Parental Advisory News Report 10.25.09: Google Your Music

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 10.25.2009

Kanye West’s trial for assaulting the paparazzi, country music is more popular than rock and roll, sales record broken in the music business, Google to launch a music service, the FCC votes on regulating the Internet, plus crowd surfing is NSFW and we get the final word on David Letterman!

Intro & Feedback!
Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll
NSFW
The Final Word

Do They Serve Fish Sticks In Airports?

Last Friday (October 23, 2009) a judge "cleared" Kanye West of criminal charges from a fight he had with some paparazzi at the Los Angeles International Airport last year… pending his completion of community service that is. West and his manager (also involved) had been released on bail hours after the fight with reporters and making a huge scene. Amazingly, considering the amount of bad publicity the man has had lately this little affair went off quietly in the news. Team West as well as the paps he likes to mess with were strangely silent as well.

The original incident happened last year on September 11, which is a really classy move right there doing it in an airport no less, and he was charged with battery, theft and vandalism by a Judge last March.

I'm not sure how they can go out and say he was cleared of charges when he was sentenced to community service (50 hours no less). The fact he got service means he was guilty. I guess they are letting him save face since this basically boils down to him pleading a lesser charge for an easier (i.e. less public for him and them) trial along with a wrist slap. Not that I think he should be nailed to the wall, his only real crime was messing around with the paparazzi and frankly I have no sympathy for them. If someone wants to make it their life's work to keep shoving their head up someone's ass then they need to live with the fact they're going to get shit on sometimes. The only real factor is that this is West after all so you never know if he did something to initiate the whole thing.

Anyway, here's to the idiot spending time on the side of the highway picking up empty KFC containers!

Country Is The New White Meat

Brooks fans already knew this

There have been reports floating across the news that I find interesting. Insiders in the music business, from business managers, legal teams dedicated to artists, and even label marketers, are all saying that country music has surpassed rock and roll in popularity. The facts sighted as backing this up? According to Inside Radio, as of August 2,014 stations were programming country while 1,323 offered Rock, including Classic and Alternative Rock. It is estimated that in the last decade country music listening nationwide has delivered a steady 77.3 million adults each week.

In 2008, based upon total earnings three of the top 10 acts were country: Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Toby Keith, according to Forbes Magazine. Billboard charts lists country music stars Taylor Swift at number five, Miley Cyrus at number seven, Carrie Underwood at number 13, and Sugarland at number 21 for the same year. Two country acts had albums in the Top 10 in 2008: Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift. Finally, the highest grossing musical tours for 2008 included Kenny Chesney, who was number four with $72.2 million and Rascal Flatts at number eight with $55.8 million. And now this year Taylor Swift is burning up the charts.

Now, that being said, I'm not sure where these "industry insiders" have been. When I use to drive truck for a living country radio stations where way more numerous than other formats, and that was the 90's. This is nothing new. Country has been big for a long time folks, about the only thing that might be happening is that it's getting more obvious. R&B/hip-hop seems a bit stale as of late (to me at least) and rock has been "modern" and "alternative" for so long neither terms apply anymore. The only thing that is new and hot is country stars which are reflected in sales. Plus look at people like Kid Rock crossing over for further proof of trends.

But really, don't let these reports fool anyone. Country was around before rock and has always been the real alternative to it. I'm not that big of a fan but I have traveled plenty and talked to a lot of people. Country is the one genre you can really count as universal across the… country!
If rock is losing ground it's because of its inability to get new fans with the format it's been pulling for some time. I mean look who the video game business picked to jump sales – The Beatles. That should tell you something. Country on the other hand has always been strong and now the home of hot new stars. The math isn't hard at that point.

Single Sales Continue To Break Records

In the wake of continuing drops in sales for the major labels an interesting report came out this week that flew rate in the face of business. The UK just broke a sales record for singles with 2009 coming in at an astounding 117 million singles. DAMN. The previous record was 115+ million from last year so this is obviously the hot trend. While us fans of CDs can bitch about the pattern of pushing singles over albums, the reality is that is where the money is right now.

