Parental Advisory News Report 11.08.09: The Beatles Go Digital
Posted by Dan Haggerty on 11.08.2009
In the PANR this week: The Beatles’ entire catalog will be available in digital format for the first time for the holidays. We have all the details on what you get and the bonus content. Plus No Doubt sues Band Hero for illegal use of their image, Bob Seger to issue a collection of unreleased early tracks, Big Music losses big time in two international stories, and Steve Jobs is CEO of the decade for Apple’s role in the music business.
The Fab Four Is Coming To Your Computer
Big news for fans of the Beatles who have been waiting for the digital to the band's catalog, it has been announced that the Fab Four's entire catalog will officially be sold in digital format on a USB drive. This will be a limited edition sale just in time for the holidays and be issued on an apple-shaped drive. The digital drives will be available on December 7 in the UK and on December 8 in the States. You can also pre-order it at the Beatle's online store as well.
Asking price: $279.99
30,000 USB drives will be made. They will feature 14 Beatles stereo releases as well as the re-mastered CDs' elements. It will also have 13 mini-documentary films about the studio albums, replicated original U.K. album art, rare photos and expanded liner notes.
Ironically, vinyl reissues were also announced at the same time for those of us who still love the record player. Those will obviously be sold separately at participating stores.
I've been waiting for someone to try and make a major splash with this. Back in my first months here as a writer I took Gene Simmons' to task for saying he couldn't make money in music. At the time I pointed out that doing a USB catalog reissue along with goodies for the KISS army would be huge. People just need to take the next step with technology. Seriously, you can check it out two years ago HERE. Sadly, KISS waited for Wal*Mart to hand them a chunk of cash for the same old same-old and now the Beatles have come along to do something big like this first. Mark this down, if this goes well you'll see this happening with a lot of bands. I should have figured it would be the Beatles, however, since Ringo actually experimented with this on his last album.
Anyway, big news for classic rock fans. Although that price tag will keep me away from this I'm not the target audience either. 30,000 world wide? Yea, they'll be selling out and end up on eBay.
You To Can Be Gwen!
Rock band No Doubt has filed civil action against video game publisher Activision Blizzard over the use of their likeness on its new "Band Hero" game. They have accused the company of "turning the rockers into a virtual karaoke act".
The band and Activision had a contract that allowed the company to use the band members in the game. The charge is that Activision went beyond the agreement by allowing gamers to use avatars of the band performing songs from other rock groups. This is the same problem Courtney Love had with Activision for allowing people to play Cobain singing other songs.
The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday a day after Band Hero hit stores and its terms are that Activision is guilty of "fraudulent inducement and breach of contract". One instance sited by No Doubt's representatives is how Band Hero allows for unauthorized use of Gwen Stefani singing the Rolling Stones song "Honky Tonk Women". That sounds innocuous enough, but then again I see their point when they add "… results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes." Ouch.
In a statement the company said: "Activision believes it is within its legal rights with respect to the use and portrayal of the band members in the game and that this lawsuit is without merit." That's pretty much the standard line you'd expect, but depending on the contract the band signed Activision might also be right.
I really don't blame the band for being irritated by this but if they signed away the rights to their images in a contract that doesn't dictate how their images can be used they're also shit out of luck. Sad but that is why you have contracts – To insure everyone supposedly understands the agreement and there is no dispute. Or if there is a dispute then a third party can look over those terms and make a decision if the contract was breached.
There is no word on what damages the band is seeking but they are asking for a recall of the game so keep an eye on this. If No Doubt wins you might have a collectors copy on your hands.
Like A Rock
Bob Seger is set to release a 10-song set dubbed Early Seger, Vol. 1. There will be four unreleased tracks, three of which were written in the 80's while the fourth goes back to1973. Seger also did some extensive re-recording on "Long Song Comin'" from the Seven album for this release. The sets other five songs, a cover of Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" and Seger's own "Someday" from 1972's Smokin' O.P.'s, a gospel-flavored rendition of the Allman Brothers Band's "Midnight Rider" from 1973's Back in '72 and more tracks from Seven: "Get Out of Denver" and "U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class)". All of this has been re-mastered from the original tapes with additional vocals and horns done out of Kid rock's studio in Detroit.
Seger fans can catch samples of songs at BobSeger.com. There's no word yet on whether the album or individual songs will be sold as downloads – So far Seger has kept his catalog away from online sales.
Spain Tells The Music Industry No
The Big FourTM has been spending lot of time and resources (i.e. hard cash) getting our Government to buy into the "Three Strikes" program where people who are caught downloading three times get booted from the internet. The idea being, if the industry can't get the Government to effectively block downloading, which it can't because of the sheer volume to monitor, then it can have the Government force Internet Providers to babysit its users and act as punishment sources.
