We Read Rolling Stone Oct 5, 2005

If you caught the Green Day/ U2 project (Green Du squared?) when they opened for the Saints first home game -- well they're releasing a single to benefit New Orleans, "The Saints are Coming." If you didn't catch it, I'd recommend digging around on YouTube. It was rad.

In this issue RS shows us how to stage a righteous comeback, "us" being aging rock stars:

Option One -- Let technology do the work. (See Bob Dylan.)

Before the disc hit shelves, Dylan kicked off a . . . campaign built around an
iTunes TV ad, a video starring (Scarlett) Johansson, the launch of his XM
radio show and even (you lie!) a MySpace page . . .

"For a lot of years, Bob didn't get played on the radio. Now he's one of the most-searched people on the Internet."

Also, it seems that the yuppie market buys their music at Starbucks, because he sold 13,500 albums there.

Option Two -- Hook up with a hot producer. (See Duran Duran.)

Timbaland just finished helping Justin Timberlake get his 'Sexyback', and Duran Duran is really hoping he can help them get their Cool-to-be-caught-listening-to . . . back. The article shows how Timbaland takes an extensive, grueling 40 minutes to write their song for them.

Also . . .

Beck has reinvented the album -- where you can mix a downloadable track yourself and use sticker art to decorate the album cover (or let some teen patrons do it!)

. . . . and Beyonce's album is still number one.

Anybody going to the state Minnesota Library Association conference today? -- look for our Amplified Library poster session. It will have bits from the blog and our article for Beyond the Circulation Desk.

I wanted to have a whole mess o' Pop Rocks for swag, but my business credit card died -- hope to get that straightened out before I leave the Cities.

See you there!

Fair winds to ye’, mateys. Yarrrrr.

Those fey squirrels from Friday-last be placed finally at rest in Davy Jones Locker.

A fair number o’ golden web-links this fine morn on the Good Ship Amplified.

Blimey these be good! Yer little library lads and lassies might enjoy yonder Anime Music Video (mashups). They be jolly fine stuff.

AMV the First
AMV the Second
AMV the Third
AMV the Best

Warner Music Group and YouTube be mighty cozy bunk-mates these days – sharing theirrrr music videos and splitting the booty.

Meanwhile, MySpace be intending to keelhaul YouTube and “all it’s bilge-sucking, land-lubbing leeching ways.”

It be Universal’s plan to pillage them both?

Finally, me hearrrrties, tis’ mighty rum language on this last bitty:
Artists Charge Record Company with Underpayment
Avast! RIAA proffers a Gold Record for Ringtones now? ‘Tis mighty strange times these be..

Well, I be spyin’ one addled sea rat theivin’ books.

So, yo ho ho fellow Buccaneers.
May your scanners stay ever sharp, me mateys, and Godspeed.

Sorry for the sparse posting this week. I lost internet access on Wednesday, and the official word is that it won't be up until Monday. (Something about a squirrel . . . I'm serious.)

-- Erika

Online Pop Culture Guerrilla Music Theatrics News

DJ Danger Mouse

Why you should know Danger Mouse:
1. He produced the 2nd Gorillaz album.
2. He did the Grey Album.
– a mashup of the Beatles White Album and Jay-Z’s Black Album.
3. The Grey Album had a fabulous music video promoting it.
4. His new group, Gnarls Barkley, did this year’s St Elsewhere album
- Rolling Stone Magazine’s “Lease likely summer success story”
– with “the first UK number-one single based solely on downloads.”
5. Now, St Elsewhere has been mashed up by Sound Advice
- St Elsewhere + Notorious BIG = the very popular “Gnarls Biggie” album

What Danger Mouse did THIS month:
Collaborated with anti-establishment street artist Banksy to punk Paris Hilton’s album debut.

More details

There's even a hugely popular video on YouTube showing them replacing the CDs in person -- but it's slightly NSFW, so ask me about it in the comments if you want the link.

Why you should know Banksy . . .

Meanwhile:
EMI is mad at everybody. EMI hates mashups. EMI wants your IP addresses if you have downloaded any of the above mashups. Wait, I probably should have put that part first in this entry.

Only Wikipedia can keep up.

Speaking of which:
- Kudos to Wikipedia for vowing to avoid censorship in China.
- In honor of the news, here’s a recent debate between Wikipedia founder and the editor-in-chief of Britannica. It's good stuff.

Finally:
- Apple has revealed the features of the new Itunes 7!
- There's a new remixing 2.0 music community.
- Tell me THESE won't be annoying at concerts.

"The classic Chinese curse- May you live in interesting times..."

