Kings of A&R

Prince plans to sue YouTube and other major web sites for unauthorized use of his music in a bid to “reclaim his art on the Internet”.

Prince said that YouTube could not argue it had no control over which videos users posted on its site. “YouTube … are clearly able to filter porn and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success,” says Prince

YouTube responded by saying it was working with artists to help them manage their music on the site. We have great partnerships with major music labels all over the world that understand the benefit of using YouTube as another way to communicate with their fans.”

Prince plans legal action against online auctioneer eBay and Pirate Bay, a site accused by Hollywood and the music industry as being a major source of music and film piracy.

The legal action is the latest bid by the music industry to wrest back control over content in an age here file sharing, mobile phones and video sites make enforcing copyright increasingly difficult.

“Prince strongly believes artists as the creators and owners of their music need to reclaim their art,” “In the last couple of weeks we have directly removed approximately 2,000 Prince videos from YouTube,”  said Web Sheriff managing director John Giacobbi.

“The problem is that one can reduce it to zero and then the next day there will be 100 or 500 or whatever.  This carries on ad nauseam at Prince’s expense,” he told Reuters.

Prince’s latest initiative is likely to please record industry executives and music retailers, who have not always seen eye-to-eye with the 49-year-old.

He has referred to the record industry as “the speculation business” and gave away copies of his new album “Planet Earth” for free with a British Sunday newspaper.

Many claim that people are listening to music more but enjoying it less, some people in the recording industry say they know why. They blame the iPod and the compressed MP3 music files.

Producers,engineers, and mixers assume their recordings will be heard as MP3s on an iPod music player and has become a “reference platform” used as a test of how a track should sound - thus engineering music to a technical lowest common denominator.

“Right now, when you are done recording a track, the first thing the band does is to load it onto an iPod and give it a listen,” said Alan Douches, who has worked with Fleetwood Mac and others. Today, young artists think MP3s are a high-quality medium and the iPod is state-of-the-art sound.”

L.A. engineer Jack Joseph Puig (Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton) says “Ten years ago, music was warmer; it was rich and thick, with more tones and more ‘real power.’ But newer records are more brittle and bright. They have what I call ‘implied power.’ It’s all done with delays and reverbs and compression to fool your brain.”

Producer Howard Benson, who has worked with Santana, My Chemical Romance and Chris Daughtry, says members of a studio recording crew will sometimes complain after a session, “I just spent all this time getting the greatest guitar and drums solo, and it ends up as an MP3.” (WSJ)

The Bottom Line - Advancement in technology is supposed to improve or enhance. Although new music technology has made it easier to organize and deliver, it hasn’t enhanced or improved sound. We have alot of mountains to climb…

Simon Cowell on Britney Spears…..The Worst Comeback in History.

“[MTV] they exploited Britney in helping to end her career. When Britney was opening, near the end, I felt so bad for her. I said, ‘Man, it’s a dirty game. This game will chew you up and spit you out.’” - Kanye West to NYZ’s Z100

Speaking of Kanye, he will do just fine as arrogant as he is - but his genre is having trouble..

As we already know, rap sales are in trouble. The music biz is hoping 50 Cent and Kanye West can revive the sinking genre although its highly doubtful.

Through the first half of the year rap albums are down 30% according to Neilson Soundscan with 26 millions sold to date.

Not to long ago hip hop acts were selling close to 100 million albums in the U.S.

Rap has declined the fastest among all genres but radio doesn’t seem to look at that trend. If top 40 Radio really wanted to make an attempt to keep its influence then HIP HOP wouldn’t DOMINATE the playlists. At least keep the playlist balanced.

Mayfield said hip-hop is also showing its age as a genre. It had practically 20 straight years of growth but it has finally gotten to the point for that it is an established genre prone to the same the cyclical issue that other established genres face. (NYPOST)

Rap Music Sales in Units

2004 - 81.4M
2005 - 75.1M
2006 - 59.5M
2007 - 26M

MTV Video Music Awards has many people wondering whether the longtime popular cable network has completely lost its appeal.

