Radiohead, Iron Maiden, Billy Bragg and Kate Nash wouldn’t seem to have much in common except their Brit connection but they’re banding together with Bryan Ferry, David Gilmore, the Verve and others to form Featured Artists’ Coalition, a collective that claims that it’ll empower musicians more by letting them keep control of their music- see this BBC article for more details.  In theory, it’s a great idea and the labels have to play nice (or appear to) and there is the idea that there’s strength in numbers.  But it’s another thing to put it into practice.  How much are all of these artists really going to band together (so to speak)?  They have different outlooks, interests, motivations and schedules so it’s hard to imagine that other than symbolically, they’d all stay on the same page.  I wish ‘em luck and hope that more artists join and maybe they could even come up with their own bill of rights for musicians.

But one guy who puts his modem (or high-speed) where his mouth is happens to be a novelty artist.  That’s the reason that some people might not take Weird Al seriously, especially when he jokes around all the time but he does take his career seriously.  That’s why he’s said in his MySpace blog that he’s putting out music whenever he feels like instead of holding back a bunch of tracks for an album.  Even he admits that his humor’s timely, tied to recent hits, so it only makes sense for him to just pop out songs when he things they’re ready- the most recent one is a bite on T.I.’s hit “Whatever You Like.”

He’s hardly unique in doing this- garage/punk screamer Jay Reatrard did it recently himself as did Nine Inch Nails when they surprised everyone with two back-to-back albums recently too.  But few artists have made a point of doing it in the Net age that would and should ideally open up the idea of thinking of new, creative ways to put out music, including doing it more frequently, in different lengthed formats (singles, albums, EPs).  No doubt you’ll be seeing more of it and not just from a funny man like Al. 

—Jason Gross

With the economy in such a mess, it’s hard to concentrate on music news but a couple of things to note.  In what has to be the most passed-around link I’ve seen in a while, bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley throws his support behind Senator Obama, speaking very plainly and clearing about real issues, rather than the sickening attack ads that another senator is filling the airwaves with.

Also, as a sign of the times, Gawker is cutting staff and cutting back on its program to pay bloggers for page views.  I don’t like to report any publication, online or offline, is cutting staff (except Fox News) but the part about bonuses is noteworthy as that was seen as what might have been an important model for bloggers and companies to use as a guideline.  This pay scheme may still become something of a standard but this setback definitely puts a crimp in the idea and will no doubt send many other pubs scrambling for other solutions about how to stay afloat.

Finally, I wanted to give a shout-out to a brainy site called Music Think Tank which is “where the music industry thinks out loud.” Not that they have a monopoly on that (even without this blog, PopMatters does that pretty well) but it’s always comforting to find online destinations like this.  I don’t always agree with their prognostications but they get high marks for thinking out loud and tossing out ideas.  Spend some time there and you’ll be glad you did.

—Jason Gross

That’s what they want us to believe, according to this CNN article.  Or more precisely, they’re using this threat to convince the Copyright Royalty Board not to raise the amount of money publishers can collect for songs, increasing the price from 9 cents to 15 cents a song (aka 66%).  Apple argues that they can’t keep songs at 99 cents a pop at that new rate and would have to close iTunes.  Publishers are unmoved by this threat but considering that Apple has 85% of the digital music market, there should be some cause for concern.  If Apple’s gone, what will happen to all their customers?  They’re not going to automatically just migrate over to other major-sanctioned services (i.e. Napster, Amazon, Rhapsody) and will more likely go to the free P2P services.  That will mean a lot less money for the publishers, the labels and of course the artists themselves.  So while the publishers would get more money for each song, the total amount will be MUCH less if Apple follows through on their threat.

But would Apple really do that?  As it is, the company makes pennies (literally) for each iTune song sold, with the bulk of their profits coming from iPods instead.  If they were in business with iTunes alone, they’d be losing a lot of money so this just means they’ll be losing a lot more.  But shutting off iTunes would give people less incentive to buy iPods.  Unless Apple is gambling that people will stick with their neat little device with or without iTunes, then this is a ploy to get the Copyright Board to back down and not implement the increase and see if their threat will make them blink.

Then again, Soundexchange was negotiating royalty rates for streaming services (Net and satellite services) recently and thought it more important to raise the rate as they please and not care about how many companies (i.e. Pandora) would be put out of business as a result of that.  Luckily, the recent Webcaster Settlement Act (which passed Congress and is going to Bush) gives the ‘casters the chance to renegotiate the rates.  If only the CPB had enough sense to do the same.

OCTOBER 3rd follow-up: According to this Wired story, the Board decided to keep the price the same so iTunes lives.  One of the publishing company heads bragged there that he didn’t think Jobs and friends really had the guts to kill off iTunes if an increase was agreed upon.  Such chutzpah…

—Jason Gross

Just as we’re mourning the possible collapse of Creative Loafing (and Washington City Paper along with it), another title finally gets resurrected on the web.  It’s been brewing for a few months now but No Depression has now relaunched online at nodepression.com.  If you care about alt-country/Americana music and you want to help it thrive with a sterling publication that supports it, then you should support ND.

—Jason Gross

Maybe not but it’s disheartening to see them file for bankruptcy.  Great publication that had quality arts coverage in it.  I’d even say the same about the New York Sun, despite its pathetically fawning coverage of Dubya.

—Jason Gross

In a touching and instructive announcement, Justin Ouelette explains why he couldn’t sustain the popular Muxtape site on its homepage.  He details the problem he had with trying to make Muxtape legit and major label approved.  Before he got shut down, many folks (including me) uploaded their favorite music into a virtual mixtape. 

—Jason Gross