Charity With An Edge
April 18, 2007
by Lyndsey Parker
U2 is a band inextricably connected in the public's mind with philanthropy and all-around social consciousness--but usually in association with the charity efforts of the band's recently knighted mouthpiece, the almighty Bono. However, U2 guitarist the Edge is equally committed to giving back. Case in point: Music Rising, the charity organization he co-founded in 2005 with legendary producer Bob Ezrin and Gibson Guitar chairman Henry Juszkiewicz, to help aid musicians and preserve music in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Gearing up for Music Rising's "Icons Of Music" auction -- which takes place at Julien's Auctions on April 21, 2007, and will sell memorabilia donated by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Bob Dylan, and the Edge himself -- the always eloquent Edge took time out of his busy philanthropic schedule to speak with Yahoo! Music's Lyndsey Parker on the phone from his native Dublin. The two discussed Edge's love for New Orleans' music, his hope to rebuild the hurricane-ravaged city, and even what U2 are doing musically when they're not out making the world a better place. Here's how it went...
YAHOO! MUSIC: So, can you tell me a little bit about Music Rising, and how this venture came about?
THE EDGE: The idea came together pretty spontaneously after the Katrina disaster. I was kind of inspired to do something for the music culture of the area, knowing a little bit about it -- having been there a few times myself and seen for myself what a unique place it was for music. I was trying to figure out what to do, and I happened to meet Bob Ezrin, the producer, and he was speaking the same as myself about trying to do something. We hooked up with others, and this charity came about as a response to, really, the jeopardy that we felt was surrounding the whole culture of the area. Because the music there is a tradition that's handed down -- it's not really a formal kind of musical approach that could documented. It's about fathers passing it on to their sons and grandfathers passing it on to their grandkids. It occurs in church halls and in schools in these parts of New Orleans, many of which were destroyed by Katrina. So the people with the traditions and the knowledge have been scattered all over America. So Music Rising tried to encourage the music to continue in whichever way we could. The first thing we managed to do was put instruments back in the hands of professional musicians -- the tools of their trade, their guitars or their horns or their drums or their keyboards. That was the first priority. We managed during the first six months to get to over 2,000 professional musicians. We've got to the point now where we feel we've managed to reach most of them, and now we want to concentrate our efforts on the areas themselves that have been swept up away by the hurricane -- the Lower 9th Ward, St. Bernard Parish, and other areas of the Gulf Coast. It's in these districts that these people with these incredible traditions of music lived, and we want to try to make it as easy as possible for the music to come back. So the idea now is to get the schools and the churches up and running with their music programs. So we're concentrating on music, but we hope that through that, there will be a general kind of encouragement for rebuilding. Because it's been our experience, having been there, that wherever music is being played, there's an outpouring of positivity and hope for the future. You know, although New Orleans is still with us, still there, it's a reduced city, and I think the danger is in the reshuffle -- that in the act of trying to get it back up and running, the music will not be considered a priority. We're concerned that it's going to be overlooked, so we want to try and keep people's attention on this incredible treasure.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Did you ever visit New Orleans in the Katrina aftermath, and see the destruction firsthand?
THE EDGE: I was there a few months after the disaster, so I was there really when many areas of the city were still closed. I had a contact in the police force down there, so I was actually able to go down and see some of the areas, and it was quite overwhelming, the level of destruction. I'm used to seeing areas that have been hit with smaller-scale problems -- I've seen firsthand bomb sites and all that -- but this was on a totally different scale. This was not just a block or a few buildings. This was square kilometers of suburban development that were totally annihilated. I found it quite overwhelming to see just the scale of it. I saw things very few people would have seen. I got to see the dump where the authorities had been piling up the detritus of lives -- the ruined cars, the ruined ovens and refrigerators and air-conditioning units, all these things. Acres and acres of ruined family possessions. When you see that, it's on just this unbelievable scale. It's hard to explain, really, if you haven't seen it. But the jeopardy is now that, it's difficult sometimes to negotiate all the hurdles and get these places rebuilt, to give people a chance to come back to their areas. It seems there's been such a delay, such inertia, that it may not happen. That, I feel, would be a real mistake.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Are you at all concerned that in the re-gentrification of New Orleans, the old culture will be lost, and it will just become a city of Starbucks franchises?
THE EDGE: Yeah, I do fear that. I fear that a lot. Because I do feel that in many ways the areas that I'm interested in, as a fan of New Orleans music, are areas that would be seen as marginal. If you talk to members of the police force down there, they talk about these being "troublesome" areas. If you talk to the politicians, they say these are the areas with high unemployment, that they are "challenged" economically. You talk to the engineers, and they say those areas are fairly low-lying and it's difficult to build there safely for the future. So everyone is thinking, "Well, maybe we won't get around to actually rebuilding there. We'll leave the people where they are and we'll do something else over here." But if you're a fan of music, these are not marginal areas. This is the absolute epicenter of everything that's exciting about New Orleans.
YAHOO! MUSIC: U2 is involved with a lot worthy causes. Why is this cause so close to your heart?
THE EDGE: There's some poetry here for me, and that is the fact that I earn my living as a result of this great musical idea called "rock 'n' roll." If it wasn't for that movement starting up in America, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing -- there's just no doubt about that in my mind. It's brought me places and given me things that I couldn't have achieved otherwise. I think many of the people who've contributed to the Icons Of Music auction feel the same way. It's unique to America. You could say that jazz and rock 'n' roll are America's unique contribution to world culture. That's America, in cultural terms. And this is where it all came from! Louisiana had this very remarkable, liberal attitude towards African culture in the 19th century, and there was this place Congo Square -- which is in New Orleans to this day -- where on weekends African music was played, drums were brought out. It was just this genuine blending of the cultures in New Orleans. I suppose the French were just a bit more laid-back than the English when it came to that sort of thing. Down through the years, various traditions were preserved as a result -- things like the jazz funerals, which still go on to this day, and the second-line jazz bands. A lot the traditions would go back to Africa, West Africa. It's highly likely that as a result of this intermingling of African rhythms in Congo Square and these bands that were playing a lot of Western hymns, that there on the streets of New Orleans was the beginning of this blending. You got the melody from Europe and the rhythm from Africa. The scene was set for a very interesting hybrid form to come through. It did, and it's been incredibly resilient over the years; it's still around in its raw form. From that came all kinds of wonderful music: ragtime, jazz, R&B. So it's just this real fertile culture, but it's all very particular to these communities and these areas. Everyone who visits New Orleans goes to the French Quarter and they get a sense of the place, but it's not really the French Quarter where this stuff goes on. That's the stage, where it gets played and everyone gets to see it, but actually where it's preserved and maintained is in these suburbs. New Orleans, if it lost its suburbs, would not survive as we know and love it. It would certainly become a much less interesting place. Funny enough, when I first went to America, most of what I knew about the country was through movies and TV, and when I got there, I discovered that there's so much more diversity to the culture. When people talk to me about the United States of America being a homogenized place, I say, "You've got to be kidding!" It's totally not. I just cite New Orleans as an example. The diversity there is astonishing. You've got the French-speaking districts, zydeco...it's all there, within a 100-mile radius of New Orleans, this incredible diversity of music and history. To me, this area is one of the things that I love about America the most. And I feel like in the hustle and bustle of trying to deal with a very difficult situation, it could easily get lost.
YAHOO! MUSIC: How do you feel about how the U.S. government responded to the Katrina crisis?
THE EDGE: I guess I was surprised that there didn't seem to be the kind of urgency I would have expected. I know it's a difficult thing. I'm not suggesting that dealing with a disaster of this magnitude could or should ever be easy. It just seemed that there wasn't that kind of urgent response. It seemed to take a very long time to get going, and momentum has been very hard to achieve. There's political inertia of all kinds down there. I don't think it's probably very helpful to start finger-pointing, it is what it is, but the problems are still unfortunately there. It seems to be incredibly difficult to get things going. It seems a lot of non-government agencies are having a lot more luck! Habitat For Humanity are in there doing great work, and I hear a lot about a lot of musicians doing different things that are helping. A lot of it doesn't seem to be government stuff. But what do I know? There's probably protocols between the state and the federal government that complicate it. But it seems like the red tape is winning -- which is completely terrible!
YAHOO! MUSIC: Tell me more about the Icons Of Music auction, and the items that celebrities donated to be sold.
