Michael Jackson hologram to appear at Billboard Music Awards

May 18, 2014 13:23

The hologram will perform 'Slave to the Rhythm' from posthumous album 'Xscape'

A Michael Jackson hologram is set to appear at the Billboard Music Awards tonight (May 18).

The performance was supposed to be a secret, but a ruling by a federal judge which rejected a lawsuit from hologram companies Hologram USA Inc and Musion Das Hologram Ltd - who made the Tupac hologram at 2012's Coachella Festival and hoped to stop the performance - made the news of the event public, reports LA Times.

The hologram will perform 'Slave to the Rhythm' from the late singer's current posthumous album 'Xscape'. The hologram companies wanted to the halt the performance after alleging that a competitor was using their technology without their permission. Judge Kent Dawson said there was insufficient evidence to prove that Hologram USA Inc and Musion Das Hologram Ltd's patents were being used for the Jackson hologram. The Billboard Awards take place tonight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Jackson's posthumous release 'Xscape' was released on Monday (May 12) and looks set to go straight to Number One in the UK tonight. The album includes eight unreleased songs worked on by contemporary artists and producers, including Timbaland and Stargate. The album is the project of executive producer LA Reid, who was granted unlimited access to four decades' worth of Jackson's vocal material.

BLOG: Michael Jackson's 'Xscape' album: Why it adds nothing to a legend's legacy

Jackson's closest competition in the Official UK Album Charts this week comes from The Black Keys. Speaking about the release of a new album from the King Of Pop, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney said: "[It's] some fucking bullshit that sucks so bad that it took them three years after he died to make it listenable."

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Damon Albarn makes full live debut at BBC 6 Music Festival

March 1, 2014 10:22

Blur and Gorillaz star performed career-spanning set at inaugural event in Manchester

Damon Albarn made his live solo debut last night (February 28) at the inaugural BBC 6 Music Festival in Manchester – with a career-spanning set that included songs from Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad & The Queen.

Headlining the Friday night of the two-day event at the Victoria Warehouse, the singer-songwriter thanked the station "for being brave enough to put on a band who have never played a gig before."

He took to Stage One at 9.35pm, and was joined by his new backing band, The Heavy Seas – comprising guitarist Seye, drummer Pauli The PSM, bassist Jeff Wootton and keyboard player Mike Smith – to air material from his forthcoming solo record 'Everyday Robots', due for release on April 28.

Clad in a burgundy leather jacket, he began with the album's title track and ran through nine new songs, alternating between piano and guitar and including 'Heavy Seas Of Love', his forthcoming duet with Brian Eno. The performance was also broadcast live on 6 Music. "This is our first ever gig and it’s quite nerve-wracking to not only be playing your first gig but playing it live on the radio as well," he told the audience, before grinning coyly: "But I suppose I should be used to it by now."

Fresh from picking up the NME Award For Innovation at the NME Awards 2014 with Austin Texas on Wednesday, the gig was very much about looking forward. However, in addition to previewing the new record, Damon paid tribute to his time in Gorillaz (with the songs 'Tomorrow Comes Today', 'On Melancholy Hill', and 'El Mañana') and rock supergroup The Good, The Bad & The Queen ('Kingdom Of Doom'). He also unleashed a rare Blur track – ‘All Your Life’, the B-side to the group’s 1997 single ‘Beetlebum’. “I don’t recall ever playing it before so I thought it would be okay to play it,” he said. At the end of his hour-long set, he thanked the crowd “for your patience”, adding “Sorry it was a bit rough around the edges but that’s the way it is.”

On stage two, The Horrors were faced with the unenviable task of going up against Damon. “It’s a shame we’re performing at the same time because I actually really want to watch him,” guitarist Joshua Hayward told NME. Opening with ‘Mirror’s Image’ and culminating with ‘Moving Further Away’, they only performed one track from their forthcoming fourth album, ‘Luminous’ – the new single ‘I See You’

“This festival slot is like the last chapter in a book,” Joshua added. “The next time we’ll be playing loads of songs off our new record and this is like putting to bed a fair few years of touring.”

Like Damon, Kelis used her appearance as a way of road-testing new material, describing it as “my first time really performing everything that’s new live”. Dressed in a gold lame, she resembled Diana Ross – which suited the Stax-soul and brass-funk of tracks from her imminent, Dave Sitek-produced sixth album, ‘Food’. Bookending her set by singing Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’, and accompanied by a full horn section, she also served up revised versions of ‘Milkshake’ and ‘Acapella’.

