Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album
LOS ANGELES - Radiohead let its fans decide how much to pay for a digital copy of the band's latest release, "In Rainbows," and more than half of those who downloaded the album chose to pay nothing, according to a study by a consumer research firm.
Some 62 percent of the people who downloaded "In Rainbows" in a four-week period last month opted not to pay the British alt-rockers a cent. But the remaining 38 percent voluntarily paid an average of $6, according to the study by comScore Inc.
Radiohead broke with its past practice of releasing its music in CD format and through a major record label when it released its seventh studio album online itself. The biggest wrinkle was the band's decision to let fans pay as much or as little as they wanted to download a copy.
The results of the study were drawn from data gathered from a few hundred people who are part of comScore's database of 2 million computer users worldwide. The firm, which has permission to monitor the computer users' online behavior, did not provide a margin of error for the study's results.
Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 29, about 1.2 million people visited the Web site the band set up for fans to download the album, comScore said Monday. The research firm did not say how many people in its study actually bought the album.
Among U.S. residents, about 40 percent who downloaded the album paid to do so. Their average payment was $8.05, the firm said.
Some 36 percent of the fans outside the U.S. who downloaded the album opted to pay; on average, those fans paid $4.64, according to the study.
Radiohead's U.S.-based publicist said Tuesday the band had no comment on the study.
The online release sent shock waves through the recording industry, with some hailing it as a shrewd move at a time of declining CD sales industrywide and others writing it off as a publicity stunt that amounted to the band giving away its music.
The band, which also offered fans the option of buying a lavish box set for about $82, plans to release the album in CD format some time next year.
Canadian discontent in TV land
Canadians want more Canada on Canadian television.
That's the message 200 angry members of ACTRA, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists, from Ottawa and Toronto delivered loud and clear during a demonstration outside a Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB) convention at the Westin Hotel.
Canadian broadcasters, including CBC, CTV and Global, spent $479 million on U.S. shows in 2006, and just $40 million on Canadian-made English-language dramas. CTV and Global didn't add a single Canadian-made series to their schedules last year.
ACTRA, which primarily represents actors and directors, wants the CRTC to do for television producers what it did for the radio and recording industry when it set Canadian content requirements at 25% in the 1970s, rising to 30% in the 1980s and 35% in the 1990s and helped cultivate an international market for Canadian singer-songwriters.
In 1999, the CRTC relaxed those requirements, hoping to give Canadian producers more opportunities to create Canadian television. Instead, they flooded the market with cheap-to-produce news and reality-based serials.
DESPERATE SITUATION
"We're here to tell some of Canada's richest television corporations in the CAB that they have a shameful record of not giving back to the community," said ACTRA president Karl Pruner. "We're here to tell the CAB that the Canadian airwaves belong to the Canadian people and they're not a licence to print money."
Pruner noted that it's "cheaper for a Canadian network to buy Desperate Housewives from ABC than it is to buy the licence for the Canadian-made Regenesis.
"Americans can dump their shows here more cheaply than it costs us to make and license our own. And now that the Canadian dollar is hitting $1.07 US, we're seeing more work head south. Canadian television is in crisis and we have to do something about it now."
Robb Wells, who plays the dope-smoking schemer Ricky on Trailer Park Boys, flew in from Halifax to lend his voice to the day of action.
"In 1999, there were 12 one-hour Canadian dramas airing every week," said Wells. "Today, that's down to eight half-hour shows. Of the 87 hours they have to fill on their schedule, CTV and Global added zero Canadian shows. None. Big surprise it's getting harder to make a living as an actor in Canadian television. I'm worried. Canadians aren't aware of how much of our culture is going south of the border."
"Canadian broadcasters is an oxymoron," laughed Corner Gas star Eric Peterson.
"How can you be a Canadian broadcaster when you don't broadcast Canadian-made prime-time television, and you spend pennies on the dollar for Canadian programs, while lavishing millions on American shows?
"The CRTC should live up to its obligations and do something to encourage Canadian television production."
YouTube Canada launches
Popular video-sharing website YouTube launched a Canadian version at an event in Toronto on Tuesday. Company officials said the new site will give Canadian users the chance to increase their exposure.
"We're very excited to bring a local version of YouTube to Canada, and are committed to continuing to improve the YouTube experience for our Canadian users," YouTube CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley said in a release. "Our goal is to satisfy the unique needs of the local users and to further strengthen Canada's vibrant YouTube community."
In a blog entry, titled "Hello, Canada!," the YouTube team wrote that some of the site's top users are Canadian, and "in developing a territory-specific YouTube site, we wanted to bring YouTube to you, in your language, while making local talent more visible and getting closer to our users around the world."
Luis Garcia, international product manager for YouTube, said the content on both YouTube.com and YouTube.ca will be the same, but the new site will promote Canadian submissions.
"The only thing that's different is that this is just a Canadian lens into that content, so if a user wants to get the Canada point of view into that global body of content, then they're able to do that," he said.
For launch day, the company asked Canadian user TheWineKone to make a video promoting Canada. The welcome video, boasting a mere 39 views at announcement time and labelled with a "YouTube is now in Canada!" banner, documents TheWineKone's failed search for Canadian flags waving in the wind. Instead, he finds them hanging limply, and after a minute-and-a-half declares, "YouTube Canada's the place to be!"
