Remember the Sesame Street segment "One of These Things," where you had to spot the outsider? I can't get it out of my head after reading Live Nation's press release for its upcoming package concert This Land is Your Land: A Tribute to John Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie and the American Spirit. Guthrie was a tireless working-class hero. John Steinbeck (pictured) penned critiques of capitalism like Grapes of Wrath that  made him almost as many enemies as friends.

Live Nation, meanwhile, is a monolithic Clear Channel spin-off taking aim at the major labels by signing their previous blockbusters like Madonna, Shakira, U2, Jay-Z and more to massive contracts, all while building a ticketing service that could take down the hated Ticketmaster.

In other words, not exactly Lenny Small.

Continue reading "Woody Guthrie. John Steinbeck. Live Nation?" »

"Face to face with him," artist John Pasche once said of The Rolling Stones hyperactive frontman Mick Jagger, "the first thing you were aware of was the size of his lips and his mouth."

But nearly 40 years after Pasche committed those lips to graphics, in the process creating one of the most instantly recognizable music brands in history, the first thing you notice is how little London's Victoria and Albert Museum ponied up for the original artwork in a recent auction. While $92,500 may buy a lot of cheese, it seems like a small tab to pay for the design that created what museum representative Victoria Broakes called "the world's most famous rock logo." But that's the branding biz for you.

Continue reading "UK Museum Buys Mick Jagger's Lips (Sorta)" »

Bands and brands have been nearly interchangeable for decades now. Just ask Jack White, who created a Coke jingle in 2006 that stretched the limits of credulity.

But starting Tuesday night, a whole new echelon of the art/commerce merge arrives when late-night diner Denny's inaugurates its Dr. Pepper-bankrolled Rockstar Menu with the help of Eagles of Death Metal, Taking Back Sunday, The All-American Rejects and more.

Eat this:

There's plenty more where that came from. My personal favorite is the footage of Eagles of Death Metal's Boots Electric creating a late-night dessert. "This is amazing, dude," he gushes in one video, after tasting his invented confection. "I cannot believe how serious you guys are about this."

Continue reading "Is Denny's Rockstar Menu a Sign of the Apocalypse?" »

Love her or hate her, Madonna's greatest ability over the years has been stirring up a newsworthy clusterfrak.

Her latest sexually charged live show, the aptly named "Sticky and Sweet Tour," exploded on Saturday, and it brought down the house. But not for the usual horny reasons, rather for a video interlude that placed John McCain alongside unmitigated geopolitical tragedies like Adolf Hitler and Robert Mugabe.

McCain's rival Barack Obama was also in the presentation, but was elevated alongside icons like John Lennon, Gandhi and, wait for it, Al Gore. I think it's pretty clear who Madonna is voting for in the November election.

Continue reading "Obama Fan Madonna Gets Sticky, Sweet, Political" »

In 1970, The Doors got into a fight over Buick, the lumbering auto manufacturer that wanted to use the apocalyptic Los Angeles quartet's "Light My Fire" to sell cars. The agreement that resulted demanded that no business decision be made without approval from all the of band members. Decades after Morrison's death, that detente has just been fortified by the California Supreme Court.

The remaining Doors have been embroiled in a rerun of that earlier dispute ever since keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger hit the road in 2002 with The Cult vocalist Ian Astbury and clumsily called themselves The Doors of the 21st Century, grossing $8 million in the process. Drummer John Densmore complained, arguing that "of the 21st Century" was barely visible on the tour's promotional materials and that it used Morrison's image at length, a clear no-no. Then he sued.

On Friday, according to the Associated Press, he won.

Continue reading "It's Official: No Doors Without Jim Morrison" »

Los Angeles punk duo No Age may have released the rock effort of the year in Nouns, but you'll have to hear it to decide for yourself. Might as well do it for free, especially if you're anywhere near California.

Bring earplugs, ye of delicate cochlea!

Continue reading "No Age + Fujifilm = Free Concert, Blissful Noise" »

Pepsi owns Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew owns Green Label Sound. Green Label Sound, starting Thursday, offers free exclusive downloads from Cool Kids, Matt & Kim and more to come. But Green Label Sound doesn't own Cool Kids or Matt and Kim. Got that?