Other bands who performed included Haim, Metronomy and Drenge. All 8,500 tickets to the festival sold out within minutes of their release last month. It concludes tonight (March 1) with headline sets from The National and James Blake.

Damon Albarn played:

'Everyday Robots'
'Hostiles'
'Lonely Press Play'
'Tomorrow Comes Today'
'The Selfish Giant'
'You And Me'
'On Melancholy Hill'
'Hollow Ponds'
'Photographs (You Are Taking Now)'
'Kingdom Of Doom'
'All Your Life'
'Mr Tembo'
'El Manana'
'Heavy Seas Of Love'

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Country music legend 'Cowboy' Jack Clement dies at 82

Country music artist Jack Clement sings a tribute to the late country music legend Johnny Cash, during the Cash tribute concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, in this November 10, 2003, file photo.

Credit: Reuters/John Sommers II/Files

By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE | Thu Aug 8, 2013 11:15pm EDT

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - "Cowboy" Jack Clement, who inspired pioneering rock'n'rollers and classic country musicians, sometimes while prancing around the music studio in his bathrobe and playing the ukulele, died on Thursday at his home in Nashville. He was 82.

Clement died after a long bout with liver cancer, just months before he was to have been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, which confirmed his death.

Despite his nickname, which was a holdover from an old radio skit rather than anything to do with horses and six-shooters, Clement actually favored Hawaiian print shirts and was as far removed as possible from actually being a cowboy.

While he was not a star himself, Clement inspired the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and even U2, during his long career in music.

"He had a role in two really important changes in American culture," said Michael McCall, a writer and editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Clement played a large role in the birth of rock'n'roll when he was hired as a producer and engineer at Sun Records, where he worked with music greats such as Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Charlie Rich.

"He was there when Jerry Lee walked in, and who knows what wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been there," said McCall.

It was also at Sun that the young engineer wrote "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" and "Guess Things Happen That Way," two songs that a young rocker from east Arkansas named Johnny Cash turned into No. 1 country and Top Twenty pop hits in 1958.

The friendship between the two men was deep and special.

"Cash liked working with him because they had so much fun," said McCall.

Clement then moved to Nashville, where he continued writing songs and worked as an engineer, producer, recording studio owner, music publisher and as an artist, leaving an indelible mark on the city.

It was in Nashville that Clement was the first to record Charley Pride, a black singer, which helped desegregate country music and began an association that lasted 13 albums.

Clement also had three Nashville studios and a publishing company. Among his genre-busting achievements was producing Jennings' Dreaming My Dreams, one of the most acclaimed albums to be released during the 1970s heyday of the so-called Outlaws on Music Row.

Merle Haggard, Ray Stevens and a host of country luminaries liked to record at Clement's studios.

But he would step out far from country to work with polka bands and gritty singer-songwriters like John Prine and Townes Van Zandt. He even produced tracks for U2's Rattle and Hum, a popular tribute to American music in 1988.

McCall noted that Clement had a knack for spotting "game-changing artists" - in the likes of Lewis, Cash, Pride and Williams - and "bringing them to the public."

While the list of musical achievements spans more than five decades, it could easily have been overshadowed by Clement himself.

"He was a musical mastermind, but he brought this sense of fun and mischief (into the studio)," McCall said. "He danced around in his bathrobe and played the ukulele. He would do anything spontaneously to keep the mood light and fun and to keep his sense of joy about music."

Guitarist Scotty Moore, who worked with Clement at Sun, lamented his friend's passing.

"He was just an all-around fine fellow for me," said Moore from his home outside Nashville. "He was just Jack."

(Editing by Brendan O'Brien and Lisa Shumaker)

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Why Digital Music News 'Playa Hates' On Pandora...

If you don't have a problem with Tim Westergren making a million dollars a month while emailing artists to support his crusade to lower royalties, then maybe you need to look at the situation differently.  This isn't 'playa hating,' rather, it's questioning why the playing field is so uneven and distorted to begin with.   

Indeed, Westegren 'started at the bottom' and now he's here: Pandora has the most listeners and listening hours of anyone online, and accounts for nearly 8 percent of all radio listening in the United States.  Those are very significant accomplishments, and to hear Westergren tell the story of when he was at 'the bottom' is inspirational.  But it's now becoming obvious that Pandora's numbers - by design - are coming at the expense of not only profits, but artist welfare as well.  

