Parental Advisory News Report 11.01.09: U2 Sets New Concert Record
Posted by Dan Haggerty on 11.01.2009
This week in the PANR: U2 breaks a concert record, the top five attendance records for live performances, Lady Gaga to put her hair in a new release, Google to start offering music samples this week, and we have the final word on Miley Cyrus versus parents. Click the link for all the stories!
Last week the PANR brought you a report on Google's long term plans to enter the music downloading game. Hot on the heels of that report we get news that Google has taken its first real foray into the music business, albeit only using its search features.
The plan is to let users sample a song with a pop-up box that will play at least a 30-second segment, possibly the whole song to those who give permission, with the content provided by new partners iLike and Lala. Google will provide links to purchase the music from those companies with the player.
This partnership went down on Wednesday, so it's official. Web services Lala and MySpace's iLike are now joined forces with Google to create a massive new music provider on the internet. Google has also teamed up with Pandora, iMeem and Rhapsody to incorporate links to those music sites as well.
Google is set to launch the feature this Wednesday.
Wow. Just wow. If Google wants to get into the music business, they just became one of the top forces without even launching their own downloading service. They control millions in traffic that will now be channeled to business partners. It's really the perfect fit. People want to check out their music and fact find new bands online while Google is the dominant highway for people looking for information. Google will be entrenched in a business deal that can be the first real outfit to take a bite out of iTunes. iTunes is established along with massive marketing and support deals from the players we purchase, so they're not going anywhere, but this can very well end up being the first real competition the company gets.
Wait, someone is gaining ground in the music business despite downloading? Somewhere at the RIAA teams are working on how to spin this.
What is really brilliant from a business perspective is that this deal gets Google into the driver seat without actually proving the downloading service. They can entrench themselves while their partners do it, learn from it, watch industry trends, and down the road pony up the investment to go for it. One day people will just click on a song sample and be offered to buy it from Google instead.
I said it last week and I'll say it again. If I had the extra money, this is where to put it. Technology stocks will be the source of real capital gains in the market for the next couple of years and Google is set to be the next monster that dominates multiple businesses.
More Gaga For Your Greenbacks
Lady Gaga has come up with a plan to help encourage people to purchase her albums versus getting them illegally. The idea is to take the idea of bonus content, or extras, to the extreme. The music is literally going to become secondary to all the additional fun you get when you pick up the album. Just look at what you get in the collectors edition of the new Lady Gaga release "The Fame Monster":
Each collector's edition art book that will be individually numbered
A lock of Lady Gaga's hair
A collectable puzzle
Pictorials
A behind-the-scenes look at Gaga's creative process
Pull-out posters
Themed fanzines
A Lady Gaga paper doll collection
3-D glasses for future tie-ins
Personal notes from Lady Gaga
Plus the music:
The eight new tracks are:
"Bad Romance"
"Alejandro"
"Monster"
"Speechless"
"Dance in the Dark"
"Telephone" (duet with Beyonce)
"So Happy I Could Die"
"Teeth"
I'd crack a joke about how this is the logical conclusion of pop music becoming more about style over music, but really I can't blame her for going for it to get people to buy the album. Why not give fans a bunch of fun extras?
BUT, why stop there with giving away locks of hair. I can think of samples of hair that would command bigger money if sold. Oh yes, just put a little bit of hair pie in that bad boy and watch the collectors edition fly of the shelf. Mall kids will line up for Gaga's pubes. You can call it the "Does the carpet match the drapes edition".
Plus you can call it a box set.
It's gold Jerry! GOLD!
U2 Flies High
U2 has broken the all time U.S. attendance record for best-attended single concert performance. They packed 97,014 people into the Rose Bowl on October 25. What's even more astounding is the fact that the previous record was made by… U2
It took 22 years, but U2 has broken its own attendance record.
Among the top five single-concert attendances on record in the U.S., the top three are all U2 performances. The third-highest attendance is also from the band's current tour at its September 29 sellout in Landover, Maryland with 84,754 people crowding the stadium.
