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The RIAA Waves A White Flag ... Kinda' Sort Of
January 9, 2009
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Welcome to 2009, readers. It's only a week old, but there's lots of good stuff to talk about and loads of great information in this first edition of the new year to get you started with the kind of things you need to know. Let's get to it.
In my last issue for 2008 I wrote, "If there is any sanity left in the executive corridors at record labels, 2009 will finally be the year that someone finally says, "Enough is enough," and goes on a campaign to stop the RIAA from wasting millions in lawsuits and in lobbying efforts (translation: lots of expensive dinners in great restaurants and all the rest) and forces the association to do something to justify its existence as CD sales decline further. If you think our federal government wastes money, you're right. If you don't think the RIAA wastes money, you're living on another planet."
No sooner had I written that and sent out the newsletter to everyone, when I received a news alert from The Wall Street Journal with the headline "Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits." Maybe many of you read this news elsewhere during the holidays.
The first line of the article said, "After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy." (You can read the whole article here: http://tinyurl.com/4dba9g )
The article then goes on to say "Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet Service Providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an e-mail to the provider when it finds a provider's customers making music available online for others to take."
When I first got the news alert I thought this might be the beginning of some sanity on the RIAA's behalf. But if the RIAA thinks for one second that ISPs are going to threaten their customers or hand over any information about the millions who download, they are quite delusional. Any ISPs doing so risk losing subscribers in mass quantities. Yes, there will be efforts to do something, but as Bob Dylan sang a long time ago, "all and all will only fall with a crashing but meaningless blow."
But wait, there's some more clarity needed on the whole ISP issue. Last week I received an e-mail from attorney Ray Beckerman (http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com) who quickly informed me that the RIAA claim not to have filed new cases "for months" is false. Not only that, but labels are still going ahead with cases they have already started. That's like spending a whole lot more good money to try and get back the bad money when you're down millions at the crap tables in Vegas. Then again, if you're lucky enough in Vegas you can at least hope to get "get even." There is no such hope for the RIAA.
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal did a follow-up story that said, "the Recording Industry Association of America has dumped the company it used to help it gather evidence for mass lawsuits it filed against people it claimed were illegally uploading copyrighted music. The RIAA long used a company called MediaSentry to troll the Internet in search of people who uploaded large amounts of music."
That makes sense, of course. The RIAA saves all the money they were paying MediaSentry to find the online evil-doers who were downloading. But wait (again), because the RIAA isn't stopping policing the Internet. Nope. They've just decided to hire another company to do the same. The article goes on to state: "In place of MediaSentry, the RIAA says it will use Copenhagen-based DtecNet Software ApS. The music industry had worked with DtecNet previously both in the U.S. and overseas, and liked its technology, said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy." (You can read the whole article here: http://tinyurl.com/9mnf83 )
Confused yet? So the RIAA is dropping the lawsuits. Sort of. Getting rid of Media Sentry and replacing it with another company. Confirmed. So now we can ask the age old question, 'Who's on first?" Or maybe I should just pull out my Talking Heads CD "Stop Making Sense" and try to figure this all out.
Despite the RIAA's spin to the contrary in any of these stories, the lawsuits never did anything to decrease downloading at all. There is plenty of data and information available on that online to evidence that and I've put much of it in my newsletter this past year. If the lawsuits had done anything significant to stop downloading, the RIAA wouldn't be stopping them either. When one factors in the existence of offline Intranets and online "dark nets," it's easy to see the real numbers of people file-sharing and downloading is underestimated by any company trying to gauge what's really going on.
Then there's the fact that there are literally dozens of sites that allow users to mask their identity online when accessing places they download. ISPs won't be able to get that info as well.
In essence, the RIAA is waving the white-flag in a battle they lost long, long ago. They filed over 35,000 lawsuits in the last five years, and now they will save millions of future dollars. If they had continued on the useless path of righteousness they were on, the association would have continued wasting the labels' money and probably found itself financially incapable of continuing down this path.