If only it were that simple, you say. But it is, according to Cool Kids.

"Mountain Dew is not trying to push their product through music like everyone else, they just wanna support music," explains Cool Kid Chuck Inglish. "And with us trying to set up our new record without a record company, Mountain Dew gives us an unexpected helping hand to get up those steps."

Fair enough. A listen to Cool Kids' free download "Delivery Man" from Mountain Dew's newly inaugurated, singles-only download label Green Label Sound doesn't mention hypercaffeinated product at all, although it raps about plenty of biz. But the cover art, at right, for the rap duo's Green Label exclusive sports the same color scheme as its soft-drink sugar daddy. Plus, the extensive Terms and Conditions statement doesn't exactly inspire confidence, especially the part that says Pepsi isn't liable for any direct harm resulting from viruses caught while downloading its exclusive content or browsing its site.

Continue reading "Tastes Like Selling Out? Mountain Dew Launches Singles-Only Label" »

SellaBand, which reinvents the record label model by letting listeners discover and invest in bands, has replicated another aspect of the traditional music industry by allowing filmmakers and advertisers to license SellaBand-created music for their projects through a partnership with YouLicense.com.

"SellaBand gives up and coming artists the opportunity to professionally produce their music," stated YouLicense CEO Maor Ezer, "and YouLicense.com makes it easy for artists to do business."

So far, SellaBand's system has resulted in the creation of 24 albums, some of which could find wider exposure as a result of the deal. SellaBand music director Dagmar Heijmans pointed out that advertisements have become a platform through which fans discover music (just ask any band whose music has been used in an iTunes commercial). "Working with YouLicense.com will enable our artists to promote their music to a wider audience," he said. "As SellaBand enters into its third year of business, we are looking for ways to evolve and get our artists' music heard."

SellaBand "believers" will receive compensation when music from an album they invested in is licensed. Here's how a $2500 licensing fee would break down between the various parties, according to Sellaband's Heijmans:

Continue reading "SellaBand To License Music to Advertisements" »

File this one under bemused disbelief. According to the Associated Press, the controversial country star behind the pro-war track "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" is not a Republican, but rather a Democrat in hawk's clothing. Even stranger, he's not a McCain fan. He likes the other guy.

Have pigs flown? Doth hell freeze over? Am I high?

None of the above. Toby Keith simply has a movie, called Beer For My Horses, to sell, and he's a savvy salesman. His market has been thoroughly tapped, and change is blowing in the wind. Might as well get in good with the rest of the market early. That's one crafty cowboy.

As for Obama, "I think he's the best Democratic candidate we've had since Bill Clinton," Keith confessed to the AP. "And that's coming from a Democrat."

Keith has been making the rounds in support of Beer For My Horses, appearing once again on The Colbert Report and elsewhere. Which is not to say he's getting a free pass. Huffington Post journo Max Blumenthal heckled Keith for engineering a "pro-lynching publicity tour," arguing that the following lyrics and video for the song "Beer For My Horses" were patently racist:

Continue reading "WTF? Toby Keith, Democrat, Likes Obama" »

As Listening Post reported on Saturday, Virgin/EMI nailed Jared Leto's band 30 Seconds to Mars with a smart-ass $30 million fine for failing to deliver a follow-up to its 2005 platinum effort A Beautiful Lie on time. Now the actor has posted a full disclosure of the clusterfrak on the group's official forum.

And it isn't pretty, especially for Virgin/EMI.

Continue reading "Jared Leto Hits Back, Slams Virgin/EMI Lawsuit" »

Music has long been associated with advertising, but these days, the concept has been taken even further. Some brands are acting like labels, signing and promoting artists in exchange for the artist lending their identity to advertisements.

Recent examples include Bacardi signing Groove Armada, Nike hiring Kanye West to release a song about their shoes and Red Bull reportedly working on a studio where it will record its own roster of artists. Now Tag Records -- from the makers of the similarly named body spray -- hopes to make a mark in the hip hop community.

To make inroads with the "urban market," Tag partnered with rapper/producer Jermaine Dupri and Def Jam Records to create Tag Records, which has already signed the rapper Q and released a commercial to promote him and their spray side by side. Other artists are expected to follow suit.

