-
Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
March 14, 2008
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
"I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family ... I apologize first, most importantly, to my family, I apologize to the public. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family."
-- New York Governor Elliot Spitzer at the press conference where he admitted his dalliance with a prostitute and then announced his resignation."I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family ... I apologize first, most importantly, to my family, I apologize to the public. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family." -- New York Governor Elliot Spitzer at the press conference where he admitted his dalliance with a prostitute and then announced his resignation.
Well, it's old news by now. It's been all over the media all week.
Is there anybody out there that doesn't know that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer got caught with his pants down? (No pun intended, but it does work doesn't it?)
When I first heard the news, John Lennon's "Instant Karma" immediately came to mind, and his words rang true once again for the man who single-handedly killed the once great radio and records relationship: "Instant Karma's gonna' get you, It's gonna' knock you off your feet." Amen.
When he was New York's Attorney General, Spitzer created havoc in the industry when he spent millions of taxpayers' dollars to investigate the labels' alleged use of payola and bribes to influence radio airplay.
The results? Almost all hard-working independent promotion people, who for years broke records for labels big and small, were put out of business. The symbiotic relationship between labels and radio was diminished to an almost perfunctory role. Oh yeah, and Spitzer took the four major record groups for a total of almost $31 million in penalties and the four major radio chains for another $12.5 million.
Now, of course we know that Spitzer, who got plenty of press and declared how much he had helped clean up the music biz, was obviously not interested in cleaning up his own act. U.S. investigators say the New York Governor has perhaps spent as much as $80,000 on high-priced prostitution services over a period of a decade.
None of Spitzer's investigations into payola and bribes in the industry ever resulted in anything like this. Mr. Spitzer said in a statement back then: "Sony BMG and the other record labels present the public with a skewed picture of the country's 'best' and 'most popular' recorded music."
I think it only fair to say now that Mr. Spitzer presented the public with a skewed picture of his ethics when he ran for Governor.
When Spitzer was getting loads of press for going after the music business, I asked the question in the newsletter: "Am I the only one who wonders why Mr. Spitzer isn't spending more time rounding up some REAL criminals? This guy certainly has a lot of free time on his hands."
Now we all know what he was doing with some of that free time.
And Now This...
Though it's already sold about 300,000 units in the past three weeks, is retailing in the top 5 in the country, and despite it containing a DVD and five newly reworked versions of the songs with guest artists, Michael Jackson's "Thriller--25th Anniversary Edition" CD is NOT listed on the Billboard Top 200.
The reason? Once a disc has been classified as a catalog release and listed on Billboard's catalog best-sellers chart, it is still considered a catalog release even if re-released.
In much of the rest of the world, however, the album is categorized as a new release and when it was released, it debuted at #1 in France, #2 in Germany, Australia, Holland, Norway and Switzerland, and #3 in the U.K.
Whatever Billboard's thinking is about this, they should think about what the Top 200 Album Chart really represents. If an album like this one is not even listed on the Top 200, yet it's retailing in the Top 10 nationally, how can Billboard say the Top 200 chart is really accurate in listing current retail activity?
And This...
While rumors were rampant earlier this week that The Beatles' music catalog was finally going to go on sale at Apple's iTunes store (and many stories cited inside "un-named sources" who said it was happening), it didn't happen at all and deeper analysis revealed that there are still a whole bunch of legal hurdles to cross before it ever happens.
No sooner did the story break when Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the joint venture owned by Sony and singer Michael Jackson, told CNET News.com that the reports were all "untrue." Sony and Jackson own the rights to the vast majority of the catalog's publishing rights and had a deal been cut, Sony/ATV would "absolutely be informed," the Sony/ATV spokeswoman said.
Whatever the reasons for The Beatles' catalog not being for sale online yet, it would behoove all the parties involved to get the deals done as quickly as possible.
Whether The Beatles' songs are for sale or not at iTunes or anywhere else, they are being downloaded illegally by the thousands, every day at every P2P website around the world, and tens of millions of dollars in potential revenue has already been lost.
And This...
