Kings of A&R

Kelly Abandons Rock and Goes Back to Pop: Clarkson was never meant to rock out and she knows it. Kelly is working with songwriter and producer Ryan Tedder, the lead singer of OneRepublic according to Spy Digital. Tedder, says that Clarkson’s new songs will feature “big choruses” and “heavy drum programming”. He also revealed that the songs are influenced by nineties electro-rockers Garbage, while one song, a mid-tempo rock ballad, features an experimental bridge inspired by Mozart. Kelly can’t afford to make mistakes on this record.

Live Nation Takes Over the Jersey Shore: The concert promoter, Live Nation will book Asbury Park’s three best-known music venues including the 1,600-seat landmark Paramount Theatre, the 3,600-seat Convention Hall and the 850-capacity Stone Pony.

A Jagged Relationship: Sources say that Alanis Morissette has had a strained relationship with her label, even though “Jagged Little Pill” is one of the best-selling CDs in Warner’s history. Fox’s Roger Friedman says it took negotiation and persuasion for WMG to agree to release her new album, “Flavors of Entanglement.” They actually said no and rejected it says Friedman. The air has cleared and Warner will plan on releasing Flavors May 20th.

Madonna’s Jagged Visit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Friedman also commented on Madonna’s recent visit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when she picked up her award. “Of course she couldn’t participate in the big jam session finale with actual musicians like John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, Billy Joel and Joan Jett”. During her speech she left out all the important people who made her career by giving her #1 songs including Reggie Lucas who wrote ‘Borderline’, Stephen Bray who wrote the killer dance songs ‘Into the Groove’,'Express Yourself’ and ‘Causing a Commotion’, Tom Kelly and Billy Sternberg (Like a Virgin), and Peter Brown and Robert Rans who wrote the legendary song ‘Material Girl’.

R.E.M. Thinks Outside the Box: R.E.M. will debut their new album on the iLike internet application used on social networking site Facebook. They will release ‘Accelerate’ as a stream available for sharing on March 24 - a week before the album hits shop shelves. They are the first major music act to debut a full album using the iLike application – a widget used widely on Facebook. Frontman Michael Stipe told Billboard that the band made the decision to debut their 14th studio album online because the music industry has changed — Oh! yes it has Mike, yes it has!

Spitzocritical: N.Y. Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned today. Spitzer was obsessed with the music biz particularly for its practices for influencing what songs are heard on the public airwaves.

Signings: New York’s alternative pop artist Charlotte Sometimes signs to Interscope. This is a hit or miss, meaning you will either like it or find her annoying. I’m not personally a fan, but then again I wasn’t a fan of Fiona Apple. I would be interested to see a video for the track
‘How I Could Just Kill A Man‘, maybe it would change my mind.

New Music: Check out the indie pop act Farewell Flight who hails from Pennsylvania. Listen to the track Begin Again. This doesn’t stray to far from Death Cab.

Selling Out: Once upon a time artists refuse to sellout or refused to sacrifice his morals, values or people close to him purely for personal gain. Careers were built by saying NO, not YES to things. Indie rockers prided themselves by railing against the corporate machine. Today, no such thing exists. It’s impossible to sellout. Because of illegal downloading, indie rock group Band of Horses licensed a song for a Wal-Mart online campaign only to reverse their decision after they experienced a fan backlash.

Pop stars now embrace “Nascar-style,” logo-splattering sponsorships and must get used to promoting their favorite boxer briefs to help make up for the industry’s shortfall says Advertising Age. “For new artists, it’s become nearly impossible to develop a major following without a branded tie-in. Many of the major breakout music stars of the past year, from Paramore to Sara Bareilles to Feist, have benefited from corporate tie-ins or licensing of their songs via ads. “All brands have become music-promotion houses,”
Mr. McQuivey said.

Spitzer Has 48 Hours to Leave Town: If music biz nemesis Gov. Eliot Spitzer who cracked down on record labels opts to roll the dice and not resign, state Republican leadership will force him to go all-in and call for his impeachment from office, according to a state Assemblyman.  The clock is ticking, resign now!

Universal Holds Up Myspace Deal: CEO of Universal, Doug Morris always knows how to crash a party, but sometimes that’s a good thing. MySpace has accelerated discussions with the major music labels about creating an online music service, but Universal Music is holding out, which is insisting that MySpace first resolve a lawsuit that it filed against the site over alleged copyright violation says Financial Times. “One person familiar with the talks said that MySpace was considering launching the service without Universal”.