Now perhaps the RIAA can go about what their real business should be -- helping the industry generate new models for survival and revenues as album sales slid for a seventh time in eight years in 2008 and total album sales fell 14%. (See the first news article below 'Sour Note: Music Sales Down Again in 2008')
And Now This...
After all the haggling back and forth, it's done. This week at the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced that he had cut deals to offer songs free of copy protection software at the iTunes store.
The announcement of the deal with Sony, Universal and Warner Music means they will now join EMI in offering DRM-free music.
Along with that announcement also came the news the iTunes store will now also have something the labels have wanted for a long time -- variable pricing: 69 cents for catalog, 99 cents for most current hit songs (before dropping to 79 cents) and $1.29 for selected items. (According to the official release, "most albums" will remain available at $9.99)
Whether or not the labels will see people flocking to pay more than 99 cents for a song is at this point very questionable. I have serious doubts about that happening. (The article below "Apple's Tiered Pricing-DRM Swap Could Sink Record Labels" offers that same viewpoint.)
The 99-cent price was widely accepted by everyone and it was generating big sales. Now that the labels have accomplished what they wanted with variable pricing, perhaps we will see them complain less in the future about how iTunes cannibalizes album sales, and how iTunes has hurt the industry. They certainly won't be able to blame Jobs and iTunes if the $1.29 price doesn't create the kind of numbers they are looking for.
The iTunes store has now passed the six billion songs-sold threshold. I've said it before and I'll say it again: that means six billion less were stolen and nobody has done more to get people in the habit of BUYING music instead of stealing it, than Steve Jobs and Apple.
AND THIS...
A great new book titled "APPETITE FOR SELF-DESTRUCTION -- The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age" by Steve Knopper should be recommended reading for anybody in the music industry or anybody wanting to get involved in it in the future. I'm sure the book will be used by many colleges in various music industry classes.
From the New York Times comes the review of the book (appropriately titled "When The Labels Fought The Digital, And Digital Won").
The review starts with this: "You can't roll a joint on an iPod," the singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne told The New York Times Magazine early last year. And, O.K., I suppose that's among the iPod's drawbacks. But it's hard to think of an electronic device released in recent decades that's brought more pleasure to more people...Should anyone care that in the process, the iPod has all but killed the music industry as we've known it? Maybe not, Steve Knopper writes in "Appetite for Self-Destruction," his stark accounting of the mistakes major record labels have made since the end of the LP era and the arrival of digital music. These dinosaurs, he suggests, are largely responsible for their own demise."
Read the rest of the review here: http://tinyurl.com/9pw6hn.
Read an interview with the author in The Village Voice here: http://tinyurl.com/76crza.
AND THIS...
We are almost a decade into the "new millennium" and I had to laugh at this headline on the Financial Times website last week, 'Record Labels Look To The Internet To Revive Music Video Business.' ( http://tinyurl.com/ayb8q8 )
The article starts by saying, "A generation after the launch of MTV, major record labels are hoping to revive the music video business online by creating a single digital destination for their artists' output."
Well, hooray and hallelujah. A generation later, somebody finally woke up and realized this was a good idea and there can actually be serious revenues generated online.
Now all the labels have to do is utilize the Internet to generate serious revenues from the sales of music.
AND THIS...
You've probably all heard about how bad this Christmas was for retailers. What most of you didn't hear was that Amazon.com reported that 2008 was its "best ever" holiday shopping season.
Amazon reported that its peak day was on December 15th, when it received a more than 6.3 million orders at a pace of 72.9 items per second.
More financial details are supposed to be released later on this month, but more than anything, this Christmas said to all retailers loud and clear that online is the place to be. All major retailers have websites, but most view them as an extension of their brick-and-mortar locations, instead of using them as the greatest direct marketing tool ever invented and a new source for revenue generation that can be achieved with new creative approaches to capture consumers.
Those retailers who are able to navigate through these rough economic times are well-advised to expedite whatever online strategies are in the planning stages.
The article below, "Holiday Online Spending Grew in Big Buck Households, And Beat Stores in Some Categories," goes into some details about what happened online this holiday season.
