Singer George Michael out of hospital after car accident

British singer George Michael performs on stage during his ''Symphonica'' tour concert in Vienna September 4, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Heinz-Peter Bader

LONDON | Wed May 29, 2013 1:56pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - British singer George Michael is out of hospital after being treated for head injuries from a car accident two weeks ago, his website said on Wednesday.

The 49-year-old former Wham! frontman, who has been "under observation" since the May 16th accident, has been discharged and is resting, www.georgemichael.com said.

"We can confirm that George Michael has been discharged from hospital and continues to rest and recuperate," the message on Michael's website said. "He is well and thanks everyone for all the messages of support."

British media have reported that the "Careless Whisper" singer fell out of a car he was travelling in on the M1 motorway just outside London during rush hour - the latest of a string of accidents and health scares.

Last year, Michael cancelled a tour of Australia due to "major anxiety" brought on by a 2011 battle with severe pneumonia in Vienna, where he was treated in intensive care for a month.

The singer has sold an estimated 100 million records over his career, but in the past few years has hit the headlines for his personal life more often than for his music.

In 1998 he was arrested in California for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet. He has also had a number of run-ins with British police for possession of narcotics, and served time in jail for driving under the influence of cannabis.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Boston rockers play fundraiser for bomb victims

Singer Joey McIntyre performs during the Boston Strong benefit concert at the Boston TD Garden in Boston, May 30, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Gretchen Ertl

By Richard Valdmanis

BOSTON | Fri May 31, 2013 12:56am EDT

BOSTON (Reuters) - A succession of all-star bands from Aerosmith to Jimmy Buffet rocked a packed house at Boston's TD Garden on Thursday night in a mostly raucous fund-raiser for the victims of last month's marathon bombing.

Tickets priced between $35 and $285 sold out fast at the 17,500-seat venue, with net proceeds to be donated to The One Fund, a reserve established by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick that has so far received more than $37 million in donations to compensate victims of the April 15 bombing.

The music kicked off with a Jimi Hendrix-style distortion guitar version of the U.S. national anthem by rock band Boston that drew cheering fans out of their seats before lead singer Tommy DeCarlo told the crowd "Tonight we are all Boston."

Another Massachusetts band, Extreme, transformed the energy with a sing-along version of "More Than Words" - an acoustic love song - before the homegrown J. Geils Band unleashed a torrent of fast-paced R&B as lead man Peter Wolf strutted the stage in black leather and shades.

"We came up here to help out Boston, but also because these are some great bands," said Shelly Watson, who drove up from Rhode Island with her husband to see the show, which also included comedians and a short speech by Victoria McGrath, a young girl who was injured in the bombing.

Other acts included country star Jason Aldean, who despite not being from Massachusetts admitted to being a fan of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, New Kids on the Block, James Taylor and Aerosmith - which made a round-the-world detour from Singapore to make the show.

Donnie Wahlberg from New Kids on the Block won the decibel award when he took the microphone and yelled the word Boston repeatedly, drawing enthusiastic shrieks from the audience.

"We came here tonight to show the world how resilient we are," he said.

Fellow band mate Joey McIntyre displayed the marathon medal he earned on the day of the explosion before the group broke into a run of songs including "I'll Be Loving You" and "Step By Step."

Aerosmith closed the show with a bang with lead man Steven Tyler sporting an ankle-length cape and leopard-pattern shirt dancing with his microphone stand while singing rousing versions of "Sweet Emotion" and "Living on the Edge."

"How heavy does your heart feel after a night like this?" he asked the cheering crowd.

Concert organizers have declined to say yet how much money the concert will raise for The One Fund, but have said bands and venue employees were working for free.

Three people were killed and 264 injured, many losing their legs, by homemade pressure-cooker bombs that exploded at the finish line of the world-renowned Boston Marathon on April 15.

Kenneth Feinberg, a lawyer who specializes in mediation, was tapped by Menino and Patrick to run The One Fund. Feinberg has warned victims to lower their expectations of how much money the fund would be able to pay individual beneficiaries.

Boston bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen with roots in Russia's volatile northern Caucasus, was captured in a dramatic police manhunt days after the bombing. He was criminally charged and is being held in jail.

His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was also identified by the FBI as a suspect but he was killed in a gunfight with police. U.S. security officials have said they believe the brothers had Islamic militant sympathies.

(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Scott Malone, Grant McCool, Eric Beech and Lisa Shumaker)

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Madonna to be honored for top grossing tour at Billboard Awards

Singer Madonna arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit celebrating the opening of ''PUNK: Chaos to Couture'' in New York, May 6, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Carlo Allegri

NEW YORK | Wed May 8, 2013 11:33am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Madonna will be honored at the Billboard Music Awards show this month for her 2012 MDNA tour, the high grossing concert tour of the year, organizers of the awards show said on Wednesday.