Big numbers are mainly interesting to Wall Street, investors, and few top Pandora executives who are becoming obscenely wealthy. It makes it difficult for Apple to push Pandora off the deck; it squeezes out up-and-coming competitors like Slacker and iHeartRadio.  But this all seems to be creating a perverse disincentive against actually make money and creating a viable business, unless it involves markedly slashing artist royalty rates.

There are other ways to do this.  Since the beginning, Pandora has always argued that royalty rates are the problem, not an inherently flawed business model.  But a series of events over the past week are now substantially challenging that assumption, and potentially changing the discourse on Capitol Hill.  Because it may not be that Pandora can't solve their monetary problems on their own, but rather that they don't want to.

There's now mounting evidence of this.  It all started when Pandora, for reasons related to royalty expenses, resumed listening caps for power users.  But instead of ditching 'Netflix style,' a very substantial percentage of listeners actually stuck around.  It looked like this.

Now, there's more research confirming that forcing listeners to pay generates significant revenue.  In fact, that simple cap put Pandora at the top of this app revenue ranking (excluding games).

So, more revenues means a better model, which means less need to lower royalties, right?  Not exactly: in a recent financial call, Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy indicated that 'Pandora One' premium tiers would be used sparingly, as a mere addition to the mainline, free service. 

All of which makes it really hard not to be cynical here, especially as executives like Tim Westergren continue to curry favor with confused artists.  Because maybe a viable, workable model involves smaller listener levels but elevated revenues, while maintaining artist royalty rates.  But that's not a version that Pandora likes, or wants you to believe is possible.  

And that's why they're getting hated on.

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We Asked Twitter #Music: What the F*%k Happened?

Why did Twitter #Music die after just one week?  Immediately after launch, Digital Music News questioned whether it made sense to demand payment for full streams, something that the stats sadly supported. 

But here's what Stephen Phillips, a top executive at Twitter #Music, told Digital Music News during a question-and-answer session at SF Musictech Summit on Tuesday.  Phillips founded We Are Hunted, acquired by Twitter to power the music play.

Digital Music News (Paul Resnikoff): I'm really wondering what happened in terms of Twitter #Music's profile.  It launched and there was so much hype around it, and it was the number one ranked app and it was blowing up.  

Then a week later, it was falling so quickly; it seems like this is becoming endemic to this space.  

So what happens next?

Phillips: I just think it's early days, that we can't call it a failure, and I can't call it a success.  It's still just the beginning, and it's going to be a long path for us to build upon.  And it's just so important - music is just so important to Twitter that it's not something they're going to walk away from.  

Obviously from the numbers they're one of the biggest music apps around already, and I've got a dedicated team that's been building music apps for ages, and we plan to move pretty quickly.

Audience Member: Hi there, I've used We Are Hunted for years for music, loved it —

Phillips: So did I, it was really good [audience laughter]

Audience Member: — but uh, just curious, what story are you going to tell to convince people to pay for music?  Because personally, there are so many ways to not pay for music, that I just want to know, how are you going to convince me to pay for music —

Phillips: I don't know, how am I going to convince you to pay for music?  Twitter's going to convince you to pay for music?

Audience Member: If you're — if you're successful...

Phillips: Yeah, we're kind of hoping our partners will solve that one [audience laughter]. That they'll be the ones who convince people to buy their products. 

We're going to help if we can.  It was really cool to bring Rdio and Spotify to the table, we met them three weeks from launch and said, 'I think it would be really cool if you joined into this.'  

And we said, 'how can we make this easier to get people to use these services?'  But I'm not sure we're going to be the ones to sell that.  It's not going to be wont of letting people have opportunities to buy music they want. 

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Rapper Naughty Boy tops British pop music chart

LONDON | Sun May 26, 2013 2:01pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - British rapper and producer Naughty Boy topped Britain's pop music chart for the first time on Sunday with "La La La", a dance track recorded with London singer Sam Smith.

Last week's number one, "Get Lucky" by French electronic duo Daft Punk and American singer Pharrell Williams, slipped down to second place.

British folk-rock singer Passenger's "Let Her Go" also fell one spot to number three, according to the Official Charts Company, which compiles the weekly rundown.

American rapper Macklemore's "Can't Hold Us", recorded with producer Ryan Lewis and singer Ray Dalton, was unchanged in fourth position.

