Would you pay 5 cents for a song?
An academic at McGill University has a simple plan to stop the plague of unauthorized music downloads on the Internet. But it entails changing the entire music industry as we know it, and Apple Computers, which may have the power to make the change, is listening.
Peering out from under his de rigueur cap, music-industry veteran Sandy Pearlman, a former producer of the Clash and now a visiting scholar at McGill, spoke with a kind of nervous glee while describing his idea at the Canadian Music Week conference in Toronto last week.
Pearlman proposes putting all recorded music on a robust search engine -- Google would be an ideal choice, but even iTunes might work -- and charging an insignificant fee of, say, five cents a song. In addition, a 1 per cent sales tax would be placed on Internet services and new computers -- two industries that many argue have profited enormously from rampant file-sharing, but haven't had to compensate artists.
The assumption is that if songs cost only 5 cents, people would download exponentially more music. Daniel Levitin, a McGill professor also associated with the project, said that a simple computer program, such as those already in use on Internet retail sites, could track people's purchases and help them to dig through what would become a massive repository of music on the Web.
The extra windfall for musicians and those who own the publishing rights to the songs could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, or more, Pearlman said his study predicts.
It may all sound like a pie-in-the-sky idea, academically elegant but impractical. Or is it?
The head of the British recording industry, who also spoke at the conference, made much the same point: music companies need to get used to the idea of selling more music to more people more often, but for less money. It was a notion repeated often during the conference.
Users of file-sharing services made roughly 25 billion unauthorized downloads last year, dwarfing the legitimate music industry, and it's only getting worse. Some upstart technology companies are trying to figure out ways to profit from file-sharing, but the potential market is limited.
Pearlman added that nothing concrete is in the works with Apple beyond talks, and he has not yet spoken with Google. Still, Apple is listening, and this is the company that has already changed the industry by creating, many believe, the best working model for on-line downloading services.
Pearlman argued that his plan isn't a revolt against the industry. It's merely a pricing decision. Apple should simply be charging 5 cents instead of 99 cents a song, he said. This would bring in millions upon millions of more customers. And he believes that the best place to test this would be in Canada, which has laws he regards as being more supportive of artists and accommodating to an initiative such as this.
Yet, Pearlman went further. He said that since this plan puts the onus on a massive Internet presence to distribute all the music in the world, why not have such computer companies as Apple and such major Internet companies as Yahoo simply buy up the world's four major record labels? Pearlman was careful to add, though, that he doesn't see his plan killing off demand for CDs.
The recording industry is against Pearlman's plan. Richard Pfohl, general council for the Canadian Recording Industry Association, refuted Pearlman on numerous points at the conference forum, arguing that the plan would violate every international intellectual property law that Canada has signed in the last 100 years. It would also obliterate musicians' choices on how their music could be sold by conscripting them into a 5-cents-a-song system. And it would destroy record companies' incentive to invest in new acts, Pfohl said.
Pearlman said that Pfohl misunderstood the idea. Then again, another record-industry type, casually speaking to Pearlman after the talk, had perhaps the most succinct counter suggestion. Why not charge 10 cents, instead of 5, and double the revenue?
Tarantino wins British film award
LONDON (AP) - Quentin Tarantino, director of cult movies Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, was named Film Icon of the Decade at an awards ceremony in London on Sunday.
Tarantino was among a cast of Hollywood and British movie talent recognized during the Empire Awards, which were voted for by more than 12,000 readers of Empire Magazine.
Accepting his award, the 41-year-old announced plans to retire from movie directing in 15 years to become a movie theatre manager.
"The fact that England has embraced me as one of its own is really cool," Tarantino said. "I hope to give you at least 15 more years of movies, I'm not going to be this old guy that keeps cranking them out.
"My plan is to have a theatre by that time in some small town and I will be the manager - this crazy old movie guy.
"I've made enough money that nobody even needs to show up at the theatre. It's just having something to do."
Other award recipients included Matt Damon, who was voted Best Actor for his role in The Bourne Supremacy. The action thriller was also named Best Film.
Julie Delpy was awarded Best Actress for Before Sunset, Kate Winslet's performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind won her the Best British Actress award.
Best British Actor went to Paddy Considine for his role in Dead Man's Shoes.
Supermodel Claudia Schiffer collected the Best British Director award on behalf of her husband Matthew Vaughn, who directed British gangster film Layer Cake.
James Bond Down To Two Candidates Now!!