The singer will accept the Top Touring Artist award at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 19th for the tour that grossed more than $305 million from 88 sold-out shows and attracted an audience of 2.2 million people.

"A cultural icon, Madonna is one of the most successful and influential entertainers of all time and was recently named Billboard's Top Money Maker of 2012," Billboard said in a statement.

The chart-topping singer holds numerous other Billboard awards, including the record for the most top 10 singles (38).

In addition to her music, Madonna is also an avid art collector. On Tuesday she sold a 1921 painting by the French artist Fernand Leger, "Trois Femmes a la Table Rouge," for $7.16 million to raise money for the non-profit Ray of Light Foundation, to fund girls' education in poor countries.

The mother of four, including two adopted children from Malawi, is planning to build 10 schools in the African nation.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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Rapper Psy wows Harvard with global appeal, dance moves

South Korean singer PSY speaks at Harvard University's Memorial Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts May 9, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi

By Ross Kerber

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts | Thu May 9, 2013 10:31pm EDT

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - South Korean rapper Psy said he "partied hard" when his dance number drew its first 10 million views on YouTube last summer. Little did he know "Gangnam Style" would become the most-viewed video in the online service's history, with a global following and nearly 1.6 billion views as of Thursday.

"I partied hard to celebrate 10 million views!" Psy told about 1,000 people at Harvard University on Thursday evening, as he recalled his reaction when the song took off, making him a cultural phenomenon and leading to meetings with Los Angeles record producers.

"This is so unrealistic!" he recalled thinking.

Formally dressed and speaking in sometimes-halting English, Psy spoke for more than an hour and occasionally lapsed into signature dance moves such as grasping the reins of an imaginary trotting horse.

Psy's talk was partly a homecoming as he recalled his days as a student in Boston in the mid-1990s. But it was also a seminar about the star's surprise worldwide cultural appeal and the economic influence of East Asian culture.

Harvard professor Alexander Zahlten introduced Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, as a global figure who has shown the ability of Korean music stars, video-game programmers and other entertainment figures to find overseas popularity through Internet channels.

"He's a global citizen, and in turn influences people all over the world," Zahlten said. "He's deeply connected to digital culture."

After "Gangnam Style" set records, the video for Psy's follow-up song "Gentleman" received more than 20 million hits in the first 24 hours after its release last month, easily beating the previous record of 8 million views for Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" in the first 24 hours.

Psy, 35, told the audience at the Ivy League school that music trumps national divides. "Music makes everyone united," he said. "Something beyond language." At some performances, he said, "I'm so proud. The crowd doesn't know what the lyrics are about, but they look so happy!"

Later he said the word for "style" conveyed similar meanings in all languages, and that he wrote the lyrics for "Gentleman" hoping they would find a similar worldwide resonance. "Really , it was linguistics," he said.

Psy also poked fun at his own less-than-stellar academic record. He said his nickname in college was "WWF" for his grades, "withdraw, withdraw, fail." He said he kept thinking big and poked fun at his robust midsection.

"I dreamed someday, some Korean artist would be well-known in the U.S.," he said. "I dreamed about it but didn't dream that was me, because as you see I have a very special body type."

(Editing by Paul Simao)

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Kenny Chesney lands seventh No. 1 album on Billboard 200 chart

Kenny Chesney performs ''Pirate Flag'' at the 48th ACM Awards in Las Vegas April 7, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES | Wed May 8, 2013 1:14pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Country singer Kenny Chesney landed his seventh No. 1 album on the weekly Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday with his latest record "Life on a Rock."

The album sold 153,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan, giving Chesney the second-most No. 1 country albums, behind Garth Brooks.

Last week's chart-topper, Michael Buble's "To Be Loved" slipped to No. 2, while Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" held steady at No. 3 for the fourth consecutive week.

Only one other new album debuted in the top 10 this week, country group Randy Rogers Band at No. 9 with "Trouble."

Seattle rapper-producer duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis topped Billboard's Digital Songs chart, which measures downloads of single tracks, for the second consecutive week with "Can't Hold Us," featuring Ray Dalton.

Their debut album "The Heist" also climbed back into the top 10 on Billboard 200, from No. 11 to No. 5.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Eric Kelsey and Cynthia Osterman)

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Michael Jackson lawyer calls new sex abuse claim 'outrageous'

Lawyer Howard Weitzman speaks to the media outside of Superior Court in Los Angeles July 6, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer

LOS ANGELES | Wed May 8, 2013 6:40pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The attorney for Michael Jackson's estate on Wednesday described as "outrageous and pathetic" a fresh claim of child molestation against the dead pop star, made by one of his close friends.