Continue reading "VB On The Radio: Body Spray Launches Record Label" »

Fans have been waiting for the Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy for about 14 years, and now they may have to wait in line at Wal-Mart in order to purchase it when it's finally released.

According to Billboard, Guns N' Roses are in negotiations to release the album exclusively through a big-box retailer, most likely Wal-Mart or Best Buy. The Eagles (with whom G N' R shares a management company) distributed their latest album exclusively through Wal-Mart, which will also be the exclusive outlet for the next AC/DC release.

Of course, many fans with internet connections have already heard most of the album.

Nine of its songs were leaked back in June. The FBI paid the leaker a visit, resulting in press coverage he thought was a bit skewed.

Continue reading "Chinese Democracy: Only at Wal-Mart?" »

It's probably not as painful as having his arm chopped off in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, but it's still going to hurt. Because Virgin Records wants an arm and a leg from actor Jared Leto and his band 30 Seconds to Mars, for failure to deliver a new record on time. That's a seriously hefty parking ticket.

Continue reading "30 Seconds to Mars Owes $30 Million to Virgin?" »

Along with South by Southwest, Coachella and others, the CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival is an artist-industry merge that will fry your logic boards. Like most marketing, it's a mad party, but one with a stellar soundtrack and geeky panels. Manhattan was born to host it.

Although it doesn't kick off until late October, the CMJ Marathon is so swollen with events that it rolled out announcements on Thursday. Artists scheduled to appear and seriously worthy of your time include They Might Be Giants, Beach House, Lee Scratch Perry, A Place to Bury Strangers, Roisin Murphy, and Broken Social Scene, with more to come. Some panels sound grabbing too, such as "The Music Supervision Evolution And Master Critique" or "Bands As Brands," a category we've had at Listening Post for awhile now. Read it and weep, CMJ!

There's much more, but it can all be found online. If you've got ideas for panels, post a comment and let us know. I personally am waiting for "Material Waste: The Necessary Extinction of CDs." That one can't come soon enough.

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The Democratic National Convention hits Denver's INVESCO Field at the end of August. But it's going to need earplugs to drown out the sounds of metal and hip-hop coming from nearby Denver Coliseum where Rage Against the Machine, The Coup, MC5 frontman Wayne Kramer and more will be protesting the continuing war in Iraq.

My guess is that Joe Lieberman will not be attending.

Continue reading "Rage Against the Machine Crashes DNC Party" »

Bacardi, the beverage manufacturer, is launching a record label of sorts that commissions songs from artists and will make them available as free MP3 downloads. The Bacardi Bat Project gets its name from the bat symbol that adorns their bottles -- originally a nod to the fact that the original Bacardi distillery in Cuba apparently had a bat colony living nearby.

None of the music made available on the Bacardi Bat Project will have been released before, making it the only place to find these tracks (well, until they show up on P2P). It's sort of like the RCRD LBL model, except Bacardi is the only sponsor, and it'll presumably have less music on it than RCRD LBL. In addition to studio tracks, Bacardi is commissioning remixes and live tracks.

The first release by the label is Metronomy's "A Thing for Me," originally commissioned for a film the company showed in Miami in April. Four remixes of the song will be available, and we've got the first one, by Breakbot, below.

The idea makes sense, allowing listeners to grab music for free, artists to get paid and the Bacardi brand to spread as music fans seek out the tracks. There doesn't appear to be any website for this, so their strategy appears to be to disseminate the tracks through blogs. The company has also partnered with Groove Armada for a series of live events.

Metronomy - "A Thing for Me (Breakbot remix)":

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We're not the only blog that feels somewhat played by posting this video, which mashes an Apple ad with various internet memes and a rap song that remixes the song used in the original, Yael Naim's "New Soul."

This is a blatant ploy to grab attention, but isn't that what music videos are for? Besides, it's just so well made, and yes, clever, that we just can't resist falling for it too.

Rapper AC kicks off the track with "Yo Phenom, what up, yo Glaze, what up. Yo these dudes is doing a lot of commercial tracks, but they ain't doing tracks from commercials," and then launches into a litany of faux-l33t references including the claim that someone's wallet is "thinner than the new Mac" and that he's as smart as the Geek Squad.

