GrindEFX

British pop singer Lily Allen made a post on her Myspace blog (I know right?) yesterday begging her fans to buy CDs. Her argument? Well… she doesn’t really have one.

“The internet is the most amazing thing, but it should be OUR thing,” she said, “and ironically piracy is just playing into the hands of the corporations. What these artists and creators do, they do for the love of it, I know its hard because money is scarce but we have to inject money back into these areas. It’s not fair to steal peoples material,I know it’s art and it has no physical value but even Shakespeare had shares in The Globe Theatre. People will lose their jobs.”

This sounds like something an artist would have said 5 years ago, are artists really still complaining about piracy? Come on Lily, it’s not even cute anymore, it’s just sad. The Internet is going nowhere, it’s time for you and your good friends at the major labels to update your business model.

The funny thing is, Lily Allen actually has a very strong and loyal fanbase and she is good at connecting with them. She could easily drop from her label and and put out her own product like many other big artists have succeeded in doing. It sounds like she’s been brainwashed to believe she needs a record label to survive, either that or she’s just too lazy to open her eyes and see that the industry she was once in no longer exists.

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The Apple event took place yesterday after weeks of anticipation and among the big announcements; a new and improved iTunes 9 (surprise surprise), a new, cheaper iPod Touch line, a new iPod Nano equipped with a video camera and microphone (don’t look at me), increased storage and price cut for iPod classics and a “genius” function for the iPhone and iPod touch that creates playlists based on your history.

But what you all really want to know about is the not-so-top-secret “Cocktail” project. Well, I can reveal that Apple has launched a new digital album format called iTunes LP.

The iTunes LP is pretty much as we expected. It’s a digital album with extra features such as music videos, artwork, liner notes, lyrics, photo albums, bonus tracks etc.

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First of all, I must apologize for my absence from the site in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been incredibly busy elsewhere and any time I got to put into the site was mostly taken up by “behind-the-scenes work”, hence the lack of activity on my part.

Back to business though and one story that’s been generating a frenzy this month is the new digital album format being developed by the major record labels and Apple (separately). Since rumours have been flying around for a few weeks now you’ve probably read or heard about it somewhere, I just wanted to play catch up though for those that haven’t heard and drop my 2 cents.

A brief overview; Apple announced they were working on a secret project which was given the name “Cocktail”. The idea behind Cocktail is a single file download that would include songs, videos, artwork, lyrics and liner notes for an album. This new format would presumably work very nicely alongside their iPod line and the new Tablet rumoured to be released later this year. Apple apparently reached out to the majors (Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI) for a partnership, however the majors decided instead to team up and develop their own competing format – CMX – which would, again presumably, require its own supporting player.

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I almost wasn’t going to post this, in the couple of weeks we’ve heard so many positive stories of artists finding a business model that works for them, it’s a shame to have to sit and write about record executives still barking up the wrong tree. But my job is to report on the news, good or bad, so that is what I shall do.

Okay so here’s the story; Antonio “L.A.” Reid, CEO of Island Def Jam Music Group, has decided it would be a super idea to plaster ads all over Mariah Carey’s new CD in an attempt to reduce costs. These ads will appear in a 34-page mini magazine, co-produced with Elle, right beside the lyrics and linear notes. The ads are said to reflect Mrs Carey’s image, brands such as Elizabeth Arden, Angel Champagne, Carmen Steffen’s, Le Métier de Beauté and the Bahamas Board of Tourism will make an appearance in the booklet.

“The idea was really simple thinking: ‘We sell millions of records, so you should advertise with us,’” Antonio “L.A.” Reid, chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group told Brandweek. “My artists have substantial circulation—when you sell 2 million, 5 million, 8 million, that’s a lot of eyeballs. Most magazines aren’t as successful as those records.”

Apparently Mr Reid has been in a coma for the last 5 years and isn’t aware that nobody is selling 8 million CDs anymore, much less Def Jam. As far as I’m aware Mariah didn’t manage even 2 million on her last effort.

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