Choreographer Wade Robson, who testified in defense of the "Thriller" singer in a 2005 child sex abuse trial, filed a creditor's claim against Jackson's estate last week, alleging he had been abused by the singer when he was a minor, according to sealed legal documents seen by celebrity website TMZ.com.

"Mr. Robson's claim is outrageous and pathetic," Howard Weitzman, the attorney for Jackson's estate, said in a statement.

Robson, 30, developed a friendship with Jackson as a child and slept over at the singer's Neverland Ranch home in Southern California on several occasions when he was a minor.

He made his claim for damages against the singer's estate almost four years after Jackson's June 2009 death. Details of his allegations were not publicly available.

Robson's attorney, Henry Gradstein, accused Jackson of brainwashing and intimidating Robson to keep him from coming forward.

"Last year, on a career trajectory that was off the charts, he (Robson) collapsed under the stress and sexual trauma of what had happened to him for seven years as a child," Gradstein said in a statement on Wednesday.

He added that Robson had no financial motive and did not request a specific amount of damages in his claim.

Jackson was tried and acquitted in 2005 on molestation charges involving another minor. Robson testified at that trial in defense of the singer.

"This is a young man who has testified at least twice under oath over the past 20 years and said in numerous interviews that Michael Jackson never did anything inappropriate to him or with him," Weitzman said.

Robson, an Australian, worked as a choreographer for pop singer Britney Spears and former boy band 'N Sync in the late 1990s and appeared as a judge on the U.S. TV dance competition "So You Think You Can Dance."

He also appeared as a dancer in Jackson's 1991 music video for the single, "Black or White."

Jackson's estate is in the process of settling dozens of claims from creditors and others who had dealings with the King of Pop during his long career.

An unrelated wrongful death suit, brought by Jackson's family against concert promoter AEG Live, is in its second week of trial in Los Angeles.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)

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Lady Antebellum 'dial back' for 'Golden' sound

Charles Kelley (L), Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood of Lady Antebellum perform the song ''Downtown'' during the 48th ACM Awards in Las Vegas April 7, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

By Vernell Hackett

NASHVILLE, Tennessee | Thu May 9, 2013 5:47pm EDT

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Lady Antebellum are growing up and getting sassy with their fourth studio album, "Golden," embracing a stripped-down sound to showcase their vocal strength as they prepare for an upcoming tour with a baby on board.

The country band, formed by vocalists Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and guitarist Dave Haywood in Nashville, Tennessee, released its latest album this week, which saw band members drawing on their live tour experiences.

"When we went into the studio we wanted the new record to have that live band sound and we wanted it to be different from the last record," Haywood told Reuters.

The trio, who have picked up seven Grammy awards since their debut self-titled album in 2008 and have become a strong force in the cross-over between country music and pop music, hoped fans would hear a new side to the Lady Antebellum sound.

By keeping the production simple, Haywood said the band wanted to showcase the vocals on "Golden," due in part to the band being more secure in how their voices blend together.

Scott added that the final 12 tracks selected for the album leant themselves to the simpler production.

"It made sense to dial it back, which allowed us more time to spend on vocals and get them exactly the way we wanted them," the singer said.

While most of the band's songs feature romantic lyrics, such as "American Honey," the lead single "Downtown" from the latest album saw the band take on an edgier feel as a sassy Scott sings about demanding her boyfriend to take her out in town.

"I love the song and thought it could be a huge hit. I thought it might be a risk if the fans didn't accept it, but the boys kept saying, ‘We've seen you get sassy, and everybody else needs to see that side of you too,'" Scott said.

'ROAD BABY'

Along with a new album and upcoming tour, the band is also preparing for a big change within its dynamic, as Scott and her husband, the band's drummer Chris Tyrrell, prepare for the birth of their first child.

Scott, the daughter of country singer Linda Davis, said she grew up as a "road baby" on tour with her mother and hoped her child would benefit from the same experiences.

"I adapted as a child to my surroundings and I turned out okay, I hope, and I think our little girl will do the same. I have a feeling that being home will be more of an adjustment for her than being on the road," she said.

Kelley was also excited by the prospect of raising a child on the tour bus, saying "that baby is gonna see things no baby gets to see."

After more than five years of touring, the band said they are growing more comfortable musically and as a group, as they enter a new chapter in their career.

All three members are eager to leave an imprint with their fans as they continue to grow as a band, and they hoped they would leave a legacy behind, the central theme in the final song on the album, "Generation Away."

"One of the coolest things going on in our genre right now is the undercurrent of friendship among all the artists who came along around the same time that we did. I want to be remembered as that group of artists who were best friends, almost a Rat Pack type of thing," Kelley said.