In the album chart, Daft Punk went straight in at number one with new entry "Random Access Memories", knocking Scottish veteran Rod Stewart's "Time" down to second place.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Pravin Char)

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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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Lambert, Bryan lead Academy of Country Music award winners

By Piya Sinha-Roy

Mon Apr 8, 2013 12:16am EDT

n">(Reuters) - Singers Miranda Lambert and Luke Bryan led the winners at the Academy of Country Music awards on Sunday, while leading nominees Taylor Swift and Hunter Hayes came away empty-handed in a night honoring top achievers in country music.

Swift, 23, lost out on all five categories she was nominated in including Female Vocalist of the Year and the fan-voted Entertainer of the Year, a surprise for the country music favorite who won the award for the last two years.

Newcomer Hayes, 21, who was nominated in six categories, also went home empty-handed.

The night's top award Entertainer of the Year went to the show's co-host Bryan, 36, a surprise to the charismatic host who said he had only just started headlining shows.

"What I always wanted to be is just a country singer who got to ride on a tour bus and perform every night. ... This is the defining moment of my life, it means the world to me and I'll never take it for granted," Bryan said tearfully.

Lambert, 29, picked up four awards in three categories, including Female Vocalist of the Year, beating Swift, Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves and Martina McBride.

Lambert also won Song of the Year for "Over You," written with husband Blake Shelton, who was co-hosting the ceremony, and thanked her peers for recognizing her song-writing talents.

"As a songwriter having your songs and your lyrics recognized by your peers is pretty much as good as it gets. ... Thank you for accepting me as a songwriter and not just as a singer, that means the world to me," Lambert said.

Shelton, who married Lambert in 2011, thanked his wife for making him a better song-writer.

"I used to think I was a decent songwriter until I started hanging out with her (Lambert) and she taught me so much," Shelton said in his acceptance speech, pulling his wife in for a big hug.

Jason Aldean bested Bryan, Shelton and one of the night's top nominees Eric Church for the Male Vocalist of the Year award, while Church picked up Album of the Year for his 2011 chart-topping record "Chief."

The Academy of Country Music is an organization of music industry professionals who aim to promote and preserve the tradition of country music, and they vote for the top country music achievers for their annual awards ceremony.

LIVELY PERFORMANCES

The three-hour show televised on CBS featured performances from old and new names in country music including Church, Dierks Bentley, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Lambert, who performed "Mama's Broken Heart."

"The Voice" judge Shelton joined co-host Luke Bryan to kick off with a rendition on Shelton's "Boys 'Round Here," on which they were also joined by Sheryl Crow.

Oklahoma native and former "American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood, who was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year, performed her single "Two Black Cadillacs" while fellow "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson sang "Don't Rush."

Following ACM awards tradition of pairing veteran and new artists together, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban sang with Swift on "Highway Don't Care," while Brad Paisley and John Mayer teamed up to perform "Beat This Summer," ending with a crowd-rousing guitar riff.

Hayes performed with Motown legend Stevie Wonder on Hayes' new single "I Want Crazy" and Wonder's song "Sir Duke." Wonder closed out the show with his classic track "Signed. Sealed. Delivered."

Singer Reba McEntire introduced a tribute to late television host and producer Dick Clark, with country music artists George Strait and Garth Brooks singing Brooks' "The Dance" and Strait's "Cowboy Rides Away."

Newcomer duo Florida Georgia Line, formed by Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard, picked up the fan-voted award for New Artist of the Year and performed their hit single "Cruise" on the show.

Husband-wife duo Thompson Square won Vocal Duo of the Year, while Alabama group Little Big Town won Vocal Group of the Year.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles; Editing by Todd Eastham)

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Also: Sketchy Statistics, Live Inflation, Bad Brands, Eventbrite, Mixshape, Spotify, JT, Music Matters...

Just a few weeks ago, global trade group IFPI proudly announced that recording sales actually increased for the first time in 13 years.  But are those stats correct?  On Tuesday, the RIAA pointed to a modest US-based decline of nearly one percent in 2012 recording sales (to $7.2 million), just moments after German trade group BMVI pointed to a 3.2 percent decline over the same period. Earlier, the UK-based BPI outlined a sizable, 11.2 percent drop last year.  These are among the biggest music markets, though other question marks are dangling over the IFPI figures...   

Anyway, back to the US-based stats, the RIAA has published some mildly-interesting, year-2012 figures.  That includes continued gains across digital formats, with downloads (singles and albums) both gaining but quickly losing steam.  In 2013, track download sales are now declining, according to stats first unearthed by Digital Music News.