The issue is relatively quiet here in the States outside of those underground news sources on the net watching this crap. In Europe it has been a bigger stink since countries like the UK are on the edge of making it law, also aggravated because musicians are becoming split on the subject in the news there. When you have people from popular bands like Pink Floyd and Radiohead publicly speaking against the law the subject gets mainstream attention.
For the curious, technically the U.S. is sponsoring this movement as an international agreement. Yes, the U.S. Government is promoting this world wide on behalf of the music industry. Now you know why I'm so damn cynical regarding the Government's involvement in music and entertainment laws, and crack jokes about laws being bought and paid for. We're negotiating world wide agreements on behalf of small number of businesses that not only represent a small majority opinion on this subject, but in actuality are continuing to control increasingly smaller portions of that business. Just once I'd like to see the people at Southern Lords Records or The End on Capitol Hill getting their opinion asked. Not just the people who pay elections campaigns for the privilege.
Anyway, the real story here is good news. In the middle of all this push by the music industry to have our government promote their agenda internationally, Spain came out this week and flat our told the Big Four no. They join Germany in refusing to even look at developing this kind of scheme to force Internet Providers to act like rent-a-cops and kick their own customers out the door. Culture Minister Angeles González-Sinde said his Government "is not considering punitive measures for the end user of Internet… "
And really when you think about it, how silly is it that someone would suggest a business monitor and punish its own customers? Isn't that why we need a Government in the first place? To be a neutral third party so we can interact peacefully?
Now let's hope the U.K. and France end the debate and join their EU partners is just saying no.
Norway Also Tells Music Industry No!
A court in Norway on Friday rejected calls from the entertainment industry to force communications company Telenor to block its customers from accessing "The Pirate Bay". It ruled Telenor and other Internet service providers in Norway cannot be held liable for copyright violations that arise from illegal downloads and that a decision to block websites she be handled by the Norwegian authorities.
The court said, "Telenor and other Internet providers, including private companies, may have to do an evaluation on whether an Internet page or service shall be blocked or not… This is an evaluation normally assigned to the authorities, and in the court's view, today's situation makes it unnatural to assign such responsibility to private companies."
This is like the story above. Obviously private companies are not responsible for the actions of a customer nor should they act as the police and patrol those customers. I was glad to see the company say just that. Telnor defended itself with its court victory by adding "You can not sue a ladder manufacturer because someone used one of his ladders to commit a burglary. We therefore… reject imposed censorship like this."
A-fucking-men.
Steve Jobs Proves You Can Make Money In Music
In other business news, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs was named CEO of the decade by Fortune magazine. The claim of the magazine is that in the past 10 years he has radically reordered three major markets in music, movies, and mobile telephones and made them big business in the process. This is in addition to, of course, his continued impact on the computer industry where he started.
According to Fortune: "Remaking any one business is a career-defining achievement; four is unheard-of… He's a visionary, but he's grounded in reality too, closely monitoring Apple's various operational and market metrics." They also added, "Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley."
It would really be hard to argue against them. If you would have asked me twenty years ago I would not have considered portable music or phones to be big business. Ten years ago I would have written Apple off. Not only is Apple a dominant member of the industry but they have indeed been behind the revolution. Entertainment and communication would look radically different today without them.
Two key points though: The first is that society seems to be on a continued trend from groups to individuals, from packages to individual choice. Phones use to be about the house or business they were at (I'll call over to Jeff's place), and now they're about the single user (I'll call Jeff). Music was about getting an album (I'll pick up the new Metallica album) and know it's about choice (I'll download the Metallica songs I want from each album and make my own disc). Apple has been a big part with that trend, seeing it early and finding ways to empower the end user to make the choices they want. They didn't invent the idea, but they certainly delivered them in an easy to use package to the mainstream.
The second point is I'm glad to see a major business publication recognize the roll Apple, and by extension downloading, has played in shaping what is (by definition of this acknowledgment) the business of tomorrow. If the major labels could stop whining about how their horse and buggies are losing money and realize that the people who get it are making money hand over fist, maybe they could start putting forward real ideas that take advantage of the real trends today. And maybe, just maybe, they could then come up with the bright ideas of tomorrow that will make them Fortune Magazine's tops businesses of the next decade.
Or they can just keep on doing business as usual and wonder why the customers increasingly ignore them.
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Light news from the streets and frontlines this week, but what news there was turned out to be good. How cool is that. That's a wrap and here's one to leave you with...