(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Eric Kelsey)

(This story corrects "American Honey" as not one of the songs on the "Golden" album in paragraph 8)

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Heavy metal singer pleads not guilty in California murder-for-hire case

Tim Lambesis, lead singer for the heavy metal band As I Lay Dying, looks on during his arraignment in San Diego North County court in Vista, California May 9, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Lenny Ignelzi/Pool

By Marty Graham

VISTA, California | Thu May 9, 2013 10:24pm EDT

VISTA, California (Reuters) - Heavy metal singer Tim Lambesis, the frontman for Christian rock band As I Lay Dying, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a charge of soliciting the murder of his estranged wife.

North San Diego County Superior Court Judge Martin Staven set bail for Lambesis at $3 million. He ordered Lambesis to surrender his passport, stay away from his wife Meggan and their three children and remain in San Diego county except to meet with his attorney.

If convicted, Lambesis faces up to nine years in prison.

Lambesis, 32, was arrested at a bookstore in Oceanside, north of San Diego, on Tuesday after he tried to hire an undercover sheriff's deputy to kill Meggan Lambesis, according to Deputy District Attorney Claudia Grasso. Meggan Lambesis had filed for divorce in September after eight years of marriage, according to court records.

The singer gave the man he knew as 'Red' an envelope containing $1,000 in cash, photos of his wife, her address and codes to get through the security gates of her home, and a list of dates that would work well because he would have their three adopted children with him, Grasso said.

"The children would be his alibi," Grasso said at a news conference after the hearing, which was attended by more than 40 of Lambesis' friends, family and fans.

Lambesis' attorney, Anthony Salerno, said his client was set up. "If I had to hang a tag on it, I'd call it a scumbag snitch set-up," Salerno said. "Law enforcement was fed something by someone who effectively orchestrated the whole thing ... He did not intend to harm anybody."

Lambesis sent his wife an email in August while he was on tour, telling her he no longer loved her or believed in God, Grasso said. His wife also found he was having an affair and "there had been a string of other women," she said.

The prosecutor said Lambesis asked an acquaintance from his gym if he could find someone to kill his wife.

The gym friend arranged for him to meet with an undercover Sheriff's Department detective on Tuesday, to whom Lambesis gave the envelope of cash and information, Grasso said.

Salerno said he believed Lambesis did not want to harm his wife and had never done so in the past, noting the singer has no history of domestic violence or any arrests.

"Tim was mostly disappointed that it was going the way it was, he didn't feel it was good for his children," Salerno said. "The rest, I think will come out, that he was set up."

He also told the court that the restrictions on Lambesis to stay in San Diego County will affect the band's ability to tour and earn a living.

"The band has a tour scheduled," Salerno told the judge. "There's many people who depend on him. If he can't go that would be to the detriment of many, many people."

Lambesis is due to return to court for a preliminary hearing on July 10.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Mohammad Zargham)

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Right Now: Justin Bieber Smokes Dope, Snoop Lion Goes 3D, Vibe Acquired, CD Devaluation...

I blame Universal Music Group.  We bring you to Sweden, where Justin Bieber's tour bus was recently raided by Stockholm police.  The cops sniffed marijuana from the outside (while Justin was on stage), and subsequently discovered an unnamed drug (probably weed) and a stun gun.  All which goes to show: if you search a tour bus, you'll probably find something.

That's funny, I thought I just heard you say you were unfamiliar with Snoop Lion aka Snoop Dogg's the Reincarnated Track Notes 3D App.  Of course, the behind-the-scenes, 3D-enabled release is part of a 'transmedia' Reincarnated release strategy that also includes an album, feature film, app, photo book and a non-profit initiative.  The app is available on the iPad, iPhone and on the web (Chrome or Safari support the 3D features), and is best experienced in the lobby and studio areas of Universal Music Group headquarters.  

And the gobble-up of once-storied music magazines continues.  The latest getting plucked is Vibe, a good ol' pulp brand that must now forge a digital future.  The buyer is SpinMedia, a music publication and blog conglomerage that recently purchased SPIN and changed its namesake accordingly. 

Look closer, and CDs are plunging in more ways than one.   The typical metric used is units, though the price of CDs have been sinking drastically for years.  According to tracking from WalletPop and Mint.com, the sticker price on a CD slipped 26.98 percent between 2000 and 2010, though price tags have been positively cliff-diving in recent years.  Indeed, a recent field trip to Wal-Mart revealed a slew of $5 CDs, and insiders have credited the 2011 bump in album sales on extremely-discounted discs. 

More ahead!  Written while listening to Diplo and Dillon Francis. 

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will.i.am Now Says He 'Accidentally' Stole His Latest Song...

