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Once A Name, Always A Threat
September 8, 2006
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"I'll let you be in my dream, if I can be in yours."
-- Bob DylanThirty years ago, Bob Dylan had a #1 album on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart with 'Desire.' This week, Bob returned to the top of the charts as his new album, 'Modern Times,' debuted at #1.
The album also ranked #1 on the Coalition Of Independent Music Stores chart, #1 at amazon.com, sold briskly in online digital sales, in Starbuck's (where it was sold at a sale price), and of course in the brick and mortar mass merchandisers as well. (Best Buy had it sale priced at $9.99 with a special booklet of photos) It was also sold separately with a Bonus CD. All together, all these things contributed to the first week's sales
If you're not a Dylan fan, this news is of course not very interesting to you. But a Dylan fan or not, it's proof positive again that quality artists in the upper demographics can still have impact at retail and on the charts. Dylan is an artist established in the '60's, so it doesn't take a great deal of analysis to come to the conclusion that most of his original fans (like himself) are well over 55+ years old. And guess what? Those folks buy CDs when they like them in very respectable quantities.
I'm not suggesting that Dylan isn't reaching younger fans as well. Following his last two critically acclaimed albums ('Love and Theft,' and the Grammy winning 'Time Out Of Mind'), and because of his relentless touring, he's exposed himself to new audiences everywhere. Then this year, PBS broadcast and promoted the (also critically praised) Scorcese documentary on Bob, 'No Direction Home ' several times.
The industry needs to be reminded time and time again that people that grew up in the late '50's and the '60s, are the first generation of rock'n'roll music consumers. They never stopped listening to music. Sure, their lifestyles changed, but music was always (and still is) an integral and vital part of their lives.
Dylan's music played an enormous part in keeping the music vital. When "Like A Rolling Stone" (now ranked as the #1 single by ROLLING STONE on their '500 Greatest Songs Of All Time List' ) hit the airwaves forty-one years ago in the summer of 1965, nothing was ever the same. The song brought with it a whole new sound that created a whole new genre in pop (folk-rock), it exploded out of our car's radio speakers with such force as Dylan screamed out "How does it feel?", and somehow we all knew what he was singing about. And even if we didn't, he struck us with such visceral force, we just fell down each time we heard the song.
The number of artists Dylan has influenced is staggering. John Lennon said without Dylan, The Beatles would have never written 'Rubber Soul.' Bruce Springsteen paid homage to Bob when he gave a speech before inducting him into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and has frequently talked about how Dylan influenced him. The list goes on and on and young songwriters today still record Bob's songs and sing them in concerts, broadening Dylan's audience even more.
So congratulations, Bob. It's been three decades between #1s, "How does it feel?"
Hackers Crack Apple, Microsoft Music Codes
In the continuation of a long-running arms race, both Apple Computer and Microsoft have seen their music protection technologies come under fire in recent days.
In the past month, separate programs have emerged to strip away the digital rights management (DRM) tools that the two technology giants use to protect music from unauthorized duplication. One of the programs counteracts Microsoft's Windows Media DRM, while the other targets Apple's FairPlay.
Both companies have long dealt with hackers finding a way to circumvent their content protections. To maintain the confidence of the record labels and other content providers, the tech giants have to scramble to close the holes. But even though they have largely been able to do so, the fixes tend to be temporary as new holes are found.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Samsung Plans Own Music Service
Aiming to better compete with Apple Computer's iTunes, Samsung on Friday announced that it will develop its own music service in conjunction with a new series of portable players that will debut later this year. Samsung is tapping New York-based MusicNet to power the service, which will offer both download sales and subscription options. The service will initially be available in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, but Samsung says it hopes to expand throughout Europe and Asia.
The move follows Microsoft's announcement in July that it will launch its Zune player and service, competing directly with former partners, including Samsung, Creative Labs, iRiver and others.
Read more about it by clicking here.
MySpace To Sell Songs From Indie Bands
MySpace, the wildly popular online teen hangout, said on Friday it will make its first move into the digital music business by selling songs from nearly 3 million unsigned bands. MySpace is the latest company to try to take on Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, but unlike many other start-up rivals, it already boasts 106 million users, as well as the backing of parent company News Corp.
"The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there," MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe told Reuters. "Everyone we've spoken to definitely wants an alternative to iTunes and the iPod. MySpace could be that alternative."
In the past year, MySpace.com has become the single most visited Internet address among U.S. Web users, according to Hitwise, with mainly teenagers and young adults using the site to socialize, share music and photographs.
Read more about it by clicking here.
MTV Awards Suffer Big Hit in Ratings
By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & CableThe downward spiral of the MTV Video Music Awards' TV performance continued Thursday night as the ceremony's audience plunged from last year and VMA fans headed online.
The show, once a ratings juggernaut for MTV, pulled in an average of just 5.77 million total viewers over its three hour telecast starting at 8 p.m., down 28% from the 8 million viewers it averaged last year, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. Just two years ago, the show brought in nearly double last night's audience-10.3 million viewers.
