Kings of A&R

Music file-sharing service Qtrax is about to hit the market with catalogs of all the 4 major record labels. Not only that, Qtrax will be traded publicly under a shell company called Flooring Zone.

Qtrax will have access to between 20 million and 30 million copyrighted songs at launch in October. Some sources claim that Qtrax could be considered a legitimate threat to Apple’s iTunes, which only features 5 million songs, but also a better economic proposition as well (record labels collect about 70 cents on each iTunes sale).

Qtrax has the support of the four major record labels - EMI, SonyBMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group

More than 5 billion songs were swapped on peer-to-peer sites last year while CD sales, the industry’s core revenue-producing product, continue to decline, dropping about 20 percent this year alone.  According to a recent report from Jupiter Research, things are only going to get worse.

“Consumers clearly aren’t willing to pay for music, but advertisers are the one group that still will,” said Brilliant Technologies CEO Allan Klepfisz, who added that Internet advertising is growing at a 30 percent clip per year. (NY Post)

Qtrax’s initial revenue projections range from a low of $20 million to a high of $175 million. Record labels will get an equal split of advertising revenue in addition to the royalty fees it collects from Qtrax.

According to research from the NPD Group, Apple iTunes is now the third largest music retailer in the country in any format, digital or physical. Based on first quarter figures, Wal-Mart is the biggest single music retailer with 15.8% of the market, Best Buy second at 13.8% and iTunes third at 9.8%.

Bon Jovi 80’s Rock Star Crosses Over to the Other Side….

According to sources Bon Jovi’s country record Lost Highway could move 230K first week. Bon Jovi successfuly crossed over to country, a true mega star. How did he do it? It was a graceful entrance not a forceful entrance. In fact, pick up his last record ‘Have a Nice Day’, and you will hear the country roots.

Last year, his band became the first rock group to top Billboard magazine’s country singles chart, teaming with Jennifer Nettles of country duo Sugarland for Who Says You Can’t Go Home Universal Music Group Nashville chairman Luke Lewis, whose division is promoting the new Bon Jovi project to country radio, sees the potential for artists coming in from other genres.

Jon has a better shot than most,” he says. “A lot of his fans have gravitated over to country (as they get older). We’re trying to reach those folks, then build some incremental audience for him.” (USA Today)

Linkin Park’s new release Minutes to Midnight went platinum within 4 weeks.

Spank Rock a hip-hop/funk/electro group originally from Baltimore recently completed a four album deal with Downtown Records (Gnarls Barkley)

Music Producer David Bendeth speaks out on Kerrang and NME, we couldn’t agree more….

These rags kill me. They have been around longer than me and its really funny watching them try to be cool. They enlist all these semi astute writers who have all these lame records in their collection. Their main goal in life is to get every fact wrong and twist the truth into something that might seem plausable for the scenesters.

I mean how can you take a name like KERRANG seriously in 2007? I mean its fucking Iron Maiden trying to be hip, lets call it what it is. And reading Paramore’s review in NME was even a bigger Joke. I read this rag when I was a kid. Looks like they hired a bunch of teenagers from Canvey Island to write the reviews. They called Paramore EMO like 5 times..EMO???? WTF?? EMO?
Not even people from Utah call it EMO anymore! They use words like Angst and Emotional. Spare me please.
Now I know they are not crazy for my “slick” production work..thats ok. I mean it hasnt hurt me one bit on the radio , not even in England next week where the mid chart on Paramore is #30. It is blatantly obvious to me that these longhaired metalheads like shit sounding records. They like vibey records, you know the Strokes, stuff that sounds like it was recorded in your mums bathroom. Kids recording with a computer and keyboard through a 1957 mic. These guys kill me, they wouldnt know a good sounding record if Rod re recorded Every Picture tells a story.
Oh WELL, enough of the rant. Thank god for kids, at least they can sniff this crap out. And dont forget UK press, when the US bands cough, you catch a cold.
AHEM!!

KKKKK 5 K’s for this one Dave

David Bendeth is an A list music producer who has produced many acts you hear today including Breaking Benjamin, Red Jump Suit Apparatus, Hawthorne Heights and the most recent Paramore. Bendeth has long history in the music biz. He was also the VP of A&R at RCA where he signed Vertical Horizon, Crash Test Dummies and discovered KD Lang.

KOAR frequently visits Bendeth at his newly owned studio “House of Loud” in NJ and our discussions usually evolve around music shop.

Here it is…………..

Kelly Clarkson has been in the news lately. Word leaked that Clive Davis hated the record and that Kelly should’ve stuck with hitmaking songwriters. Clive offered Clarkson 8 million to ditch her songs and replace them with ‘Hits’. Would you take the 8 Million?