Last night I had an argument with my best friend. It was near epic, and it was on the topic of this post . . . so I’m approaching today's entry with kid gloves.

You may think it's odd to bringing corporate merger news into a teen music services blog. That’s actually what the disagreement was about last night: my friend doesn’t think anything big is going to change anytime soon in the way Americans approach music. (Ok, so maybe I simplified the argument a little . . .)

I, on the other hand, think that:

(1) huge changes are afoot in the music business

(2) news from these last few weeks spotlight symptoms of the oncoming shifts and

(3) the shifts are going to quickly affect the way everyday people buy, share and access music.

However, I can be an idiot at times – particularly when I try to explain what’s crunching away in the magic box of technology and/or commerce. For instance, even the letters DRM give me a headache. But here . . . I'll just let you decide whether these are worth bothering with.

The stories:

Item #1
Corporate giants are starting to consistently prefer online marketing (esp. YouTube and MySpace) to TV marketing. Even TV marketing is prefering social network online marketing.

"Marketing yourself online is 100% cheaper than marketing yourself offline," said Sumant Sridharan, director of product management at LiveDigital.

Item #2
More record labels are jumping on the “Let’s offer our music FREE . . . . (sort of)” bandwagon with SpiralFrog.

I'll be honest I never thought I'd see a time when record companies agreed to give their music away online for free. . . Maybe everyone involved in SpiralFrog believes that it will lead people further and further into legitimate music - and that they'll start wanting to pay for it.

Item #4
MySpace has teamed up with Napster founder Shawn Fanning to offer paid downloads -- in straight-up MP3 format.

Also, MySpace execs say they devised the move deliberately to pull the rug out from under Itunes. Once downloaded, users can transfer, upload, use the files however they want. At .43 a pop, this looks like it will put substantial music promotional power with MySpace. (Much more than they already have, I mean.)

Item #5
Meanwhile, label promoters are abandoning old promotional tactics, pulling every trick out of the bag – ORPGs, viral marketing, etc. trying to keep up.

(Also see "How to sell a smash hit" -- p. 19 in the September 7th Rolling Stone.)

Item #4
And Tower Records is approaching liquidation.

I could very well be wrong, but it sure looks to me as though. . .
there’s some sort of revolution afoot.

We Read Rolling Stone . . .

-- Article on innovative music marketing that talks about . . . ringtones and, oh, ringtones, and product placing of-- wait for it -- ringtones on TV shows.

“When the kids buy a ringtone, they are virally marketing to their friends . . . Placing songs on TV shows has also become a mandatory part of every marketing plan.” Grey’s Anatomy shares a music director with the O.C. – quickly becoming “key destination to place new music.” Sigh, I suppose I better start watching that one too . . . infrequently.

-- Newsbits: Slayer is a teen idol now? (They are seeing younger and younger little mosh-meat at shows.) Bono buys big shares of Forbes magazine. My Chemical Romance injured during a video shoot and canceling shows. Dude, they do their own stunts because being rock stars wasn’t getting them enough chicks.

-- Albums to watch for through the rest of the year: Justin Timberlake, Fergie, Evanescence, John Mayer, Lupe Fiasco, Diddy Jet, Ludacris, Beck, Taylor Hicks, Nas, Young Jeezy, The Game, Lady Sovereign, Snoop Dogg, Incubus, Modest Mouse, Maroon 5, Killers.

-- VMAs breakdown. I’m feeling pretty good because I’ve at least heard of nearly everyone they mention . . . In fact, the longevity of some of these ‘artists’ is kind of embarrassing. (“Slayer? Seriously??”) Confession: I didn’t watch the VMAs! but I’m sure I’ll catch one of the 80,000 reruns. Looking forward to the Ok Go Dance, unedited.

-- Ahh, finally, some clarification on Idlewild. The latest Outkast album is considered BOTH a record and soundtrack. (From the Andre 3000 interview.) That had me confused. But now I see.

-- More buzz about music in Second Life. “3D myspace” – I like that. Bands are doing Second Life pre-releases and more “live” concerts.

-- Longest ever Dylan article. The new album gets a review with one million stars – might be a good week to show No Direction Home if you can get the site rights.

-- Why doesn’t anybody like Jurassic 5’s Feedback album?!? They said my favorite track is the worst of the lot – Future Sound. Maybe I’m just a sucker for Three Dog Night samples.

-- The Harder They Come came out in Ultimate Edition – packaged with the CD soundtrack and more vivid cinematography. Fun.

Big MySpace Music news today. The rumbling you hear could be a oncoming rupture in the foundation of music copyright. We'll look at that possibility in-depth tomorrow.