Peter Gabriel deconstructs music, reconstructs world

AFP

Peter Gabriel strips songs to their bare essentials in his latest album, the first in eight years, but he is as passionate about new technologies and saving the world as he is about music.

Looking forward to a concert tour to promote "Scratch My Back", the former Genesis frontman sits shoeless -- "I like big boots but always take them off" -- in a Paris hotel room, chatting about human rights and the music industry.

"The industry," Gabriel, 60, told AFP, "is a corpse but there's lots of interesting things crawling out of it.

"In some ways it reminds me of the early 60s because there wasn't a lot of business then the way we know it, so people could write or rewrite the rules," he said.

Hard-up EMI seeks buyer for Abbey Road studios

iWon News

The long and winding road of Beatles history has taken a new twist.

Cash-strapped music company EMI Group Ltd. is seeking a buyer for Abbey Road, the London studio where the Fab Four recorded some of their most famous songs, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday.

The person said talks had been going on for several months but a buyer had not yet been found. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

A spokesman for EMI refused to comment on the sale bid, which could raise tens of millions of dollars for the struggling label.

Rush drummer uncomfortable with fame

Toronto Sun

Over the years — in addition to his main gig with singer-bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson — the celebrated and innovative percussionist has written four non-fiction books about his life, career and travels; released two full-length instructional drum videos; done cartoon voiceovers and film cameos; organized tribute albums and concerts to iconic drummer Buddy Rich; and regularly blogs, reviews books and even shares recipes on his website. Most recently, he recorded a drum-based version of the iconic The Hockey Theme for TSN and shot a video to go with it, playing a custom-made kit bearing the insignias of all 30 NHL teams.

To publicize his latest project, the intensely private Peart — who retreated more or less permanently from the media after the tragic deaths of his daughter and first wife in the late ’90s — emerged from hiding to talk with QMI Agency. And while he still shies away from personal questions, the personable ex-pat was happy to chat about everything from the future of Rush and the integrity of the album, to parenthood and pop music.

Daltrey, Who unhappy with performance

ESPN

The Who's medley of five songs -- shortened versions of the classics -- were "Pinball Wizard" out of the gate, sliding into "Baba O'Reilly," "Who Are You," a few bars of "See Me" (from the "Tommy" album) and then "Won't Get Fooled Again."

Looking at the 65-year-old Daltrey and 64-year-old guitarist Pete Townshend, the two surviving members of the original quartet, you could tell they weren't necessarily enjoying their moment in the Sun Life Stadium. And that's with family members in skyboxes, all the herbal tea you can drink and a stadium packed with 70,000 fans.

With only 12 minutes to perform, they had no time to talk to the audience. No time to mention the Super Bowl. No time to mention Miami. And no time to thank the audience.

I am still trying to understand why the Super Bowl organization chose to have The Who provide the halftime entertainment. I like the band and respect their contribution to modern music but this one has me baffled.

EMI parent seeking cash to avoid default

Washington Post

The private equity firm that bought the recording label of the Beatles and Coldplay needs more cash from investors to avoid a possible foreclosure by Citigroup Inc.

The problems for British financier Guy Hands were detailed in a report that was audited by KPMG and released Thursday. Hands' private equity firm, Terra Firma, bought EMI Group PLC through a separate company, Maltby Capital Ltd., for 2.4 billion pounds (equivalent to $3.8 billion now) in 2007.

Maltby directors said in the report the company needs to raise money by June 14 or risk defaulting on its loans. Maltby said it may require more than 105 million pounds ($165 million) to last through this year.

Men At Work's Colin Hay hits out over plagiarism ruling

BBC News

Men at Work's Colin Hay has issued an angry statement calling the Down Under plagiarism case "opportunistic greed".

Earlier this week, a federal court in Sydney ruled that Men at Work had plagiarised Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree in its 1983 hit, Down Under.

"It's all about money, make no mistake," said Down Under author Hay.

But Norm Lurie, owner of Larrikin Music who filed the case, said it highlighted "the importance of checking before using other people's copyrights."

Flashback: My First Home Studio

Here's a pic showing me in my first home studio setup. I believe this photo was taken in the summer of 1987.