Read more about it by clicking here.
New Rock Stars Use Web Videos To Win Fans
Chicago alternative rock band OK Go has become more popular on the video-sharing Web site YouTube than it ever was on MTV. The band's treadmill video has been viewed millions of times on the Internet and featured on news programs around the world.
Music industry watchers can learn from OK Go's experience, which shows that Web users can catapult a band to fame, challenging the popular assumption that videos need to cost thousands of dollars or be directed by Hollywood filmmakers.
The industry is undergoing a slow, at times painful change from the old way of marketing CDs and TV music videos to going digital with music distribution and online videos, which fans view on the Internet or via media players like Apple Computer's popular iPod.
Read more about it by clicking here.
EMI Publishing In Downloads Deal With Spiralfrog
EMI Music Publishing has become the latest firm to sign a deal to make its music catalogue available on a free legal downloads service. Under the deal, online music service Spiralfrog will offer work from EMI's artists - which include the Arctic Monkeys and Eminem - online in the US.
New York-based Spiralfrog will launch its service in December and make its money by carrying adverts on the site. It will rival Apple's iTunes, which charges 99 cents per song in the US. Last week Vivendi Universal agreed to make its music catalogue available through Spiralfrog.
Read more about it by clicking here.
The Online Box Office Is Growing
Apple and Amazon will soon unveil agreements with studios to sell movie downloads.
The movie business is about to change: Apple Computer Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are in the final stages of building online services that allow easy, legal access to potentially thousands of movies on demand.
Apple, which invigorated online music with its iTunes store, is expected to reveal plans next week to offer downloadable movies from Walt Disney Co. Amazon has agreements with at least three of the other major studios to offer movies at its online store, expected to be announced as early as Thursday.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Vivendi To Buy BMG Music Publishing, Settle Napster Claims
Vivendi's Universal Music, the world's largest seller of recorded music, is vaulting to the top spot in music publishing, too, after agreeing to buy BMG Music Publishing for 1.63 billion euros ($2.1 billion).
German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, BMG Music Publishing's parent company, also said on Wednesday it would pay Vivendi $60 million to settle litigation related to financing it once provided to file-sharing service Napster.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Copyright Treaty Draws Tech Industry Criticism
Unlikely coalition takes aim at a controversial United Nations treaty that would expand copyright law on the Internet.
An online culture built around user-generated content on Web sites like YouTube and MySpace would be imperiled by a new treaty, public interest groups and some technology companies said Tuesday.
At issue is a treaty called "Protection of the Rights of Broadcasting Organizations," which proponents say is necessary to ensure that TV and cable broadcasters--and now, their Web-based counterparts--have the tools to combat unauthorized retransmission of their signals. The World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, a specialized arm of the United Nations, gave the go-ahead in 2003 to begin drafting the treaty, but a final version is still pending.
Read more about it by clicking here.
THIS WEEK'S 'WHO CARES' NEWS ITEMS
ITEM#1: The MTV Video Awards. Nobody cares about the event or the awards anymore.
ITEM#2: Katie Couric finally debuted as the CBS Evening News anchor. Whoop-dee-doo. How many of you are still watching the six o'clock news anyway? And to lend credibility to her allegedly being a really serious news person with integrity (and proving she's not and giving us a hint of where her news shows might go), Katie informed viewers in the beginning of her broadcast to stay tuned because she'd be showing a picture of baby Suri with parents Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes later in the show. Of course Leah Remini already told us that baby Suri was just fine and as normal as any other newborn, but Katie had to be the first to show us a picture.
ITEM#3: Well, he wrote "Your Body Is A Wonderland," so it makes sense that John Mayer is now dating Jessica Simpson.
ITEM#4: Former New Kid on the Block member Jordan Knight launching his second solo album, Love Songs, on QVC Friday. On QVC? Is that his demographics now...where the Old Kids On The Block buy stuff? And who's waiting for this album?
ITEM#5: Yusuf Islam, aka the former Cat Stevens, releasing his first pop album in 28 years this fall. I wonder if Al Jazeera will play his video?
ITEM#6: - By now we all know Paris Hilton was pulled over early Thursday and arrested for driving under the influence and subsequently
failed a police sobriety test. Hilton's rep claimed she had only had one margarita and blamed the arrest on the fact that Hilton had had nothing to eat all day. Maybe the real reason was she found out her album dropped from its #6 debut on the Billboard album charts to #33 in week two and she needed a few drinks.
CONGRATS
To Andrew Lloyd Webber, Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson and Steven Spielberg for being tapped as recipients of the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors.
CONGRATS 2
Bob Dylan, whose new album, Modern Times, debuts at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart. It's Dylan's first #1 album in 30 years. 'Desire' topped the chart in 1976.
CONGRATS 3
To The Arctic Monkeys for winning the British Mercury Prize Tuesday for the band's debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, which became the fastest-selling freshman album in British history.
CONGRATS 4
To David Letterman who will sign a new deal to stay on CBS for another four years.