Well here is the real deal on that one. I highly doubt anyone offered Kelly that much money. I think they could have offered her 100 million and she would not have done it. The fact is the girl wanted to make her record the way she wanted. The problem with that is she had already sold 15 million records and the expectations are high. I really admire her for trying to do her own thing, I admire any artist who believes that much in themselves.

BUT, here is what I would have done. I would have made the Clive record just as he wanted. The perfect follow up radio record. Then I would have recorded my own side project under a band name and released it at Christmas as a venture. Kelly wanted the cred, you just don’t enter into that scene and become a cred artist, you play those 300 seaters and you build it from the ground up.
She should have never entered American Idol if she wanted to be credible. I listened to some tracks and I think David Kahne did a great job. Its not a top 40 record. She is what she is…forever.
The press took this too far, I mean do people care about Kelly’s career or her songs? Big difference.

Music Chiefs were blasted for using computer wizardry to make new albums louder than ever. Producers are artificially enhancing sound levels as they believe the noisier a record is, the more copies it will sell.

I don’t think producers are doing that. I know mixers and mastering guys are and it sucks. I don’t think the kids wanna get their brains blown out all the time. I think the industry set a standard and now they have a hot mess on their hands.

The louder is better has ruined many good songs and left the listener with no dynamics. It has alienated people and all that has to happen here is for someone to set a new standard which will happen! Maybe I will try it.

Bob Dylan says modern recordings sound ‘atrocious’. I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really,” - Dylan

God bless Bob. I loved Blood on the Tracks.. great record.

Bob is wrong. I never understood much of what Bob sang. But when I heard Hendrix do “All Along the Watchtower” and the Animals do “House of the Rising Sun” I got it instantly. Nuff said Bob. Bob is a legend, he wrote some of the best songs this century has heard, BUT, I bet his stereo sucks.

Who are you listening to right now?

My faves right now are Mute Math (Dylan missed that one), The Klaxons, My Chemical Romance, Nine Inch Nails, KT Tunstall, Oz Noy, Serena Ryder, Modest Mouse, Fiend, The Almost, and of course Paramore. ha ha.

Your Hero?

I have a few, Arif Mardin the best producer that ever lived. He died recently, I love his arrangements and I love his mixing, he takes my breath away. Listen to Chaka Khan doing “we can work it out” by the Beatles.. OMG!! Jeff Beck, who still plays his ass off, and Miles Davis who engineered modern music as we know it.

You recently produced the new Fueled By Ramen act Paramore that debuted 42,416 on the Billboard Charts. Tell us a good a story.

I gotta tell you, Hayley Williams is one spunky fiery little redhead. Love her to death. She reminds me of everything about the business I love. She can sing, write and design T shirts. The Farro Brothers, Josh and Zac also play their asses off and work so hard. They have toured non stop and will for years to come. Yes they remind me of No Doubt in the early years. The label Fueled By Ramen are also young and forward thinking, John Janek is the hottest A&R in America today, ask any kid, they will tell you!! Panic at the Disco!, Fall Out Boy, Academy Is, and Paramore..I would say NOT BAD JOHN!!!

Story? sure. Paramore have to be one of the most dedicated bands out there. A huge night for the band was everyone going to the cheesecake factory and getting cheesecake. I gained a few pounds on that session, they killed me. I also learned once again how important it was to connect DIRECTLY with your fans. They are the masters. In fact I have so much respect for any band that knows how to treat their fans.

Check out the new Paramore video and track ‘Misery Business’. Assaulting guitars and a well craft pop song.

A Problem: Excessive & Non-Refundable Ticket Fees…

Ticketmaster does not refund the $3.75 processing fee when a concert is cancelled, ticketFast charges or UPS delivery costs. These fees sometimes add to as much as 40-50% of the ticket’s face value.

Some ticket sellers and artists are looking at NEW ways to keep hardcore fans happy with the ticket buying process in innovative ways like VIP packages, bundling with downloads or CD’s, and ticket auctions for the best Concertcrowd seats

Verizon Wireless has recently forged a full-track, OTA (over-the-air) download deal with Wind-Up Records, The deal covers the entire Wind-Up catalog, including tracks from Creed, Evanescence, Seether, Finger Eleven, Drowning Pool and Scott Stapp.

Amy Winehouse could be the BREAKOUT artist of the year. She conquered the UK and it seems she is breaking the walls down in America. This Week Sales..77,300.

Check out the Shock Stars performance at the METRO in Chicago tommorow June 21st. Check out the track Baby Baby.

Check out the Shock Stars live performance…It’s live and raw..