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
That’s right. Two very different James Bonds are being considered at the moment. Expect the choice to come from this group of guys. It’s really down to Amy Pascal’s final choice, and as I understand it, she’s in the midst of making her mind up right now. Whoever gets picked starts work soon with Martin Campbell on CASINO ROYALE.
Does she want to go with Julian McMahon, star of TV’s NIP/TUCK and this summer’s FANTASTIC FOUR, who seems like a more movie star glamorous choice, or with Daniel Craig, star of LAYER CAKE and ROAD TO PERDITION, who seems like a hard-ass take-no-shit kind of Bond?
Either way, I think I like those choices. They show more imagination than the knee-jerk “Clive Owen” contingent, and I think there’s the potential for either of these two guys to bring something new to the series, a must if it’s going to remain relevant.
Briefly: Bruce Springsteen
New Jersey's Asbury Park Press reports that Bruce Springsteen was rehearsing at Asbury Park's Paramount Theater on Thursday (3/10) in preparation for a tour supporting his forthcoming album, "Devils & Dust."
After a four-hour rehearsal that reportedly included E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, Springsteen signed some autographs.
Dates for the tour--which Springsteen is expected to embark upon without the E Street Band--are still being finalized, but the new album is due April 26.
Gorillaz Battle 'Demon Days' On New Album
Cartoon quartet Gorillaz will on May 24 release its sophomore Virgin album, "Demon Days." A video is in production for first single "Feel Good Inc.," featuring De La Soul. Album track "Dirty Harry," which features what sounds like a children's choir, has been making the rounds on the Internet for several weeks.
The brainchild of Blur frontman Damon Albarn and "Tank Girl" creator Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz comprises the characters Noodle, Murdoc, 2-D, and Russell who inhabit a virtual world on Gorillaz.com.
The 15-track "Demon Days" is the follow-up to Gorillaz's worldwide smash self-titled debut, which has sold more than 1.54 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and six million worldwide, according to Virgin.
Accurately described as "darker" and "more intense" than its predecessor, but no less eclectic, the album was co-produced by Albarn and Danger Mouse. "Last Living Souls" is marked by acoustic strumming and piano melodies, while "Kids With Guns" threads a sample of Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" through a multi-faceted musical backdrop.
The collective puts a weird spin on seductive soul with "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead," while "White Light" starts off in similar territory as Blur's raucous "Song 2" before being interrupted by an angelic interlude. For an extra dash of oddness, actor Dennis Hopper offers spoken-word intonations atop "Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head."
The London Community Gospel Choir can be heard on the title track, while guest spots by rock legend Ike Turner, the Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder and underground rapper MF Doom are sprinkled throughout other cuts.
Here is the track list for "Demon Days":
"Intro"
"Last Living Souls"
"Kids With Guns"
"O Green World"
"Dirty Harry"
"Feel Good Inc."
"El Manana"
"Every Planet We Reach Is Dead"
"November Has Come"
"All Alone"
"White Light"
"DARE"
"Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head"
"Don't Get Lost in Heaven"
"Demon Days"
Defiant doughnut survives diet trends
Doughnut, anyone? Of course you want one, maybe two if they're hot. Fact is, the USA is a nation of glazed gastronomes who gobble 10 billion doughnuts — that's $2 billion worth of fried dough — each year.
Indeed, doughnut shops served about 150 million more people in 2004 than in the previous year, according to food-industry surveys.
"It's not a big mystery," says Sally Levitt Steinberg, author of The Donut Book: The Whole Story in Words, Pictures & Outrageous Tales (Storey Publishing, $14.95). "Everybody likes sweet, fried cakes." Blame the country's obsession on Steinberg's grandfather, Adolph Levitt, aka the Doughnut King, who invented the doughnut machine after he started frying cakes in a pot in Harlem. "Everybody has a doughnut story, about the first or the best doughnut they ever ate," Steinberg says, explaining why she wrote the book. "You don't find this kind of commitment to, say, lemon meringue pie." Here, she demystifies the doughnut as she chews the fat with USA TODAY.
Q: What is the enduring appeal of doughnuts?
A: The answer is not in their taste; it's about their shape. The circle is so universal, and the doughnut is very appealing physically and metaphorically. Of course, there are doughnuts that are not shaped in circles, and fritters are really doughnuts, but we don't categorize them like doughnuts. The doughnut is in a class by itself; it transcends mere food appeal.
Q: Can you explain the increase in consumption at a time when many people are trying to eat healthier and decrease their fat and carb intake? Why is the doughnut impervious to diets?
A: Doughnuts represent a timeout from dietary considerations. They are not a staple; they're a treat. And sometimes, diet or not, you just have to have a doughnut.