At the end of the video appears a note that all of this was created with a PC, enabling the video to tap into the always healthy "people yelling at each other about Mac vs. PC" market. Like we said, clever.

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(via ValleyWag)

While many companies would do anything to have popstars display their logos in music videos and on album covers, fashion company Louis Vuitton would rather they left their handbags home when it's time for the video or cover shoot.

After a five-year legal battle, the French company won an out-of-court settlement thought by MTV to be in the $300,000 range from Sony/BMG after artists signed to the label had been spotted with various Louis Vuitton logos. In addition, the label must promise to teach its artists the importance of leaving the Louis Vuitton brand out of promotional materials.

Offending uses of the Vuitton brand include Da Brat's Louis Vuitton beachball, a Ruben Studdard album cover that had to be pulled from store shelves because his jacket had the logo, and -- in a sort of grossness trifecta -- Britney Spears riding in a Louis Vuitton Hummer (see the "LV" dashboard design pictured here).

"We believe the terms of this agreement will provide strong protection to our brand worldwide," stated Louis Vuitton spokeswoman Nathalie Moulle-Berteaux, adding "we don't make dashboards."

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Screenshot of Britney Spears' Louis Vuitton dashboard from YouTube

How about Thelonious Monk? Charles Mingus? Or Miles Davis, pictured above? With CD sales tanking and a recession upon the land, Sony BMG is stretching out and selling photos from its vaults. And while some of the shots are beautifully vivid, and deeply appeal to consumer nostalgia, they're nowhere near cheap. In fact, given the current financial state of the music industry, the limited-edition prints on Sony's new Icon Collectibles site seem prohibitively expensive.

Billy Joel's contact sheet from The Stranger is going for $5,000. Photos of Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana, Sly and the Family Stone and more often start at $300 and approach $1700, stopping at $1699 for the sake of a dollar. Further offerings featuring Jaco Pastorius, Billie Holiday, Glenn Gould and The Greatest himself, Muhammad Ali, are on the burner, which is hot with hoped-for revenue in an era where the internet has made digital replication, of everything in sight and sound, a commonplace, personal occurrence.

Will it work? That's up to what's left of the consumption economy, which is getting battered by failing banks, job losses, military spending and unrepentant downloading. In other words, it's up to you.

Continue reading "Would You Pay $1,700 For a Digital Print of Dylan?" »

Mszunefan, the Microsoft Zune fanatic who had three Zune tattoos emblazoned around his shoulders, has decided to cover up the logo with another tattoo, citing a lack of progress in the device's feature set.

Apparently, E3's XBox Live announcement at E3 didn't include two must-have items on his wish list.

His initial post to ZuneScene on Wednesday reads:

"I am done. I have had the Zune since day 1 and have noticed little improvement. I have tried my best to support them every step of the way but the recent Xbox Live announcement at E3 made me lose it. To not include Zune Marketplace or the ability to load videos from Xbox Live to your Zune made me finally give up. I am in the works of figuring the best way to get a new tattoo to cover the logo on my arm. Thanks for all the harsh comments and you will see very little of me anymore."

Continue reading "Zune Tattoo Guy Wants to Lose the Logo" »

I sat in on a radio show today to discuss the practice of bands associating themselves with brands as a source of funding now that label money for new acts seems to be drying up. That taped segment will air later (we'll post a link), but in the meantime, it has me wondering how strong the concept of "selling out" is these days. Does associating a band with a brand constitute a dangerous loss of credibility on the band's part, or should artists be thankful that at least somebody's paying them, and happily cash the check?

What do you think?

My take so far is that it can be okay for bands to sell parts of themselves to advertisers so long as they write new material for the purpose (witness Jack White's apparently non-reputation-damaging Coca-Cola ad), but that when a band associates music people already love with a brand, it still stings fans who'd already forged a non-commercial relationship with the song.

(If your response doesn't fit into one of the poll answers above, note that all comments will be read as usual.)

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Maybe it was a sign that the dude who turned me onto Napster back in its heyday was the laziest guy in the office. But it wasn't long before his suggestion went viral in the building, and Napster launched the P2P era. Since then, it's been sued, overtaken and batted around by the likes of Lars Ulrich.