When the New Pornographers’ fourth album goes on sale in August, fans will have already streamed the songs on their computers and received bonus tracks that won’t be on the album, and will own a live recording from the band’s coming tour in the fall.

Matador Records, hopes that an extra dose of songs — some available now and some later, will help stem the flow of illegal copies of the new album and drum up a bit of extra revenue.

Record labels have stepped up already aggressive campaigns to lure consumers with unique downloads, bonus videos, special vinyl versions and music that hasn’t been recorded yet.

The people who go out to the record stores on the first day of a release deserve something extra,” said Paul Cardillo, who handles sales for North Carolina-based Merge Records, whose top-selling artists include Arcade Fire and Spoon. “And for those people who may be interested in a record, you want to give them a reason not to download it illegally.”

“We are being very aggressive,” said Patrick Amory, Matador’s general manager. “It seems we have to reinvent our business plan every six months, maybe even with every new release.”

In addition to trying to halt piracy, the label is doing the promotion in an effort to take advantage of the publicity a band gets before an album is released.

“At the time we are promoting the record, when the biggest buzz is going on about the record, people can’t buy it,” Amory said. “But they can often download it for free” from an illegal file-sharing site.

Matchbox Twenty Rob Thomas and EMI Evan Lamberg start a label with no Economic Pressure…..

Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty and EMI publishing Exec Evan Lamberg will be starting a label called R Tel Records that will develop, and make long-term commitments to, new songwriter/artists.
Under a deal with Sony BMG’s Epic Records, Thomas and Lamberg will consult with Epic president Charlie Walk and others at the major label. If R Tel and Epic agree they love an act, then the major will fund the project, releasing the record through RED or Epic. The first act funded under this deal is British songwriter/artist Garfield Mayor, whose release is expected this fall.
While Thomas says he hopes to have two to three releases each year, R Tel isn’t under any delivery or time constraints to keep that benchmark.

“If you sell 30,000 records, we don’t blink,” Lamberg says. “We’re making a second record. That’s where patience factors in. We’re not under the rule that we’ve got to ship a bunch of records in the next 90 days or our cash flow won’t be right –there’s no economic pressure.”(Billboard)

Very smart, working out the financials when the artist and the bank can be successful moving 30,000 units instead of 3 million units.

EMI paid ousted Music Chief Alain Levy 4.6 Million who was forced to leave….

Levy was given “compensation” or loss of office of £2.5m and a £1.1m “incentive remuneration” alongside his basic salary of £912,100, nd his benefits have continued beyond him leaving the embattled company on January 11. (Guardian)

UK Buys More CD’s than US……

Music fans in the U.K. are top of the world CD buying charts for the fourth year in a row, despite the nroads being made by downloading songs from the Internet.
Figures produced by the IFPI for international CD sales point to the U.K. population buying an average of 2.7 discs per head, beating the United States and Norway who were joint second with recorded sales of 2.1 discs per head.

The Crue Sues. Motley Crue claims Carl Stubner mismanaged Tommy Lee’s Career, damaged the Motley Crue brand, and diverted revenue…….

Motley Crue filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court charging that one of its managers, Carl Stubner, who also represents the band’s drummer Tommy Lee, orchestrated a campaign of “self dealing” to “divert revenue” from the Band; the suit states that the Defendants “promoted Lee’s solo activities to the detriment of the Band, and at the same time, mismanaged Lee’s career so as to harm the Motley Crue brand
and Lee’s reputation as a musician and Band member.”

Named as defendants in addition to Stubner are three companies he’s associated with: Carl Stubner Productions, Inc., Sanctuary Group, Inc. and Sanctuary Artist Management, Inc. Neither Tommy Lee nor the Band’s other managers, Allen Kovac/Tenth Street Entertainment and Bert Stein, are defendants.

The lawsuit states: “Stubner’s motivation was greed. He has brazenly said as much. Stubner stated that he received significantly higher commissions on Lee’s solo projects because he did not have to share his take with the other managers. He claimed that it was a ‘no brainer’ to promote Lee’s projects over those of Motley Crue. Because favoring Lee’s personal interests to the Band’s was such a ‘no brainer,’ Stubner stated that he would only make Lee available for tour dates if the Band and the other two managers agreed to increase his commission quotient. Stubner also demanded 100 tickets per show for free which he then resold at ‘scalper’ prices.”

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages of more than $20 million for lost earnings, lost profits and diminished brand and goodwill value resulting from the Defendants’ actions. The lawsuit also requests punitive damages because, as claimed in the lawsuit, the defendants’ “despicable” actions were undertaken “fraudulently, maliciously and oppressively.” (Business Wire)