I mentioned in the newsletter a few weeks back that Trent Reznor was once again going to the Internet to launch the new Nine Inch Nails' 36-track instrumental album "Ghosts I-IV," via NIN.com, in a variety of downloadable ways.
In the first week, the site has reported a total of 781,917 transactions (including free and paid downloads as well as orders for physical product), resulting in a take of $1,619,420.
It's more than obvious that Reznor knows what he's doing, and it's also obvious that success like this once again means it's more likely more artists will be doing this in the future without the necessity of being signed to a major label.
The $300 Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition of Ghosts I-IV immediately sold out its run of 2500. The $10 2-CD set will be released to retail April 8th in North America. A $39 four-disc vinyl version will be also be available at retail April 8th.
The War Against The Web Tops Music Biz "20 Biggest Screw-ups" List
From blender.comThe talent scout who turned down the Beatles has long been credited with committing the music industry's biggest gaffe. But Dick Rowe's billion-dollar boo-boo has been beaten to the top spot on Blender magazine's list of the "20 biggest record company screw-ups of all time" by the failure of record companies to capitalize on the Internet.
The major labels took top dishonors for driving file-sharing service Napster out of business in 2001, instead of figuring out a way to make money from its tens of millions of users. The downloaders merely scattered to hundreds of other sites, and the industry has been in a tailspin ever since.
"The labels' campaign to stop their music from being acquired for free across the Internet has been like trying to cork a hurricane--upward of a billion files are swapped every month on peer-to-peer networks," Blender said in the report, which appears in its newly published April issue.
See why the RIAA, Digital Rights Management, Casablanca Records, Geffen Records, one of this year's "American Idol" finalists, and others made the list.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Gibson Says Activision's 'Guitar Hero' Violates Patent
From cnet.comGibson Guitar has told Activision that its wildly popular Guitar Hero video games infringe one of Gibson's patents, and Activision has asked a U.S. court to find the claim invalid. Gibson said the games, in which players press buttons on a guitar-shaped controller in time with notes on a TV screen, violates a 1999 patent for technology to simulate a musical performance.
The Guitar Hero series has sold more than 14 million units in North America and raked in more than $1 billion since its 2005 debut.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Google Could Be Superceded, Says Web Inventor The next generation of web technology is likely to be far more powerful than the current crop, Tim Berners-Lee said
From TIMES OnlineGoogle may eventually be displaced as the pre-eminent brand on the Internet by a company that harnesses the power of next-generation web technology, the inventor of the World Wide Web has said. The search giant had developed an extremely effective way of searching for pages on the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee said, but that ability paled in comparison to what could be achieved on the "web of the future," which he said would allow any piece of information -- such as a photo or a bank statement -- to be linked to any other.
Mr Berners-Lee said that in the same way, the "current craze" for social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace would eventually be superseded by networks that connected all types of things -- not just people -- thanks to a ground-breaking technology known as the "semantic web." The semantic web is the term used by the computer and Internet industry to describe the next phase of the web's development, and essentially involves building web-based connectivity into any piece of data -- not just a web page -- so that it can "communicate" with other information.
Read more about it by clicking here.
The Best Devices for On-Demand Video
Modern home entertainment doesn't just mean that you don't have to leave the house to watch new movies; it means you don't even have to leave the couch. Streaming video now comes to you, not the other way around. Get movies, TV shows, and more right from the sofa with these excellent media extenders. See what PC Magazine is talking about!
Read more about it by clicking here.
The Best Free Software
From PC Magazine157 software tools. No fees. No expiration dates. No problems. Sometimes even no downloads. No kidding!
Read more about it by clicking here.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Van Halen's derailed tour will resume on Apr. 19th, the band announced Monday with 17 rescheduled dates.
UNDER THE KNIFE FOR THE KNEE
Aerosmith's Joe Perry will undergo knee surgery on Mar. 18th, his rep said Monday. The necessary recovery period means the guitarist has had to cancel an upcoming solo show on Apr. 5th, for which he extended his apologies to his fans.