THE EDGE: I was totally bowled over by the response. It's incredible, people's reactions, and I think that really speaks a lot about New Orleans' music and how musicians feel about it. Yes, obviously people were responding to my involvement, but really what they were responding to is the New Orleans music scene. They obviously felt it was very much worth supporting. So I was delighted, amazed, to get some incredible things. People have been incredibly generous. I think the auction is going to raise a lot of money, and I think it's going to do an awful lot of good on many levels. First of all, there will be a lot of music groups that will be up and running again because of this. But also I think the sort of karmic, cosmic support that it shows will raise people's spirits in New Orleans. Which is really good, because it's an issue that's very much drifted off the newspaper headlines. I mean, it's not even page 14 at this point. So it's a very good thing.
YAHOO! MUSIC: How much money do you expect to raise?
THE EDGE: I don't know exactly, but I'm sure it will be in the millions. I haven't done the math. You know, schools and churches are more expensive to equip that individual musicians. A church is maybe a five- or six-piece band plus their PA system, and then with a school, you're talking a full brass band, full orchestra. So that's hundreds of thousands of dollars. But I think we're going to be able to help a lot of schools and churches with this.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Which auction items are you most excited about?
THE EDGE: There's a beautiful acoustic guitar that Paul McCartney gave us, which means a lot, and there's one from Lou Reed which is incredible. Joe Perry from Aerosmith gave us a beautiful guitar. But there's other things as well, like a Beatles concert ticket from Shea Stadium. That's a little piece of history. The posters from Woodstock, Grateful Dead posters...and obviously a Jimi Hendrix guitar, and Jimi Hendrix's incredible pink flared pants! For a guitar player like me, that kind of stuff is wild. I'd love to get some of that. I don't know, I think I'm going to be quite disappointed on the day because the prices are going to go through the roof! But there's quite a few things that...
YAHOO! MUSIC: ...you'll bid on yourself?
THE EDGE: Yes, I think I will! Everyone that I show the auction catalog to feels the same: "Wow! I want to get that, and that, and that..."
YAHOO! MUSIC: What personal items did you donate to the auction?
THE EDGE: My Gibson white Les Paul, which was the third guitar I bought after we got our record deal. I felt like it would be appropriate to donate an instrument that I've actually used extensively, so that was the one. It's a guitar that I've used for 20 years. I've used it on every tour, every album, so there's a lot of history there.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Wasn't that guitar hard to part with?
THE EDGE: I'll miss it, there's no doubt. It means a lot. But at the same time, it just felt right and proper. It's the right thing to do for this event. I'll get another one, I'll try to find another guitar, and hopefully it will be just as inspiring, in a different way. The thing about instruments is they're all different, and you'll never get the same tone, the same sound. If I find a replacement, who knows? Maybe it will inspire me in new ways.
YAHOO! MUSIC: You could always bid on the auction and buy it back!
THE EDGE: That's true! The thought crossed my mind. I've donated some other things--some T-shirts that I've worn at events connected to New Orleans. One is the T-shirt that I wore at the performance U2 did with Green Day at the reopening of the Superdome. Then there's the T-shirt I wore at the Super Bowl at the Superdome when we played in 2002. The significance of that is quite interesting, because just before we went onstage to perform, we got word that there had been a flood in Dublin and our equipment lockup had been totally flooded. Which was a shocking piece of news because I realized what we had in there, very precious instruments and amps and equipment. And a lot of it got destroyed. We lost an awful lot of stuff in that flood. But the key pieces of equipment that I use all the time were all with me in New Orleans. So in a weird way, the fact that I happened to be in New Orleans for the Super Bowl saved a lot of my most precious instruments from a flood. It's just weird, that twist of fate -- that New Orleans gets flooded out three years later. So that T-shirt is in the auction as well.
YAHOO! MUSIC: U2 have always been so socially active. What other charitable causes are you guys supporting these days?
THE EDGE: Well, we choose the causes that we get involved with quite carefully. We have been, famously, supporting Amnesty International, and I think there's something coming up with them, so watch that space. And then there's Greenpeace, and our own and Bono's work in Africa through the One campaign. We don't obviously agree to do everything -- you can't. So we choose the things we're going to do, and do them wholeheartedly, and really give it everything and be consistent. That way, we feel, we can be the most effective. If you spread yourself too thin, the result could be that people get turned off. So we try to keep our focus on a few things and really make it count. Because in the end, the only reason we can do stuff like that is we still make music that people want to listen to, and people still come to our concerts and want to see us perform. So that gives us the license to do these other things, and we never forget that. So we don't want to become so involved in other things that our music starts to suffer.
YAHOO! MUSIC: So, what is U2 doing musically nowadays?
THE EDGE: We're actually going through a very creative period, songwriting-wise. We're not really thinking in terms of what this material is going towards, but we're writing a lot, and really enjoying the process -- and the fact that it's not destined for any particular release or project. We're just really getting lost in it, and it's great. There's no sense of responsibility, we're just doing it for the love of doing it. It's the best way to write -- just for creative reasons.
YAHOO! MUSIC: So I have to ask you...have you heard about these "U2charist" church services, where they play U2 music instead of regular hymns? And how do you feel about that?
THE EDGE: I have heard about that...though I've not attended a service! You know, I think a lot of my favorite music has a spiritual side. Bob Marley, Prince...you know, just great rock 'n' roll. In that sense, I don't think it's unique to U2 that our music could be put into this context. I guess our stuff has dealt with a lot of spiritual issues, so maybe it is the contemporary music most suited to that use. But we never expected it! Who would have thought that our music would actually be in a church service? But I'm fine with it! It always surprises me when I hear what people do with our music, and the songs they choose. Like people telling me they played "One" as the first dance at their wedding! I think to myself, "Have you listened to the lyrics?" It's far from a wedding song. But people listen to music and get different things from it, and our best songs operate on so many different levels -- I think that's a strength. It's got a duality to it, which means it connects in a more complex way.
source: yahoo
18.4.09
MySpace tries to help itself and the record industry by blazing through online music `jungle'
By RYAN NAKASHIMA , Associated Press
Last update: April 18, 2009 - 11:36 AM
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - In 2004, when MySpace was still getting going, recording label executive Courtney Holt noticed that musicians were using the Web site to connect more intimately with their fans, through detailed blogs and behind-the-scenes photos. So Holt arranged to meet MySpace's founders.
"I remember going into his office when we were very small," said MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, "when most other companies wouldn't pay attention to us."
Holt, then a marketing vice president with Interscope Geffen A&M, urged bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Weezer and The Black Eyed Peas to nurture MySpace profile pages too. The bands streamed new songs for free on their MySpace profiles, and some had the best album launches of their careers.
"The artists loved it and it created a Pied Piper effect for the fans," Holt said. When it came to music promotion, Holt realized, MySpace was like a "fire hose."
Now, Holt is being asked to turn MySpace's attention to a music industry in flames — and in the process, to improve the mediocre finances of MySpace as it tries to fend off rival Facebook.
Three months ago, Holt, 40, took charge of the recently revamped MySpace Music, a joint venture with the major recording labels. The service now lets MySpace users queue up multiple songs to play for free on their profile pages, rather than one song as in the past. Users also can create playlists that let them swap songs with their friends.
MySpace Music overhauled its dedicated home page, which promotes album releases and tours and corrals 5 million blinking artist profiles into genres. And the songs now carry links that let people buy downloads of the tracks from Amazon.com Inc.
The setup gives MySpace and the music industry a share of song-download sales from Amazon, and it could bring new revenue from ads. Next, Holt plans to make MySpace into a seller of concert tickets and band merchandise, while better targeting songs, ring tones, artists and ads at the people who will probably be interested in them.
Through these efforts, MySpace's vaunted music-promoting power could help patch the leaks that have sprung up in the recording business. Even with sales of song downloads on the rise, the music industry is not recouping the revenue lost from falling sales of compact discs.
MySpace's objective will be to find "half a dozen new revenue streams" that will help recording labels move away from just selling song downloads and CDs, said Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group's digital strategy unit. "We'd rather have 10 healthy revenue streams than one big revenue stream prone to disruption."
First, though, Holt has had to do damage control.
The new music player was clunky and slow when it launched. Fans complained that too few songs were available and that playlists they created couldn't handle enough songs.
Holt directed the creation of a sleeker, faster-to-load version that debuted last month, and he removed the cap on the number of playlists that could be created.
Eventually, Holt wants to build up discussions of artists' discographies on MySpace and foster "social DJs" — playlist creators who are as influential as radio disc jockeys once were.
Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am credits Holt with being "one of the few guys that knows the way through the jungle" of digital music.
But Holt has the weight of multiple masters on his back. Aside from the music industry, Holt has to satisfy billionaire Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005 but has yet to eke out more than a meager profit from it.
