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Check Your PC Before Monday
July 6, 2012
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"Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology"
-- John TudorThe Web is increasingly the center of communication, commerce and content. It's all the more disturbing, then, that the medium can also be a very dangerous place for all of us that use it everyday.
On July 9th, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide could reportedly lose Internet access after the FBI shuts down temporary DNS servers used to assist victims of a massive Internet fraud ring. As Canada's CBC News reports, the shutdown by U.S. authorities is the last stage in Operation Ghost Click -- a two-year international investigation that officially ended late last year.
To check if your computer is infected, go here: http://www.dcwg.org/
The website is designed to check if a computer is using an address that falls within the range utilized by the false DNS servers.
Read the full article here: http://tinyurl.com/72k862h
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 2
COACHELLA SEZ "BUH-BYE" TO INDIO
The Coachella Arts and Music Festival is out of cash-strapped Indio, CA, after city officials tried to add an $18 ticket tax for 2014.
Read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/7pk4mlr
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 3
READ WHY LOUIS C.K.s D.I.Y. MIGHT OFFER A NEW MODEL FOR BANDS
Louis C.K.'s "Do-It-Yourself" ticket idea has been a big success. Now some bands and their managers are thinking about trying it.
Read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/7kxxgns
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 4
THAT YOUNG NEW TALENT ON YOU TUBE
Amateur content creators are not new to YouTube, but that didn't keep The New York Times from devoting nearly 5,000 words to the latest batch.
Yet, rather than a random mix of kitten lovers and blooper raconteurs, these auteurs are serious about their craft, and, more to the point, are being groomed by YouTube as part of a larger strategy to give Google's video unit a leg up on the competition.
Read the rest on The New York Times here: http://tinyurl.com/7xb7bwq
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 5
CNN TRACES THE 5-YEAR DECLINE OF THE BLACKBERRY
From CrackBerry to 'depressing': The BlackBerry's 5-year fall.
Five years ago, the buzzing gadget was all the rage -- the rock star of mobile communication and seemingly every office drone's high-tech status symbol.
What happened?
Read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/7n72aev
AND THIS...
The outlook for Blackberry maker Research in Motion grew even grimmer last week with news the company cut 5,000 of its 16,500-person workforce and will delay launching the latest version of its BlackBerry platform until next year. Microsoft's share of the smartphone market stabilized over the last three months at 4%.
Read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/c5hep4h
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 6
BEATS ACQUIRES MOG MUSIC SERVICE
Beats Electronics, the company co-founded by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, ended weeks of speculation by confirming this week it has acquired the MOG on-demand digital music service
Read about it here on the Los Angeles Times: http://tinyurl.com/7q933gu
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 7
HYPEBOT INTERVIEWS SPOTIFY'S "SECRET WEAPON": ARTIST IN RESIDENCE D.A.WALLACH
D.A. Wallach holds an undeniably unique position within the music business, being deeply involved on both ends of the spectrum. On one side, D.A. is an accomplished recording and performing musician as one-half of the dynamic progressive rock group Chester French, while also being knee-deep in the digital side of things as an Artist in Residence at Spotify
Wallach says "Anyone who doesn't think we're paying a fair cut hasn't seen the numbers we pay out. By far the vast majority of the money we're making goes back to the owners of the music - about 70%."
Read the rest on Hypebot here: http://tinyurl.com/7m2mkmv
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 8
GM MIGHT GO BACK ON FACEBOOK, OTHER AD EXECS NOT SO SURE ABOUT IT
Following a highly publicized pull-back, General Motors is reportedly reconsidering advertising on Facebook.
In May, the carmaker caused a public relations fiasco for Facebook after it said paid ads on the site had little impact on consumer purchases. Heading toward a rapprochement, however, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg recently discussed the matter with GM Chief Executive Daniel Akerson, The Wall Street Journal reports. Since then, senior execs from both companies have reportedly been in discussions.
Read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/7p865oj
AND THIS FROM MEDIA POST...
Eighty-two percent of brand marketers and ad agency executives now believe that Facebook is less important than the "rest of the Web" (ROW), up from 74% in March, according to the latest results of a periodic poll conducted by 33Across.
