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ESPIONAGE TALENT MANAGEMENT IS EXPANDING |
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KANYE WEST ARRESTED According to TMZ, West spotted the photographer and tried to grab his camera. In the ensuing scuffle the camera was thrown to the ground and smashed. Another cameraman, who videoed the event also had his camera broken. West and his body guard then attempted to check in for their flight but were arrested. When police asked the video cameraman if he had taped the incident, West reportedly lunged at him, shouting, "Give me the fucking videotape". Presumably he wasn't handed the fucking videotape, because you can now watch it here. Airport spokesman Albert Rodriguez told BBC 1Xtra: "West and the other man are currently in custody with airport police. They're expected to be transported to Los Angeles Police Department's specific division where they will be booked". -------------------------------------------------- DMX LEGAL WOES LATEST He was, of course, detained in Florida after being arrested for failing to appear at a pretrial conference relating to Arizona drugs charges, but this extradition relates to the aforementioned theft charges, which pertain to that previously reported incident in which he gave a false name to a medical clinic to avoid paying their fees. Or at least I think it does - DMX's huge number of run-ins with the law can get pretty confusing at times. And the animal cruelty charges are still pending somewhere I think. With all these charges pending, the rapper is reportedly filming a reality show entitled 'DMX: This Life Of Mine' which will follow the rapper through this maze of legal troubles. Which sends out a brilliant message to any kids hoping for a TV career. -------------------------------------------------- DUPRI AND DILLINGER FACE LAWSUIT Kendrick says that as soon as she was aware that the call had been recorded she sent a cease-and-desist to Dupri's label, but they ignored it, and adds that her inclusion on the album track has made her "the subject of embarrassment, humiliation, and degradation". She's seeking $250,000 in damages on the grounds of negligence, copyright infringement, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. -------------------------------------------------- SNOOP GRANTED AUSTRALIAN VISA At an earlier time they had expressed concerns over the rapper's criminal record but have decided on the basis of his good behaviour when previously in the country that it's okay to let him in. The department said in a statement: "In making this decision, the department weighed his criminal convictions against his previous behavior while in Australia, recent conduct - including charity work - and any likely risk to the Australian community.We took into account all relevant factors and, on balance, the department decided to grant the visa". Snoop Dogg visited Australia in 1998, 2006 and early 2007 and didn't cause any trouble whilst he was there. -------------------------------------------------- OINK MAN DUE IN COURT THIS MONTH According to a posting at OiNK.cd, which used to be the home of the file sharing service, the operation's administrator, Alan Ellis, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud and will face the charges at a Magistrates Court on 24 Sep. The case will then proceed to the Crown Court on a to be determined date. Reports also suggest that individuals who uploaded large amounts of unlicensed content and provided links to that content via the OiNK network also face similar charges, though there is no confirmation as to how many such people have been charged, or when they will go to court. Ellis will presumably argue that he did not personally host any illegal content on his servers, rather he simply provided links to other people's illegal content. This defence has had limited success in courts elsewhere in the world, but I don't think it has been properly tested in the British courts as yet. But there is certainly precedent in other jurisdictions where the administrators of BitTorrent trackers have been found guilty of widespread infringement. In the US earlier this year Daniel Dove, the administrator of the long defunct EliteTorrents tracker, was found guilty of criminal copyright infringement and earlier this month was sentenced to 18 months in jail and a $20,000 fine, though some legal experts say he got off lightly, given he could have got up to ten years in jail and a $150,000 fine. It remains to be seen was English judges make of the BitTorrent tracker phenomenon. -------------------------------------------------- ESTELLE EXPERIMENT THROWS DOUBT ON MERIT OF ITUNE TINKERING As previously reported, Kid Rock recently made a big deal about how well his recent album did despite his refusal to sell his music via iTunes. His chattering coincided with a Wall Street Journal article that pointed out that those classic artists whose music is still not available via iTunes - namely the Beatles and ACDC - scored much higher back catalogue album sales than similar artists who were, such as the Rolling Stones. It's assumed that key to this trend is the fact that iTunes insists that consumers are able to buy albums on a track-by-track basis. It seems that when faced with that option, many consumers will buy two or three tracks off an album - maybe the big single releases - rather than the whole album. A number of artists have criticised this rule because