CONGRATS 5
To Diana Krall and Elvis Costello Who are expecting twins, People magazine reports.
NO RETURNS YET
British graffiti artist Banksy tampering with 500 copies of Paris Hilton's CD, Paris, by changing the album art to show Hilton topless and with a dog's head. HMV reporting that no customers have complained about the altered albums or returned a copy. So does this mean the artist is telling us that Paris has a nice body but she's a bow-wow when it comes to singing? Not a bad interpretation actually.
GEE, WHAT A GUY
Website tmz.com reporting that Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey are close to reaching an agreement on dividing up their marital assets, with Lachey agreeing to take less than his fair share in order to avoid an ugly and long court battle.
FRESTON OUT
This week, the board of Viacom Inc., frustrated with the media company's lagging stock price, ousted Tom Freston as CEO and replaced him with Philippe Dauman, a former Viacom executive and longtime board member. Freston joined MTV in its early days and is seen as one of the key executives who helped build it into a global entertainment franchise and one of Viacom's most valuable properties. Although after the ratings disaster for the Video Awards (which had nothing to do with Freston's leaving), things might not be headed in the right direction for what was once actually 'Music Television.'
IT'S ALL ABOUT EXPANDING ONE'S NAME AND BRAND, RIGHT?
Gwen Stefani also launching her own line of dolls with outfits based on the clothes she and the Harajuku Girls wore on her world tour.
WELL YOU CAN 'DO YOUR OWN THING' BUT YOU STILL HAVE TO PONY UP TO THE TAXMAN
Ronald Isley, frontman of the Isley Brothers, sentenced to three years and one month in prison for tax evasion. The 65-year-old R&B crooner was also ordered to pony up $3.1 million to the IRS. Because he has been battling health problems, he is expected to do his time in a Bureau of Prisons hospital facility.
OSCAR TAPS ELLEN
Ellen DeGeneres will host the 79th Academy Awards next year.
BON JOVI TEAMS WITH COLE FOR A GOOD CAUSE
Jon Bon Jovi teaming with Kenneth Cole to create a limited-edition outerwear collection that will debut in November. Portions of the proceeds to benefit Help USA, a charity that aids the homeless.
COMING SOON!
- Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds (9/12)
- John Mayer, Continuum (9/12)
- The Rapture, Pieces of the People We Love (9/12)
- Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (9/12)
- Everclear, Welcome to the Drama Club (9/12)
2006 Industry Conferences
Date Name Location CMJ October 31 - November 4 New York
Quotes of the week
"I guess you all heard Paris Hilton was arrested for drunk driving. This must be the most embarassing thing to happen to her since her CD came out."
-- Jay Leno"Music is something I'm serious about. I worked really hard on my album."
-- Paris Hilton. The problem is Paris, we don't believe for a second you've "worked really hard" on anything ever."Nick Lachey and Nicole Richie giving me the award was ironic. I can appreciate the irony."
-- Pink, after winning the best pop-video honors for "Stupid Girls.""He's a midget with whiskers who is just trying to be black. He's a puppet in a million-dollar suit who's had his strings cut off."
-- British rocker Tom Meighan, lead singer of KASABIAN, making comments in the English press about Justin Timberlake."We're not engaged. She hasn't given me a ring. I've waited for her to get down on one knee and ask."
-- Justin Timberlake, talking to Ellen DeGeneres and explaining why he and Cameron Diaz are not yet on the way to being hitched."John Mark Karr is the Paris Hilton of pedophiles. He was famous for doing nothing."
-- Bill Maher on 'Larry King Live'."It's really frustrating the amount of s--t that's out there. And the stuff they say about Suri?! You shouldn't say that about us, and you can't say that about my child."
-- Katie Holmes in the new Vanity Fair about the rumors surrounding her, husband Tom, and baby Suri. Well Katie, truth be told, maybe all those rumors won't start if Tom starts to exhibit some normal behavior from now on. Oh, and by the way, the tabloids have been printing s--t for years so don't feel like you're being singled out."I'm desperately trying to figure out why kamikaze pilots wore helmets."
-- Dave Edison.
The B-Side - 'Blips'
AN UPDATE ON THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC: DALLAS -- There are fried Twinkies and even fried candy bars. Now, vendor Abel Gonzales Jr. has come up with a new artery-clogging concoction for the State Fair of Texas. It's fried Coke.
Gonzales deep-fries Coca-Cola-flavored batter. He then drizzles Coke fountain syrup on it. The fried Coke is topped with whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry. Gonzales said the fried Coke came about just from thinking aloud. Gonzales achieved notoriety in 2005 with the fried peanut butter, banana, and jelly sandwich -- selling an estimated 25,000 of the treats, according to the fair's Web site.
Gonzales' diet-buster wins the creativity honor at the second-annual Big Tex Choice Awards Contest.
This is the same state fair that brought about the corn dog.
Box Office
Check The Daily & Weekly Box Office (and more film info) at: www.boxofficemojo.com.
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