There's no mistaking the rip-off, but will.i.am now says he 'accidentally' stole the backing track to his latest release, 'Let's Go' featuring Chris Brown.  In case there's any misunderstanding, here's the will.i.am song, then the original by Arty and Mat Zo, side-by-side...  

Blatant indeed, though will.i.am says it was just an oversight.  "[DJ] Arty is a dope producer," will.i.am told KISS-FM in an on-air interview.  "So I wrote this song to 'Rebound' this last year.  I got in touch with Arty and asked him to make it newer 'cause I don't just wanna take your song and rap over it."

"But in a year's time, time's gone by and we preferred writing over and using the original.  Something happened and the clearance... well hopefully we resolved the issue."

This admission is a big breakthrough for Arty, who launched a Twitter tirade earlier this month to fix the injustice.  Arty says his label, which owns full rights, wasn't properly contacted and the track definitely wasn't cleared. 

Here's one problem: the track has already been blasted by one of the biggest promotional guns on the planet, and will.i.am is only addressing the issue after the release. Which might explain why the YouTube/VEVO video is now getting murdered by a hail of negative bullets.  The track has nearly 800,000 views (as of Tuesday night), though a monstrous 89 percent of thumbs are negative.  

This is a comment section icovered in blood, with the vitriol spilling into death threats and endless moderator removals.  Here's just a sampling of the angry mob...

Chris Brown's involvement seems appropriate enough, though the miscreant vocalist appeared uninvolved with the track selection.  But if there is a silver lining to all of this, it's discovery: outside of a near-certain financial settlement, a lot more people have now heard of DJ Arty.  If only combining 'exposure' and a paycheck weren't so complicated.

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Congress Will Now Consider a Major Overhaul of US Copyright Law...

Last month, the head of the US Copyright Office urged members of Congress to overhaul current copyright law, and usher in the 'next great copyright act'.  That may have started a snowball: on Wednesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman and Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte promised a 'comprehensive review of copyright law' over the next few months, while subtly pointing to re-examinations of statutes like the DMCA.

The speech was delivered ahead of World Intellectual Property Day at the Library of Congress. 

As we mark World Intellectual Property Day today in the Jefferson Building, I would point out that the US Copyright Office first opened in this building in 1897 under the direction of our nation's first Register of Copyrights, Thorvald Solberg, who served as Register for the next 33 years.  During his tenure as Register, Solberg oversaw the implementation of the Third Revision of America's copyright law in 1909 that modernized the copyright law for that era in ways that seem quaint today.  For example, he oversaw the extension of copyright protection to the new technology known as motion pictures.  The 1909 Copyright Act passed through the Congressional Committee on which I serve as Chairman, the House Committee on the Judiciary.

The discussions during the early 1900s over the need to update American copyright laws to respond to new technology were not the first time such discussions occurred and they will certainly not be the last.  Formats such as photographs, sound recordings, and software along with ways to access such formats including radio, television, and the internet did not exist when the Constitution recognized intellectual property.  My Committee has repeatedly held similar discussions about new forms of intellectual property as they arose and enacted laws as appropriate.  Driven by new technologies and business models, a number of changes to copyright law went into effect in 1976.

Technology continues to rapidly advance.  Contrast how American citizens kept up with the latest news in Boston last week to when Paul Revere rode nearby to warn the local communities of the British advance in 1775.  Our Founding Fathers could never have imagined a day in which citizens would be able to immediately access the knowledge and news of the world on their smartphones as they walk down the street.

When I was first elected to Congress in 1993, only 2.5 percent of Americans had internet access and less than ¼ of one percent of the world population did.  

Recognizing the importance of the Internet, I was an original founder of the Congressional Internet Caucus in 1996.  Over the years, I have seen the need to better understand how new technologies impact our laws.  

I personally spent months meeting with various interested parties in an effort to develop a legislative solution to address such problems.

Just as Register Solberg recognized the need to update of our nation's copyright laws in the early 1900s to accommodate new technologies, our current Register, Maria Pallante, has also perceived a need to do so.  Last month, she testified before my Committee about her desire for the "next great copyright act." Much of her testimony was about policy issues that have arisen due to the advance of technology.

There is little doubt that our copyright system faces new challenges today. The internet has enabled copyright owners to make available their works to consumers around the world, but has also enabled others to do so without any compensation for copyright owners.  Efforts to digitize our history so that all have access to it face questions about copyright ownership by those who are hard, if not impossible, to locate.  There are concerns about statutory license and damage mechanisms.  Federal judges are forced to make decisions using laws that are difficult to apply today. Even the Copyright Office itself faces challenges in meeting the growing needs of its customers – the American public.

So it is my belief that a wide review of our nation’s copyright laws and related enforcement mechanisms is timely.