On the streaming side, it looks like 'access' formats now account for 15 percent of overall recorded music sales in the US, also according to the RIAA.  That includes everything from Pandora to Spotify.  More stats ahead.

And what else was being discussed at Canadian Music Week, which wrapped in Toronto last weekend?  Amidst full-day, dedicated touring discussions, the troubled Live Nation remained a conversation starter.  After disclosing another disastrous, $163.2 million loss for 2012, not to mention absolutely dangerous debt levels, some discussion now surrounds the insane, Powerball-style packages enjoyed by the Live Nation president & CEO Michael Rapino ($11.9 million in 2011), Ticketmaster president Nathan Hubbard ($4.1 million in 2011), and a handful of others, not to mention one outrageously expensive parachute for exiting chairman Irving Azoff (Rapino's just-purchased, $14.7 million Brentwood mansion pictured above). 

One insider noted that part of the problem is that the Live Nation board is 'unstable and snoozing' at the moment, especially with a string of high-profile exits and entrances.  That means 'not a leash around' to curb Rapino-like ransoms or questionable decisions, or, to exercise the necessary shaking up.  

Then there's the ticketing front.  Ticketfly had a huge presence at CMW, and this is a company whose disruptive threat seems to be getting more serious by the day.  Bob Lefsetz, a staple at the event, seems to have mellowed after famously ripping Ticketmaster president Nathan Hubbard to shreds, though insiders still question whether Hubbard's penchant for barking orders, hurling tantrums, and cultivating a general climate of fear are coming at the expense of genuinely innovative market responses.

And what's happening with that other massively disruptive ticketing upstart, Eventbrite?  This is a company that desperately wants to expand beyond ticketing bake sales and into Ticketmaster-level terrain, but that's tricky business.  Anyway, you'll be hearing a peep from these guys a bit later...

Other CMW threads surrounded brands, with a huge range of opinions on what they can do for artists and the music industry in general.  David Lowery and Christian Castle were among those crusading against piracy-supporting brands, and perhaps fittingly, Digital Music News published a big piece on Chevrolet's support of Grooveshark's mobile initiatives during the event.  Plenty of others continued to hail brands as big saviors and supporters, despite some obvious mismatches in goals and objectives.  One thing's for certain: these aren't the new labels, if anyone wanted that.

And the rush to help the masses manage all that music continues.  The latest comes from Microsoft, Spotify, and the Echo Nest, a consortium that just birthed MixShape.  This highly-visual solution analyzes your pile of songs, and arranges them in the perfect playlist, not to mention some mood-based slicing-and-dicing.  The project concept is "designed to showcase Microsoft’s tablets and touch-sensitive computers," which sort of explains Microsoft's presence.

Which brings us to our Spotify rumor du jour, one that this time involves the indies.  You see, it seems that some indies are also interested in windowing release strategies and Spotify withholdings, just like your favorite band, Coldplay.  More as it develops.

Also, congratulations to Justin Timberlake, a 90s-kinda-guy who just scored 90s-kinda-sales.  Timberlake's just-released The 20/20 Experience racked first-week sales of 968,000 in the US alone, according to early Nielsen Soundscan stats.

And one more thing: Digital Music News is pleased to announced that we'll be covering Music Matters in Singapore this May, our first trip ever to this important conference.  That follows a recent jaunt to South Korea for MU:CON... see the trend here?

Written while listening to araabMUZIK.  More ahead...

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Media mogul seeks to build U.S. electronic dance music empire

1 of 2. Robert F.X. Sillerman, CEO and chairman of CKX Inc. (L), thanks Priscilla Presley for her participation during a news conference for Cirque du Soleil's new show 'Viva Elvis' inside the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 15, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/David Becker

By Zachary Fagenson

MIAMI | Fri Mar 8, 2013 7:07am EST

MIAMI (Reuters) - New York media mogul Robert F.X. Sillerman is the new entertainment king of Miami Beach after taking over almost all of the famous South Florida island-city's glitzy, over-the-top nightclubs in a push to consolidate the fast-growing electronic dance music (EDM) industry.

Two Miami companies, The Opium Group and Miami Marketing Group, which own eight nightclubs, including LIV inside the historic, art deco Fontainebleau Hotel, were recently purchased by Sillerman, according to a spokesman.

The deals, in which terms were not disclosed, are the latest move by Sillerman to corner the EDM market, after saying in June last year that he was willing to spend more than $1 billion buying up EDM promoters and event organizers.