Its stock? How does a 95 percent nosedive in the last six years grab you?

So whither Napster, now that it has become the laughingstock of downloading? According to Bloomberg, it's become a possible takeover target for hedge funds in search of failing businesses whose cash on hand exceeds the value of their shares. Currently, Napster has stashed nearly  $70 million in cash and investments, while its stock valuation limps along at around $50 million. One possible buyer would be JDS Capital Management, according to one of Bloomberg's sources, since the elusive hedge fund also currently owns eMusic and Dreamworks' publishing arm.

Continue reading "Napster: Worth More Dead Than Alive? Ask JDS" »

It was a dark, dark time, the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

A scourge was upon the land, in the form of virally replicating boy bands like Backstreet Boys,  'N Sync, O-Town, Take 5 and many more. Most of them were the brainchildren of a Jabba-the-Hut lookalike known as Lou Pearlman, a pump-and-dump con man who's currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for conspiracy, money laundering and more.

Of course, he's not serving that time for actually creating those bands, merely robbing them, and everyone else he could, totally blind. According to the Associated Press, authorities finally decided on Wednesday how much the rotund jailbird owes: $300 million, large and in charge.

"Since the time of the sentencing all you've gotten from the defendant is the smirk on his face," Judge Judge G. Kendall Sharpe cracked, as prosecutors tried to add interest to the penalty. "So let's try to get some money first."

That will be hard. Pearlman was serving time in Orange County, but is being moved to an undetermined location. Whatever he's doing behind bars to make cash isn't going to be much. Maybe he can ask his first cousin Art Garfunkel for help? Let this be a lesson to all you investors out there. Never, and I mean never, ever invest in a boy band.

Photo: AP/John Raoux

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Online mail-order lifer Insound helped break Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more. But its latest merch endeavor, debuting today, is widening that musical net, and setting aside some philanthropy for a book star.

As its name implies, Insound 20 signed on The Small Stakes designer Jason Munn to craft graphics for 20 artists, awesome and otherwise, and slap them on shirts, hoodies, and posters. The well-adorned roster includes genre mutants (Calexico, Grizzly Bear, Death Cab for Cutie), ivory ticklers (Black Heart Procession, Spoon), hardy Canadians (Constantines, New Pornographers), the guitar army known as Built to Spill and twelve more willing participants.

Another design is also up for grabs, featuring the names of all bands involved, all profits of which benefit 826 NYC, the nonprofit writing center founded by McSweeney's guru and Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius author Dave Eggers. I've seen 826 in action, and it is a cool, conscientious resource for kids who love, or need, to read and write. And rock.

Photo: The Small Stakes

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The formerly unknown artist Podington Bear, whom we have highlighted several times on Listening Post, has been revealed to be Hush Records owner Chad Crouch.

Someone entered "Poddington Bear Aka Chad Crouch" into the artist field in Gracenote's online CD identification database for his new CD, The End. When reviewers and fans inserted it into iTunes, Crouch's identity was exposed.

According to a Gracenote representative, the artist data in question could have been entered by his label (in other words, by Crouch himself), although he would have probably gotten the spelling right ("Podington" instead of "Poddington").

Stream Podington Bear - "Ebullience":

The other possibility is that one of the first people to insert the CD into a computer entered the data, because Gracenote gathers user submissions of album information. Regardless of who entered the artist name (we have an e-mail in with Crouch to clarify), Crouch outted himself as Podington Bear on his blog on Wednesday.

It was hardly a huge revelation, in retrospect; a June 10 e-mail sent to Listening Post from Hush Records to promotie the new Podington Bear CD was signed "Thanks for your consideration, Chad."

A substantive (ahem) interview with RocketBoom, embedded below, touches lightly on such topics as Crouch's species (human not bear), his label (Hush Records), his "helping bring up" of The Decembrists, his (relative) failure to record 156 songs in a year (it took 18 months, he finished on Tuesday), his plans to collaborate with the delightful Esperanza Spalding, whom we have comtemplated covering here before, and his love for DayTrotter. (Ironically, he had e-mailed us earlier, "I actually don't read the strict MP3 blogs. Listening Post stands alone!")