AND THIS...
I've written many commentaries about the role the Internet is playing in breaking new artists.
The article below, "Musician Finds a Following Online," is yet another example of that and it's a great read.
Sour Note: Music Sales Down Again In 2008
Drop is 7th in 8 years as recession adds to Internet piracy and video games in weighing on industry.LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- U.S. album sales slid for a seventh time in eight years in 2008 as growth in the digital arena, one of the few bright spots in the ailing music industry, slowed, according to industry data. Total album sales fell 14% to 428.4 million units during the 52-week period ended Dec. 28th, according to retail data collected by tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan.
This follows a 15% drop in 2007, and sets a new low since the firm began monitoring sales in 1991. Sales have plummeted 45% from the industry's high-water mark of 785.1 million units in 2000, due largely to Internet piracy and competition from other forms of entertainment such as video games.
Read more about it by clicking here.
What Recession? Concert Industry Has Record Year Despite Economy
The stock market is in the tank, the plant is closing and the neighbor is losing his home ... the perfect time to go to a concert, by one measure. The concert business grossed just under $4 billion worldwide in 2008, the most ever for a year and up almost 13% over last year, according to Billboard Magazine.
"Overall, it's been a pretty good year for touring," said Ray Waddell, who covers the industry for Billboard. "I'd never say it's recession-proof, but it's resilient."
Read more about it by clicking here.
Digital Boom Helps British Music Sales Hit Record
British music sales are booming as young fans increasingly buy songs online rather than illegally downloading them, the country's industry body said Wednesday. The BPI, formerly known as the British Phonographic Industry, said big-selling releases by artists including Leona Lewis, Coldplay, the Killers and Take That also helped drive sales to record levels last year.
The industry has struggled in recent years to adapt to rapidly changing technologies, and has been hit hard by illegal downloading of music via peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing websites.
Read more about it by clicking here.
SoundScan 2008 Sales Figures Released: Vinyl LP Sales Up 89%
I've written about the resurgence of vinyl a lot last year and referenced many articles about it as well. Vinyl is back as a serious niche market that's showing dramatic growth in these troubled times for the industry.
The recently released Nielsen SoundScan 2008 sales tally of recorded music product is the ranking of the year's top vinyl sellers. As anyone reading this probably knows, the music industry is in the middle of a much ballyhooed "vinyl revival." Publications far and wide have reported on the recurrent interest in black wax and analog sound, and the SoundScan numbers do indeed confirm a trend. In 2008, sales of LPs were up by an impressive 89%, from 990,000 in '07 to 1.88 million this year. It's an astounding number considering that the combined sales of CDs, LPs and digital files fell 14% this year.
Read more about it by clicking here.
How to Save Rock & Roll: Nine Insiders Who Are Changing the Music Business
(Rolling Stone) -- You might not know them, but Ali and Hadi Partovi are the founders of iLike.com, the top music application on Facebook, and they have already changed the way you consume music. By harnessing the power of one of the largest online social networks, the pair has created an interconnected universe of 30 million fans. Why does that matter, how did they do it and who else is shaping the future of the rock business? Check out our special feature on nine insiders with unique visions for the music biz, from video-game developers to a box-set maker to Broken Social Scene's best pal.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Music Streaming Service Spotify Wins Early Fans
Move over, Pandora. There's a new music service in town -- well, in some towns anyway. TorrentFreak has an in-depth write-up of a new music streaming service called Spotify, which shows an awful lot of promise -- so much so that the music piracy-focused blog sees it as a viable alternative to downloading pirated songs for free.
Spotify is a lean, downloadable application that lets users stream music instantly from its library -- a library built with the blessing of EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and some smaller record labels. That, of course, begs the question: How does it make money? Spotify offers two ways to use its service, a free service sponsored by ads and a paid subscription service.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Songs From the Heart of a Marketing Plan
From the New York TimesIn "Creator," the rawest track on Santogold's debut and self-titled album, the singer Santi White boasts, "Me I'm a creator/Thrill is to make it up/The rules I break got me a place up on the radar." It's a bohemian manifesto in a sound bite, brash and endearing, or at least it was for me until it showed up in a beer commercial. And a hair-gel commercial, too.