I welcome all interested parties to submit their views andconcerns to the Committee.  I also look forward to working with the Register and the Copyright Office that has served Congress well since its creation over 110 years ago. There is much work to be done.

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Spotify Cofounder Martin Lorentzon Outed as a Tax Cheat...

It's been a week of outing the tax avoiders.  First, Eric Schmidt was grilled on BBC Radio 4's Today Show over the fact that Google pays virtually no tax on UK profits, despite sales of £3.1 billion ($4.8 billion).  Google does it by diverting most of its British revenue via Ireland.    

Matter of fact, last year the company paid only £227 million ($351 million) in "foreign" corporation tax, despite £16.9 billion ($26.1 billion) in sales outside the US.  Schmidt defended the company's tax planning by saying Google "invested heavily in Britain" through hiring employees there, and empowered "literally billions of pounds of start-ups through our advertising network".

It turns out, however, that Facebook goes even lower.  When the company's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, was questioned by a BBC World News reporter over the "whopping" 0.5% tax the company pays outside of the US, Sandberg (like Schmidt) said defiantly that Facebook complies with all tax laws and regulations.  "I'm not accusing Facebook of committing a crime," countered the reporter.  "I'm asking you if you think it's ethically and morally acceptable to pay that little considering the financial hardship [the rest of the world] is currently experiencing?"  

Sandberg simply reiterated that the company wasn't doing anything illegal.

Incidentally, Martin Mills, the founder and chairman of the Beggars Group, the independent label group that has Adele and Radiohead on their roster, calculated last year that he had paid more UK taxes than Facebook, Google and Amazon combined in the latest tax year.

Now it's come to light that Spotify co-founder Martin Lorentzon is also a member of the tax avoidance club – though he's gone one better than Facebook and managed to avoid paying taxes altogether in the country where he's based.  The Swedish National Radio reports that Lorentzon set up a company called Rosello in Cyprus in 2005, just as he was about to sell his stocks in Tradedoubler – a sale that earned him at least 250 million Swedish kronor ($38 million) in profit from 2005-2007.

Had those shares remained in Lorentzon's Swedish company (he has remained a registered resident of Sweden all this time), he would've had to pay at least 25% in corporation tax.  That's more than 60 million kronor ($9.1 million).  

According to recent official documents, Lorentzon's share of Spotify is also in Rosello – shares that, according to the radio report, are worth billions of kronor.  There is very little information available about the company at Cyprus' company register – it hasn't even filed any yearly reports since it was set up, which is against registry rules.

None of the people involved in the company are identified in the documents, but its mailing address belongs to Nordic Finance, a company run by a former employee of the Swedish tax office, which promotes Cyprus as "an attractive location for tax planning".

Despite being a resident of Sweden, Lorentzon hasn't paid any taxes in the country 2007-2010 (the latest tax period for which information was accessible).  According to the tax office, Lorentzon was worth 140 million kronor ($21.2 million) in 2006, but it has no details on his financial state after that.

The reason the Spotify co-owner's tax arrangement made the news now is because Lorentzon has been elected onto the board of Swedish telecom giant Telia Sonera, and tasked with increasing the company's corporate social responsibility.  Telia Sonera's former employees are under investigation in an alleged bribery and money laundering case in Uzbekistan.

Incidentally, Lorentzon's 230,000 shares in Telia Sonera go through his Cyprus tax arrangement as well, but Kristina Ekengren at the ministry of finance, who partook in the nominations, didn’t think this was reason to exclude him from the board.  "The government believes that people should contribute to the Swedish society by paying taxes here, and I agree."

But, she says, Lorentzon's accomplishments as an entrepreneur are unique for Sweden, as he's built two successful companies in the new technology sector.  "He's difficult to beat. I think we should be proud of him in Sweden."

Images: (top) Jacob Davies, licensed under Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.0 License; (middle) adapted Spotify publicity shot. 

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What Else? Twitter Funding, Apple's 'Problem,' Lauryn's Hill, Rolling Stones, Omnifone, Beyonce's Ban...

There's more to Twitter music than just Twitter #music.  Enter Chirpify, the in-tweet commerce engine that just rustled a $2 million series A from Voyager Capital.  That brings the broader financing level to $3.3 million, according to the company. Snoop Dogg, Puma, and Lil Wayne are now signed on as 'enterprise customers'.   

So it seems that Apple has a problem: it's smashingly-excellent past.  The company reported fairly solid second quarter financials on Tuesday — $9.5 million in profits on $43.6 billion in sales —though CEO Tim Cook admitted that growth rates are slowing.  Perhaps more importantly to Wall Street: current-quarter expectations are lower than expected, which probably means more downward movement on AAPL.