“The Day the Music Died” Remembered

Long Island Press.com

Today, 51 years ago, was “The Day the Music Died,” the phrase immortalized in American folk singer/songwriter Don McLean’s 1972 hit “American Pie.”

The tune has been called a metaphor for the loss of innocence in America, inspired by, and about, the untimely deaths of rock and rollers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, Jr. They were killed in a plane crash Feb. 3, 1959 along with the plane’s pilot, Roger Paterson, in a snowy field in the middle of Iowa just a short while after 1 a.m.

Music's lost decade: Sales cut in half

CNN Money

If you watched the Grammy Awards Sunday night, it would appear all is well in the recording industry. But at the end of last year, the music business was worth half of what it was ten years ago and the decline doesn't look like it will be slowing anytime soon.

Total revenue from U.S. music sales and licensing plunged to $6.3 billion in 2009, according to Forrester Research. In 1999, that revenue figure topped $14.6 billion.

Although the Recording Industry Association of America will report its official figures in the early spring, the trend has been very clear: RIAA has reported declining revenue in nine of the past 10 years, with album sales falling an average of 8% each year. Last decade was the first ever in which sales were lower going out than coming in.

Music Piracy Case will Go to Round 3

PC World

The long music piracy fight between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Minnesota native Jammie Thomas-Rasset shows no sign of ending anytime soon.

RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth last week said the industry association is beginning preparations for a third trial in the case after Thomas-Rasset rejected a $25,000 settlement offer it made earlier this week.

Canadian producer Pierre Cossette, father of Grammy Awards, dies at 85

Google/AP News

Pierre Cossette, the Canadian father of the modern Grammy Awards show, has died at a Montreal hospital. He was 85.

His death was announced in Santa Monica, Calif., late Friday by the Recording Academy. Academy president and CEO Neil Portnow paid glowing tribute to Cossette.

"It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our dear friend and father of the Grammy Awards, Pierre Cossette," he said.

The Valleyfield, Que., native was an accomplished television and theatre producer who also managed some of American pop music's most influential early bands.

But he's best known as the visionary who guided the Grammy Awards from its early days as a stuffy, unsuccessful production to the widescreen industry institution it's become.

In its early years, the Grammy show was an hour-long compilation of recorded performances, and it was not a commercial success.

Brian Eno exhibit in Long Beach invites viewers to see the music

Los Angeles Times

Eight time zones ahead of Los Angeles, Brian Eno's cellphone is ringing. He's cycling along the Thames River towpath, savoring the shank of a summer afternoon. "Could you call back in an hour?" he asks politely.

The appointed moment arrives and Eno is ready to chat, having come to a temporary halt in the tranquillity of his London home. Like his fellow harried humanoids, the British multimedia artist intimates that he's constantly trying to carve out a few minutes of quiet, contemplative space for himself within the manic, tech-driven modern world.



Of course, Eno, 61, has been a pioneer of that world and a proponent of new artistic technologies for decades: first as a keyboardist for the definitiveglam-rock ensemble Roxy Music; then as the producer of countless albums by U2, the Talking Heads, Coldplay and other sonically promiscuous bands; and in his prolific audio-visual collaborations, ranging from the Microsoft Windows six-second start-up jingle to the sound design for the Spore(2008_video_game) video game to the soundtrack for Peter Jackson's upcoming feature film adaptation of Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones." Eno's seemingly inexhaustible list of projects and artistic partners has earned him a reputation as a kind of creative perpetual-motion machine. But he confesses that he, too, struggles to keep the 24-7 pace from overwhelming him.

iTunes Sells 24% of All U.S. Music

PC World

Apple's iTunes Music Store now sells 25 percent of all music sales in the U.S., and 69 percent of the entire US digital music market. Relative newcomer AmazonMP3 sells just 8 percent of all U.S. digital music downloads.

Market research company The NPD Group reports that while CDs remain the most popular format for paid music purchases, digital music sales are making up an ever-greater share of US music sales. (See also "Apple iTunes: How to Organize and Manage Your Music Collection.")

CDs comprised 65 percent of all music sold in the first half of 2009 compared to paid digital downloads, which comprised 35 percent of music sales. By comparison, paid digital music downloads comprised just 20 percent of sales in 2007 -- growing to 30 percent of the music market last year.

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