Q: Do doughnut machines produce better doughnuts than those made by hand?
A: No, not better, but a doughnut machine is more efficient in terms of standardization of doughnuts produced and quantity. My grandfather could not make enough by hand, so he figured out a way to mass-produce them. Still, the best-tasting doughnuts are handmade. And the hot ones are the big things now. Fried stuff, especially dough, is good hot because the fat becomes heavy (when cold).
Q: Can home bakers buy doughnut machines?
A: Yes, there is a company called Lil' Orbits (lilorbits.com), which offers home doughnut-making equipment such as fryers and cutters that can be used with the machine that mixes the mix, cuts the dough and the hole, drops the doughnut in oil, fries it, then places it on a conveyor belt.
Q: You say in the book that doughnuts are very persnickety, needing perfect humidity and temperature for just-right rising and frying. How can home cooks ever hope to create them?
A: It's really so hard, I don't even do it. My kids and husband made them once, and it was a huge mess. Back in the old days on American prairies, women cooked and baked constantly and then did it so many times they got good at it. Frying doughnuts in vegetable oil is tricky (old-timers use lard) because the dough is so delicate yet it has to absorb so much.
Q: What is your favorite kind of doughnut in general?
A: I love a glazed raised (yeast) doughnut, provided it doesn't have too much sugar in it. It's easier to find good raised doughnuts. But if you can get a good cake doughnut, it's an amazing and wonderful experience.
Q: There's a lot of controversy about the origin of the doughnut's hole. Is there a definitive answer?
A: There are many stories, and in the 1940s, a big debate erupted between two camps: Did a whaling captain stick a piece of dough on his ship's wheel to create the hole? Or was it a Native American who shot a doughnut out of a pioneer woman's hand? All I know is that the hole has been around for a long time, and there is evidence in paintings that round cakes with holes existed in Europe in the 17th century. In America, there has been a doughnut with a hole since the 19th century.
'Sideways' director, actress wife split
NEW YORK (AP) — Director Alexander Payne and wife Sandra Oh have gone from Sideways to parting ways, a spokeswoman told People magazine Saturday.
The Hollywood couple "have mutually decided to separate," the spokeswoman said. "They will remain friends."
The couple met five years ago and married in 2003.
Payne wrote and directed Sideways, the comedy about two friends on a wine-tasting road trip through California.
The film was nominated for five Oscars, and he shared the Academy Award with his writing partner for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Oh, a former co-star on the HBO series Arli$$, was one of the stars of the film.
Revenge of the Spoilers?
Warning: This story does NOT contain spoilers about the new Star Wars movie. Just common Jedi sense.
"All fans should know how it ends," says Philip Wise of TheForce.Net. "Anakin turns into Darth Vader."
But all fans don't know how once innocent Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker turns into the black-helmeted overlord of the Empire (and the three original Star Wars movies). Although, with spoilers abounding on everything from the Internet to tie-in merchandise, they could get a pretty good idea.
"There is always someone who thinks they know something and has to share it with the world," says Chris Mikkelsen, cofounder of California's South Bay Star Wars Fan Club.
On Thursday, George Lucas did some sharing himself, unveiling the first full-length trailer for Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith during Fox's The O.C.. As of Thursday night, it was also available on America Online. And then on Friday, it was set to debut in theaters, attached to prints of Robots.
Lucas continues the tease on Sunday. In an interview to air on CBS' 60 Minutes, the Star Wars guru says that Revenge of the Sith, opening May 19, is so "dark" in chronicling Skywalker's descent into the pits of hell--literally, there's "lava at the end" and everything--that it'll likely draw the kid-friendly sci-fi franchise's first PG-13 rating.
But Lucas only teases, he does not spoil. He does not do what one Website did last month: Lay out the movie, from beginning to end, in pictures apparently scanned from a children's tie-in book. (At last check, the site, which also had what appeared to be actual footage of a light-saber battle, was down.)
Wise, who runs the leading unofficial Star Wars fan site (one that doesn't trade too heavily in spoilers), says the amount of "visual information" out there on the new film is unprecedented.
"It's one thing to read about it, but to see a picture of [spoiler deleted], that's different," Wise says. "Even many people who are spoiler-friendly probably wish they hadn't seen it."
Mikkelsen knows from experience about knowing too much too soon.
The fan club organizer says he read way too many spoilers in advance of seeing The Phantom Menace in 1999. For 2002's Attack of the Clones, he tried to stick to officially disseminated Lucasfilm product.
"I would love to have the conviction to go into EIII blind, and just experience it for the first time, but I know that I can't do that," Mikkelsen says.
