Just a few weeks ago, OK Go frontman Damian Kulash contributed a brave op-ed to The New York Times which criticized EMI for stopping video embedding on other websites. Now, it seems as though that column was OK Go’s parting shot: the band very recently announced their departure from the label via a YouTube video.

EMI released a sufficiently polite statement that read, “We’ve really enjoyed our relationship with OK Go. They’ve always pushed creative boundaries and have broken new ground, particularly with their videos. We wish them the greatest success for the future.” Likewise, Kulash said in the video, “We’d like to thank the people at EMI Music who have worked so hard on our behalf.” Way to stay amicable about it. Props.

We’re certain the band will reveal more plans in the coming months or year, but so far, their main priority seems to be re-releasing Of the Blue Colour of the Sky on their own new label this April, oddly named Paracadute Recordings.

Despite their latest LP selling only approximately 20,000 copies thus far, their latest video for “This Too Shall Pass” has enjoyed 7,590,101 views at the time of this story’s publication. Now that embedding restrictions don’t apply to them anymore, will their album sales also increase? It’s difficult to say, but perhaps OK Go know what they’re doing.

(Digital Spy)

Read the full story

Danger Mouse (nee Brian Burton) teamed up last year with Sparklehorse (Mark Linkous) and film director David Lynch to collaborate on an interesting project which brought together tons of big names, such as Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, The Flaming Lips, and James Mercer of The Shins (and now Broken Bells, Mercer’s new band with Burton). That giant collaborative effort came to be known as Dark Night of the Soul.

Although the details were pretty ambiguous at the time, EMI couldn’t release the album, but accompanying books were sold. Each book came with a blank CD-R, indirectly instructing the buyer to download the album from file sharing sites.

If there was a dispute between Burton and EMI, it has since cleared up, because EMI has agreed to officially release Dark Night of the Soul this year, “hopefully [...] in June or something like that,” according to Burton.

The uberpowerful major label recently released this official statement: “We can confirm that EMI are working with Brian Burton AKA Danger Mouse again, and are delighted to be doing so.” –EMI

I suppose this is good news, especially for people who still love physical formats. Look out for Dark Night of the Soul this summer on EMI.

(BBC 6Music News)

Walmart is a gigantic corporation. Now that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have merged into Live Nation Entertainment, Inc., they have also become one gigantic corporation. It only makes sense that two gigantic corporations would begin to mingle.

As Bloomberg reported late last week, shoppers can now purchase their event tickets at the checkout counter:

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, reached an agreement with Live Nation Entertainment Inc. to sell tickets to concerts and other events at about 500 stores.

Wal-Mart and Live Nation’s Ticketmaster will introduce the service in the next few months in cities including Chicago and Los Angeles, according to excerpts of remarks Live Nation Executive Chairman Irving Azoff made today in Dallas.

According to Bloomberg, Walmart’s stocks are slightly down, but Live Nation’s stocks are up. Perhaps we should consider stopping at the massive “supercenter” the next time we need tickets to a gig, some groceries, and an oil change.

We’re a little late on this one, but Pitchfork has brought it to our attention that Chicago-based punk producer and engineer Iain Burgess died last week on February 11. He fell victim to cancer, or as the Chicago Sun-Times more technically phrased it, “a pulmonary embolism as a complication from pancreatic and liver cancer.” Not only was Burgess instrumental in producing and engineering for bands that helped shape the early Chicago punk scene (The Effigies, Naked Raygun, Big Black, Shellac), he was a mentor to Steve Albini, formerly of the band Big Black and currently of Shellac. Albini is known mostly for his production work and has produced some of the industry’s most important albums, such as Nirvana’s In Utero and Pixies’ Surfer Rosa. “Iain was a dear friend and mentor, and I consider him responsible for a good many of the best things that have ever happened to me,” Albini said of the late engineer.

Cancer claimed another figure in music over the weekend: frontman Doug Fieger (pictured, second from right) of the new wave/power pop band, The Knack, best known for the hit song “My Sharona” in 1979. Fieger co-wrote the song and sang on the track. Unfortunately, The Knack never enjoyed the same level of popularity again, although “My Sharona” continued to be played, covered, and parodied. Fieger died in Woodland Hills, California at 57 years old, after battling brain and lung cancer for six years.

Watch the “My Sharona” video below. It’s the best quality we could find:

(Chicago Sun-Times, Billboard/Associated Press)

This week, Google stirred up the music world by deleting several popular mp3 blogs, namely Pop Tarts Suck Toasted, I Rock Cleveland, LivingEars, and It’s a Rap. I could provide links to their Blogger accounts, but they have been deleted. All that remains is, “The blog you were looking for was not found.” The blogs in question, according to Google, violated the Terms of Service by supposedly uploading music illegally.

Google’s Blogger Buzz blog issued a statement yesterday afternoon, which you can read in full there, but here are some key points:

When we receive multiple DMCA complaints about the same blog, and have no indication that the offending content is being used in an authorized manner, we will remove the blog.

But what about blogs that post supposedly legal mp3s, such as songs distributed by artists or labels themselves? Google often deletes those entries or blogs, despite bloggers legally sharing those songs. Scott Curtis of LivingEars has experienced this:

Often I take my queues from larger sites like Stereogum, Fader or Pitchfork. If they have it up for download the artist must be good with that, right? Last year I posted a newly released mp3 from The Twilight Sad which was available on both Stereogum and Pitchfork. A week later Blogger had deleted the post.