in their minds their albums are complete pieces of work not to be split up. Meanwhile, aside from the artistic dimension, there is a simple commercial quandary here - when people spend three dollars on the three tracks they want off an album, they aren't spending seven dollars buying the complete album, with all the tracks they don't want. It was with that in mind that Warner Music completely withdrew Estelle's album 'Shine' off iTunes, possibly having noticed how much better signature track 'American Boy' was selling than the whole album. The aim, it seems, was to force consumers to buy the full album - either physically or from download stores that allow labels to only make albums available as complete packages - rather than just that one track. Billboard reckon the experiment back-fired, because the uplift in album sales was negligible, and in the meantime the label saw a slump in single track sales. Here is Billboard's maths... "At best, Atlantic could say it picked up 1600 units in album sales and at worst, you could say that all three weeks were consistent with its sale history of the last two months. Meanwhile, if the sales trends are any indication, 'American Boy' would have sold an additional 225,000 [single track] downloads during the period when the track wasn't for sale. So if you multiply 225,000 by the wholesale cost of 70 cents, it totals $157,5000, while the album sales at a $7 wholesale cost brings in $11,200. With this in mind, revenues fell by an estimated $146,300, or nearly $50,000 a week". Presumably no label would choose to lose $50K a week, so one would assume Warner's Estelle experiment throws doubt on the idea that withdrawing an album from iTunes can be good for overall sales. Of course the fact Warner even thought about this experiment shows that many record companies are still driven by the desire to maximise short-term album sales. With single track sales in the digital domain not the expensive loss-leaders they became in the CD world, and with those single tracks now available forever and not just during a six week CD single campaign, it's possible that, rather than agonising over iTunes refusal to budge on its single track policy, labels should be thinking about their business in a different way - measuring success in long term single track sales. In much the same way artists may have to stop thinking about their creative output in neat sets of ten tracks. -------------------------------------------------- MANSON BANDMATE DENIED ACCESS TO FINANCIAL RECORDS Bier claims that Manson told him that the band was not making much money, cutting off his salary, credit card access and refusing to pay his medical bills for work-related problems, before embarking on a two year spending spree between 2004 and 2006, buying items including a $2 million house, coat hangers used by Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun's handbag, African masks made of human skin, the full skeleton of a four-year-old Chinese girl, the full skeleton of a 17th Century male in a wheelchair, a $450,000 engagement ring for burlesque performer Dita Von Teese, drugs and drug treatment. It's also claimed Manson used money from the band's coffers to fund the production of his upcoming film, 'Phantasmagoria: The Visions Of Lewis Carroll'. Manson, who fired Bier from the band in 2007, countersued last December, saying that Bier had breached his contract by not participating fully in recording, performing live or selling band merchandise. Manson also claims that the partnership between the original band members, of which Biers is one, was dissolved in 1996. But Biers maintains that he is entitled to a share of the group's revenues and is seeking over $20 million in damages. As part of the ongoing dispute, Bier's lawyer asked for Manson to be forced to provide his tax records in order to provide evidence of his earnings. However, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern refused this request on Wednesday. -------------------------------------------------- NIRVANA MANAGER SPEAKS Goldberg, of course, has had a long and varied career in the music industry, including stints as Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros Records, President of Atlantic and numerous high-profile artist management jobs, but it is his insights on Nirvana that are drawing most interest. In the book, he describes candidly the affect that Courtney Love had on Kurt Cobain and the band. Describing a phone call from Love demanding $5000 so that she and Kurt could go shopping, he writes: "I felt pretty uncomfortable as I delivered the package of $100 bills to her at the hotel. Abruptly, the dark cloud of drug excess had entered the band's life. I was confronted by the baroque facade of lies and the awful glassy-eyed deadness that regular heroin use provides". Courtney Love is yet to respond to any of this. At least, I think she is. She did post a lengthy MySpace blog yesterday, but I couldn't work out what it said. -------------------------------------------------- MACCA TO MARRY AGAIN? The couple have been together officially since the end of the Mills/McCartney divorce battle. Before any marriage, Shevell would have to finalise her separation from businessman Bruce Blakeman, who she broke up with nine months ago. -------------------------------------------------- NOEL GALLAGHER TALKS ABOUT ATTACK Writing on his blog, Gallagher said: "I knew something was going to happen last night. I