EDM is rapidly growing in popularity in the U.S. and abroad, popularized by nightclub DJs featuring acts by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Pitbull.

Sillerman's stake in the Miami club scene gives him a presence in a major EDM market and home of the Ultra Music Festival, one of the biggest in the world, with eight stages and more than 230,000 attendees last year.

This year's Ultra event in Miami promises to be even bigger, and has expanded to two consecutive 3-day weekends later this month. Sillerman has no ties to the event.

Sillerman's quest echoes his business strategy from the late 1990s when his company, SFX Entertainment, consolidated a large number of concert promoters, producers and venues and was bought by Clear Channel in 2000 for $4.4 billion.

In January, Sillerman's revived SFX Entertainment purchased the North American division of Holland-based ID&T Entertainment, the world's largest dance music concert promoter. ID&T runs a three-day festival in Belgium called Tomorrowland and Sensation White, an EDM concert series held across Europe that made its U.S. debut at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn last October.

Tomorrowland producers plan to hold their first festival outside of Belgium, called Tomorrow World, somewhere in North America in late September.

SFX has also acquired several other EDM assets in recent weeks, including New Orleans-based EDM promoter Donnie Disco Presents and Life in Color, which puts on day-glow-paint-soaked EDM concerts across the U.S. Last week, SFX took over the Denver-based music site Beatport, a major download store for EDM with a catalog of more than one million tracks, the New York Times reported.

"He's the entrepreneurial type, looking for different avenues to bring in his management aggregation strategy," said Mark Fratrik, vice president and chief economist for media consultancy BIA/Kelsey. "I imagine he could do the same thing [now]... it seems like this is another combining of the events with the music."

SFX, LIVE NATION EXPAND EDM REACH

Sillerman first began buying radio stations in the late 1970s and sold a block of 10 stations to Westinghouse Broadcasting for $400 million in 1989. He later launched SFX Broadcasting which went public in 1993 and grew even larger when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 lifted the cap on the number of stations a company could own in a single market. In 1997, the company was sold for $2.1 billion to Capstar Broadcasting Corp, a company formed by the Hicks brothers.

Sillerman then started a new public company called Marquee Group Inc, which bought up agencies that represented professional sports and music stars, and SFX Entertainment through which he acquired concert venues and promoters.

SFX Entertainment was sold to Clear Channel in 2000 for $4.4 billion and was widely recognized as the precursor to the now massive concert promoter and producer Live Nation.

Sillerman went on to form CKX Inc, which bought 85 percent of Elvis Presley Enterprises, including the rock-and-roll legend's Graceland mansion, and 100 percent of Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment, producer of American Idol.

"He's been extremely successful in consolidating fragmented industries which have untapped growth potential that generally have excellent marketing opportunities attached to them," said Mike Principe, a former SFX attorney who is now CEO of The Legacy Agency. "He goes in, acquires en masse, and enjoys a leading position."

Sillerman isn't the only one trying to bring the booming slice of the music industry under one flag. In May 2012, Live Nation purchased Cream Holdings Limited, which produces EDM events in the U.K. and Australia.

Cream Founder and CEO James Barton became head of Live Nation Electronic Music tasked with expanding the company's reach in EDM around the world. Both SFX and Live Nation have been reportedly courting Los Angeles-based Insomniac.

The company's signature event, Electric Daisy Carnival, drew more than 230,000 revelers to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the summer of 2012 and has spawned satellite festivals in cities around the U.S.

(Editing by David Adams, Bernard Orr)

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TuneCore Tells Digital Music News: Keep Jeff Price's Name Out of This...

Tuesday, October 30, 2012
by  paul

Some divorces are messier than others.  And this one's definitely personal: after abruptly chopping longtime leader and cofounder Jeff Price, Tunecore now seems determined to erase the memory of Price entirely.  In fact, as a condition for interviewing a TuneCore executive about future plans for the company, we were asked to keep Price completely out of it.    

After beating around the bush a bit, this was flatly emailed to us by TuneCore's press relations group during setup:     

The interview never happened. 

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13 Extremely Scary Things About the Music Industry Today...

Wednesday, October 31, 2012
by  paul

The music industry: it's scary all year round!  And with that, here are 13 extremely scary things about our modern-day, post-apocalyptic biz...

So if you need radio play, a chart position, or broad-scale distribution, just give one of them a call.

That goes for the richest, like Google Play and Spotify, all the way down to the deceased, like Imeem.  Because if you need a license for your startup, the memo is clear: be prepared to pay millions upfront and offer sizable ownership shares, all without the guarantee that every signed artist will participate (just ask Spotify).  