The latest poll, which was conducted online in June and was sent to 2,200 brand marketer and agency execs. Among the questions asked was the ratio of time they spend thinking about Facebook vs. the ROW. In June, 71% said Facebook gets a 20% share, and 11% said it gets a 40% share. In March, 58% said Facebook gets a 20% share and 16% said it gets a 40% share.
Read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/7yzl3a2
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 9
NETFLIX STREAMED MORE THAN 1 BILLION HOURS IN JUNE
Netflix streamed a record number of hours of video in June: more than a billion. That's "a sign that its problems from late 2011 are fading and its service is becoming a more and more powerful force in home media," writes Ben Fritz in The Los Angeles Times.
Read about it here: http://tinyurl.com/7wnqovf
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THE 'A-SIDE' - BONUS TRACKS
* Want some great ideas on how to make your passwords online more secure? The Wall Street Journal has some great tips: http://tinyurl.com/7zstfr2
* "He's the baddest psychedelic blues cat around - man, you might say it's too much to even sit around and talk about him," deadpans one young Jimi Hendrix fan, in this exclusive clip from Jimi Plays Berkeley of the guitar virtuoso performing in Berkley in 1970. Watch it here: http://tinyurl.com/6ufwnlv
* Yahoo just debuted its glitziest project ever. Along with Tom Hanks' Playtone production company and Reliance Entertainment, Yahoo's new animated series, "Electric City" is set to make its global debut on July 17TH on "Yahoo Screen." The first 10 episodes, which are all five-to-seven minutes long, will premiere on Yahoo in mid-July. Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/74eopyj
* Mike Campbell, 'The Guitars Documentary', Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist takes you inside the Rickenbacker sound: http://tinyurl.com/7wder6r
Short News Items ...
DIVORCE COURT:
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes after five years of marriage. (Tom might have succeeded in getting Katie to "audit" herself in Scientology, and after the audit she realized what a joke it was.)
EXPECTING:
Adele announced that she is pregnant with her first child on her official website.
DYLAN DOES PIANO:
Bob Dylan did something he hasn't done in a long, long time. He played a grand piano at England's Hop Farm Festival show. Over the past decade Dylan has played a keyboard (while standing) for much of his set, but at Saturday's show he totally abandoned that instrument after opening the show with "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat." For eight of the show's 16 songs he sat behind the grand piano.
ABOUT TIME:
Justin Bieber is now a high school graduate after earning his diploma from St. Michael Catholic Secondary School in his hometown of Stratford, Ontario as one of 192 students in the graduating class.
THAT OTHER GUY IN THAT FAMOUS DUO:
Art Garfunkel's body of work will get a thorough revisiting with "The Singer," a two-CD retrospective spanning his work as one-half of Simon & Garfunkel, as well as his solo material. The 34-song collection, which will also include two new songs, will be available Aug. 28TH through Columbia/Legacy.
GO TO JAIL, GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL, DO NOT PASS GO:
A former assistant for U2 bassist Adam Clayton has been found guilty of stealing around 2.8 million euros, or about $3.5 million, from the musician, reports the Press Association. Carol Hawkins was convicted in Dublin on 181 counts of theft ranging over a four-year period from 2004 to 2008.
VAN HALEN OFF THE ROAD:
After postponing all tour dates after June 26th, Van Halen has now canceled those shows, reports Pollstar.com.
SEGER ROBBED:
After attending a party at Bob Seger's house in Orchard Lake, Michigan, a young man allegedly stole several items from the rock star and was arrested. Andrew D. Thompson was charged by police with stealing cash, sneakers autographed by Shaquille O'Neal and a Rolex watch. Police are also saying that Thompson took the 1978 Gibson Les Paul guitar that appears on the cover of Seger's Greatest Hits collection; the guitar, however, turned up on the family's dock following the theft. Thompson denies taking it, though he admitted to stealing other items.
FLAMING LIPS BEAT JAY-Z:
Jay-Z and his private plane no longer hold the Guinness World Record for the most multiple-city live concerts in 24 hours. The honor now belongs to the Flaming Lips. Between Wednesday (June 27th) at 6:30P CT and Thursday (June 28th) at the same time, the post-punkers from Oklahoma put on a fast-paced bus tour, stopping in eight different cities from Memphis to New Orleans and outperforming Jay-Z on the way.
