Music Industry upset with the Grammys?
Feb 21st
Music industry tycoon Steve Stoute is calling out The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and its president, Neil Portnow. The Commissioner, who’s masterminded million-dollar deals for artists like Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani, has taken out a full page ad in Sunday’s New York Times chiding the Grammys for awarding less popular artists such as Arcade Fire and Esperanza Spalding over chart toppers Justin Bieber, Eminem, and Kanye West in past years. Stoute believes the artists are being used for ratings and that the “Grammy Awards have clearly lost touch with contemporary pop culture.” Do you agree? Read his fiery words below. Read the rest of this entry »
Katy Perry and EMI are now at war?
Aug 22nd
Katy Perry has slammed her record label for trying to convince her to make her music more family friendly. The “California Gurls“ singer claimed Capitoltried to persuade her against including certain tracks on the final tracklisting for her forthcoming album “Teenage Dream“, for fear they were too controversial.
Katy revealed that the record company weren’t impressed she’d recorded a song called Peacock. “They were all a bit worried about the word ‘c**k’ and it gave me deja vu because they did the exact same thing with ”I Kissed A Girl“. They said, ‘We don’t see it as a single, we don’t want it on the album’. And I was like, ‘You guys are idiots’.
“I always try and make a lasting impression and I work very hard,” she explained. “My father has a saying, ‘You can’t be a flash in the pan’. This record is important to me because it will prove that my last album One Of The Boys wasn’t just luck.”
The 25-year-old has just put the finishing touches on her new album and discussed the effort she went to in order to ensure everything was perfect.
“I’m in the studio fighting with them to change the melody or I’m fighting for the best lyric at all times. I think we rewrote “Teenage Dream” five times for 10 days straight. On the last day, I was so happy to finally get somewhere that we all agreed on.” Read the rest of this entry »
MTV loses digital videos from Universal
Aug 6th
MTV, once the king of music videos, has failed to reach an agreement with music portal Vevo, for the rights to Universal Music Group’s Web music videos. Negotiations between MTV and Vevo over videos from UMG, home of such artists as U2, Amy Winehouse, Mariah Carey and Lady Gaga, broke down Thursday, according to Vevo. What this means is that most of MTV’s Internet properties will lose access to UMG’s videos.
That may not be all. Vevo is the online music-video portal that launched in December and is supported by three of the top four labels, UMG, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI Music. So, MTV conceivably may have problems signing deals with the other two labels. ”MTVN has been unwilling to negotiate a fair syndication deal with Vevo to carry our artists’ videos and consequently our videos will not be shown on their online properties,” a UMG spokesman said. MTV would only say that it’s disappointed a deal couldn’t be reached.
“During our recent discussions with Vevo (pictured on the left is the grand launch of the site and Mariah Carey opening the evening), we were unable to reach a fair and equitable agreement for rights to stream UMG artists’ music video,” MTV said in a statement. “As a result, UMG has elected to pull their music videos from our Web sites. We are disappointed by this move and sincerely hope that UMG will work with us toward a fair resolution.”
MTV has declined to enter into UMG’s standard agreement and one that has been signed by other companies, such as Google’s YouTube. Disagreements between the large labels and MTV are nothing new. MTV’s rise to power and profits, beginning in 1981, by broadcasting nothing but music videos is a sore spot for big music. The large record companies have always said they never received a fair share for their videos. MTV argued that the labels got plenty. MTV says over the years it has paid the record industry billions. More recently, YouTube emerged and music videos became the most popular segment on the site. Now, record company execs say that since music videos are huge traffic drivers, they want to be the ones who pocket the ad revenues the videos generate.