Saturday, July 18, 2009

More Michael Jackson - Janis Reed's Hotline Returns!

Hotline To The Underground - Janis Reed

Yahoo's music blog has some intelligent writing on Michael Jackson:

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/thatsreallyweek/50134/july-13-19-michael-madonnamarital-madness/





R.I.P. Gordon Waller of Peter & Gordon:

Gordon Waller, half of the British rock duo, Peter and Gordon, died July 16 in Connecticut, RadarOnline.com has confirmed

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/07/breaking-news-gordon-waller-peter-and-gordon-dies

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

How Billboard Magazine is becoming irrelevant

Billboard Magazine, irrelevant? (this article is incomplete; first draft)

By Joe Viglione

Billboard Magazine has ruined the very thing that attracted readers: THE CHARTS, just as they destroyed their credibility with radio charts and allowed Radio and Records to become the "Bible", the "authority".

When Soundscan entered the scene Billboard had to pair up with it or die on the vine.
But instead of creating a hybrid of immediate sales, downloads, information from "mom & pop" stores - the brick & mortar independent outlets who aren't on Soundscan, rather than do the hard work that goes in to getting objective and tangible information, Billboard has created a situation where, perhaps, certain companies find ways to "buy up" product to manipulate Soundscan and get allegedly fraudulent appearances on certain charts.

Stop: The Charts You Save May Be Your Own
(sung to the tune of The Jackson 5)


Unlike the Boston Globe which failed to pair up with Monster.com, Billboard did pair up with Soundscan (while buying out its major competition, Radio & Records).
So the magazine which might've had a Ramones tune 19 places higher than what the competition (Cashbox, Record World, Variety, take your pick) had back in the 1970s New Wave era also had the possibility of an executive at the Ramones' record label having worked at Billboard years before.

I'm not saying that because a former Billboard employee may have been an executive at a record label that seems to have gotten higher placement on the Billboard charts than the Ramones 45 got on the competitors' charts means that something strange was happening, I'm just saying that this possible coincidence wasn't very helpful in regards to credibility for the iconic publication, Billboard.


Or how about The Bee Gees "Love You Inside Out" which may have slipped in from the #2 spot to #1 (check the charts on the competitors lists!) for a week so that the Bee Gees could have Six #1's in a row. If memory serves "Love You Inside Out" was a legitimate #2 hit, not a #1.

"
The Bee Gees' follow-up to Saturday Night Fever was the Spirits Having Flown album. It yielded three more #1 hits: "Too Much Heaven", "Tragedy", and "Love You Inside Out." This gave the act six consecutive #1 singles in America within a year and a half (a record surpassed only by Whitney Houston)."

Late 1970s: Saturday Night Fever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_Gees



Heck, why was Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" kept out of the #1 spot on Billboard when it was a legitimate #1 on Cashbox? The crossover hit was a smash Pop, C & W and Urban hit, yet why didn't it hit #1 on Billboard?
Preview this book

The Billboard book of #2 singles

By Christopher G. Feldman

http://books.google.com/books?id=-LgXlQnsDK4C&pg=PA87&lpg=PA87&dq=1966+Charts++Billboard++SUNNY&source=bl&ots=MGtyOomg5I&sig=HbB7T_QkYyWl2VAT51xMKpktRjg&hl=en&ei=aRVWSuLKDNSetgffiOiTBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1


Anyone want to talk about Louie Louie by The Kingsmen and Dominique by The Singing Nun?


BOSTON GLOBE/MONSTER.COM
Check out this New York Times article, April 13, 2009
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/the-boston-globe-and-monstercom/

The big news in the article today is that the Globe turned down a proposal to invest $1 million in the fledgling Monster.com in the mid-1990’s. That would have been a huge infusion of cash and value to the Globe, while diversifying its revenue sources. written by: Nicholas D. Kristof


So Billboard paired up with Soundscan while it lost its radio pages totally to Radio & Records. No problem, they went and purchased R & R (and industrywide everyone was silently saying "Oh No!") and then, you guessed it, closed R & R down!
Source: http://www.reuters.com

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/35974/week-ending-july-5-2009-all-michael-all-the-time/

Number Ones sold 339,000 copies this week and would have held at #1 on The Billboard 200 if catalog albums were eligible to compete on that chart. (The 2003 compilation sold a little more than twice as many copies this week as NOW 31, the album that holds the #1 spot.) Thriller sold 187,000 copies and would have jumped from #3 to #2 if catalog albums were invited to the party. The Essential Michael Jackson sold 125,000 copies and would have dropped from #2 to #5. (Billboard excludes catalog albums from the big chart on the theory that new albums need the spotlight the chart provides more than past hits do.)