GIANT STICKS FOR GROHL:
Dave Grohl's hometown of Warren, OH isn't satisfied with just naming a street after the rock star. This weekend the town will unveil its latest tribute to the Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer, as the Youngstown Vindicator reports: two 900-pound drumsticks created from poplar logs.
SEE YOU IN COURT, DEPT:
Rihanna has sued two former accountants and the New York-based Berdon LLP, accusing them of bad bookkeeping, a failure to recommend she cut expenses during a 2009 tour that was losing money, tens of millions of dollars in losses and an ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service, the Associated Press reports.
SEE YOU IN COURT, DEPT. #2:
Celine Dion is being sued by a former employee who claims that he was illegally denied overtime compensation by the singer, and says that there are other people in Dion's employ who've been similarly stiffed. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Florida, Keith Sturtevant, who says that he worked for Dion and her husband Rene Angelil in Florida from 2009 until this June, claims that he never received overtime compensation while working for the couple, despite the fact that he "routinely worked in excess of 40 hours per work week for Defendant's benefit."
AEROSMITH POSTPONES:
Aerosmith have postponed their show tonight in Bristow, Virginia as frontman Steven Tyler is under doctor's orders "to refrain from performing to provide vocal rest," as the group wrote on their Facebook page.
SPIDERMAN REDUX A HIT:
The Amazing Spider-Man netted an impressive $35 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices on its first day in theaters, breaking a record for a Tuesday opening.
APPLE FINALLY OWNS iPAD NAME:
More than two years after releasing its game-changing tablet computer, Apple now actually owns the name "iPad." A Chinese court says the company has paid $60 million to a Taiwanese firm for the rights, nailing down the name as its own in a country that is increasingly becoming a huge market for electronics.
PASSING: HARVEY "BRUCE" GRUFFERMAN
.... who was known in the business as Harvey Bruce, passed away in Las Vegas from a heart attack on March 29, three days before what would have been his 67th birthday. Harvey began his career at ABC/Dunhill Records under president, Jay Lasker. He was part of a now-legendary A&R department that was home to staff producers Bill Szymczyck, Steve Barry, Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, Gary Katz, and Bob Monaco.
The Music Industry Past, Present & Future, And The Internet I answer questions on EconTalk
I did an interview about the industry and the Internet at EconTalk with host Russ Roberts. Russ is also a professor of economics at George Mason University, blogs at Cafe Hayek, and has written three novels that teach economics. He's also the co-creator of the Keynes-Hayek rap video. (And if your understanding of the economic meltdown that occurred needs to be enlightened, this video will do it)
In the interview we talk about the evolution of the music industry, the impact of the digital revolution, and I give my reasons for believing in the virtues and potential of the Internet in enhancing the music industry. I point out, as I have many times here in the newsletter, that the internet allows numerous artists to make money from their music and it can enhance revenues from live performances by expanding an artist's base. We also discuss the challenges facing record companies and I suggest that the full potential of the Internet as a distribution channel has yet to be fully exploited. There's a lot of ground covered, but based on the comments already posted of those who have tuned in, they've enjoyed it.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Quotes of the week
"Corporate rock whores, we were. Bye-bye, anarchism."
-- Nirvana's former bassist joking in Rolling Stone why the band never played CBGB because their agent demanded an additional $300 to perform."If we want to do it, we've got the rights to do it, is basically all that's happened. There's been nothing set, no prototypes. There's nothing in the works at the moment."
-- Lisa Marie Presley, talking about a possible Elvis hologram, in Rolling Stone
The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
Nation's Couples Hit Rough Spell
PROVIDENCE, RI-According to a survey released Tuesday by psychologists at Brown University, couples in the United States have been going through a bit of a rough patch lately, and if something doesn't change, and change soon, the future of their relationships may be in doubt.
The nationwide poll, which asked about topics ranging from communication issues to the health of a couple's sex life, found not only that things were pretty much on the rocks, but also that many people weren't even sure anymore if their partners were the same people they once fell in love with.
Read the rest here and laugh: Click Here.
Smart Marketing Consulting Services
Smart Marketing Consulting Services has been in business sixteen years, and consults clients in the music, entertainment, attraction, media, and technology industry on branding, marketing, online exploitation, maximizing new media, and more.
"And the beat goes on, the beat goes on ... drums keep poundin' rhythm to the brain."
"Work is life, you know, and without it, there's nothing but fear and insecurity." -- John Lennon
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