Continue reading "Podington Bear's Identity Revealed" »

We've been curious about what the Microsoft Zune will look like ever since we first heard about it.

Photos taken by a Zunerama forum member reveal that Peter Saville's famous artwork for the album Unknown Pleasures album, which depicts 100 pulses from the first radio pulsar ever discovered, appears not only etched on the back of the Zune but also on a leather case that comes included with the $400 80GB Joy Division Limited Edition Zune.

Each player comes preloaded with the excellent new Joy Division documentary.

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(Zunerama; via Zune)

Pearl Jam fans have another way to purchase its wares, thanks to a "bootleg program" that will see the band selling recordings of its 2008 shows to fans either digitally or on CD -- both cases without digital rights management (DRM) that would inhibit further trading amongst fans. The program, which launched last week, also includes added access for subscribers to one of Verizon's cellphone service plans. We decided to kick the tires to see how Pearl Jam's Verizon partnership is working so far, now that the recordings are starting to show up online.

"As we have learned from our younger fans, more and more listeners are accessing their music through their mobile phones," said Ted Bierman, manager of the band's fan club. "With our proven track record of delivering high quality bootleg downloads and CDs, we feel this new approach will not only benefit our fans, but provide an exciting opportunity to share Pearl Jam's music in a more interactive setting."

Continue reading "Hands-On With Pearl Jam and Verizon's 'Bootleg' Site" »

In order to promote its lines of high priced jewelry and watches, Cartier is giving away a decent music sampler in the MP3 format as part of its love themed ad campaign (because without jewelry there can, of course, be no love).

I just listened some or all of each song. From where I'm sitting, the standouts are contributions by Little Dragon ("Infinite Love"), Lou Reed ("The Power of the Heart"), Phoenix ("Twenty-One One Zero") and Sol Seppy ("I Am Snow").

Each song on the site comes with a short text biography and well-produced video interview of the artist who recorded the track.

Continue reading "French Jeweller Gives Away MP3s" »

No wonder Metallica needed a shrink. Its head is a mess.

First, the band outed downloaders, then it courted them with online exclusives. As recently as a few days ago, Metallica killed online reviews (which it also courted) of its upcoming, as-yet-untitled, full-length record. And Thursday, the band flip-flopped and posted links to the reviews on Metallica.com.

So, who's to blame? Someone else, as usual. That's just how therapy goes sometimes.

Continue reading "Metallica Changes Its Mind (Again), Allows Online Reviews" »

From its early days hazing Ticketmaster to its recent efforts to out AT&T's wrongheaded censorship, Pearl Jam has just understood the business of music better than almost any band on Earth. While other artists have wasted their time (and free advertising) trying to shut down bootlegging and downloading, Pearl Jam has openly embraced and encouraged both, and still reaped mad paydays in the process.

Now the rock legend is expanding its immensely popular bootleg program to the increasingly popular mobile platform, and teaming up with Verizon to make it happen.

Continue reading "Pearl Jam Gets It, Expands Bootlegs for Mobile" »

Since co-founding The Runaways at age 15 to loving rock 'n' roll and not giving a damn about her "Bad Reputation" with her next band the Blackhearts, Joan Jett has scratched her name into the annals of rock history. Now ax titan Gibson is returning the favor by releasing the Joan Jett Signature Melody Maker, their first signature electric guitar ever for a female artist.

The sig was created in conjunction with Jett, who was happy that "Gibson was successfully able to replicate my custom velvet hammer pick ups which have not been available for twenty years." She added that those who perform live guitar "may understand the value of being able to shave off those split seconds between playing and interacting with the audience, especially if you use your hands to communicate. I can move between the killswitch, which mutes the guitar, and playing, and then back again without a lot of in-between motion."

In other words, she loves it.

Continue reading "An Inconvenient Distinction? Joan Jett Lands Signature Gibson" »

What are the odds? Two shoe companies, two press releases, two new musical ventures, released within hours of each other the same day as game three of the NBA Finals? Play ball!

