Music Industry News

Guided Tour of the Most Awesome Depression Ever

Source: All About Jazz
January 12, 2009

Another Great Depression! Hardly are those words out when vast images straight out of Walker Evans trouble my sight: Hoboes! Okies! Hoovervilles! Women who resemble Harry Dean Stanton! It's all so very... 75 years ago.

Our go-to icons of abject, debilitating American poverty are so nostalgic, so sentimental, so analog. Our recurrent national nightmare deserves an upgrade.

Let's face it Flat broke and rattling a mug full of pencils, we'll still be the same wiki-addicted, diversion-craving ...

Continue Reading

Major Labels Shift Revenue Strategy from Partnership to Ownership

Source: HypeBot
January 11, 2009

Rocked by shrinking revenues and disappointed in the revenue generated by music services like YouTube, MySpace and imeem, the four major label groups have begun shifting their search for larger revenue streams from licensing and revenue sharing to an ownership model.

The trend began with 360 deals which give labels control of all the artist's revenue streams and investments in a variety of music tech companies. Then came the MySpace Music partnership. Now labels are going further with their ...

Continue Reading

Carmen McRae Said It

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 11, 2009

Since we are talking about pianists, what is it you look for in a piano accompanist?

“That's a hard question. Accompanying someone cannot be explained by a singer to a pianist. He either knows what to do or he doesn't. An accompanist and a guy who can play the piano are two different things. You have to find someone who is completely sympathetic to the soloist as a singer, and not to a soloist as an instrumentalist. It's a completely ...

Continue Reading

Prince Rebuffed in Italian Plagiarism Case

Source: Billboard Magazine
January 11, 2009

An Italian court has ruled that Prince's 1994 hit “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" was plagiarized from a song by two Italian writers. However, it could take several years for a definitive ruling in the case, which has already dragged on since the 1990s. According to a sentence handed down by the Court of Appeal in Rome, the song borrowed heavily from “Takin' Me to Paradise," written by Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino. Under the ruling, Prince must ...

Continue Reading

Led Zeppelin is Done

Source: JamBase
January 11, 2009

Led Zeppelin Is Done Jimmy Page's Manager Says Band Will Not Continue In Any Form

Led Zeppelin Following up on our story from earlier this week regarding speculation of Led Zeppelin recording and touring without Robert Plant, we bring you news from Jimmy Page's manager that the band is done.

Peter Mensch (Page's manager), told Music Radar via NME.com that “Led Zeppelin are over. If you didn't see them in 2007 [at the London O2 Arena], you missed ...

Continue Reading

JazzArtCollection Announce Fine Art Edition of Historic Jazz Poster Series

Source: All About Jazz
January 9, 2009

New Orleans, LA--The publishers of JazzArtCollection proudly introduce the Limited Edition issue of a series of five Waldemar Swierzy fine arts prints originally designed as posters for the Jacksonville and All That Jazz Festival. The series began in 1983 and brought the then little-known, but now famous artist to Jacksonville, Florida., at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union; a time when travel between the US and nations behind the so-called Iron Curtain ...

Continue Reading

Swedish Hip-Hop Artist Likens Fatal Encounter to 'Crash' Movie

Source: Michael Ricci
January 9, 2009

A lawyer for a Swedish hip-hop artist accused of murdering a pedestrian in a sensational act of road rage invoked the movie Crash today in asking for a reduction in the performers $1-million bail.

In court papers, David Jassys attorney wrote that the fatal encounter in a Hollywood crosswalk was a prime example of the Academy Award-winning films thesis ... that random interactions of diverse people in a City as frenetic as Los Angeles can lead to disastrous consequences.

Police ...

Continue Reading

iLike Adds INgrooves' Indie Catalog

Source: HypeBot
January 9, 2009

Digital distributor INgrooves has announced a new initiative with music diiscover site iLike. INgrooves indie catalog will now be available on iLike have access to the same iLike promotional and syndication opportunities as major label artists.

“Collaborating with iLike, and creating this new opportunity for our artists and labels is in keeping with the spirit and immediacy of what INgrooves offers its clients," stated Robb McDaniels, CEO and Co-Founder, INgrooves. “And that is to provide the ...

Continue Reading