The ratings for the VMAs over the past few years have steadily declined. Even though MTV Video Music Awards scored a 6.4 Rating Up 23% From 2006 it won’t change what really lies ahead. So you recruit a glorified highly talked about TRAIN WRECK to capture the EYES for a second - now what? This is nothing more than a crack head feeling a RUSH for that one second before he hits rock bottom.

Exploiting Britney Spears for ratings is not a long term strategic plan - thats not even a band aid. Thats called a desperate act - the last breath before you die - if you listen close enough you may even hear the DEATH RATTLE. Not only that, its a shameful inhumane tactic. MTV must have a struck a deal with the DEVIL but the DEVIL doesn’t have partners, only VICTIMS…..

Hearing insane statements from a rapper who is having a meltdown and who claims that MTV does not support black people is no longer shocking. We watch it once, laugh, forget about it and go about our day.

MTV programming isn’t what it used to be, pop culture experts told ABCNews.com, but then again, neither is the entertainment industry.

Viewers have many more options for entertainment, and no longer rely solely on MTV, making the audience even harder to impress and the seats even harder to fill with celebrities who are spread thin across various outlets.

“[MTV's] biggest problem is that, in 1981, they were the only game in town, there was nothing like them,” said Bob Thompson, pop culture guru and professor at Syracuse University.

“But that bird has flown. In the 80s, if you were a kid, MTV was where you went,” said Thompson. “Now, kids have Comedy Central, Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network — there are so many other places providing entertainment.

“I don’t think MTV is ever going to reach the cultural heights where it was in the 1980s,” said Thompson. What makes these cable networks work is a few good hits. Nothing is the same as getting a big hit that everyone is talking about.”

Overall, some critics said this year’s show was also less glamorous than years past, set at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, rather than more upscale locales like New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

“In the 80s and 90s, the VMAs were really elaborate, and the amount of money spent was truly extravagant,” said Phil Gallo, associate editor of Variety

The Bottom Line: The overall consensus from bloggers and media outlets was that MTV lost its appeal and was tame and lame. The shock value has replaced artistry. The problem is that there is no more value in shock.

The major labels are getting ready to launch the “ringle,” which combines the mostly defunct single format with ringtones. Each ringle is expected to contain three songs — one hit and maybe one remix and an older track — and one ringtone, on a CD with a slip-sleeve cover. Since consumers in the digital age can download any tracks they want individually, why not let them buy singles in the store as well? It also enables stores to get involved in the ringtone phenomenon.

The majors are gambling that the ringle can instill in consumers the mind-set to connect to the Internet via the CD. Big retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Amazon. (Billboard)

You can now stream HIM’s new record Venus Doom on AOL Music. After we streamed the whole record, the standout track is ‘Dead Lover’s Lane‘.  Let KOAR be you’re filter, we will save you money and time…

ESPN has teamed up with numerous record labels to preview new music during its Monday Night Football and Monday Night Countdown broadcasts. Last year, Monday Night Football on ESPN averaged more than 12 million viewers per game and became cable’s most viewed series in TV history according to ESPN reps. (Billboard)

The iPhone became Apple’s most HYPED product ever, so much that the company’s fate became intertwined with the iPhone.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is now preparing for the BIG DAY, an important press day. He probably began the day by grabbing his iPod and hitting the treadmill. A nice run in the morning always makes you feel that you can conquer anything. Steve then puts on his blue jeans and black turtle neck and practices his speech like a politician getting ready to WOW the San Francisco crowd of media and employees about Apples NEWEST latest and greatest gadgets.

Steve Jobs began his presentation last week by revealing that APPLE would soon sell iPhone ringtones for 99 cents. This was the appetizer for a main course of iPods. He then introduced 2 new iPods with a new SLICK look - iPod nano and an iPod classic that can store 40,000 songs.