Martin Talbot, the director of the Official Charts Company had the following to say: "The explosion in the singles market has been nothing short of astonishing this year, driven by big sellers from Lady Gaga, La Roux, Dizzee Rascal, Lily Allen and Black Eyed Peas. What is so encouraging about this growth is that it looks likely to continue right through to the end of the year – in the past ten days alone, we have seen Alexandra Burke, Robbie Williams and, this week, Cheryl Cole, releasing singles which are already rivaling the biggest sales totals of this year."

Of course someone in the industry had to try and spin the news less we get the wrong idea. Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive said: "Consumers are responding to the value and innovation offered by the legal services and these figures show how the market could explode if government acts to tackle illegal peer-to-peer file sharing."

You know the deference between businesses that will succeed and those that do not? One group goes "Hey, that automobile is catching on so maybe I should look into how my horse and buggy company could take advantage of the new market!" the other group goes" Hey, that automobile is catching on sp someone needs to help me otherwise it'll put my horse and buggy company out of business!"

Bitching about the industries inability to graduate to the automobile aside this is good news. It shows the industry is still strong and going no place.

Google Music?

iGoogle?

There is a pretty big rumor going around the internet, and it's now getting confirmation from inside the music industry so it looks like this rumor is going to see the light of day. Brace yourself, because Google is look to launch a music service.

That's right; iPod might be getting competition from what could be Google Music (or Google Audio). Not that it is that much of a stretch since Google has worked with China to release a free (and highly censored) version there already. But music companies have claimed Google is working out deals with them to get their content available for an American version.

The only thing we do not know is how the service will work, if it will go off of a different platform or will it work within the already existing downloading format. What is known is that deals are being made.

This could be a big win for the music industry, as they've been looking for ways to run around iPod for several years and Google has the name to do it. Google is likely the most recognizable name on he Web, so branding wise it would be huge. Toss in the resources and Goggles ability to direct traffic and this could be a massive deal if it does go down. The music industry could get their music in front of billions of hits yearly out of this. Whoa!

This is in its early stages, so I'll keep you posted as news comes out. But if you want to know my opinion, if I had the cash sitting around I'd be looking to invest if it happens.

Free Access?

Double-Hammer
Award Winner

By a unanimous vote, the FCC has been given the green light to "gather data in the rule making process" for how Washington will police access to the Internet. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who is obviously a big advocate of this measure since he was picked by President Obama for this position and the President campaigned last year on this issue, said the following: "The heart of the problem is that, taken together, we face a dangerous combination of an uncertain legal framework with ongoing as well as emerging challenges to a free and open Internet."

The reason the vote was unanimous despite opposing views is this is just a vote to investigate and put a policy together, then vote on that. Robert McDowel (R) said, "Today we do disagree on substance. I do not agree with the majority's view that the Internet is showing breaks and cracks and that the government ... needs to fix it. Nonetheless it is important to remember that the commission is starting a process, not ending one."

Where we go from here? A committee will now gather data and draft a bill over the next 120 days.

Outside of the controversy regarding the FCC regulating providers, the current bills in draft are also being criticized because they exempt some pretty big names on the Web from FCC oversight. Google, which supports the FCC getting involved in regulating the internet, turns out they are excluded. So would other mega-internet businesses like Amazon and Skype. Why? According to the FCC chairmen, "This whole proceeding has always been about Internet access providers. We should be cautious before tackling issues of onramp providers to the Internet itself… The government's role in preserving openness is important but also modest. I have to be clear that government should not be in the business of running or regulating the Internet."

In an interesting aside, John McCain has entered a separate bill called the "Internet Freedom Act" that would do basically the opposite in that it says the Feds "shall not propose, promulgate, or issue any regulations regarding the Internet or IP-enabled services." The only caveat to that bill is the fact that it exempts any laws in effect the day (if) it went into law. So if the FCC puts any law into effect before hand it would not be canceled by this law.