MySpace also has to intrigue its users enough to hold off social networking rival Facebook, which lapped MySpace a year ago in overall users worldwide, and now has 200 million to MySpace's 130 million.
MySpace is still the largest social network in the United States, with 70 million users a month, but Facebook is catching up quickly with 61 million, according to tracking firm comScore Inc. MySpace Music could be the differentiator it needs: Facebook lacks a music player and relies on third parties to create them for members to download.
MySpace's revenue is estimated to be nearly three times Facebook's, or about $585 million in 2008, according to research firm eMarketer. But MySpace has yet to lift News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit past the $1 billion in annual revenue that Murdoch predicted it would reach by last summer.
In this recession, Holt is in for an uphill slog.
U.S. advertisers have cut back overall, and aren't convinced that social networking sites are good places for ads, given the highly personal or frivolous content that users post. "Click-through" rates on ads are poor on social media sites.
"Either you can see a message from a friend who's just broken up with you, or you can see a random ad. Which would you choose?" said Shiv Singh, a vice president at digital advertising firm Razorfish.
Because of this dynamic, growth is slowing for social network ad spending, which is expected to rise 10 percent this year to $1.3 billion, eMarketer estimates. Social media sites are expected to have 3.9 percent of the overall online ad market in 2013, down from 5 percent today.
Another challenge for MySpace is that several other sites offer similar free music streaming online, including AOL, Yahoo, MTV, Pandora, last.fm and imeem.
Add to that, Google Inc.'s YouTube and Universal Music Group recently announced a venture that will show music videos supported by ads on a tailor-made player called "Vevo."
That could play to one of MySpace's strengths. After all, MySpace users helped popularize online music videos by embedding them in their profile pages. And MySpace Music has the right to stream music videos from all the major recording labels, not just Universal's. But that function isn't developed yet.
Holt is the first to acknowledge that MySpace Music is a work in progress, and he promises four or five "cool and evolutionary" improvements each quarter.
There are indications that the service is gaining traction.
According to comScore, MySpace Music had 20 million U.S. users in March, up 30 percent from a year earlier, when MySpace was running the previous incarnation of the service — although MySpace questions comScore's methodology and argues the number should be higher.
That vaulted MySpace from fifth to second place among the music entertainment sites, behind only AOL with 21 million.
Partly in reaction, third-ranked Yahoo, with 18 million users, revamped its music pages this month. However, Yahoo doesn't have a direct deal with the record labels, limiting the number of free songs that people can stream on the site.
MySpace Music has managed to gain an edge in some important ways. The site secured exclusive early free streaming rights for high-profile new album releases, from U2's "No Line on the Horizon" to Lily Allen's "It's Not Me It's You."
Allen, a longtime MySpace blogger, premiered a music video on the site and performed a "Secret Show" in New York in February as part of a series of promotional concerts that are free to MySpace users.
Buzz about the show was "all over the blogosphere," said Bob Heinemann, head of interactive marketing at EMI Group PLC, which owns Allen's Capitol Records label. He said the MySpace promotion gave the album a big push.
Even so, analyst Debra Aho Williamson of eMarketer questioned whether MySpace Music will truly be able to set itself apart from other Web music sites.
"Have they reinvented the wheel or just made the wheel a little bigger?" she asked. "Because it's now just one more place to get music."
source: startribune
By RYAN NAKASHIMA , Associated Press
Last update: April 18, 2009 - 11:36 AM
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - In 2004, when MySpace was still getting going, recording label executive Courtney Holt noticed that musicians were using the Web site to connect more intimately with their fans, through detailed blogs and behind-the-scenes photos. So Holt arranged to meet MySpace's founders.
"I remember going into his office when we were very small," said MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, "when most other companies wouldn't pay attention to us."
Holt, then a marketing vice president with Interscope Geffen A&M, urged bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Weezer and The Black Eyed Peas to nurture MySpace profile pages too. The bands streamed new songs for free on their MySpace profiles, and some had the best album launches of their careers.
"The artists loved it and it created a Pied Piper effect for the fans," Holt said. When it came to music promotion, Holt realized, MySpace was like a "fire hose."
Now, Holt is being asked to turn MySpace's attention to a music industry in flames — and in the process, to improve the mediocre finances of MySpace as it tries to fend off rival Facebook.
Three months ago, Holt, 40, took charge of the recently revamped MySpace Music, a joint venture with the major recording labels. The service now lets MySpace users queue up multiple songs to play for free on their profile pages, rather than one song as in the past. Users also can create playlists that let them swap songs with their friends.
MySpace Music overhauled its dedicated home page, which promotes album releases and tours and corrals 5 million blinking artist profiles into genres. And the songs now carry links that let people buy downloads of the tracks from Amazon.com Inc.
The setup gives MySpace and the music industry a share of song-download sales from Amazon, and it could bring new revenue from ads. Next, Holt plans to make MySpace into a seller of concert tickets and band merchandise, while better targeting songs, ring tones, artists and ads at the people who will probably be interested in them.
Through these efforts, MySpace's vaunted music-promoting power could help patch the leaks that have sprung up in the recording business. Even with sales of song downloads on the rise, the music industry is not recouping the revenue lost from falling sales of compact discs.
MySpace's objective will be to find "half a dozen new revenue streams" that will help recording labels move away from just selling song downloads and CDs, said Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group's digital strategy unit. "We'd rather have 10 healthy revenue streams than one big revenue stream prone to disruption."
First, though, Holt has had to do damage control.
The new music player was clunky and slow when it launched. Fans complained that too few songs were available and that playlists they created couldn't handle enough songs.
Holt directed the creation of a sleeker, faster-to-load version that debuted last month, and he removed the cap on the number of playlists that could be created.
Eventually, Holt wants to build up discussions of artists' discographies on MySpace and foster "social DJs" — playlist creators who are as influential as radio disc jockeys once were.
Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am credits Holt with being "one of the few guys that knows the way through the jungle" of digital music.
But Holt has the weight of multiple masters on his back. Aside from the music industry, Holt has to satisfy billionaire Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005 but has yet to eke out more than a meager profit from it.
MySpace also has to intrigue its users enough to hold off social networking rival Facebook, which lapped MySpace a year ago in overall users worldwide, and now has 200 million to MySpace's 130 million.
MySpace is still the largest social network in the United States, with 70 million users a month, but Facebook is catching up quickly with 61 million, according to tracking firm comScore Inc. MySpace Music could be the differentiator it needs: Facebook lacks a music player and relies on third parties to create them for members to download.
MySpace's revenue is estimated to be nearly three times Facebook's, or about $585 million in 2008, according to research firm eMarketer. But MySpace has yet to lift News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit past the $1 billion in annual revenue that Murdoch predicted it would reach by last summer.
In this recession, Holt is in for an uphill slog.
U.S. advertisers have cut back overall, and aren't convinced that social networking sites are good places for ads, given the highly personal or frivolous content that users post. "Click-through" rates on ads are poor on social media sites.
"Either you can see a message from a friend who's just broken up with you, or you can see a random ad. Which would you choose?" said Shiv Singh, a vice president at digital advertising firm Razorfish.
Because of this dynamic, growth is slowing for social network ad spending, which is expected to rise 10 percent this year to $1.3 billion, eMarketer estimates. Social media sites are expected to have 3.9 percent of the overall online ad market in 2013, down from 5 percent today.
Another challenge for MySpace is that several other sites offer similar free music streaming online, including AOL, Yahoo, MTV, Pandora, last.fm and imeem.
Add to that, Google Inc.'s YouTube and Universal Music Group recently announced a venture that will show music videos supported by ads on a tailor-made player called "Vevo."
That could play to one of MySpace's strengths. After all, MySpace users helped popularize online music videos by embedding them in their profile pages. And MySpace Music has the right to stream music videos from all the major recording labels, not just Universal's. But that function isn't developed yet.
Holt is the first to acknowledge that MySpace Music is a work in progress, and he promises four or five "cool and evolutionary" improvements each quarter.
There are indications that the service is gaining traction.
According to comScore, MySpace Music had 20 million U.S. users in March, up 30 percent from a year earlier, when MySpace was running the previous incarnation of the service — although MySpace questions comScore's methodology and argues the number should be higher.
That vaulted MySpace from fifth to second place among the music entertainment sites, behind only AOL with 21 million.
Partly in reaction, third-ranked Yahoo, with 18 million users, revamped its music pages this month. However, Yahoo doesn't have a direct deal with the record labels, limiting the number of free songs that people can stream on the site.