It all went wrong. The story got jumbled. There was probably sweat dripping from his forehead at this point.  There was probably a inner voice in Jobs head proclaiming “Don’t say it Steve, Don’t say it”……

Before Apple left the stage Steve Jobs dropped a nuclear bomb - Apple cut the price of the iPhone from $599 to $399. It became the story of the day rather than the new iPods. Critics saw this major price cut as an act of desperation and the one’s who payed top dollar would have felt like suckers.

After thousands of complaints Steve Jobs offered an apology and rewarded customers with a $100 credit.

The day Steve Jobs stepped onto the stage to HYPE the world on the New iPods backfired. The world turned the HYPE back on Jobs making the iphone price cut, angry emails and apologies the HEADLINE of the WEEK.

Next time Steve….Next time……..

The VMA’s looked like a beauty pageant that consisted of 9 year old dysfunctional kids. Is this what MTV wanted? to recruit an out-of-shape, out-of-touch Britney Spears so the public would laugh at her? For goodness sakes, these kids can’t even lip-synch! Does MTV get off embracing human failure?

If you didn’t watch the VMA’s then you were spared because it consisted of boring C-rated comedians and dancers humping each other like rabid animals with pot bellys. It felt like I was watching Animal Kingdom. No wonder why people lost faith in music - who wouldn’t? The entire show played like a drowsy dress-rehearsal.

She’s embarrassed…

Kanye West says he’ll never return to MTV…

“That’s two years in a row, man … give a black man a chance. I’m trying hard man, I have the … number one record, man.” - Kanye West to the Associated Press on losing at the VMAs again.

We wont even give this any more press..

Apple wants to slash the price of TV downloads such as NBC’s ‘Heroes.’

Apple is mulling a plan to cut the price of TV show downloads in half — an idea that’s fuming Hollywood.

According to three people familiar with the proposal, Apple has told networks and studios that it would like to slash the cost of most TV episodes sold via iTunes from the current $1.99 to just 99¢ — the same as what Apple charges for most music singles.

The half-price plan may have contributed to NBC’s decision last week not to renew its current deal with Apple (though if NBC had simply let its contract automatically renew, the current price of $1.99 would’ve stayed in place).

Apples uses the same sales pitch every time that they will end up making more money from digital downloads under the new proposal. Company believes the volume of sales for TV shows will rise dramatically, offsetting the impact of the price cut.

They admit that it doesn’t make sense to charge the same amount for an episode of “The Brady Bunch” as for “Lost.”

This is what KOAR proclaims — it doesn’t make sense that iTunes charges the same amount for a successful downloaded Pink track as for a Cher song released in the 1980’s. Its a warped mentality with no business sense. Its killing artists’ profits and it scorns achievement. Any artist should be fuming…
But of course Apple has proved to be resistant to multiple price points for video downloads, preferring to keep things as simple as possible.

Oh Yeah, really simple!

It seems possible Apple and the nets will come to a settlement in which shows are sold via tiered pricing, perhaps 99¢ for library titles, $1.99 for current hits and $2.99 for megahits or shows on premium cablers such as HBO or Showtime.

While big networks and studios seem to be scoffing at Apple’s proposal, some nets could welcome the idea NBC like major music labels wants more pricing flexibility rather eglatarian price structure of 99 Cents.

Bottom Line: Since the CEO of Apple Steve Jobs embraces the egalitarian price system where “all units are priced equal’ — he should stand up to his principle and have an egalitarian pay structure within Apple. Steve Jobs would make the same salary as his executive assistant all the way to the janitor. That is basic logic. Do we have a double standard here? We sure do ladies and gentlemen.

Apples argument is that if all things are priced equal then the volume will rise off setting the impact of the price cut.

We will use the same argument. If Steve Jobs embraces the egalitarian pay structure within Apple — then the employees all the way to the janitor will be more motivated to work, thus increasing Apples total bottom line off setting Steve Jobs price cut. That means Jobs could be making more money. Do you buy it?