Just for fun, here are the stats on top attendance and sales for US concerts:
TOP ATTENDANCE AT A U.S. CONCERT BY A SINGLE HEADLINER:
1. U2 - Rose Bowl; Pasadena, Calif. (October 25, 2009) Attendance: 97,014 Gross: $9,960,036
2. U2 - John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia (September 25, 1987) Attendance: 86,145 Gross: $1,593,683
4. Pink Floyd - Ohio State University Stadium; Columbus, Ohio (May 29, 1994) Attendance: 75,250 Gross: $2,406,920
5. Backstreet Boys - Georgia Dome, Atlanta (February 19, 2000) Attendance: 73,337 Gross: $2,787,098
TOP GROSS AT A U.S. CONCERT BY A SINGLE HEADLINER:
1. The Three Tenors - Giants Stadium; East Rutherford, N.J. (July 20, 1996) Gross: $13,404,350 Attendance: 58,491
2. U2 - Rose Bowl; Pasadena, Calif. (October 25, 2009) Gross: $9,960,036 Attendance: 97,014
3. The Rolling Stones - Giants Stadium; East Rutherford, N.J. (September 15, 2005) Gross: $8,692,788 Attendance: 59,184
4. The Rolling Stones - Radio City Music Hall, New York (March 14, 2006) Gross: $8,625,590 Attendance: 5,800
5. The Rolling Stones - Soldier Field, Chicago (September 10, 2005) Gross: $7,231,427 Attendance: 55,046
That is some pretty damn good company to keep that is for sure. Although the Three Tenors are number one? That's wild. In Europe I would understand it more, but I didn't think opera carried that much weight here. Damn.
Still, congrats to U2 for still delivering the goods.
They're Back!
Double-Hammer
Award Winner
The Parents Television Council (PTC), the lovely group of entertainment censor specialists I highlighted previously in the PANR for fixing the numbers at the FCC, released a new report this week entitled "Women in Peril: A Look at TV's Disturbing New Storyline Trend".
The report, and I use that term loosely, claims that "by depicting violence against women with increasing frequency, or as a trivial, even humorous matter, the broadcast networks may ultimately be contributing to a desensitized atmosphere in which people view aggression and violence directed at women as normative, even acceptable."
The report sites proof due to the comments of women abuse expert and social scientist… Nicole Kidman. She appeared recently in front of a congressional hearing on the subject, "Ms. Kidman conceded that Hollywood has probably contributed to violence against women by portraying them as weak sex objects, according to the Associated Press."
I'm not sure why congress insists on wasting our money talking to celebrities on issues they know jack and shit about, outside of playing it on TV as if that really adds jack, or why Congress is letting things like the Highway Fund sit unfunded in favor of these photo-ops. But to cater to this ridiculous notion that seeing something somehow magically cancels free will and forces people to commit a crime is bizarre and laughable. At least we know how much the PTC thinks of their fellow man to suggest it.
But in the fairness of being active minded about the whole thing, I went looking for real data from the Government website on trends in violent crimes. Look what I found:
Idiots.
And the media supports giving the FCC, who is bought and paid for by this group, the right to monitor the Internet under Net Neutrality? Fuck.
Sorry guys, but music doesn't magically force people to commit crimes, and neither does TV, Movies, Food, Porn, or people who live under their own standards - Quit sucking off some politician and get a real job.
Mommy! Can I have a penny to ride the duck!
Last week, two men from Chicago where arrested for plotting terrorist acts against several news papers in Denmark stemming from them publishing (four years ago) a cartoon featuring Mohammad. Today's edition of Below the Beltway is in honor of these men and the world leaders that apologized to these crack pots when the cartoon first came out.
Miley Cyrus As Teen Role Model
At various times, I have either defended Miley Cyrus from critics or the media or taken shots at her for some stunt. She's a celebrity so that is how it goes. This story falls in the former camp.
The issue started last week when some online site for kids did a massive online poll. One category was "Worst Celebrity Influence" and Miley took top honors in that category. She even beat Britney Spears and Kanye West for the top spot. Seriously, that is just nuts in itself.
People started commenting immediately on how this is all due to her recent "poor" actions like supposedly making fun of Asians or the pole-dancing scene. The theme of these comments, and I'll spare the rest, was basically "She is a kid idol! How dare she act this way! She has an audience to think about!!!"
I say GOOD FOR HER.
Sure, I make fun of the pole-dancing, but really people it's no big deal. Stop acting like the kid needs to conform to what you want. She isn't your kid, and if you need her to be a positive influence for your kid then pull the rod out of your ass and become a better parent. YOU are the person that needs to be a positive role model.
Miley Cyrus is 17 now, or at least I think if I remember Mitch's countdown clock, and who in their right mind thinks a 17 year old kid wants to hang with tweens or be associated with them? Each and every person complaining did they same thing when they hit their late teens. You want to do more adult things at that age, and you're going to do goofy stuff and have fun. She's a kid growing up and trying to be herself versus a Disney Brand Name(TM).
You want to kill a growing kid fast, stop them from discovering what they want and force other people's expectations on them. Bonus points if you sit around a few years later with your thumb up your ass wondering why they have problems and do drugs. IT must be the fame! It must be a chemical imbalance and ADD!
No. They climbed into themselves for trying to be what you wanted, instead of what they wanted.
So good for you Cyrus - Be who you want to be instead of a fake Disney character. Be yourself and even if we occasionally have fun at your expense, at least we'll be having fun with you.
