Kings of A&R

• The Dresden Dolls - Do it themselves:
  The Dresden Dolls made its own video and posted it on YouTube attracting more than 300,000 viewers. The label did not feel the album was selling enough to invest into a new music video so the band did it their way.

`The record labels still don’t know how to use the Web as adroitly and adeptly as the young people who grew up with it, who are now in these bands,” says Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, a Tampa consulting firm. `I do think that the labels will continue to be the major force in the music industry, but they won’t be as dominant as they were in the past.” The wonderfully democratic thing about YouTube and the Internet in general is that all you need is a good idea and a way to execute it.”

• EMI hopes albums from Robbie Williams, Norah Jones and other second-half releases will help meet full-year expectations.
  EMI said its recorded music division was on track for a 4 percent decline in revenue in the six months ended Sept. 30 on a constant currency basis. EMI said the decline was due to its release schedule, which is expected to be stronger in the second half than in previous years, with albums from Jones, Williams, Joss Stone and Moby.