FCC Chairman Tips Hand On Comcast’s Net Neutrality: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that he may find Comcast guilty of violating the agency’s network neutrality principles. Net Neutrality is a principle that says a broadband network must not restrict content, sites, or platforms and where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams would be considered neutral by most observers.

Martin said that he found it troubling that Comcast had initially denied it was slowing or blocking its broadband Internet customers’ access to a file- sharing peer-to-peer software application.

Both myself and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin are both deeply troubled. We both feel a principle has been violated, except he is talking about net neutrality and I’m talking about illegal filesharing. So where does the rubber meet the road? How can we be friends? He doesn’t want to discriminate against filesharing sites and I don’t want artists’ discriminated against. Maybe Kevin Martin can reach in his deep pockets and pay for the loss of music sales.

Cheapskate: Apple paid a total of $80,000 for master and sync rights for Feist’s “1234″ and another 80,000 for Ms. Naim’s song. Some say the exposure is well worth the lower fees.

An ear attuned to sounds of greatness: “In the morning of last month’s Grammy Awards, Tom Whalley, chief executive of Warner Brothers Records, seemed to have everything going his way. Warner Brothers had just finished 2007 in first place in the US market, the second time it had done so in the last three years. Its holiday album, Josh Groban’s Noël, was still topping the charts long after the Christmas lights had come down”. “Yet Mr Whalley, dressed in jeans and a fitted blazer, was hardly celebrating. Such is the mood of record mogul these days.” Check out the full article written by Joshua Chaffin, it’s a must read.

New Music: Who wants to weed through 100,000 new record releases and 200 million videos on Youtube? You don’t, but we will. With that said, check out the video and song titled ‘Morphine‘ from Tupelo Honey which is currently making its rounds at Canadian rock radio. The vocalist belts like Chris Cornell, although his voice is a bit thinner…. That’s ok, he pulls it off nicely. What the heck is Tupelo Honey? Tupelo Honey is an album by singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1971. For more information contact here.

Recommened Listening: New Low by Middle Class Rut. Sounds like Refused and Jane’s Addiction. The band’s first major tour was in Fall 2007 with Receiving End Of Sirens and Envy On The Coast. Sacramento’s Live 105 & KWOD have been playing “New Low”.

The Tables Turned: Gov. Eliot Spitzer and music biz nemesis has been implicated in a prostitution ring and caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

“I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family and violates my or any sense of right or wrong,” said Mr. Spitzer, who appeared with his wife Silda at his Manhattan office. “I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better.”

The music biz is very familiar with Eliot Spitzer, the office of Eliot Spitzer served subpoenas against record labels in an investigation into “payola,” the illegal compensation of radio stations for playing certain songs. These subpoenas uncovered deals for disc jockeys to receive gifts from promoters in exchange for playing the songs a certain number of times during the day.

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

The Rolling Stones Shake It Up: If the Rolling Stones decide to leave EMI, they’ll be taking their catalog with them says the NY Post. Some sources claim they are looking to ink a deal with Live Nation for merchandising and touring, but with Live Nation having limited experience in the record business, some industry executives believe the likeliest outcome is a split-rights deal with Live Nation, and either Universal or EMI.

Social Networking Site Imeem: Why is Imeem getting so much hype? Forbes magazine published an article titled Free Music, Big Money. Imeem provides consumers with free, advertising-supported access to songs over the Internet. I don’t just want to stream songs, I want to own songs via buying a CD or downloading.

MTV Gets Hacked: Computer files with confidential data on about 5,000 employees at MTV Networks was hacked by someone outside the company. The company encouraged the affected employees to place a 90-day fraud alert on their credit files with the three major credit agencies, and offered credit monitoring for two years at company expense.

eMusic: eMusic, the world’s second largest music service after iTunes, announced Monday that its catalog is now more than 3.5 million tracks. eMusic sells its music by subscription, users pay a monthly fee to download a set number of tracks per month, but doesn’t encrypt the music. Everything is sold in high bit-rate MP3 — audio files that can be played back in iTunes, on iPods or using any other music player.

The Creative Drought: Author Susan Jacoby sees a cultural landscape that is, in her words, “defining dumbness downward.” In her new book, The Age of American Unreason, she argues that Americans have grown increasingly passive and uninformed amid a video-driven culture that prizes ‘infotainment,’ celebrates ignorance, and devalues critical thinking. Do you really need to ask yourself why music has become dumbed down?

Recommened Listening: KOAR reader Dallas turned us on to the pop rock band Gillmor. Check out the track Hey which was co-written by Sugarcult front-man Tim Pagnotta and is currently in regular rotation on Sacramento’s KWOD fm radio station.