It turns out that the insurgent, quirky rule breaker is just another shill. Billboard reported that three-quarters of Santogold's excellent album has already been licensed for commercials, video games and soundtracks, and Ms. White herself appears in advertisements, singing for sneakers. She has clearly decided that linking her music to other, mostly mercenary agendas is her most direct avenue to that "place up on the radar."
Read more about it by clicking here.
Musician Finds a Following Online
Word-of-Mouth on Blogs and Other Sites Attracts Fans -- and a Record Deal(Wall Street Journal) In late 2006, Justin Vernon, a musician in Eau Claire, Wis., recorded nine songs while staying at his parents' hunting cabin in northern Wisconsin after a breakup with a girlfriend and his long-time band. He used just a desktop computer with recording software, a three-piece drum set and a guitar.
A few months later, Mr. Vernon posted the songs on his MySpace page, hoping to get some listeners and feedback. He also printed 500 copies of a CD with those songs to sell to friends and fans and send to music bloggers for review. He got that and much more.
"The Internet played a significant role in feeding people the music ... It's like wildfire [how it] spreads," Mr. Vernon, 27, said before a show earlier this year in Philadelphia, where the band performed to a boisterous crowd of about 500 in a church basement. "That propelled us right into being able to choose what kind of record label we wanted to work with."
Read more about it by clicking here.
Apple's Tiered Pricing-DRM Swap Could Sink Record Labels
GigaOmThe news of DRM-free sales from all major music labels at variable prices through iTunes was made at MacWorld. Now, the world's largest online music store will start selling songs for 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 a pop.
Who cares about this? Digital rights management watchers certainly do, but what about the average consumer? Malik points out that Apple has such a stranglehold on the digital music market that most are happy to buy songs from Apple regardless of what format the songs come in, as long as they can be played on an iPod.
The more important part of the news--at least from a recording industry point of view, Malik says--is variable pricing. After resisting the pleas of the music industry for years, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has finally agreed to variable pricing; it looks like Apple has offered that in exchange for DRM-free music. However, this could prove to be a double-edged sword for the labels. While they hope to sell the bulk of their hits for $1.29, "the reality could be very different," Malik says, adding that, "they could easily wind up conditioning the market to expect even lower prices for most of the music they buy, apart from the mega-hits."
Read more about it by clicking here.
The Digital Future Through The Looking Glass
The 2008 Digital Future Project, conducted by the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, has identified several sobering trends in views about going online, particularly in adults' opinions about Internet use by children. Adults who said that the children in their households spend too much time using the Internet reached 25% of respondents, an increase for the third year in a row and the highest percentage yet reported.
Read more about it by clicking here.
How YouTube Changes The Way We Think About Video
WiredA few years ago, YouTube member MadV, who usually performs magic tricks wearing a mask, put up a short video showing a simple message scrawled on his hand. It read, "One World." Then he urged viewers to respond -- and respond they did, generating some 2,000 replies, making it the most responded-to video in YouTube's history. Next, MadV stitched together each of the replies, creating one "long, voiceless montage" that Wired called "quite powerful."
"What's happening to video is like what happened to word processing." Video equipment and production used to be the province of a small handful of experts who could afford the equipment. Similarly, word processing equipment used to be prohibitively expensive until Apple made it drop-dead easy, sparking an explosion of micropublishers. You could also say the same thing about photo manipulation. The next phase of video's evolution to the mainstream will occur when we get even better tools for archiving and searching video.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Microsoft's Zune Failure
The Wall Street JournalThousands of Microsoft's Zune digital music player froze last Wednesday due to a problem with the device's internal clock driver, which was tripped up by leap year, a Microsoft spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal. The problem, in which the player got stuck with an unresponsive Zune logo screen, only affected the 30-gigabye model and resolved itself once the device moved to Jan. 1st. Microsoft advised its customers to let the battery run out before recharging and restarting their devices.
