Lala.com has limited risk, because the label will make money from streaming royalties. But its priority is increasing sales of music, which have declined further this year. “The evidence we’ve seen is that a lot of people want to own music,” said Alex Zubillaga, Warner’s executive vice president for digital strategy and business development. “And their mandate is to sell music.”Another interesting note is that this service is not, as I previously thought, simply going to drive Lala's aftermarket CD trades. This is meant to drive direct-to-iPod downloads, without the use of iTunes software, and direct CD sales. Lala wants a piece of the retail pie (again, my bolding):
Mr. Zubillaga added that Lala.com was giving Warner Music a good deal of flexibility in determining how to price and bundle music. Apple, the dominant player in the market with its iTunes music store, does not give music labels those options, much to their chagrin. Unlike iTunes, Lala.com will concentrate on selling albums, which it will offer for a variety of prices based on the behavior of individual consumers.
Lala.com, which is now a site where music fans can trade used CDs for a fee, is hoping to make money by selling music, both in CD format and as digital files that it will send to iPods without using Apple’s iTunes software.Of course it's too early to predict how all of this will play out, but that's never stopped me before. Mr. Nguyen and Lala are going to take a bath on this. Even if they see initial success selling discs and files (doubtful), drowning labels like Warner will get greedy. Lala will be charged more and more for the streaming rights, and the unfixed prices will rise until sales flatten.
Thanks to BrooklynVegan for the heads-up that Ben Kweller has announced a 3 night stand at South Paw in Brooklyn, during which he will play his three full length records, start to finish.Ben Kweller @ Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY, 2007Presale/regular sale links at BV.
Jul 30 - Sha Sha
Jul 31 - On My Way
Aug 01 - Ben Kweller
Much has been said about Paul McCartney's decision to release Memory Almost Full through Starbucks' Hear Music label, but in making a DRM-free download of the record available legally through eMusic, the newcomer coffee people prove that they have a better grip on content delivery and customer preference than the major labels who have been in this business a long time.
Chris H., the purported victim of a heinous crime at the hands of one Win Butler seems to have sparked an Internet Fire (see what I did there) with his blog. Start here, then check out Win's brother Will Butler's response here. There's plenty of meat in the comment sections.