Though TheForce.Net pulled back from spoilers once it began working more closely with Lucasfilm, Wise says he knows many of his users still want them. Badly.
"There are people who make great sport of this, who want to know every single details, periods and exclamation points, about the movie," Wise says.
Lucasfilm did not want to comment on Revenge of the Sith spoilers. Well, except for the well-known one.
Owing to the new film's chronological pecking order--its story must end, more or less, where the first Star Wars movie begins--there is a big given.
"The whole premise of the movie is that this is the movie that finally answers all the questions as to why Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader," says Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynn Fox.
The devil--and the suspense--is in the details. Assuming you can resist temptation.
'Robots' Rules the Box Office With $36.5M
LOS ANGELES - "Robots" ruled the box office as the animated family flick debuted with $36.5 million — a solid opening, but well below the $46.3 million premiere of the filmmakers' previous hit, "Ice Age."
While "Ice Age" opened with little competition for the family crowd, "Robots" faced Vin Diesel's hit "The Pacifier," the previous weekend's No. 1 movie. "The Pacifier" finished a strong second with $18.1 million, lifting its 10-day total to $54.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The weekend's other new wide release, the Bruce Willis police thriller "Hostage," debuted at No. 4 with $9.8 million.
Mel Gibson's religious blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which grossed $370 million last year, made barely a ripple at theaters in a recut version that toned down the blood and violence. "The Passion Recut" played in 957 theaters but took in just $239,850.
In sharp contrast to the firestorm over the original film, the new version of "The Passion" arrived quietly, with little fanfare. The fact that the original is available on DVD limited theatrical prospects for the recut edition.
Gibson said he recut the movie for people who were put off by the brutality of the original, which explicitly depicted Christ's scourging and crucifixion.
"We certainly had higher expectations than what we got," said Rob Schwartz, head of distribution for Newmarket Films, which released "The Passion of the Christ" and the new cut. "We were trying to get the film out there hoping it would reach an audience that it didn't reach the first time around. It doesn't seem to have worked out quite as well as we had hoped."
Newmarket executives hope more movie-goers will turn out as Easter approaches, Schwartz said.
"Robots," featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams and Mel Brooks, is the second feature-length cartoon tale from "Ice Age" directors Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha. The movie tracks the adventures of an idealistic robot inventor who moves to the big city.
While "Robots" did not enter theaters with the profile of "Shrek 2" and "The Incredibles," which opened to sky-high numbers, it had been expected to rival the opening weekends for 2002's "Ice Age" and last year's "Shark Tale."
But competing with "The Pacifier," "Robots" fell about $10 million short of both those debuts.
"Those other movies didn't have anything that was working the families with this strength, so I am very, very pleased," said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution for Fox, the studio behind "Robots." "The holidays are coming up, kids are getting out of school, so it's positioned wonderfully."
In limited release, the Joan Allen-Kevin Costner comic drama "The Upside of Anger" opening strongly with $225,783 in nine theaters. The film, centering on a boozy mother embittered over the abrupt departure of her husband, expands to about 150 theaters this weekend.
"Millions," a British family film from director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days Later") grossed $72,987 in five theaters. The movie follows two young brothers momentarily distracted from grief over their dead mother after a suitcase of cash lands in their laps. It expands gradually over the next six weeks.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Robots," $36.5 million.
2. "The Pacifier," $18.1 million.
3. "Be Cool," $10.3 million.
4. "Hostage," $9.8 million.
5. "Hitch," $8.7 million.
6. "Million Dollar Baby," $5.1 million.
7. "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," $5 million.
8. "Constantine," $3.7 million.
9. "Man of the House," $1.8 million.
10. "Cursed," $1.6 million.
'Sound' to Precede Third Coldplay Album
LONDON (Billboard) - Coldplay's long-awaited third studio album, "X&Y," is set for release in June.
The Capitol set hits U.S. stores June 7, after its international launch the previous day, via Parlophone.
The first single, "Speed of Sound," will be sent to radio in April and go on sale May 23.
"X&Y" was recorded over the past year with Danton Supple (Morrissey, Elbow), Ken Nelson (Badly Drawn Boy, Kings of Convenience) and members of the band on production duties.
"We wanted to try new things out, to move our sound along," comments Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland, "but the focus remains on the songs, and Chris (Martin)'s voice is sounding amazing. Everyone is playing at the top of their game."