And, those terms are renewable every few years.

...according to estimates from TuneSat.

...and 95% from iTunes, Spotify and Amazon MP3, according to stats from AIM.

...according to Nielsen Soundscan.

...according to Live Nation.

...and both are trying to get out of those payments entirely, or legislate them downward.

Here are the calculations.

...and probably more, according to Kim Dotcom.

...just ask TuneCore.

Like, just last week.

Though of course, she eventually handed out treats for everyone.

 Trick or treat!

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The World Still Loves American Music. But Why, Exactly?

Monday, October 29, 2012
by  paul

It's an age-old question: if music is pouring out of every corner of the globe, why is American music so popular on the world stage?  Especially in a borderless, digitally-liberated media environment?  And even in countries that deeply resent America, or whose cultures are radically different?  

Sitting in a Starbucks in Seoul, South Korea, which is right next to a Dunkin' Donuts, the question is impossible to avoid.  Outside of the obvious language differences, this looks exactly like a Starbucks in LA, almost down to the music.  I'm listening to Norah Jones, Nancy Sinatra, even Bobby McFerrin, but not one Korean singer. 

It's not that Korean music isn't all around.  There's K-Pop and PSY, of course, and also lots of syrupy Korean ballads.  But even the Korean music video channel finds Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, and Britney Spears heavily layered into rotation.  Flip on a Korean baseball game, and it's Nickelback and Earth, Wind & Fire (yes) during the breaks.  Watch the Korean-commentated World Series, and its 30 Seconds to Mars to transition back from the commercials.

This is deeper than just music in the background; American pop culture and music are deeply seeped into this culture - consciously or otherwise.  While searching for my hotel, I was saved by a young woman who graciously guided me through the Seoul maze.  She was wearing a stylized army jacket with Guns n' Roses emblazoned on the back, yet she'd never really heard of the group.  I told her it was mostly an 80s and 90s thing, but a legendary rock group to this day.  "Sort of like Nirvana," she responded.  We left it at that.

You can say this is isolated, but American music - and the celebrities attached to it - travel extremely well.  While lingering around France after MIDEM died down last year, I started to meet some locals.  Once the networking and industry crowds left, the hotel kept playing American pop non-stop; a local limo driver showed me pictures of the time he escorted members of Black Eyed Peas around.  The hotel concierge, who also worked for a yacht reservation company, loved to tell me about Diddy's failed pissing contests with Russian billionaires on the Riviera.  These were highlights... yes, for French people. 

It's even seeped into abandoned junkie houses in Siberia.  Edgy magazine Vice once took their cameras into the region's most depressing, heroine-infested buildings, and the discussion turned to Rihanna.  The junkies were discussing whether they liked the singer, pointing to a magazine cover.  What?

Of course, American music doesn't play well everywhere, and its not like other cultures (like the UK) don't also export well.  But American music oftentimes permeates the most foreign environments, often with little-to-no protection against piracy.  It's almost like an extension of the US itself: decimated and demoralized, major labels still retain the power to break major music superstars, but lack the ability to monetize it properly.  It's hard to say if this is a machine that keeps going, or what happens after it breaks down.

Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff, in Seoul.

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The Cost of Attending Berklee College of Music for One Year: $62,319...

Wednesday, September 12, 2012
by  paul

Worth it? The Berklee alumni list includes Pat Metheny, Esperanza Spaulding, and even Psy. For the mere mortal, the question is what's waiting on the other side, especially 'in this economy,' and especially in this industry.  

Here's the most updated breakdown of costs, provided by Berklee itself.

Berklee sticks out as a nosebleed, though other esteemed music schools are also demanding ransoms.  That includes the Julliard School ($55,056), Oberlin ($57,025), and Eastman School of Music ($57,246).  The College Board recently calculated that the average private college now costs $42,244 on a 'moderate budget,' a figure that drops to $21,447 for in-state schools. 

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Tens of thousands evacuated as high winds threaten music fest

By Karen Brooks

Sun Aug 5, 2012 7:33am EDT

n">(Reuters) - The Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago was suspended and tens of thousands of fans were evacuated to shelters on Saturday as the city braced for dangerous storms with high winds, organizers said.

Organizers were working with emergency management officials to determine if the event could resume on Saturday. The three-day music festival is scheduled to end on Sunday evening.