MySpace Music has managed to gain an edge in some important ways. The site secured exclusive early free streaming rights for high-profile new album releases, from U2's "No Line on the Horizon" to Lily Allen's "It's Not Me It's You."
Allen, a longtime MySpace blogger, premiered a music video on the site and performed a "Secret Show" in New York in February as part of a series of promotional concerts that are free to MySpace users.
Buzz about the show was "all over the blogosphere," said Bob Heinemann, head of interactive marketing at EMI Group PLC, which owns Allen's Capitol Records label. He said the MySpace promotion gave the album a big push.
Even so, analyst Debra Aho Williamson of eMarketer questioned whether MySpace Music will truly be able to set itself apart from other Web music sites.
"Have they reinvented the wheel or just made the wheel a little bigger?" she asked. "Because it's now just one more place to get music."
source: startribune
Ali Hewson: The Sweetest Thing
Pilates in Sandycove and a quiet lunch in Cavistons
Saturday April 18 2009
When Ali Hewson steps off a plane at Dublin airport tomorrow, she will be a woman with a mission. Flying in from the States to promote National Chernobyl Week with her close friend and Chernobyl Children's Project International (CCPI) founder, Adi Roche, it will be action stations the minute her plane touches down.
"That's Ali -- she's coming in especially, as she did for our board meeting recently," says Adi. "She is based in America at the moment with the (U2) tour coming up. But, she has made the project a huge part of her life. She's always at the end of a phone call or email, always in contact."
Ali's husband Paul, who likes to go by the name Bono and plays in a promising Dublin band called U2, is known for multitasking his talents across music and political activism. Ali, though, has been quietly carving out her own version of a life less ordinary. At 48, she now wears many hats: mother, campaigner, fundraiser, style icon and ethical fashion trendsetter.
It was not a life that Ali Stewart might have envisaged when, as an olive-skinned, doe-eyed 15-year-old, she first caught a young Bono's eye in Mount Temple secondary school. They started going out in November 1976, the same time Bono joined the teen band formed by Larry Mullen Jr that would become U2. That month was one that he has acknowledged shaped the rest of his life and, by extension, Ali's.
While he clambered aboard the rocket to stardom, she was to be a quiet powerhouse of support at home. As Eamon Dunphy once said: "The best thing about Bono is Ali," describing her as "calm and rational". She worked for a brief time after school in Sun Alliance insurance company on Dawson Street, where a former work colleague remembers her as "friendly and unassuming". But when the couple married in 1982, she devoted herself full-time to keeping the home fires burning.
Hard-working
Protestant stock
Even four years into their marriage, she was still toying with the idea of becoming a nurse, but realised that the years of live-in training required would have been "too much on the relationship".
Ali came from hard-working Protestant stock, her mum Joy a housewife, her dad Terry an electrical contractor in north Dublin. Not for her the spending habits of the super-rich, or the farcical mis-behaviour of a diva rock wife.
Neighbours in the affluent south Dublin village of Killiney, where she and Bono live, speak warmly of a woman who is as happy to do the school run as she is to hang out with the couple's supermodel pals Helena Christensen, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell.
Her friends are not just those whose stardust she has rubbed against since Bono's ascension to fame; she has been close friends with Larry Mullen's partner, Ann Acheson, since school.
There is no personal trainer for the house on the hill -- Ali prefers to roll out her mat in a public Pilates class in nearby Sandycove, grabbing a bite of lunch with Bono in Cavistons café afterwards. They might own one of the most expensive houses in Ireland -- the gated Temple Hill on Vico Road, where the views are akin to Capri -- but for years she continued to run her local errands not in an SUV, the favourite of local yummy mummies, but in a battered old Volkswagen Golf which drew many smiles of admiration.
Naturally, the Hewsons do indulge in some perks. A family rule has always been to give their four children -- Jordan (19), Eve (17), Elijah (nine) and John (seven) -- as much structure and normality as is reasonably possible when your dad fronts a global supergroup and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The children attend local schools and Ali insisted there would be no nanny for the night shifts when they were young.
But, when school is out, the luxury holiday pads get an airing. The family jet down to the 20-room villa in Eze-sur-Mer (rough translation: Posh-on-Sea) in the south of France that they have shared with Edge and his family since 1993.
No to Madonna
Now that daughter Jordan is in college in America, studying politics and history, Ali has found herself doing the transatlantic jaunt to their New York base more frequently. The family bought their 3,500 sq ft apartment for $15m from Apple founder Steve Jobs in 2003. If you're a fan of jaw-dropping trivia about rich people's cribs, feast on this: the panoramic bedroom windows alone cost $79,000 apiece.
Evidently, this is no modest bolthole. It is the penthouse dwelling in the north tower of the coveted Thirties San Remo building overlooking Central Park, a block up from the famous Dakota building. Its prestigious reputation is so heavily guarded that while Ali and Bono's neighbours number Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin and Bruce Willis, the building's board rejected Madonna when she tried to buy a pad there in the mid-80s.
Considering that grandeur, the ease with which Ali walks unobtrusively through her native Dublin is all the more remarkable. She and Bono have been pictured strolling down the beach at Killiney hand in hand -- an earthy mirror image to the shots of them with Helena Christensen on an Easter break with their two boys in the Caribbean recently -- and at the St Stephen's Day races in Leopardstown. Perhaps it's partly the healthy Irish disrespect for standing on ceremony with celebrities; mostly, though, it's the standard of normality Ali has set. She's not flashy: the trademark palette of black clothes and wedgy sandals or boots -- a million miles from the designer handbag squad -- have made her a subtle style icon with those who appreciate simplicity and also underline her unwillingness to make herself a star.
Adi Roche is quick to appreciate the enormous effect that Ali's contribution to the issue of Chernobyl and its suffering children has had on her life. "She gave up her privacy for it, and I will never forget that," says Adi. "It was a huge sacrifice when she had a young family to come to Belarus to see for herself what was happening."
Ali is no lady who lunches then signs a blank cheque for whatever is the cause du jour. Never a mouthpiece for what she doesn't understand -- a claim that also applies to Bono, no matter what your views on the man -- she spent three weeks in Belarus to explore the after-effects of the 1986 nuclear disaster so that she could narrate the 1993 documentary Black Wind, White Land.
In 1996, another trip to Belarus ended with Ali and the aid convoy she was with fleeing in retreat from a wild fire that ripped through five villages and released deadly radioactive gases into the air. "We got a speeding ticket on our way out," she told reporters when she got home. "Had the wind caught up with us, we would have been at high risk." She has been back numerous times since, narrating another documentary, Chernobyl Heart, in 2003. It won an Academy Award for best documentary short, an event that caused Ali to observe wryly to her gong-laden husband: "Wait a minute, does this mean I won an Oscar before you?"
The intricacies of their marriage can never be fully understood by anyone other than Bono and Ali, of course, but her independence is probably one key to keeping the relationship vital and interesting. "When I first met Bono," she said some years ago, "the deal was that I looked after the children and the home and he did the talking."
Bono, however, has remarked that what he deeply respects in his wife is that "she won't let me wear her like a brooch". Ali's great talent is to mix the personal with the political with aplomb.
Bono forgets her birthday and writes The Sweetest Thing for her, and she smiles forgivingly but insists the royalties go to the CCPI. She launches a fashion line, EDUN, as any good rock wife might be expected to, but makes it an ethically and socially aware business.
She takes her campaign against Sellafield to Downing Street for the protection of all children, but she also makes room in her heart for a Belarusian godchild, Anna, who lives with her Irish adoptive parents in Bandon, Co Cork.
'Motherhood is my most important role'
This generosity of spirit on all levels means that Ali is never still for a moment, acknowledging once that she and Bono have "a very nice life, but it's also a very fast life".
She is adopting an even more demanding role in her Chernobyl work by abdicating her role as patron of CCPI to novelist Cathy Kelly and advancing to the board of the charity, making decisions and strategising for its future. But never for one second do you doubt that a woman who deliberately lists 'Mother' as her occupation on her passport has anything but her four children as her main priority.
"It is my most important role," she once told an interviewer. "Whatever about the clothing business or whatever else, it is the one area I don't want to fail in." Essentially a single parent whenever Bono has to take off on an extensive tour, her fortitude is not in doubt. Not that it's been easy. She gave birth to their first daughter, Jordan, two weeks before she sat her final exams in a politics and sociology degree she took in UCD. The final day of those exams, she remembers having had no sleep and having to express her milk in the car before the exam.
Now that life is on more of an even keel, with second daughter Eve finishing school and the younger boys growing up, it will be exciting to see what Ali does next. In 1993, when she first came to the fore with her charity work, she expressed a dislike for being known simply as Bono's wife.