ROCK DOES WAFFLES
Kid Rock showed up at an Atlanta Waffle House Tuesday to serve up some fast food and sign autographs for hundreds of fans during a fundraising event. The rock-rapper's restaurant service came a week after he pleaded not guilty to a charge of battery stemming from a fight at a different Waffle House.
MAYBE SHE WAS ON THE ISLAND A BIT TOO LONG
"Gilligan's Island" star Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on the show, has been sentenced to six months' probation in Idaho after she was allegedly caught with marijuana in her car last October. Of course, being on that show was probably the reason she started smoking pot years ago.
CONGRATS TO
Madonna, John Mellancamp, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Leonard Cohen, the Dave Clark Five and the Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Monday night.
ROCK'N'ROLL IN PEMBERTON
Coldplay, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Jay-Z and Nine Inch Nails are among the more than 50 acts confirmed for the first-ever Pemberton Festival, to be held July 25-27 in the picturesque locale of Pemberton, British Columbia, two hours outside Vancouver. The event was jointly created by Live Nation and Good Boy Productions. Also performing will be Interpol, Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket, Flaming Lips and Canadian superstars The Tragically Hip, plus up-and-comers Vampire Weekend, MGMT and Grand Ole Party.
MICHAEL'S NEVERLAND SAVE
Looks like Neverland Ranch won't be going up for auction after all. A lawyer for Michael Jackson claims the reclusive pop star has worked out a "confidential" refinancing agreement with Fortress Investment Group, LLC, which will allow him to hang on to his 2,500-acre spread in Los Olivos. The property had been scheduled to go up for public auction Wednesday, after Jackson defaulted on a loan.
STRAIT TO XM
Country star George Strait has partnered up with XM Satellite Radio to launch his own channel, Strait Country, on April 1. The station will run through May 31 and coincide with the release of the music vet's 37th album, Troubadour.
TRIBUNE GRABS ABRAMS
Legendary radio programmer Lee Abrams, father of AOR radio, is leaving XM Satellite Radio to join Tribune Company as its first Chief Innovation Officer. "Lee's going to pump new life into our content, re-energize our brands, and get people thinking and working together like they never have before," declared Tribune President of Broadcasting and Interactive Randy Michaels. "
Quotes of the week
"Every day I have eaten ham and cheese sandwiches, I can't get enough of them. Wish they had these back in the States."
-- Jessica Alba, on French cuisine, in a post on her MySpace, evidently not realizing how incredibly stupid she sounds."I'm so happy. I can't ask for anything more ... except big boobs."
-- Nicole Kidman, on her pregnancy, to the Daily Mirror. Big boobs? Uh, Nicole, those are easy to get without getting pregnant. Just ask 99% of the actresses in Hollywood."The world is full of Madonna wannabes. I might have even dated a couple."
-- Justin Timberlake, who inducted Madonna this past week into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."I wanted to be the first to tell you that I'm no longer with the Pussycat Dolls, but we will always be sisters forever."
-- Pussycat Doll Carmit Bachar, announcing she has left the group on the group's official website. And now we know the name of at least one Pussycat Doll.
The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
Shroud Of Turin Accidentally Washed With Red Shirt
VATICAN CITY-The Shroud of Turin, an ancient linen cloth believed to bear the image of Christ and considered by many clerics and devotees to be one of the holiest relics of the Christian faith, was inadvertently dyed a light shade of pink after being washed with a red T-shirt, sources reported Tuesday.
The holy antiquity, thought by some to be the very garment Jesus Christ was buried in, was discovered in 1354. Though it has suffered oxidation and fire damage over the centuries, this is the first time that the shroud has been harmed in a laundry-related mishap.
Read the rest here and laugh: http://tinyurl.com/35moq7.
The Blogs
Check out a great blog by Jerry Del Colliano, the Director Executive Programs, Clinical Professor Music Industry & Recording Arts, at the Thornton School of Music,University of Southern California, by clicking here: http://www.insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com.
Box Office
Check The Daily & Weekly Box Office (and more film info) at: www.boxofficemojo.com.
TinyURL
Check out www.tinyurl.com where you can make a smaller URL that will work for any webpage you wish to link to or reference. (As you can see, I'm using it in my news stories above!)
-
-