Coldplay scrapped its first batch of new material last summer, after it had begun rehearsing the songs for a planned tour. "We realized that we didn't really have the right songs, and some of them were starting to sound better because we were playing them than they did on record, so we thought we better go back and record them again," Martin recently told BBC Radio One.
"X&Y" will be supported by the band's largest world tour, starting June 15 at Volks Park in Hamburg, Germany. Among the bands confirmed for supporting slots at various points are Doves, Interpol, Elbow, Supergrass and Morning Runner.
Coldplay will make its first public live appearance since 2003 on Saturday (March 12) during a KCRW benefit at Los Angeles' Universal Amphitheater. In addition to its April 30 headlining appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., the band will play a rare club show the previous night in Las Vegas.
Sources say another club show is on tap in New York, similar to a gig at the city's Bowery Ballroom around the release of Coldplay's 2002 breakthrough, "A Rush of Blood to the Head."
Iger to Succeed Eisner as Disney CEO
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - On Sunday the Walt Disney Company ended its contentious search for a new leader without leaving the house that Mickey Mouse built, naming current company president Robert Iger to succeed chief executive Michael Eisner, who will step down a year before he planned.
The company also said that Eisner -- once the highest paid chief executive in the United States -- will end his more than 20-year reign on Sept. 30, and turn over control of the vast entertainment conglomerate to his preferred successor, a former TV weatherman who worked his way to the top of Disney.
However, two former directors who led a 2004 shareholder protest, including namesake Walt Disney's nephew Roy, were furious with the board's choice, saying investors had been "conned." They also accused the board of failing to find major outside candidates.
Eisner began his reign in glory, revitalizing a company whose business had turned flat. But he now leaves against a backdrop of embarrassing lawsuits from former Disney executives and a bitter shareholder protest that saw a 45 percent vote against him at the 2004 annual meeting.
The 63-year-old Eisner will remain on the Disney board until the company's 2006 annual meeting.
Disney Chairman and former U.S. Senator George Mitchell said: "We definitely had choices -- we made the right choice."
On a conference call, Mitchell told reporters that Iger deserved partial credit for the company's recent stock market gains and financial improvement after Disney hit a rut in the late 1990s.
Mitchell also said the process was thorough and the vote for Iger was unanimous despite "vigorous discussion" by directors.
LOYAL SUCCESSOR
Iger, 54, is a longtime media executive who began his career as a weatherman before starting a steady advance at television network ABC and then Disney.
The dapper Iger is credited with helping turn around ABC and managing much of Disney's day-to-day operations, as well as a new focus on technology and expansion into Asia, where Disney is building one theme park and considering others.
But he has also been Eisner's loyal lieutenant and hand-picked successor, and dissident shareholders Roy Disney and Stanley Gold have said Eisner influenced the process heavily -- a contention the board has denied.
Iger had been the frontrunner, but the timing of the announcement came sooner than expected since the board had set a June 2005 target date to find a new chief. Eisner himself had said he would step down as CEO in September 2006.
Charles Elson, director of the Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, said the board decision was not as transparent as he would have preferred and would not silence critics.
"Having gone within the company to someone closely associated with the current CEO, and that the current CEO will be there a bit longer, will only fuel dissent," he said, referring to Eisner's presence on the board for another year.
Eisner said on Sunday he would not seek to be renominated to the board after the 2006 annual meeting or seek the job of chairman and Mitchell said he would take Eisner at his word.
Disney shares fell between 1998 and 2002, but soared 43 percent in 2003 and another 19 percent in 2004. The shares are off about 1 percent so far this year.
DISSENT SIMMERS
Investors have no direct means to change management since that is the job of the board. Dissident shareholders could try to change the board, although not for another year, and analysts say the process would be long and expensive.
A spokesman for Gold and Disney declined to elaborate on their statement, which said, "(Disney) shareholders should seriously consider replacing this board and starting anew."
But among other things, analysts say Iger had the potential to mend fences with Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the maker of "Toy Story" and "The Incredibles," which is ending its profitable partnership with Disney.
"This was not a broken situation," said Larry Haverty, a portfolio manager at Gabelli & Co., who has supported management for the last year or so. "I think that the board did the right thing."
Iger has been president and chief operating officer of the company since January 2000. His career at ABC started in 1974 in New York as a studio supervisor. In 1996, he joined Disney after the company acquired Capital Cities/ABC.
Rivals for the Disney job apparently included Meg Whitman, eBay Inc.'s chief executive, who bowed out of the race, according to media reports.
Others considered as potential candidates included Peter Chernin, the chief operating officer of News Corp.; Viacom Inc. co-presidents Tom Freston and Leslie Moonves, and Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Terry Semel.