Other featured videos include "Canada vs. America: who has cuter kittens?," a music video from Vancouver indie-rock band Said the Whale and a submission called "Canada … What does it mean to you?" where a user asked 18 people around the world what they thought about Canada.
In addition to allowing Canadian users the chance to increase their exposure, the site will enable them to better connect with one another, Garcia said.
"Connectivity is another great benefit," said Garcia. "Users who have garnered a worldwide audience on YouTube sometimes have gotten lost in terms of being able to find like-minded users or like-minded content providers who are geographically close," he said.
YouTube has already signed agreements with Canadian content partners including the CBC, the CFL, Dose.ca, NewsCanada and Sony BMG Canada.
The Canadian site is one of 15 country-specific YouTube sites.
Music file sharers also buy more CDs, report says
Contrary to what the music industry has been suggesting, people who download music through file sharing are also more likely to buy CDs, according to a government study.
The report found that for every track downloaded using peer-to-peer (P2P) software, file sharers purchased 0.44 more CDs a year than those who did not use the software.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association says CD sales have massively tumbled since file sharing took off in 1999, but a new report questions the link.
"There is a strong positive relationship between P2P file-sharing and CD purchasing," the report said. "That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file-sharing increases CD purchasing."
The report, prepared by University of London researchers Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz for Industry Canada, stands in stark contrast to positions from recording industry associations, which blame downloading of music — a legal grey area in Canada — for declining CD sales.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association said that in 2007 to the end of July, wholesale sales of CDs, music DVDs and other "physical" music formats fell 20 per cent to $183 million, from $230 million a year earlier. That decline followed on a 48 per cent drop in retail sales of physical formats since the advent of widespread file-swapping in 1999. The association blamed piracy and counterfeiting for the lost sales.
The Industry Canada report, which used data from a Decima Research survey conducted between April and June 2006, also found that when the entire general Canadian population was examined, there was no evidence to suggest that downloads were harming CD sales.
"The analysis of the entire Canadian population does not uncover either a positive or negative relationship between the number of files downloaded from P2P networks and CDs purchased," the report said.
People who bought music electronically, such as through Apple Inc.'s iTunes store, were also more likely to buy music on CDs, the report said.
Also, people who bought a high number of DVDs, video games, movie and concert tickets also purchased a higher number of CDs, indicating that other media were not detracting from CD sales, as has also been suggested by music industry associations.
"Music and other entertainment goods are not substitutes; instead the relationship is linked to a lifestyle choice of certain groups of society," the report said.
White Stripes Shoot Video, Record New Songs
Despite having scrapped their fall tour, the White Stripes have recently been back in the studio. According to the group's Web site, the Stripes have "recorded three never-before-heard original songs (with a special collaboration) and one unique new version of a song" from this year's "Icky Thump."
In addition, the group has filmed "an exciting new video" for an as-yet-unnamed song. No other details about song titles or release dates have been confirmed.
The Stripes abruptly pulled off the road in mid-September, after it was revealed that drummer Meg White "is suffering from acute anxiety and is unable to travel at this time."
Meanwhile, frontman Jack White cameos as Elvis Presley in the upcoming film "Walk Hard," which hits U.S. theaters in December.
Garth Dethrones Elvis
Garth Brooks, who edged out Elvis Presley in 1999 for the title of best-selling solo artist of all time, only to lose it five years later, reclaimed the crown from the King Monday, according to the tab keepers at the Recording Industry Association of America.
The announcement was made, as such announcements are wont to be made, on the eve of the release of Brooks' latest collection, The Ultimate Hits, due out Tuesday. It also came hours before Brooks was to take the stage for the first performance of his sold-out, nine-night stand in Kansas City, Missouri.
Even before the new, three-disc set hits stores, Brooks is in the RIAA's books as having sold more than 123 million albums, more than any other man, woman or band, save for the Beatles.
Presley stood at 118.5 million, per the RIAA Website. The next top-selling solo act was Billy Joel, at 79.5 million.
Brooks, the country singer with the arena-rock sensibility, and Presley, the rock 'n' roller with the down-home roots, have been fighting for supremacy for years.
In 1999, the RIAA declared Brooks the 20th century's most successful male recording artist, and indeed, its biggest selling solo artist. At the time, Brooks clocked in at 89 million albums sold. Presley, who was lauded for releasing the most gold- and platinum-selling albums, came in behind Brooks, and ahead of Barbra Streisand (the top-selling female artist), with 77 million. (All figures reflect only United States sales.)
But then Brooks, who made it big with the help of "Friends in Low Places," retired. And in 2004, the dead but still-working-it Presley was named the RIAA's top solo act, with 117.5 million albums sold.
That announcement was made, as such announcements are wont to be made, on the occasion of what would have been Presley's 69th birthday. It followed a new count of Presley's old albums.
Meanwhile, Brooks took time away from Leisure World in 2005 to seal a deal with Wal-Mart to exclusively peddle all of his recorded wares, including his then-new collection, Garth Brooks: The Limited Series. With the about-to-be released Ultimate Hits, Brooks has released five albums since vowing to enjoy his golden years.
And on Monday, his hard retirement work paid off with the solo sales title.
"I am proud for country music and take honor in playing a part bringing this milestone to rest under the flag of country music," Brooks, 45, said in a statement.
For the love of rock, it sounds as if it's time for dead Elvis to get back in the studio.