So, perhaps it is time for a new magazine to take over? Variety is positioned to do so?
Why not reactivate Radio World with an Ice Magazine edge to it?

NOTES:
Another fine article from Kristof somewhat related:
April 3, 2009, 11:27 am

The pain in the papers, and the search for a business model By Nicholas Kristof

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/the-pain-in-the-papers-and-the-search-for-a-business-model/

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

A deal reached on Internet Radio and Royalties

Newsflash - Tuesday July 7, 2009

Music Business Monthly daily headlines:

1)R.I.P. Drake Levin of PauL Revere & The Raiders
From L.A. Times
By Randy Lewis
July 7, 2009
Drake Levin, lead guitarist for Paul Revere & the Raiders during the quintet's hit-making prime in the mid-1960s, died Saturday at his home in San Francisco after a long battle with cancer, according to his longtime friend and former Raiders bandmate Phil Volk. He was 62.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-drake-levin7-2009jul07,0,2699826.story

2)Internet Radio & Sound Exchange

“If the rates weren’t resolved, we were sunk,” says Tim Westergren, co-founder of the popular music-streaming website Pandora.
Deal with SoundExchange allows large webcasters such as Pandora to pay lower per-song royalties or 25% of their total revenue.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-webcaster8-2009jul08,1,6629601.story
3)Norman Greenbaum Returns to Malden
"Spirit In The Sky"

Read our THREE PART story / interview with Norman from 2008

Dec. 4, 2008 (Interview was January 2008)
http://tinyurl.com/normanpart1

December 11, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/normanpart2

December 19, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/normanpart3


Sunday, July 05, 2009

Michael Jackson Mania!, ALLEN KLEIN R.I.P.

R.I.P. Allen Klein

The fascinating thing about Allen Klein is that he worked with the absolute legends - and with his passing there is a plethora of articles that have riveting music news, so just click on to most any of these links and get ready to go down the path to Alice in Wonderland's rabbit hole:

The BBC headline is rather outrageous - you can read it here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8134795.stm

Beatle news briefs: Yoko Ono's 'Dream' comes true


http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner~y2009m7d4-Beatle-news-briefs-Yoko-Onos-Dream-comes-true

Lots of Links on these articles:
http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=allen+kelin




MORE MICHAEL JACKSON


In a not-so-strange way Motown is back and those impeccable productions like "I'll Be There", "Never Can Say Goodbye", "I Want You Back", "Maybe Tomorrow" and so many more are going to go to the forefront. They are as sublime as the work of Quincy Jones with news articles noting how Jackson's "Music Sales: OFF THE WALL"

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/MichaelJackson/story?id=8002419&page=1

Visual Radio guest Stephen Davis talks about his book on Michael Jackson: MOONWALK

Stephen Davis
http://new.music.yahoo.com/michael-jackson/news/michael-jackson-book-a-headache-for-jackie-o--61991201

Music Business Monthly will be providing a newsfeed to http://www.gemmzine.com on all things Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Mary Wells, Smokey Robinson, The Jackson Five and Motown!

Stay tuned





MOTT THE HOOPLE RULES

Brain Capers, the great lost Mott The Hoople album is re-released with a non-lp B side of Midnight Lady and a live version of The Journey recorded in concert a few weeks before the album was put together.

http://www.hunter-mott.com/discography/brain_capers.html



Mott The Hoople Canadian page
http://www.mottthehoople.ca/



And from May 19th:

http://www.ipodobserver.com/ipo/article/Termination_Artists_Exquisite_Corpse_and_More/
Apple fans, Apple haters, and Apple watchers were all focused on The Moscome Center in San Francisco Tuesday as Apple CEO and spinner of distortion field extraordinaire, Steve Jobs, gave his annual keynote address to the masses at Macworld.



In New York, Mrs. Obama Praises Arts as Vital to U.S.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/nyregion/19michelle.html?ref=politics


Rapper Dolla Shot And Killed At Los Angeles Mall
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1611675/20090519/dolla.jhtml
Police arrest suspected assailant at Los Angeles Airport.

Rapper Dolla is shot, killed at Beverly Center

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beverlycenter19-2009may19,0,1667313.story
Publicist says rapper was shot in the head Monday afternoon in the valet area of the mall's parking structure. He flew to L.A. this morning to work on his first album, slated to be out this summer.

Angels & Demons movie Ewan McGregor Interview
http://www.moviefone.com/insidemovies/2009/05/15/ewan-mcgregor-interview/