Will it be long before Bono is labouring under the moniker, Mr Ali Hewson? We can but hope.
source: independent
Pilates in Sandycove and a quiet lunch in Cavistons
Saturday April 18 2009
When Ali Hewson steps off a plane at Dublin airport tomorrow, she will be a woman with a mission. Flying in from the States to promote National Chernobyl Week with her close friend and Chernobyl Children's Project International (CCPI) founder, Adi Roche, it will be action stations the minute her plane touches down.
"That's Ali -- she's coming in especially, as she did for our board meeting recently," says Adi. "She is based in America at the moment with the (U2) tour coming up. But, she has made the project a huge part of her life. She's always at the end of a phone call or email, always in contact."
Ali's husband Paul, who likes to go by the name Bono and plays in a promising Dublin band called U2, is known for multitasking his talents across music and political activism. Ali, though, has been quietly carving out her own version of a life less ordinary. At 48, she now wears many hats: mother, campaigner, fundraiser, style icon and ethical fashion trendsetter.
It was not a life that Ali Stewart might have envisaged when, as an olive-skinned, doe-eyed 15-year-old, she first caught a young Bono's eye in Mount Temple secondary school. They started going out in November 1976, the same time Bono joined the teen band formed by Larry Mullen Jr that would become U2. That month was one that he has acknowledged shaped the rest of his life and, by extension, Ali's.
While he clambered aboard the rocket to stardom, she was to be a quiet powerhouse of support at home. As Eamon Dunphy once said: "The best thing about Bono is Ali," describing her as "calm and rational". She worked for a brief time after school in Sun Alliance insurance company on Dawson Street, where a former work colleague remembers her as "friendly and unassuming". But when the couple married in 1982, she devoted herself full-time to keeping the home fires burning.
Hard-working
Protestant stock
Even four years into their marriage, she was still toying with the idea of becoming a nurse, but realised that the years of live-in training required would have been "too much on the relationship".
Ali came from hard-working Protestant stock, her mum Joy a housewife, her dad Terry an electrical contractor in north Dublin. Not for her the spending habits of the super-rich, or the farcical mis-behaviour of a diva rock wife.
Neighbours in the affluent south Dublin village of Killiney, where she and Bono live, speak warmly of a woman who is as happy to do the school run as she is to hang out with the couple's supermodel pals Helena Christensen, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell.
Her friends are not just those whose stardust she has rubbed against since Bono's ascension to fame; she has been close friends with Larry Mullen's partner, Ann Acheson, since school.
There is no personal trainer for the house on the hill -- Ali prefers to roll out her mat in a public Pilates class in nearby Sandycove, grabbing a bite of lunch with Bono in Cavistons café afterwards. They might own one of the most expensive houses in Ireland -- the gated Temple Hill on Vico Road, where the views are akin to Capri -- but for years she continued to run her local errands not in an SUV, the favourite of local yummy mummies, but in a battered old Volkswagen Golf which drew many smiles of admiration.
Naturally, the Hewsons do indulge in some perks. A family rule has always been to give their four children -- Jordan (19), Eve (17), Elijah (nine) and John (seven) -- as much structure and normality as is reasonably possible when your dad fronts a global supergroup and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The children attend local schools and Ali insisted there would be no nanny for the night shifts when they were young.
But, when school is out, the luxury holiday pads get an airing. The family jet down to the 20-room villa in Eze-sur-Mer (rough translation: Posh-on-Sea) in the south of France that they have shared with Edge and his family since 1993.
No to Madonna
Now that daughter Jordan is in college in America, studying politics and history, Ali has found herself doing the transatlantic jaunt to their New York base more frequently. The family bought their 3,500 sq ft apartment for $15m from Apple founder Steve Jobs in 2003. If you're a fan of jaw-dropping trivia about rich people's cribs, feast on this: the panoramic bedroom windows alone cost $79,000 apiece.
Evidently, this is no modest bolthole. It is the penthouse dwelling in the north tower of the coveted Thirties San Remo building overlooking Central Park, a block up from the famous Dakota building. Its prestigious reputation is so heavily guarded that while Ali and Bono's neighbours number Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin and Bruce Willis, the building's board rejected Madonna when she tried to buy a pad there in the mid-80s.
Considering that grandeur, the ease with which Ali walks unobtrusively through her native Dublin is all the more remarkable. She and Bono have been pictured strolling down the beach at Killiney hand in hand -- an earthy mirror image to the shots of them with Helena Christensen on an Easter break with their two boys in the Caribbean recently -- and at the St Stephen's Day races in Leopardstown. Perhaps it's partly the healthy Irish disrespect for standing on ceremony with celebrities; mostly, though, it's the standard of normality Ali has set. She's not flashy: the trademark palette of black clothes and wedgy sandals or boots -- a million miles from the designer handbag squad -- have made her a subtle style icon with those who appreciate simplicity and also underline her unwillingness to make herself a star.
Adi Roche is quick to appreciate the enormous effect that Ali's contribution to the issue of Chernobyl and its suffering children has had on her life. "She gave up her privacy for it, and I will never forget that," says Adi. "It was a huge sacrifice when she had a young family to come to Belarus to see for herself what was happening."
Ali is no lady who lunches then signs a blank cheque for whatever is the cause du jour. Never a mouthpiece for what she doesn't understand -- a claim that also applies to Bono, no matter what your views on the man -- she spent three weeks in Belarus to explore the after-effects of the 1986 nuclear disaster so that she could narrate the 1993 documentary Black Wind, White Land.
In 1996, another trip to Belarus ended with Ali and the aid convoy she was with fleeing in retreat from a wild fire that ripped through five villages and released deadly radioactive gases into the air. "We got a speeding ticket on our way out," she told reporters when she got home. "Had the wind caught up with us, we would have been at high risk." She has been back numerous times since, narrating another documentary, Chernobyl Heart, in 2003. It won an Academy Award for best documentary short, an event that caused Ali to observe wryly to her gong-laden husband: "Wait a minute, does this mean I won an Oscar before you?"
The intricacies of their marriage can never be fully understood by anyone other than Bono and Ali, of course, but her independence is probably one key to keeping the relationship vital and interesting. "When I first met Bono," she said some years ago, "the deal was that I looked after the children and the home and he did the talking."
Bono, however, has remarked that what he deeply respects in his wife is that "she won't let me wear her like a brooch". Ali's great talent is to mix the personal with the political with aplomb.
Bono forgets her birthday and writes The Sweetest Thing for her, and she smiles forgivingly but insists the royalties go to the CCPI. She launches a fashion line, EDUN, as any good rock wife might be expected to, but makes it an ethically and socially aware business.
She takes her campaign against Sellafield to Downing Street for the protection of all children, but she also makes room in her heart for a Belarusian godchild, Anna, who lives with her Irish adoptive parents in Bandon, Co Cork.
'Motherhood is my most important role'
This generosity of spirit on all levels means that Ali is never still for a moment, acknowledging once that she and Bono have "a very nice life, but it's also a very fast life".
She is adopting an even more demanding role in her Chernobyl work by abdicating her role as patron of CCPI to novelist Cathy Kelly and advancing to the board of the charity, making decisions and strategising for its future. But never for one second do you doubt that a woman who deliberately lists 'Mother' as her occupation on her passport has anything but her four children as her main priority.
"It is my most important role," she once told an interviewer. "Whatever about the clothing business or whatever else, it is the one area I don't want to fail in." Essentially a single parent whenever Bono has to take off on an extensive tour, her fortitude is not in doubt. Not that it's been easy. She gave birth to their first daughter, Jordan, two weeks before she sat her final exams in a politics and sociology degree she took in UCD. The final day of those exams, she remembers having had no sleep and having to express her milk in the car before the exam.
Now that life is on more of an even keel, with second daughter Eve finishing school and the younger boys growing up, it will be exciting to see what Ali does next. In 1993, when she first came to the fore with her charity work, she expressed a dislike for being known simply as Bono's wife.
Will it be long before Bono is labouring under the moniker, Mr Ali Hewson? We can but hope.
source: independent
17.4.09
Local fury over U2 ticket sales
Thursday, 16 April 2009
ANGRY Northside residents living in the vicinity of Croke Park have slammed the selling of tickets for the upcoming U2 concerts which have yet to be licensed.
Three July dates of the U2 360 tour, which will see 82,000 fans pile into Croke Park each night, were advertised and thousands of tickets have been sold without the licence being granted for the events.