Zune, of course, pales in comparison to Apple's iPod in the market for digital music players. According to NPD Group, the iPod corners more than 70% of that market. Analyst Matt Rosoff of Directions on Microsoft, a research firm that tracks the company, said the Zune glitch underscored the device's weakness compared to Apple's device. He said Microsoft had "missed the boat" in the market for digital music players.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Holiday Online Spending Grew in Big Buck Households, And Beat Stores in Some Categories
Trends in online spending outperformed offline in several key product categories, says comScore in new spending data by category for the online holiday shopping season.
Comparing e-commerce data to overall (online and offline) consumer spending data published by MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse for the periods Nov. 1st-Dec. 24th vs. year ago, several product categories Online outperformed overall consumer spending.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Downloading TV and Watching Video Online Biggest Gainers in 2008
According to new data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence, (MRI), downloading TV programs, watching online videos and making online phone calls posted the biggest year-to-year percent increase among adult Internet users. E-mail, news gathering, and paying bills online continue to be among the most widely used Internet activities by U.S. consumers ages 18+.
Read more about it by clicking here.
COBAIN GUITAR BRINGS IN BIG BUX
Kurt Cobain's smashed Fender Mustang guitar was sold at auction during the holidays for $100,000, making it the second-highest selling Cobain item ever.
IT'S NOT A GHOST YOU'RE SEEING, IT'S DIGITAL SFX
With permission from his widow, Yoko Ono, a digital John Lennon stars in a new commercial for One Laptop Per Child a charity attempting to grant Internet access to children in developing countries. The clip features Lennon's voice seemingly digitally sewn together. "Imagine if every child, no matter where in the world they were, could access a universe of knowledge," the virtual Lennon says. "They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want. I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way." Check it out at YouTube or a dozen other online sites.
HOPEFULLY THE SONG WON'T SUCK
Kelly Clarkson will reportedly return January 19th when "My Life Would Suck Without You," the first single from her upcoming fourth album, hits radio.
iPHONE NOW AT WAL-MART
Walmart is now selling the iPhone 3G at roughly 2,500 Walmart stores, offering the 8 GB model for $197, and the 16 GB model for $297.
WILCO DVD ON THE WAY
Wilco will release their first live DVD, "Ashes of American Flags," in February or March. "Ashes" captures the band's February 2008 performances from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and Tulsa, Oklahoma's Cain Ballroom.
PRINCE PRODUCTIVE IN '09
Prince is set to release three albums this year According to the LA Times. Prince is in negotiations with "a major retailer" to distribute the albums. He'll also be selling them on his new and interactive website.
TIMES ARE TOUGH FOR EVERYONE
DMX is reportedly selling his Phoenix house for $200,000 under market value. During a SWAT raid in May '08, the front doors were knocked off, allowing robbers to come and go as they pleased while DMX bounced around from prison to prison. Now empty, the home, which is in "poor condition," is also facing foreclosure.
CLIVE'S BASH STILL THE BEST
NARAS has formally announced that it will sponsor Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party which will now billed as the Pre-Grammy Gala on Saturday, Feb. 7th, the night before the show. Clive's party now becomes an official Grammy Week event, and the Academy says it "will continue and expand upon this time-honored tradition."
UNDERWOOD TOPS AT PEOPLES CHOICE
Carrie Underwood cleaned up at the People's Choice Awards this week, winning three trophies. She was selected as the favorite star under 35 -- a new award to mark both PEOPLE Magazine and the People's Choice Awards' 35th birthdays. Underwood, 25, also collected awards for her music, including favorite Country song ("Last Name") and favorite Country singer.
BECK AND CLAPTON TOGETHER AGAIN
Two former Yardbirds are set to share the stage: Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck have announced they'll play two shows together at Saitama, Japan's Super Arena, on February 21st and 22nd.