And it's rain/pour for Lauryn Hill, who basically checked out from both celebrity and broader society sometime in the early 2000s.  Hill is now facing sentencing for tax evasion (non-payment on nearly $2 million in income), though TMZ is now reporting eviction proceedings on Hill's rented mansion in New Jersey.  Court documents show that Hill has inked a $1 million recording contract with Sony Music to manage the tax debt.

And what's more important than the Rolling Stones?  The NBA Playoffs, that's what: according to official word from the band, the opening date for the upcoming '50 & Counting' trek will be moved one day to May 3rd (still at Staples Center), to avoid a hoops-related conflict. 

Over the pond in London, Omnifone has just named David Finch as CFO, effective immediately.  Omnifone, a b2b-focused digital music service provider, is helping to power the just-launched MySXM personalized radio service.

And, can you really control the cameras anymore (or the blogs, Tumblrs, Tweets and websites that distribute them)?  After the publication of wildly-unflattering Super Bowl pics, Beyonce is now banning all photo credentials on her upcoming, Mrs Carter tour.  Beyonce will only release authorized pics taken by an authorized photographer.  And what about everyone else in the crowd?

More ahead!

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What Hunter S. Thompson Really Said About the Music Industry...

Hunter S. Thompson is often credited for penning a darkly accurate description of a crooked music industry. But the quote, which frequently starts, 'the music industry is a cruel and shallow money trench,' turns out to be an internet fiction.  In reality, Thompson wasn't talking about the music industry at all, according to some diligent research by David Emery.     

Here's the original quote, first printed in 1985 in the San Francisco Examiner and later in 1988 in Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s before getting twisted around.     

The rest — including the 'there's also a negative side' ending — seems like total embellishment. 

Image adapted from a caricature illustration in the public domain.

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Congratulations: The Music Industry Is Now 'Napster-Proof'...

It's a scary question that pops up from time to time...

You know, that out-of-the-blue technology that shocks the industry, dismantles our carefully-crafted business models once again, and plunges everything into a second freefall?  Well, the answer may be never, simply because consumers don't want or need another Napster.  The music has already been devalued beyond repair, the bundle's been destroyed, and access is already as unfettered as it's gonna be. 

You see, there aren't any more fan freedoms to be won.  Napster no.1 did the job, the first time.  So welcome to the extremely scary future — the one you're living in, right now.

The older brother downloaded from Napster, Kazaa, BitTorrent.  The younger brother is on YouTube, where it's all legit.  Some wonder if there's a difference.

This is something Spotify understands extremely well.  It's the reason why they've permanently expanded the limits on free listening, why they're lobbying for freemium on mobile devices.  Why they refuse to get hobbled by a Rhapsody-style paywall, and why their entire financial model is a house of cards.

Because most consumers won't pay, simply because don't have to.  And if they take the upsell, they're doing us a favor, in their minds and ours.  

And if you don't pay?  No big deal, you can sit in coach class, on Spotify, YouTube, or iTunes.  The plane still takes off and takes you to your destination.  That's not true for most other discretionary consumer goods, like lattes, cable, or beer. 

If the recording hasn't been driven down to $0, it's hovering just above it.  And you can partly thank Congress, copyright law, and an extremely powerful tech lobby for that.  Sure, Universal Music Group just won an important victory in New York State, one that could theoretically dismantle the DMCA as we know it.  And Congress, prodded by Hollywood, is taking a hard look at a very dysfunctional copyright system.  

But right now, the law drastically favors companies like Google and YouTube, while leaving the door open to loophole plays like Grooveshark.  Even the biggest media companies can't issue enough takedown notices to combat that reality.

The dominance is shocking (and here's the proof).  This is the reason why 'YouTube Music' — or whatever YouTube's cleaned-up subscription service will be called — is a massive problem for Spotify, Deezer, Muve, et. al.  Because an unbelievably large percentage of music consumption is already happening on YouTube, often with video ignored.    

Sean Parker still talks about 'finishing what he started,' ie, creating a service that offers every song, remix, and video released.  And, truly gives fans exactly what they want, when they want it.  Because for all the lessons learned from Napster, most of the subsequent changes were forced, not embraced.  But that's another story, entirely.

Written while listening to araabMUZIK's latest, For Professional Use Only.  Image by Tilemahos Efthimiadis, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).

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Let's Add 'Burnout' to the List of Artist Problems...

If you ask Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino about the aging artist problem, he'll point you to some very popular younger artists. You see, it's all a cycle: Lady Gaga will be packing stadiums in thirty years, just like Madonna and the Rolling Stones today.  But right now, as a twenty-something, Lady Gaga is recovering from hip surgery, a decidedly seventy-something ailment that led to the cancelation of more than 20 dates.   