While the licence request for the three dates was included in last week’s planning list, residents who will be most affected by the gigs doubt that the council will reject permission for the event which is likely to generate e6.5 million in revenue.
“If they weren’t sure that they would get the licence then they wouldn’t have advertised the dates,” said Barbara Ward of the Clonliff and District Residents’ Association.
“It’s a bit premature and just makes you wonder what the point is in going through the planning process for the licence in which public submissions from the public are invited.
“It’s a joke and it makes a mockery of the residents who are led to believe they have a say on whether the concerts go ahead or not.”
Last month, all 164,000 tickets for the two initial U2 concerts - Friday July 24 and Saturday July 25 - sold out in one hour prompting the band to announce a third date for July 27.
Tickets for the final Croke Park gig, which were priced e33.60, e59.80, e91.50, e131.50, went on sale on April 1.
Disgruntled residents living close to Croker believe they are being completely overlooked by both the council and the promoters.
“No one seems to realise how this extra date will impact on us,” Barbara told Northside People.
“The concert will go on until all hours. It will be at least 1am before our neighbourhood settles down and we are able to get any sleep and many of residents need to get up for work the next morning.”
Bill Byrne of Foster Terrace said residents were left frustrated when extra dates were added on without any consultation with locals.
“I just don’t understand the logic behind this process which seems so flexible, especially when it comes to big bands and promoters who put so much pressure on the council to grant permission as the tickets have already been sold,” he said.
Local councillor Emer Costello (Lab) criticised the promoter’s ability to “put the cart before the horse”, which she said left the council’s hands tied.
“There’s a lot of money riding on these gigs,” she told Northside People.
“I really can’t see the council rejecting the licence for these concerts for which tickets have already been sold.
“It’s not as if anyone would be too keen on having to refund the 246,000 people who have bought tickets for the concerts.”
In 1992, Croke Park was granted permission to hold three concerts per year. However, the events are subject to a council approved management plan and licensing.
“Under the licensing regulations Croke Park are obliged to lodge a detailed event management plan to the planning authority 16 weeks in advance of any proposed event,” a Dublin City Council spokesperson said.
“Submissions are accepted by the planning authority for five weeks from the date of lodgement of the event licence application.
“The application is referred for comment to a number of consultees – Health Services Executive, An Garda Siochana and Dublin Fire Brigade, for instance.
“A decision to grant or refuse a licence is an executive function of the planning authority.
“The licence application for three concerts at Croke Park is currently under consideration by the planning authority.”
The spokesperson added: “The planning regulations do not preclude a promoter from advertising or selling tickets for an event in advance of the license being issue.”
A spokesperson for MCD said it had placed notices regarding the U2 concerts in the media as part of its application which it had lodged with the council.
“In addition Croke Park has raised the issue at a recent Community Liaison Committee Meeting which includes representatives from the local community and local politicians,” the spokesperson continued.
“All local politicians are regular visitors to Croke Park, and like other fans will attest to the professional standards to which events are run.
“Large events in Croke Park are extremely important ways of stimulating the Dublin economy. It is estimated that this weekend will benefit the city with an economic stimulus of some e100 million.
“In recognition of the cooperation from the local community to staging concerts at Croke Park MCD have made a substantial contribution to the Community Trust Fund which has been set aside for community enhancement projects in the locality.”
source: dublinpeople
Thursday, 16 April 2009
ANGRY Northside residents living in the vicinity of Croke Park have slammed the selling of tickets for the upcoming U2 concerts which have yet to be licensed.
Three July dates of the U2 360 tour, which will see 82,000 fans pile into Croke Park each night, were advertised and thousands of tickets have been sold without the licence being granted for the events.
While the licence request for the three dates was included in last week’s planning list, residents who will be most affected by the gigs doubt that the council will reject permission for the event which is likely to generate e6.5 million in revenue.
“If they weren’t sure that they would get the licence then they wouldn’t have advertised the dates,” said Barbara Ward of the Clonliff and District Residents’ Association.
“It’s a bit premature and just makes you wonder what the point is in going through the planning process for the licence in which public submissions from the public are invited.
“It’s a joke and it makes a mockery of the residents who are led to believe they have a say on whether the concerts go ahead or not.”
Last month, all 164,000 tickets for the two initial U2 concerts - Friday July 24 and Saturday July 25 - sold out in one hour prompting the band to announce a third date for July 27.
Tickets for the final Croke Park gig, which were priced e33.60, e59.80, e91.50, e131.50, went on sale on April 1.
Disgruntled residents living close to Croker believe they are being completely overlooked by both the council and the promoters.
“No one seems to realise how this extra date will impact on us,” Barbara told Northside People.
“The concert will go on until all hours. It will be at least 1am before our neighbourhood settles down and we are able to get any sleep and many of residents need to get up for work the next morning.”
Bill Byrne of Foster Terrace said residents were left frustrated when extra dates were added on without any consultation with locals.
“I just don’t understand the logic behind this process which seems so flexible, especially when it comes to big bands and promoters who put so much pressure on the council to grant permission as the tickets have already been sold,” he said.
Local councillor Emer Costello (Lab) criticised the promoter’s ability to “put the cart before the horse”, which she said left the council’s hands tied.
“There’s a lot of money riding on these gigs,” she told Northside People.
“I really can’t see the council rejecting the licence for these concerts for which tickets have already been sold.
“It’s not as if anyone would be too keen on having to refund the 246,000 people who have bought tickets for the concerts.”
In 1992, Croke Park was granted permission to hold three concerts per year. However, the events are subject to a council approved management plan and licensing.
“Under the licensing regulations Croke Park are obliged to lodge a detailed event management plan to the planning authority 16 weeks in advance of any proposed event,” a Dublin City Council spokesperson said.
“Submissions are accepted by the planning authority for five weeks from the date of lodgement of the event licence application.
“The application is referred for comment to a number of consultees – Health Services Executive, An Garda Siochana and Dublin Fire Brigade, for instance.
“A decision to grant or refuse a licence is an executive function of the planning authority.
“The licence application for three concerts at Croke Park is currently under consideration by the planning authority.”
The spokesperson added: “The planning regulations do not preclude a promoter from advertising or selling tickets for an event in advance of the license being issue.”
A spokesperson for MCD said it had placed notices regarding the U2 concerts in the media as part of its application which it had lodged with the council.
“In addition Croke Park has raised the issue at a recent Community Liaison Committee Meeting which includes representatives from the local community and local politicians,” the spokesperson continued.
“All local politicians are regular visitors to Croke Park, and like other fans will attest to the professional standards to which events are run.
“Large events in Croke Park are extremely important ways of stimulating the Dublin economy. It is estimated that this weekend will benefit the city with an economic stimulus of some e100 million.
“In recognition of the cooperation from the local community to staging concerts at Croke Park MCD have made a substantial contribution to the Community Trust Fund which has been set aside for community enhancement projects in the locality.”
source: dublinpeople
Lloyd's Finds Insurance Increasingly Important for Rock 'n' Roll Band Tours
April 15, 2009
An article on the Lloyd's web site (www.lloyds.com) analyzes the stepped up need for insurance coverage when mega-rock bands like U2 go on tour.
The Irish band is slated to begin its latest series of concert dates, named the "360 Tour", in Barcelona on June 30. The event has "created a storm of expectation among the band's fans," said Lloyd's. "Details of the band's mammoth globetrotting trek give a revealing insight into how music tours have changed dramatically in the past 20 or 30 years.
"The tour, sponsored by handheld electronic-device maker Blackberry, will see U2 play 14 stadiums in Europe, including Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and Ireland's Croke Park, before rolling on to numerous dates in North America.
"It may allow the band to reclaim its crown of the highest-grossing tour, lost to the Rolling Stones, whose 'A Bigger Bang' tour raked in an astonishing $558 million, shattering the previous record held by U2's Vertigo Tour, which made $389 million."
Lloyd's also notes that tours, such as U2's, "not only earn bands as much money as medium-sized companies," but also "have a similar sized workforce, employing a small army of technicians, crew, dancers, backing singers and musicians."
Times, moreover, have certainly changed since the 1970's and 80's. "The dynamics of touring have changed completely. Now there's an awful lot of money involved," stated John Silcock, CEO of Robertson Taylor, a unit of Lloyd's broker Oxygen, which specializes in placing cover for musical events.
"Back then bands would often lose money on tours. It was an opportunity for them to go wild," he explained. "But with the decline in CD sales, performers now rely increasingly on their earnings from touring, a trend known as 'gigonomics'."