On the hill: The PRO-IP Act won unanimous approval by the House Judiciary Committee’s intellectual property subcommittee on Thursday. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., estimated that counterfeiting and piracy cost the U.S. economy at least $225 billion a year. Although Berman is the bill’s primary author, many of the recommendations were developed by the U.S. Chamber off Commerce’s Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, headed up by NBC Universal executive vp and general counsel Rick Cotton. (hollywoodreporter)

Whaaat?: Clive Davis says too much original material is killing careers (yahoo/reuters)

Legal News: Tanya Andersen, yet another single mother, is filing suit against the RIAA for “RICO violations, fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, electronic trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, negligent misrepresentation, the tort of ‘outrage,’ and deceptive business practices”. Ms. Andersen was originally sued by the organization for sharing music online, but was found innocent. (wired)

Continued Radio decline: For all of last year, radio’s grand total revenue was $21,310 billion, a 2% fall from 2006. In Q4, total local & national revenue was down 5% compared to the previous year, with local down 3% and national falling by 11 %. (fmqb.com)

Big Trouble: Following a recent performance in China, Bjork found herself in some hot water. Bjork chanted ‘Tibet!’ after performing her song “Declare Independence,” which she has used in the past to promote independence movements in other places such as Kosovo. Apparently that is against the law. Bjork said it wasn’t her intent to offend but added, “The fact that it has translated to its broadest meaning, the struggle of a suppressed nation, gives me much pleasure. I would like to wish all individuals and nations good luck in their battle for independence.” (yahoo)

Random: Is Huckabee awesome or does the game Rock Band suck? The former Presidential nominee throws an after party complete with lasagne and video rocking (hotlineblog)

Linda Perry Sues Warner: Singer/songwriter, Linda Perry who signed James Blunt is suing Warner Music Group over royalties she says she is owed for the singer’s debut album Back to Bedlam. Blunt’s label Custard, run by Linda Perry, has filed the breach of contract lawsuit in New York and is seeking lost royalties plus $5m in damages.

Musicians still waiting on a YouTube payday: Here is another article that talks about artists not seeing any money from the licensing deals the four major music labels have signed with YouTube over the past 18 months. “I don’t know any artist who has gotten a royalty statement (from their label that includes YouTube money),” said music attorney Chris Castle.

Agency News: Don Muller who books Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, The Mars Volta, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Beastie Boys recently left Creative Artists Agency to join William Morris. His roster of bands followed him along.

Recommended Listening: Check out The Getaway Plan who hails from Australia. The second single from the album ‘Where The City Meets The Sea‘ will be released in Australia on March 15th via Boomtown Records / Shock Records.

Sold Out: Trent Reznor is brilliant. He quietly released his new instrumental album and The ultra-deluxe edition is already sold out which is priced at $300. Trent has fans and they will buy whatever he releases, even if it’s noise. Gotta love it!

Bertelsmann in talks with at least two parties over Sony BMG stake: Bertelsmann AG’s chief financial officer Thomas Rabe met with at least two private equity companies to discuss the possible sale of its 50 pct stake in Sony BMG. Read the full story in the Financial Times.

Survey - Most British filesharers would stop if warned: Seven out of 10 British file-sharers say they would stop infringing if they received a termination warning from their ISP according to a recent survey. Seventy percent of respondents agreed that if they received a warning from the ISP, they would stop sharing online. 66 percent said they would stop if there was a stronger chance of them being caught.

War on Piracy: Check out this article that involves Baidu and China’s non existent music industry. Baidu search engine is being asked to remove all links to thousands of websites that provide pirated copies of songs that are owned by the major record labels

Pearlman pays the price: Lou Pearlman, the snake-oil salesman who launched the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, has plead guilty and will make restitution to victims swindled out of an estimated $300 million in phony bank and investment schemes. Pearlman should have listened to the old proverb - ‘we reap what we sow’.

Warner signs 7digital MP3 deal in Europe: Warner Music has signed a deal with digital media site 7digital.com to provide its catalogue in the MP3 format, which can be played on nearly all music devices.

Artist Updates: Listen to the track Be Still and Breathe by Tooth and Nail act Ivory Line. It’s #1 on the Christian Rock Radio Chart. Los Angeles KROQ has added Beautiful by 10 Years, it’s big news for a new rock band.

Facebook and iTunes: Facebook launched its new music section for bands and partnered up with iTunes. Tracks can be streamed and Facebook is providing a link to iTunes in order that acts can offer songs for sale to fans visiting their pages.