Just an aberration? Well, it's also happening to Adele, who underwent vocal cord surgery at 23 and was forced to cancel dates on both sides of the Atlantic.  Other signs of burnout aren't hard to spot: Rihanna, for example, has shown signs of frying while canceling dates, including a late-2011 flame-out in Malmo, Sweden.  Even Justin Bieber, the youngest of the lot, is barfing on stage and passing out from exhaustion.

Athletes also get injured.  Then again, athletes retire at 32.  Which makes these troubling developments for artists that theoretically have fifty years of lucrative, stadium-packing tours ahead of them.  At this rate, there's a distinct possibility that they won't make it there.

So what's going on?  Meat Loaf thinks this is what the modern music industry is doing to artists.  Instead of embarking on grand tours to support lucrative album releases, the collapse of the recording is forcing artists to be 'always on,' constantly gigging, recording, and making appearances.  

Add the intense demands of digital, and artists are frying themselves.  "That's the problem with a new artist," Meat Loaf recently observed. "They don't sell records like they used to."

Toya Glasgow, an R&B-focused blogger, pointed to an appallingly overworked Rihanna.  Back in 2011, the non-stop, never-take-a-break rush included a full tour and upcoming album.  "Rihanna has been overworking herself like mad.  She's been touring excessively with not much of a gap in between so-called breaks.  When she does get a day or two off, she uses it in the studio to finish recording her upcoming new album." 

And remember, these are the wealthiest, best-supported, most mainstream artists around.  So what about everyone else?  For developing and less-lucrative acts, touring now seems closer to a survival exercise than a good time.   And part of the reason is that selling recordings (ie, pressed CDs) on tour is no longer a viable option.  "That kept a tour going," one source with experience in the van told us, while pointing to newfound pressure on less-lucrative items like specialty vinyl, hats, and yes, t-shirts.

Which means, some will break through, score festival slots or develop a following, but most will face extremely difficult financial choices and punishing schedules.  Because if Lady Gaga has a cloudy future ahead of her, so does every developing, struggling artist.

Written while listening to Mat Zo & Arty.

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What Else? Just $ing It, Campus DJ, 1200Squad, Kobalt+Travis, Paramore+Rdio=?, Dropping Iovine, Slowly iTunes...

There's money for everyone! The latest fundee would be Just Sing It, an ambitious karaoke concept that just rustled $1 million in financing.  Let's see how this evolves: CEO Alec Andronikov told TechCrunch this is more than just a karaoke app, it's an addictive, social experience with karaoke as the gateway.    

Speaking of games, the guys behind College Battle are now expanding their collegiate gamesmanship to include DJs.  As in, who's the best DJ across the college land, with endless rounds of face-offs (all heavily-sponsored, of course) to determine the best talent.  Sponsors of 'Campus DJ' include MINI USA, Chegg, Dubbler, Jabra, Monster Energy Drink... campusdj.com.

Which brings us to 1200Squad, the hip-hop DJ network that emerged from the long-running Cornerstone Mixtape series.  Now, the collective is expanding with a significant overhaul of 1200squad.com, which now opens access to all sorts of clips, charts, profiles...1200squad.com.

And the bigger game?  It's wide open right now: enter Kobalt Label Services, which just inked a global distribution deal with Travis and Wildlife Entertainment.  The partnership finds Kobalt expanding its disruptive publishing concept to complement Travis' seventh album release, Where You Stand.

And what about the pre-release, streaming album exclusive?  As in, is this working, and if so, for whom?  Enter Paramore, which just scored a top-charting album following a cool two million exclusive streams on Rdio.  But wait: Jon Maples, SVP of Product and Content at Rhapsody, says pre-release exclusives actually do little for the services themselves.  Ponder this riddle...

Back in LA-LA land, Jimmy Iovine has just been confirmed as the commencement speaker for USC's upcoming graduation ceremony.  Let's see how this one goes: earlier, Iovine drowned interviewer Walt Mossberg in a name-dropping avalanche while promising to 'scrape user hard drives' for the Daisy launch.  Then again, Iovine is pals with Bruce Springsteen, Dre, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Trent Reznor, Eminem, Lady Gaga... 

Last month, Digital Music News broke the news that track sales were actually declining in 2013.  Now, it looks like the entire iTunes Store itself is slowing down: according to a just-published analysis by All Things D's Peter Kafka, Apple pulled $2.4 billion in iTunes-related sales last quarter, but the train is slowing.  "Last quarter, iTunes sales increased 28 percent; in the previous quarter they increased 23 percent," Kafka wrote.  "Most retailers would be very happy to see those kind of leaps, but as far as I can tell, they are the smallest increases Apple has seen in the last two years."

Written while listening to Bobby Caldwell and A Tribe Called Quest.

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