David Taylor, Director of Hyperion Claims Specialists, an expert loss adjuster for music claims, explained: "The demand for insurance has gone through the roof because of the value of tours that now go on the road." The biggest claim he has dealt with was for £55 million [$82 million], when a performer was forced to miss a number of concerts.
"With bands now signing '360 deals' worth tens of millions of dollars with a worldwide promoter, giving it rights to the band's performances recorded material and merchandise, all parties look to insurance to protect their investments," Lloyd's explained.
"Insurance is now prerequisite for touring," Taylor stressed, indicating that most of the business will make its way to Lloyd's, which is the acknowledged center for underwriting cancellation and non-appearance insurance for the music business.
One of the perhaps unforeseen consequences of having huge sums riding on their appearance, is that "performers have had to tone down their rock and roll lifestyles," said Lloyd's. "Acquiring a reputation for unreliability could prove very dangerous for performers, as insurers would simply steer clear of them."
Silcock added: ""If an artist became uninsurable they would almost become unpromotable. Promoters simply wouldn't commit a lot of money to acts if they weren't able to get some kind of financial security."
One result often requires performers to "undergo medical tests or provide underwriters with medical records as a condition of being given cover." Sometimes it's the case that underwriters need to be persuaded some artists aren't quite as wild as their image suggests. "Often the biggest issue for us is overcoming what people read in the newspapers," Silcock explained.
"Some may be perceived as having health issues when in fact they are extremely fit and healthy. Remember these guys have to go out and put on a really good show maybe two or three times a week, sometimes more for certain artists," he continued. Often a broker can show that despite a performer's hedonistic image they have a good track record of performing shows over a long period without cancellations.
Today's top performers are consummate professionals. "For well-established older bands those individuals might be in their fifties, even sixties—they have to be in really good condition to put on a good show," Silcock added.
Lloyd's also noted: "Though shows are no longer cancelled because an artist drove their Rolls-Royce into a swimming pool, performers can fall victim to bizarre events. Silcock cited a case where "on the eve of a tour the bass guitarist of a band shut his fingers in a car door and the tour had to be called off".
Even more bizarre was Taylor's recounting of a claim concerning a band's cancellation of a gig in a US city. The reason? The band didn't play cities that began with the letter M. "The lead singer said it came to him in a vision," says Taylor. Unfortunately, non-appearance insurance only covers circumstances outside the performer's control."
Source: Lloyd's
insurancejournal
April 15, 2009
An article on the Lloyd's web site (www.lloyds.com) analyzes the stepped up need for insurance coverage when mega-rock bands like U2 go on tour.
The Irish band is slated to begin its latest series of concert dates, named the "360 Tour", in Barcelona on June 30. The event has "created a storm of expectation among the band's fans," said Lloyd's. "Details of the band's mammoth globetrotting trek give a revealing insight into how music tours have changed dramatically in the past 20 or 30 years.
"The tour, sponsored by handheld electronic-device maker Blackberry, will see U2 play 14 stadiums in Europe, including Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and Ireland's Croke Park, before rolling on to numerous dates in North America.
"It may allow the band to reclaim its crown of the highest-grossing tour, lost to the Rolling Stones, whose 'A Bigger Bang' tour raked in an astonishing $558 million, shattering the previous record held by U2's Vertigo Tour, which made $389 million."
Lloyd's also notes that tours, such as U2's, "not only earn bands as much money as medium-sized companies," but also "have a similar sized workforce, employing a small army of technicians, crew, dancers, backing singers and musicians."
Times, moreover, have certainly changed since the 1970's and 80's. "The dynamics of touring have changed completely. Now there's an awful lot of money involved," stated John Silcock, CEO of Robertson Taylor, a unit of Lloyd's broker Oxygen, which specializes in placing cover for musical events.
"Back then bands would often lose money on tours. It was an opportunity for them to go wild," he explained. "But with the decline in CD sales, performers now rely increasingly on their earnings from touring, a trend known as 'gigonomics'."
David Taylor, Director of Hyperion Claims Specialists, an expert loss adjuster for music claims, explained: "The demand for insurance has gone through the roof because of the value of tours that now go on the road." The biggest claim he has dealt with was for £55 million [$82 million], when a performer was forced to miss a number of concerts.
"With bands now signing '360 deals' worth tens of millions of dollars with a worldwide promoter, giving it rights to the band's performances recorded material and merchandise, all parties look to insurance to protect their investments," Lloyd's explained.
"Insurance is now prerequisite for touring," Taylor stressed, indicating that most of the business will make its way to Lloyd's, which is the acknowledged center for underwriting cancellation and non-appearance insurance for the music business.
One of the perhaps unforeseen consequences of having huge sums riding on their appearance, is that "performers have had to tone down their rock and roll lifestyles," said Lloyd's. "Acquiring a reputation for unreliability could prove very dangerous for performers, as insurers would simply steer clear of them."
Silcock added: ""If an artist became uninsurable they would almost become unpromotable. Promoters simply wouldn't commit a lot of money to acts if they weren't able to get some kind of financial security."
One result often requires performers to "undergo medical tests or provide underwriters with medical records as a condition of being given cover." Sometimes it's the case that underwriters need to be persuaded some artists aren't quite as wild as their image suggests. "Often the biggest issue for us is overcoming what people read in the newspapers," Silcock explained.
"Some may be perceived as having health issues when in fact they are extremely fit and healthy. Remember these guys have to go out and put on a really good show maybe two or three times a week, sometimes more for certain artists," he continued. Often a broker can show that despite a performer's hedonistic image they have a good track record of performing shows over a long period without cancellations.
Today's top performers are consummate professionals. "For well-established older bands those individuals might be in their fifties, even sixties—they have to be in really good condition to put on a good show," Silcock added.
Lloyd's also noted: "Though shows are no longer cancelled because an artist drove their Rolls-Royce into a swimming pool, performers can fall victim to bizarre events. Silcock cited a case where "on the eve of a tour the bass guitarist of a band shut his fingers in a car door and the tour had to be called off".
Even more bizarre was Taylor's recounting of a claim concerning a band's cancellation of a gig in a US city. The reason? The band didn't play cities that began with the letter M. "The lead singer said it came to him in a vision," says Taylor. Unfortunately, non-appearance insurance only covers circumstances outside the performer's control."
Source: Lloyd's
insurancejournal
14.4.09
Adam Lambert Was Up For Lead In Spider-Man MusicalCasting directors say 'American Idol' contestant could have a bright future on Broadway.
April 14, 2009
By Gil Kaufman, with additional reporting by Kim Stolz
It's guaranteed that if Adam Lambert wins "American Idol," he'll release at least one major-label album. But even if this year's runaway leading contender pulls a Chris Daughtry/ Jennifer Hudson and is booted before making it to the show's finale, two of Broadway's leading casting directors say he's got a great shot at finding fame on the Great White Way.
In fact, before taking a detour from musical theater and glam-rock cabaret performances, Lambert was on the short list to potentially play the lead in the Broadway Spider-Man musical "Turn Off the Dark," which will feature music by U2's Bono and The Edge, according to casting director Bernie Telsey.
"We started working on 'Spider-Man' a year and a half ago, and [Lambert is] someone we know because we cast him in 'Wicked' and knew he had that kind of range," Telsey said of the San Diego-bred singer, who has 17 years of experience on the stage, including a stint in a 2004 musical version of "The Ten Commandments" opposite Val Kilmer. "I've not seen him do those styles as much as I've seen him now on 'American Idol.' And he was someone we looked after about seven months ago, but he told us then that he was already in the 'American Idol' process and not available. So he's definitely somebody that we would have auditioned, just because we know him and see him for a lot of shows. ... Let him go win, and then he can come and replace Spider-Man a year after the run. He'd be great."
Though Telsey said Lambert couldn't jump into the "Spider-Man" mix even if he does win the show because of the recording contracts "Idol" winners sign, the casting director said he'd gladly consider Lambert for "a bunch of shows," especially now that he has national name recognition.
Broadway has been very kind to "Idol" contestants, with a steady stream of top finishers making their way to the stage, from runner-up Clay Aiken ("Monty Python's Spamalot") to Constantine Maroulis ("Rock of Ages"), winners Fantasia ("The Color Purple") and Taylor Hicks ("Grease"), and a number of others including Diana DeGarmo, Ace Young and Frenchie Davis.
Jay Binder, another veteran Broadway casting director who helped Hudson win an Academy Award by casting her in the movie version of "Dreamgirls," said many "Idol" veterans have succeeded on Broadway because they have shown the work ethic needed to perform eight shows a week and draw fans at a time when box office is down and few new major musical-theater stars are being minted.