Signings: Indie act One For The Team who is based in Minnesota signs with Militia Group. The bands first album “Good Boys Don’t Make Noise”, found itself on the CMJ Top 200 charts for 14 weeks.

Another pop act from Minnesota, Sing It Loud has signed to Epitaph. The band entered the studio with producer Josh Cain of Motion City Soundtrack.

Unwritten Law has signed to Suburban Noize Records.

Rolling Stone Changes Editors: Rolling Stone has promoted editors Jason Fine and Eric Bates to the position of Executive Editor. The magazine also hired Jason Gay, formerly of GQ, as the new Deputy Editor of Features and Michael Endelman, formerly of SPIN, as Senior Music Editor.

Keith Richards says NO to modern bands: Keith Richards says that he does not like the kind of music modern bands compose. “I don’t listen to what’s going on. I don’t like CDs, quite honestly. They sound tinny to me,” says Richards. “I’ve not even heard the Arctic Monkeys. I know of them but I don’t know anything they’ve done. I didn’t like Oasis, I didn’t like the Sex Pistols, I don’t like any of those English rock’n’roll bands.

Recommended Listening: Replace Me by Mardelay

New Music: Los Angeles bring us a fresh new artist known as Tamar who delivers well crafted piano driven pop. She draws her influences from Billy Joel, Carole King, and The Beatles. You can’t beat those influences. Listen to the track New Day.

Post grunge band Tantric who grabbed themselves a platinum record in 2001 will release a new record through Silent Majority Group. I’m not sure if there is a place for them in 2008, but the band always had good sense of melody and songwriting. You can stream some new tracks on their myspace.

Kings of A&R: Send us new music please. Provide us your myspace link and a song we should be listening to.  If you provide us greatness then we will be friends. Email tips@kingsofar.com

Where is My Money? Major Music Labels negotiated in copyright-infringement settlements with a host of Web sites, but artists and managers have not seen a cent yet. For instance, Napster had to cough up $270 million and YouTube paid a hefty sum, but the money never trickled down to artists. Managers are considering legal options and are talking about filing lawsuits if they don’t get paid soon.”

“They will play hide and seek, but eventually will be forced to pay something,” Azoff said. “The record companies have even tried to credit unrecouped accounts. It’s never easy for an artist to get paid their fair share.”

The Long Tail or the Wrong Tail? Check out Chris Castles blog on Chris Anderson who coined the phrase, “The Long Tail”, and who is currently working on a new book entitled Free, which examines the rise of pricing models which give products and services to customers for free.

NIN Release: Nine Inch Nails presents Ghosts I – IV, a brand new 36 track instrumental collection available online. Almost two hours of new music composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I – IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain. Trent Reznor explains, “I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn’t have made sense until this point.

UMG Strikes European Deal For Jonas Brothers: Universal Music Group has licensed the Jonas Brothers’ album from Hollywood Records for distribution in Europe. UMG also has distribution rights for “Jonas Brothers” in Canada and Latin America. EMI Music, missed the chance to extend on its current international distribution deal for the album. “Someone within the old (EMI) management chose not to pick up the option,” says an EMI source. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t.”

Wal-Mart stirs CD pricing pot with multi-tiered plan: Wal-Mart, the largest retailer of music has proposed a five-tiered pricing scheme that would allow the discounter to sell albums at even lower prices and require the labels to bear more of the costs according to Reuters.

Wal-Mart Proposed Pricing Structure….

top 15 to 20 hottest titles - $10.00
top catalog - $9.00
midline catalog - $7.00
budget product - $5.00

Apple and Artist news: Paramore will be featured on the new ipod touch commercial.

The Buzz: The track Thick Wit It by hip hop artist Hakeem Tha Dream is being spun on St. Louis urban radio stations WHHL and KATZ. The track garnered a total of 95 spins between both stations last week. It’s popping on the radar among some major music labels with A&R research departments. For more information email here.

Artist Updates: Camera Can’t Lie have just completed 4 brand new tracks with producer Jordan Schmidt whose recent credits include working with All Time Low, Cute Is What We Aim For, and Panic At The Disco. The tracks will be posted on KOAR shortly.

Recommended Listening: Check out San Diego alternative act
My American Heart. The band released a full length disc titled ‘Hiding Inside the Horrible Weather’ in 2007 through indie label Warcon Records. They have a slew of tour dates and will be on the road through May. Check out the track The Shake and Tired and Uninspired.