VAN THE MAN UPDATE
Van Morrison's performance of his classic "Astral Weeks" album from the Hollywood Bowl last November will be released on CD and double-vinyl on February 10th. This was the first time Morrison ever played the famed 1968 album in its entirety. As previously reported, the shows were also filmed, with DVDs planned. Morrison will take the same show to New York's Theatre at Madison Square Garden on February 27th and 28th.
PASSING
Ron Asheton, guitarist and founding member of the Stooges, was reportedly found dead at his home in Ann Arbor, MI, Tuesday. He was 60.
PASSING
John Byrne, the lead singer of garage-rock band Count Five and the writer of their 1966 hit "Psychotic Reaction," died on December 15th following kidney and liver failure in San Jose, CA.
PASSING
Delaney Bramlett, who collaborated with such artists as George Harrison and Eric Clapton, died in a Los Angeles hospital on December 29th following gall bladder surgery. He was 69.
Quotes of the week
"I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple's CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first."
-- Steve Jobs' statement regarding his personal health issues being discussed all over the Internet."Led Zeppelin are over! If you didn't see them in 2007, you missed them. It's done. I can't be any clearer than that. That was it. The whole thing is completely over now. There are absolutely no plans for them to continue. Zero. Frankly, I wish everybody would stop talking about it."
-- Jimmy Page's manager Peter Mensch to MusicRadar talking about a possible tour minus Robert Plant. Never say never Peter when there's millions to be made from such a tour."Everything I learned about love, I learned from the movies. The reality is because I was not shown affection, I escaped into an alternate universe, and it came right out of the movies. Love for me is defined almost exclusively in terms of romantic love as defined by the films of my childhood."
-- Playboy's Hugh Hefner in the L.A. Times. And now that you've peaked our curiosity, how about a list of those films?"I grew up upper-class. Private school. My dad had a Jaguar. We're African-American and we work together as a family, so people assume we're like the Jacksons. But I didn't have parents using me to get out of a bad situation."
-- Beyonce in Elle magazine"Today is the first day Tom and I are getting back together. We just rehearsed for two hours and it feels so good. We can't wait to get back into the studio and get back out on the road to do what we do best. We'll check in from time to time and give you progress on how things are going."
-- Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer and bassist Tom Hamilton in a news update on the band's official website."I've been a fan of Luda's throughout his career, and having him on this track was an amazing honor. He's innovative across the board and always brings the freshest lyrics to any track."
-- Jesse McCartney talking about his collaboration with Ludacris on his new album. So, is that what his homies call him ... Luda?
The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
I Have An iPod-'In My Mind'
I'm sure you've seen a lot of tech-savvy people smugly showing off that new hunk of entertainment hardware, the iPod personal stereo. Well, I might not have the scratch to get one, but frankly, I don't want the white-corded wonder. I have my very own iPod-in my mind.
I hear those little things carry up to a month's worth of music. Well, so does my mind. I can call up any song I've ever heard, any time I want. And I never have to load software or charge batteries. There are no firewire cords or docks to mess with. I just put my hands behind my head, lean back, and select a tune from the extensive music-library folder inside my brain.
Thirty gigabytes? So what? I know 7,500 songs, maybe more. Some songs, I forget I even have until they come around on shuffle. Why, just the other day, my mind started playing David Naughton's "Makin' It," a song I hadn't heard in years. And the sound quality was great!
Read the rest here and laugh: http://tinyurl.com/8uc8b.
THE RADIO INTERVIEW on 'THE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE' - From newsblaze.com
"Steve Meyer is on the front line of global music sales and distribution which he expects will soar to pocket-bursting levels. What's more, he shares his insight and ingenuity with us. Steve gives us both historical perspective and futuristic vision as he chats with Judy about the love of his work, trends of the business and his personal points of view about success, happiness and blending life with the lust for life. Steve joins Judy and helps us discover the thrill of having it all with a sense of balance and purpose. "
You can listen to an interview I did with Judy Piazza of 'The American Perspective' by clicking here: (It runs about 15 minutes)
http://www.thesop.org/index.php?id=10306.
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!)