Obviously I'm very concerned and irritated with all of this, which is why I continue to highlight it as it goes through Planet DC. This goes beyond just the fact that the future of music is on the internet and the RIAA can basically write any policy it wants. After all, the FCC will dutifully do it since they are the (highest paying) public voice. Just ask that unemployed mom who paid over a million for stealing several CDs how purchased regulations work out. This, however, is also a direct threat in general. I don't need some religious group trying to neuter 411 because they don't like AJ Grey's posts.

What I find interesting is that there really is no difference between the Republicans and Democrats on this one despite the way people report it. The Dems Whitehouse face in the Chairman says Washington should not regulate the content of the Internet while proposing rules that would control the very companies that give us access to it. That's like saying you're for an unregulated public beach but your going to control access. Huh? The opposing republicans just come off as being opposed for political reasons by saying they are against regulating the internet but fully support looking into laws to do so. What?

Sadly, John McCain's bill got more attention in mainstream sources this week as people slammed it for giving to much freedom to providers. As if writing a bill to allow people to access the Internet freely, or force all businesses to be regulated equally is such a bad idea. Of course the bill is near useless since it wouldn't stop anything already in effect. Evidently Internet freedom can be grandfathered.

This continues to amaze me; from the fact it's going on and receiving such little coverage to the fact that the news sources I read online largely support the FCC regulating their access to their own news reports.

A always I'll keep you updated on this nonsense here.

The Final Word On David Letterman

Several weeks ago David Letterman went on his show and announced that he had cheated on his wife by having affairs with staff members. Further, he announced this because a TV producer, Robert Halderman, knew this information and was using it to blackmail him. Letterman had told the authorities of the blackmail attempt and a sting nailed the "48 Hours" producer for felony charges. The next week he also returned to TV and apologized to his wife publically in front of millions as well.

This of course has elicited a lot of comments from people because it's a big old pile of people getting busted for fucking up. While that is true it is also a case of different fuck-ups, degrees of fucking up, and honestly a case of class as well. Like most things in life it's all a matter of breaking down the issue into its component parts and looking at the fundamentals of each:

1. David Letterman has been cheating on his wife at various points of his career with staff members of his show. Letterman fucked up and acted like a sleaze ball.

2. Robert Halderman knew Letterman was doing this (which leads one to wonder how many other people know as well) and when faced with the choice of keeping his nose out of the issue or getting involved, he decided to take the parasitical route of keeping the secret for cash. This guy is a low life piece of shit by virtue of placing the truth up for auction – If he was going to get involved then the right thing would be to tell Letterman's wife.

3. Letterman, when faced with his wrongdoing decided to face the music to stop the man. He could have saved face and not risked his career by paying the guy off. Don't tell me that kind of shit doesn't happen every day in the entertainment business. Letterman took the unusual moral route of taking his lumps and got the guy busted.

And yes, Letterman did take the moral high ground here. What he did was wrong but when faced with the decision to either face his actions or hide them with even sleazier actions, he took his medicine and ended the charade by confessing in front of his audience.

People fuck up in life. It happens and when they do something wrong – It's wrong. But from a humanistic stand point, people do make mistakes and the real error that is morally wrong is when people either don't learn from their mistakes or refuse to face them when busted. We dumped on Brown because A) He beat up his girlfriend Rihanna and B) Like a punk he ran from the problem and didn't man up.

Letterman manned up.

Some people will forget about it. Some will dump on him. Other talk show hosts will eventually crack jokes about him. This could blow over and everything will be fine or his network may pull him if it gets out of hand. His wife may or may not forgive him and toss him out in the long run (and end up with most of his money). Letterman's future is up in the air because of this, and even NOW and other supposed female rights groups are pushing for lawsuits.

Letterman knew this when he called the police and did the right thing anyway. How refreshing is that.

Good job Letterman.

And that is the final word for October 25, 2009.