said I had a bad feeling, didn't I!? Someone, who can only be described as a 'Canadian', was able to get onstage, somehow managed to evade our crack security team (Trotters Independent Security Service) and assaulted my mid-riff. Can't say much more than that as the 'perpetrator's' gonna get the book thrown at him. Repeatedly. It was all going so well up until that point'n'all. Feel like I've had a sparring session with Ricky Hatton. Still, we'll probably get an extra couple of days in NYC. Every cloud, eh?" -------------------------------------------------- KORN TO TAKE TIME OUT He said: "It's not like a hiatus or anything, we're still all good, it's just when everybody's ready, we'll go back together and go do it. We just need to recharge our batteries and get hungry again". -------------------------------------------------- SINGLE REVIEW: The Vines - He's A Rocker (Cooking Vinyl) Buy from iTunes -------------------------------------------------- ELBOW AND PUPPETS TO COLLABORATE Elbow frontman Guy Garvey told The Daily Star: "There is something on the cards for me and Craig [Potter, Elbow keyboardist] to work with Miles and Alex. They're top blokes and you have to enjoy the creative process". Miles Kane added that he had another collaboration in mind for him and Garvey. He said: "I'm writing the second Rascals album at the moment. I was thinking of doing it with Guy because I love his band". Backs duly patted, everyone went back to bed. -------------------------------------------------- RADIOHEAD WORKING ON NEW ALBUM Colin Greenwood said: "We've finished the main bulk of it and we're off to Japan in a couple of weeks to finish it off". Ed O'Brien added: "We're still talking about doing some stuff and we're really excited about it. First we came off tour to do some writing and we wanted to just carry on doing it because it was so brilliant". Speaking about the Mercury, Greenwood said that he was glad to see Elbow win: "We've been on tour in America so we're culturally a bit out of it but you come here and you realise that actually it's a bit deal. When you hear Guy Garvey go this means everything to us you go, er, yeah, you're right. It beats the hell out of the Brits and the other ones. We've been on tour with Elbow we've played festivals with them and they're lovely people. They've made a brilliant record with 'The Seldom Seen Kid'. It really couldn't have happened to more deserving people, but most of the shortlist was great this year". -------------------------------------------------- TAIO CRUZ TOUR 10 Nov: Brighton Concorde 2 -------------------------------------------------- ALBARN AND HEWLETT'S MONKEY SHOW GOES TO LONDON -------------------------------------------------- COCKER ANNOUNCES UK TOUR Jarvis said of the gigs: "I know there's an awful lot of anniversary culture out there but this is one that's actually worth celebrating. Rough Trade has always been about discovering the new, exploring the unknown and giving a voice to those who would otherwise remain unheard. And they're still doing it 30 years on". Tour dates: 25 Nov: Sheffield, Academy -------------------------------------------------- ALBUM REVIEW: Land Of Talk - Some Are Lakes (One Little Indian) Buy from iTunes -------------------------------------------------- DISNEY BOSS SAYS "CUT OFF THOSE EVIL FILESHARERS" As much previously reported, the record companies stepped up their campaign to force internet service providers to take action against illegal file sharing earlier this year, buoyed by words of support from both the French and British governments. As a result of that campaigning, UK record label trade body the BPI announced in July an agreement with a number of UK net providers which has seen the ISPs send out warning letters to those customers which the music firms reckon are illegally uploading unlicensed music. Not net firm has, however, committed to the full proposal being made by the music industry - to cut off net users who ignore warnings and continue to share or access illegal content. Disney CEO Bob Iger, whose company owns the US ABC TV network and hit TV shows like 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Lost', as well as all the Disney franchises, said this week that any licensing deal between content companies and ISPs (many of whom are keen to develop their own content distribution networks) should have taking action against file sharers as a prerequisite. He said: "We are simply asking for people who are downloading illegal files to get a warning initially then to get their service cut off. That should be part of the agreement with these companies. We are not asking for information on who the customer is or to show up with law enforcement authorities. Most distribution businesses succeed because they have a distribution process in place. They also have product. We contribute to that mightily. It is a joint partnership. As part of that pact to give our product and make it available on their platform, we believe they should work with us to prevent people from stealing. It is in their best interests as well". -------------------------------------------------- FRENCH RECORD INDUSTRY EXPERIENCES ANOTHER SLUMP As previously reported, while the UK industry has, in fact, faired quite well if compared to the global decline in record sales, record companies on mainland Europe have experienced a dramatic slump in record sale revenues, and 2008 figures show that continues. The