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THE STANDARD'S
B E A T S H E E T
The Latest Digital Music News - and It's Free
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Tuesday, April 10, 2001
TOP STORY:
* A Word With Chuck D
NET NOISE:
* SOHH.com
BEATS:
* At Last, Major Labels' Time Has Come
DOT DOT DOT:
* They're Your Puppet ... MP3.com Owes TVT How Much?
SOUND OFF:
* This week's question: How much do you spend on music each month? How
much of that amount would you use to pay for digital downloads?
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TOP STORY
~~~~~~~~~
A Word With Chuck D
A week after the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on digital music,
the Public Enemy frontman and outspoken file-trading advocate says his
patience with the major-label record industry has worn thin.
By Julene Snyder
Chuck D sounds tired, and understandably so. The rap pioneer has found
himself in the spotlight for much of the past year's public discourse
on digital music. Last week, he was in Washington, D.C., for the
Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on digital entertainment and
copyright and for a Napster-sponsored "teach-in." Then he was off to
San Francisco, where he spoke about digital music at an event
sponsored by the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Despite the hectic schedule, Chuck D - who was born Carlton Ridenhour
- took some time out to talk about file-trading, rap and the changing
face of the music industry. He's proud of being at the forefront of
the digital-music distribution issue, although he laughs ruefully at
the way history tends to get rewritten: "It's funny that sometimes you
can pave a road and build a ditch, and in the future, you'll probably
be discredited for it, and somebody else who was against it at first
will claim to be the king of it all." His seminal rap group, Public
Enemy, was the first to offer a full album as a digital download,
before it was available in stores. The online exposure - via the
now-defunct online record label Atomic Pop Records - helped the group
sell 300,000 copies of "There's A Poison Going On" in 1999.
While he views last week's events on Capitol Hill as mostly a
rehashing of material he's heard time and again, Chuck D did come away
with newfound hope. He took part in Napster's teach-in, the discussion
dubbed a "love-in" by some reporters given the somewhat skewed panel
made up of Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning, Chuck D, former Grand
Royal Records President Mark Kates and moderated by Napster VP Manus
Cooney. Though contrarian views were notable by their absence, the
event rallied Napster aficionados to show Congress their support for
the file-trading service, and Chuck D says that the event's young
audience should give the labels something to think about. "Their
enthusiasm - that this business always says that they're reflecting -
is for technology. That's the thing that these young people are
totally into."
For now, he's got shotgun responses to questions about recent
developments in the digital-music space. On major label contracts:
"Artists are pretty much where major league baseball players were in
1965, five years before free agency. Obviously, as things go forward,
you look for things to change and equity to be placed in the hands of
the creators themselves."
On Courtney Love's call for musicians to form a union: "A lot of
artists are between the ages of 18 and 25 ... young people are looking
for immediate dividends. To get them to vote for something that might
be good for the long run might be beyond their scope."
On the Recording Industry Association of America's Hilary Rosen: "At
the Senate hearing, she was very clear and passionate about what she
was protecting. But I just call the heads of the big labels cowards to
let Hilary do all of their work as opposed to them coming out
themselves."
These days, Chuck D is heavily involved in several online projects:
His group's extensive official site, PublicEnemy.com; his online radio
station, Bringthenoise.com; the Web site RapStation.com. He's also
about to launch an online version of his record label, SlamJamz
Recordings. Influenced by these projects, he hints he may be done
making traditional albums entirely. "I no longer believe in album
concepts," he said. "Maybe there'll be just three songs I release.
That's the beauty of digital distribution. You're not locked into
doing something just because the industry tells you that you have to
release an album with 12 songs."
For now, his patience with the major-label record industry has worn
thin: "That system, well, to me, I'm burnt out on it," he says. "I
just think that whole process is old and tired."