"I'm very thrilled for what could happen with this young man, because if he succeeds in this media, we have another male musical-theater star, and we need every one we can get," said Binder, who cautioned that he'd have to have Lambert come in for an audition to see what the singer's range is. "I have my fingers crossed for him climbing buildings and weaving webs some day."
And rather than bearing the stigma of being on America's leading reality show (and #1 show, period), Binder and Telsey said "Idol" is closely watched by casting directors looking to spot talent.
"We watch every week to see who's going to lose so we can cast them in a Broadway show," Telsey said. "Seriously, because they're talented people who just didn't have agents. ... Look at Fantasia. She blew the house down in 'Color Purple.' ... What was so wonderful about her in that show is she doesn't even sing until the end of Act 1. And the whole time you're watching, asking, 'Who is this incredible actress onstage?,' and she had never done it."
Right now, Telsey said he's already going after this season's Alexis Grace for possible Broadway work, and Binder said he was looking at some "Idol" alumni for potential roles in Broadway revivals of "The Wiz" and "Dreamgirls."
Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.
source: myv
April 14, 2009
By Gil Kaufman, with additional reporting by Kim Stolz
It's guaranteed that if Adam Lambert wins "American Idol," he'll release at least one major-label album. But even if this year's runaway leading contender pulls a Chris Daughtry/ Jennifer Hudson and is booted before making it to the show's finale, two of Broadway's leading casting directors say he's got a great shot at finding fame on the Great White Way.
In fact, before taking a detour from musical theater and glam-rock cabaret performances, Lambert was on the short list to potentially play the lead in the Broadway Spider-Man musical "Turn Off the Dark," which will feature music by U2's Bono and The Edge, according to casting director Bernie Telsey.
"We started working on 'Spider-Man' a year and a half ago, and [Lambert is] someone we know because we cast him in 'Wicked' and knew he had that kind of range," Telsey said of the San Diego-bred singer, who has 17 years of experience on the stage, including a stint in a 2004 musical version of "The Ten Commandments" opposite Val Kilmer. "I've not seen him do those styles as much as I've seen him now on 'American Idol.' And he was someone we looked after about seven months ago, but he told us then that he was already in the 'American Idol' process and not available. So he's definitely somebody that we would have auditioned, just because we know him and see him for a lot of shows. ... Let him go win, and then he can come and replace Spider-Man a year after the run. He'd be great."
Though Telsey said Lambert couldn't jump into the "Spider-Man" mix even if he does win the show because of the recording contracts "Idol" winners sign, the casting director said he'd gladly consider Lambert for "a bunch of shows," especially now that he has national name recognition.
Broadway has been very kind to "Idol" contestants, with a steady stream of top finishers making their way to the stage, from runner-up Clay Aiken ("Monty Python's Spamalot") to Constantine Maroulis ("Rock of Ages"), winners Fantasia ("The Color Purple") and Taylor Hicks ("Grease"), and a number of others including Diana DeGarmo, Ace Young and Frenchie Davis.
Jay Binder, another veteran Broadway casting director who helped Hudson win an Academy Award by casting her in the movie version of "Dreamgirls," said many "Idol" veterans have succeeded on Broadway because they have shown the work ethic needed to perform eight shows a week and draw fans at a time when box office is down and few new major musical-theater stars are being minted.
"I'm very thrilled for what could happen with this young man, because if he succeeds in this media, we have another male musical-theater star, and we need every one we can get," said Binder, who cautioned that he'd have to have Lambert come in for an audition to see what the singer's range is. "I have my fingers crossed for him climbing buildings and weaving webs some day."
And rather than bearing the stigma of being on America's leading reality show (and #1 show, period), Binder and Telsey said "Idol" is closely watched by casting directors looking to spot talent.
"We watch every week to see who's going to lose so we can cast them in a Broadway show," Telsey said. "Seriously, because they're talented people who just didn't have agents. ... Look at Fantasia. She blew the house down in 'Color Purple.' ... What was so wonderful about her in that show is she doesn't even sing until the end of Act 1. And the whole time you're watching, asking, 'Who is this incredible actress onstage?,' and she had never done it."
Right now, Telsey said he's already going after this season's Alexis Grace for possible Broadway work, and Binder said he was looking at some "Idol" alumni for potential roles in Broadway revivals of "The Wiz" and "Dreamgirls."
Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.
source: myv
11.4.09
In the name of revenue, music-video site is born
By Dawn C. Chmielewski | Tribune Newspapers
April 11, 2009
U2 lead singer Bono, well known for his One campaign to end poverty, has turned his focus to a charity case closer to home: the ailing music industry.
The rocker is credited with bringing together Universal Music Group and Google Inc.'s online video site, YouTube, urging talks that this week resulted in a partnership to launch a new music-video service featuring professionally produced content from the label's big-name acts.
YouTube will create a dedicated channel on its site, to be called Vevo, where users can watch music videos from Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Weezer and other artists signed to the world's biggest music company.
Later this year, Universal and YouTube will debut a separate online music-video site, Vevo.com, where viewers can watch music videos from Universal's library. YouTube will provide the underlying technology, Universal will furnish the content and the partners will split the advertising revenue.
"We have been searching for a way to work with the rights holders which really does drive more—let's be blunt—more revenue," said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.
Music videos have posed a vexing dilemma for YouTube. These short-form videos are among the most watched clips on the site, with a hot new track from an artist like Soulja Boy attracting millions of views.
But the advertising revenue has not been enough to make YouTube's partnerships with the labels profitable, even though it monetizes hundreds of millions of views a day. Indeed, Warner Music Group said it pulled its music videos off YouTube in December 2008 in a licensing dispute over the value of its content.
Universal Music Chairman and Chief Executive Doug Morris proposed an approach modeled on the success of the News Corp. and NBC Universal joint venture, Hulu, an online video site that, in a little more than a year, is now attracting 34 million monthly viewers with the lure of Hollywood movies and episodes of popular TV shows.
Morris outlined a similar concept for music videos, in which YouTube, in partnership with Universal, would bring together all the professionally produced content into the online equivalent of MTV. The venture would redistribute the music videos online in a bid to grab an audience, which hopefully would be large enough to attract advertisers.
Morris said he is speaking with other major labels about participating in Vevo.
Bono played the role of "digital ambassador," prodding his label, Universal and YouTube to explore a partnership.
Record labels are eager to explore ancillary revenue to help offset free-falling CD sales. This year's album sales are down 45 percent from 2000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
souce: sun-sentinel
By Dawn C. Chmielewski | Tribune Newspapers
April 11, 2009
U2 lead singer Bono, well known for his One campaign to end poverty, has turned his focus to a charity case closer to home: the ailing music industry.
The rocker is credited with bringing together Universal Music Group and Google Inc.'s online video site, YouTube, urging talks that this week resulted in a partnership to launch a new music-video service featuring professionally produced content from the label's big-name acts.
YouTube will create a dedicated channel on its site, to be called Vevo, where users can watch music videos from Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Weezer and other artists signed to the world's biggest music company.
Later this year, Universal and YouTube will debut a separate online music-video site, Vevo.com, where viewers can watch music videos from Universal's library. YouTube will provide the underlying technology, Universal will furnish the content and the partners will split the advertising revenue.
"We have been searching for a way to work with the rights holders which really does drive more—let's be blunt—more revenue," said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.
Music videos have posed a vexing dilemma for YouTube. These short-form videos are among the most watched clips on the site, with a hot new track from an artist like Soulja Boy attracting millions of views.
But the advertising revenue has not been enough to make YouTube's partnerships with the labels profitable, even though it monetizes hundreds of millions of views a day. Indeed, Warner Music Group said it pulled its music videos off YouTube in December 2008 in a licensing dispute over the value of its content.
Universal Music Chairman and Chief Executive Doug Morris proposed an approach modeled on the success of the News Corp. and NBC Universal joint venture, Hulu, an online video site that, in a little more than a year, is now attracting 34 million monthly viewers with the lure of Hollywood movies and episodes of popular TV shows.
Morris outlined a similar concept for music videos, in which YouTube, in partnership with Universal, would bring together all the professionally produced content into the online equivalent of MTV. The venture would redistribute the music videos online in a bid to grab an audience, which hopefully would be large enough to attract advertisers.
Morris said he is speaking with other major labels about participating in Vevo.
Bono played the role of "digital ambassador," prodding his label, Universal and YouTube to explore a partnership.
Record labels are eager to explore ancillary revenue to help offset free-falling CD sales. This year's album sales are down 45 percent from 2000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
souce: sun-sentinel
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