Anticipating this question from many confused music fans and bloggers, Google attempts to shed light on the situation:

Inevitably, we occasionally receive DMCA complaints even though the blogger does have the legal right to link to the music in question. Whether this is the result of miscommunication by staff at the record label, or confusion over which MP3s are “official,” it happens. If this happens to you, it is imperative that you file a DMCA counter-claim so we know you have the right to the music in question. Otherwise, if we receive multiple DMCA complaints for your blog, this could very well constitute repeat offenses, compelling us to take action.

Google deletes these music blogs, often without any warning, forcing the blogger into a labyrinthine “guilty until proven innocent” situation. In the meantime, these bloggers risk losing months or years of hard work, devotion, and writing. Some of the deletion victims were able to save their information and have since launched their own URLs: LivingEars, It’s a Rap, and Pop Tarts Suck Toasted.

(The Daily Swarm)

Warner Music Group chief executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. has recently commented that the “free streaming services are not a positive thing for the industry,” and assured that “as Warner Music Group goes, [our music] will not be licensed. It is not the kind of approach that we will be supporting in the future.”

British news sources, namely The Guardian and BBC, report that services such as Spotify, Last.fm, and We7 will no longer have the right to stream artists and songs from Warner Music Group. However, according to a Warner spokesperson, deals already in place will remain, meaning if a streaming service plays an R.E.M. (Warner) song that was licensed in a previous deal, listeners may still stream it. But if R.E.M. release a new album soon, don’t count on being able to listen to those new songs on free streaming services.

The Guardian and BBC cite services popular in the U.K. and Europe, and at face value, this issue seems to only concern European music fans. However, North American music lovers must take note, because services especially popular in North America such as Pandora are also likely to be affected by the change. Of course, the U.S. is no stranger to Last.fm, either. Spotify, a primarily European service which allows free streaming with advertisements or fee-based mobile streaming without ads, has plans to enter the U.S. market in the near future, and subscribers will have to deal with a lack of new songs from Warner.

Spotify was on track to prove its legitimacy as a business model, but they are likely to suffer from Warner’s decision, according to Paul Brindley of Music Ally digital music consulting, saying that Warner removing their catalog would “definitely be a tremendous blow” to the service they provide.

Bronfman and his corporation make their comments and decisions in light of Warner Music Group’s most recent sales figures, which indicate a loss of $17 million (£11 million) in the last quarter of 2009.

WMG was mostly influenced by their own losses, which they believe is partly caused by the aforementioned streaming services. The megacompany also has plans to start a subscription-based music service to mitigate losses. They are in hopes that their service will take away attention from Apple’s success with iTunes.

“Do you remember when MTV actually played music videos?” It’s the same old question we music fanatics have been asking each other for almost a decade now. In the early ’00s, MTV became dominated by reality TV shows a la “The Real World” series, and that trend continues today to an even greater extent. Finally, MTV has come to terms with this reality (no pun intended), and the channel will henceforth be known without the “music television” tag. Read MTV’s press release below:

It represents a new visually defined MTV, stimulating its past, present and future and embracing it’s [sic] diversity. Everything from Jersey Shore, to the VMAs to collaborations with the MoMA. The logo is part of MTV’s re-invention to connect with today’s millennial generation and bring them in as part of the channel.

Diversity, eh? Does it make sense for MTV to continue broadcasting the Video Music Awards every year? What does the ‘M’ stand for, exactly?

(The Wrap)

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice turned every concert-goer’s nightmare into a reality. The department approved the proposal of LiveNation and Ticketmaster merging into one supercompany. The two ticket sales/promotion companies are expected to physically merge immediately, and the monolithic company will now be known as Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.

The new ticketing monopoly promises that “through this merger, the parties believe that the combined company will have the tools to develop new products, expand access, improve transparency and deliver artists and fans more choice.” We’ll have to see it to believe it, but forgive us for being skeptical.

According to Pitchfork, the DoJ’s Antitrust Division and 17 state Attorneys General have already filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the move, but the Attorneys General have also filed a settlement that would “resolve any competitive concerns.” It’s unfortunate that Live Nation Entertainment is practically twisting arms in order to make sure that no one challenges them.

26 year-old Alan Ellis, a British software engineer, founded a torrent site called OiNK in 2004. In 2007, the site was forcibly shut down by authorities, and Ellis went from his status as a regular guy to becoming the first person in the UK to get prosecuted for “file sharing.”

However, Ellis never really shared files. The site used an indexing system that allows OiNK users to upload files from their own computers, which is the same model of many current torrent sites. OiNK simply facilitated the music uploads and downloads. During the trial at Teesside Crown Court, the prosecuting attorney informed the jury of money Ellis had kept in various bank accounts, totaling approximately $300,000. Ellis cited OiNK users’ option to donate, and he had planned to use the money to pay for server costs.

Ellis explained to the court that his reasons behind starting the site included improving his skills and marketability as a software engineer.

On the basis that Ellis did not personally host music files, he was found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud copyright holders.

(Via BBC)