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NET NOISE
~~~~~~~~~
SOHH.com
When asked what Web sites he likes, Public Enemy's Chuck D replied
like a shot: "Support online hip-hop, SOHH.com." Dubbed "the best
overall hip-hop site" by Rolling Stone magazine, SOHH.com has a clean
design, a vibrant look and loads of sharp, original content. Here
you'll find the latest news from the hip-hop front, analysis about
music, lyrics and "on-wax wars," along with the weekly Hot Sh!t List.
If you want to hone in closer, you can head to the myClick section,
where you can find "hip-hop news, events, artists, people and scenes
in your area." You can also watch interviews with players like the
Black-Eyed Peas, Beatnuts and Marley Marl. Regularly scheduled chats
with stars and thriving message boards are among other offerings at
this site, which consistently manages to present loads of information
and opinion without being confusing or off-putting.
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BEATS
~~~~~
At Last, the Time Has Come
Doing it their way, the major labels say they're finally ready to
offer digital downloads.
Last week was a time of big announcements. We heard about MusicNet - a
deal between Real Networks, BMG, EMI and Warner Records - which
promises that as early as this summer, songs from the labels' catalogs
will be available to everyone from America Online to small music
sites. We heard that Sony and Universal's collaboration, Duet, will
compete by offering its combined catalog to Yahoo this summer. We got
word that Microsoft is launching a new streaming music channel on its
MSN portal, along with a subscription download service. We even
learned that MTVi plans to let listeners to an alternative music
channel pay for songs per download, for anywhere from 99 cents for a
single to a hair under $20 for a full-length album. And yet, there was
no spontaneous outpouring of joyful hosannas from music fans saying
that, at last, their prayers for legal digital distribution have been
answered. Even the news that EMusic.com is being acquired by Universal
Music Group - which, according to some observers, means EMusic will be
a distribution outlet for Duet - did not appear to thrill the masses.
Why not? We already saw what the people want - Napster - because it
let you get virtually any song you could think of from a single
source. Maybe people would have paid for a legal version, maybe they
wouldn't. But if you've got to go here, there and everywhere to find
the music you want, the average music fan may just look elsewhere. One
thing's for certain: This is shaping up to be a mighty interesting
summer.
Read more at http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,23418,00.html?nl=bts
DOT DOT DOT
~~~~~~~~~~~
They're Your Puppet ... MP3.com Owes TVT How Much?
Maybe we're just easily amused, but we found ourselves tickled by this
week's announcement that ArtistDirect.com will sell limited-edition 'N
Sync marionettes, inspired by the band's "It's Gonna Be Me" video. A
press release about the puppets somewhat mysteriously tells us that
although 600 puppets exist, only 440 will be sold to the public. (What
happened to the other 160? Will they wind up on the desks of lucky
digital-music scribes? Seems doubtful, given that they cost $300 a
pop.) Each is hand signed by "the band member depicted" and dressed in
reproductions of the clothing, shoes and jewelry worn in the video.
... Bloomberg News reports there was a little math error involved in
the $300,000 award jurors levied against MP3.com on Friday in the TVT
Records copyright-infringement case. It turns out the number jurors
really had in mind was $3 million. In the Bloomberg story, U.S.
District Judge Jed Rakoff said that it was possible that "jurors had
arrived at a grand total during deliberations, then 'divided it
wrongly.'" MP3.com director of public relations Greg Wilfahrt said
that while the company has no comment on this story, "MP3.com
understands that the Honorable Judge Rakoff has recalled the jury to
discuss the case. Like everyone else, we await his statement, whenever
that may come." According to Bloomberg, that statement won't arrive
for several weeks.
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SOUND OFF
~~~~~~~~~
This week's question: How much do you spend on music each month? How
much of that amount would you use to pay for digital downloads?
E-mail your opinions to julene@well.com with "sound off" in the
subject line, and we'll print a selection of the responses in next
week's newsletter. Letters may be edited for clarity and length, so
keep them short and include your name and affiliation, if any.
STAFF
~~~~~
Written by Julene Snyder (julene@well.com).
Editor: Michele Keller (mkeller@thestandard.com).
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