Today, Converse is lacing up its Chuck Taylors and Jack Purcells and offering an exclusive free MP3 featuring Strokes singer Julian Casablancas, Neptunes and N.E.R.D. all-star Pharrell Williams and electro-soul chanteuse Santogold. The track "My Drive Thru" can be had for free on Converse's site. A video is due later this summer.

"I love the track," said Pharrell Williams. "As for partnering with Converse, I only wear and support the things that I like. The Chuck Taylor is the golden goose egg."

Meanwhile, Nike is continuing its Original Run series, which so far has utilized the talents of Aesop Rock, Crystal Method and LCD Soundsystem to create 45-minute jogging soundtracks that can be synced from runners' iPods to their footwear. This time, the shoe behemoth has tapped the talents of DJ A-Trak, whose Running Man: Nike+ Original Run debut will be available for purchase or download on June 24.

"Making a 45-minute piece was interesting in terms of arrangement," A-Trak explained. "Here, a guy is running and it's all about pacing. You want to keep him in the zone, you want to keep his attention, but at the same time there's much more room to spread out than on a record I might produce for a club."

Photo: Converse

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For those about to shop, AC/DC and Wal-mart salute you. The band has joined forces with the brand to sell its upcoming album exclusively through Wal-Mart retail locations in the CD format. Is AC/DC off its rocker?

Metallica, the other band to grace the T-shirts of Beavis and Butthead, has modeled its new album-release strategy somewhat on the approaches used by Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails. Bucking this trend, AC/DC has decided to move 100 percent to CD distribution, and only through one store, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), which cites "people familiar with the matter."

The Eagles used the same strategy to grand effect, when their Wal-Mart exclusive, Long Road Out of Eden, went septuple-platinum as competing stores apparently snapped up copies at Wal-mart to resell at their own locations.

Continue reading "Poll: Should AC/DC Release Its Album Exclusively Through Wal-Mart?" »

Microsoft's Zune will not be released on June 10 as previously suspected, but will actually go on sale on June 17 in a run of only 500 units, giving Joy Division completists and eBay speculators ample time to prepare.

The 80GB portable players will come preloaded with the upcoming Joy Division documentary Unknown Pleasures and will feature the graph of one hundred pulses from pulsar CP 1919 as repurposed into an album cover for the band's 1979 debut, also called Unknown Pleasures, by Factory Records' in-house artist Peter Saville.

Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Microsoft's Zune division, said the company's "involvement" (read: product tie-in) was "a way of saying 'Thank You' to the band for doing what they did" that was "not only a tribute to them but to an entire musical journey through Factory Records and the artists and movements it spawned."

In addition, he said, Microsoft meant the Joy Division Zune as "a tribute to deep respect (huh?) for graphic design that lives on through artists like Peter Saville, and to independent film-makers that believe in more than just commercial success" (which has also largely eluded the Zune). "Ultimately it's a tribute to the self-belief and self-expression that inspires true authentic art."

Spin.com was given an early photo of what it termed "the special device," which is scheduled to be available on June 17 on ZuneOriginals. The article called it "amazing" that Engadget roughly predicted how the artwork's rectangular shape would fit onto the Zune's rectangular shape.

They may lack arch support, but Converse shoes have never wanted for tour support, given their traditional popularity among rock musicians.

Nike, which owns Converse, plans to strengthen the branding connection between music and the Converse shoe line in the mind of the shoe-buying public by releasing footwear branded with insignia for The Grateful Dead, Kurt Cobain, The Doors and The Beatles.

Update (6/3): Digital Music News appears to have erroneously reported that there would be a Beatles edition. A Converse spokesman  told us "we do not have any plans for Beatles shoes." Converse's press release contains details about various models that will be available.

"We thought long and hard about this," said Doors Music Co.'s Jeff Jampol, "and I gotta say, Converse Jack Purcells and rock go hand-in-hand, and have ever since the mid-sixties."

No doubt this would have been a huge hit with Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Jerry Garcia and Jim Morrison, who are, of course, all widely remembered for their love of synergistic marketing, product endorsements and co-branding opportunities.

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Photo: Chaos in June

British authorities confirmed that they have arrested five men and one woman for sharing music on the defunct P2P network OiNK. Apparently, these users had shared albums in advance of their release dates.

"Suspects were taken