latest figures from French trade body Syndicat National de l'edition Phonographique show record sales of 278.7 million euros for the first half of 2008. SNEP President Christophe Lameignere, who is also the boss of SonyBMG France, was one of those who did take heart at the fact the decline had slowed a little, saying at a press conference in Paris: "These figures are not a surprise, and in fact we were more pessimistic in our forecasts". On the up side digital and mobile revenues were up, though Lameignere said the big increase in digital revenues on 2007 was partly a result of golden handshake deals with major digital content platforms, who often pay the labels a big lump sum in order to secure an ongoing licensing deal. All four majors had received such a payment for signing up to Orange's Musique Max service, for example. That said, despite these discrepancies, there was much more to feel positive about in the digital domain. However, Lameignere stressed, digital services could only help the French record industry recover from recent sales slumps if illegal downloading was combated. On that Lameignere also renewed calls for the internet service providers to take a more proactive role in discouraging illegal file sharing, and called on the French government to announce a timeline for pushing through parliament its commitment to force the net firms to act. SNEP Director General Herve Rony backed those calls and, while recognising French President Sarkozy had other reforms to also push through, said action was needed sooner rather than later, adding: "We need to know the rules of the game". -------------------------------------------------- LIVE NATION TICKETING WIN SMG'S BUSINESS The news is another blow for Ticketmaster. They are already set to lose Live Nation's ticketing business when the live music firm takes its operations in house, meanwhile most of SMG's venues currently use Ticketmaster as a ticketing provider too. -------------------------------------------------- YAHOO! TO OPEN UP MUSIC SITE TO RIVALS -------------------------------------------------- NEW DRM-FREE CLASSICAL DOWNLOAD STORE LAUNCHES Passionato founder and CEO James Glicker says this: "I'm an avid consumer of classical music myself and, having worked in the industry for twenty years, I am aware of how technology and the internet are becoming increasingly a part of how people access, consume and share knowledge about classical music". He continued: "Passionato is delighted to have the cooperation of the largest majors and we will over the next six months and beyond be signing up even more labels - all with the ultimate goal of presenting people who love classical music with an easy and cost effective way of organising and expanding their music collections". -------------------------------------------------- NBC RETURN TO ITUNES, THOUGH WHETHER PRICING RULES CHANGED DEPENDS ON WHO YOU TALK TO One dispute was that old chestnut of variable pricing. Like the record companies, the TV studio wanted to be able to alter the prices of single-show downloads. In a statement confirmed their return to iTunes NBC implied Apple had, in order to secure their return, actually budged on this one. Noting that standard shows were available for $1.99, HD shows for $2.99, and old shows for 99 cents, NBC's Head Of Digital JD Perrette told CNet: "To their credit, what [Apple] has realized is that having the best content and the widest breadth of content is more important than being too rigid". But now Apple have denied they made any changes, claiming NBC are using an existing iTunes pricing structure which allowed a higher unit price for HD content, and the facility to discount older content. Their spokesman told reporters: "We're glad to have NBC back and they are participating under the same terms with all of the other content providers. We've never told anyone they can't lower prices". -------------------------------------------------- MTV TAKE CREATIVES FROM AROUND THE WORLD INTO THE ENGINE ROOM You can see what the world's most creative young minds made of it when MTV airs the results on a programme called 'Engine Room' on its various channels, including MTV UK. The programme has a competition element, and the most creative of the creative young minds (the minds will be grouped into four regional teams, for Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia-Pacific) could win $400K plus control of MTV's HD screen in Times Square for the night. Ross Martin of MTV US college network mtvU, who are behind 'Engine Room', says this: "MTV has always been a home for creative innovation. 'Engine Room' taps the power of HP technology to enable the next generation of digital artists to bring their vision to life on MTV platforms around the world". -------------------------------------------------- DANNI TEMPTED TO POSE FOR PLAYBOY AGAIN The 'X-Factor' judge says she'd consider posing naked for Playboy again - she first did it back in 1995 following her divorce from actor Julian McMahon. She told New! magazine "I did Playboy when it was cool and shocked myself and many others. But it was a liberating at the time. I would do it again. If the money was right, then sure. Who knows, it might happen this year too. I had just had a marriage break-up. Most women go to the hairdressers - I did Playboy". -------------------------------------------------- PRINCE PUBLISHES BOOK OF PHOTOS |
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