"Our first priority is always the safety of our fans, staff and artists," said Shelby Meade, communications director for C3 Presents, the promoter behind Lollapalooza. "We regret having to suspend any show but safety always comes first."

The National Weather Service office in Romeoville, Illinois, which covers Chicago, recorded wind gusts up to 55 miles per hour on Saturday and had reports of gusts up to 70 mph, some measured, some estimated, said meteorologist Ben Deubelbeiss.

"Heavy rains, wind and lightning are the main threats from these storms," he said.

The worst of the severe weather powered through Chicago late Saturday afternoon and headed over Lake Michigan and northern Indiana.

Festival-goers were evacuated from Grant Park in downtown Chicago and directed by police and staffers to three shelter sites along Michigan Avenue in underground garages.

The festival draws nearly 200,000 people to the park each year, and this year is headlined by music acts including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sabbath and Jack White.

A year ago, seven people died and 40 were injured when a huge temporary stage at the Indiana State Fair came crashing down amid high winds just before the country duo Sugarland was to begin performing.

Poor communication about predictions of stormy weather approaching the area ahead of the Sugarland concert was among the factors cited in the stage collapse by consultant studies commissioned by the state.

On Saturday, Lollapalooza organizers were directing fans and the public to check the festival website for updated information.

Lollapalooza, initially organized in 1991 by Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell, began as a traveling music festival with several dates all summer. After a six-year hiatus starting in the late 90s, the popular alternative music festival began holding its annual concerts only in Chicago in 2005.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Bill Trott)

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Hank Williams, Jr.'s new music takes on Obama

Musician Hank Williams Jr. is pictured in this publicity photo released to Reuters July 12, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Blaster Entertainment/Handout

By Vernell Hackett

NASHVILLE | Thu Jul 12, 2012 6:13pm EDT

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Hank Williams, Jr. is a country singer, record executive and political pundit, and he wears all those hats on his new CD, "Old School, New Rules". He picks up on politics where he left off last year with some more fighting words for President Barack Obama.

Williams calls himself "an executive hillbilly," but he's more than that. The second son in a line of country stars - legend Hank Williams is his dad and country/punk/metal singer Hank III his son - Williams is known for such standards as "Family Tradition" and "A Country Boy Can Survive." He runs his own label and scouts for up-and-coming talent.

He speaks his mind, too, and has become a voice for some Americans who are discontent with Obama. Last year, cable TV network ESPN pulled his song from its "Monday Night Football" telecast after he publicly compared Obama to Adolf Hitler.

But the singer turned the backlash to his advantage by gaining some new fans for his outspokenness, and he continues to voice his political with the new CD released this week.

The opening track, "Take Back Our Country," includes lyrics like "...I'll go find a network wants to treat me right, y'all can take the change and stick it out of sight" and "Hey Barack pack your bags, head to Chicago, take your teleprompter with you so you'll know where to go..."

Love him or not, Williams and his music always bears his unique take on life, whether he's mixing country with southern rock or throwing in the blues. He writes most of his songs, and those on "Old School, New Rules" are no exception.

"I got pretty motivated on this," Williams told Reuters. "The people, the fans, have inspired me and I guess that's why I wrote 10 and a half songs for the album. We have sold several hundred thousand dollars-worth of t-shirts that say ‘Take Back Our Country.' It's snowballing."

"Who knew Mickey Mouse and ESPN would put me in the forefront? I'm the mouthpiece for grandmothers who lost everything," he said, referring to the cable TV network's parent, The Walt Disney Co.

"I had an 11-year-old write me, ‘My parents said you were a good role model for me, could you send me a picture?' We're also hearing from military personnel, saying, ‘We're behind you 100 percent.' It's all good; it's really special," he said.

Other politically-charged songs on the album include, "We Don't Apologize for America" and "Who's Taking Care of Number One?" but there are many other songs that avoid the subject.

FAMILY TRADITION

Williams' family tradition calls for a few drinkin' songs, and there are those, too. He partners with Brad Paisley on "I'm Gonna Get Drunk and Play Hank Williams" and with Merle Haggard on his classic "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink."

The tune "Old School" is a song that seems it could only have been written by a member of a country dynasty. The opening lyric is "I remember a young Johnny Cash waiting in the wings, ‘cause he'd hand me his cigarette when he'd go out to sing..."

The singer talks about first meeting Dolly Parton as a teenager - and watching industry folk fall over themselves to meet her - and about hearing Jerry Lee Lewis play rock ‘n roll at his home.

"I never knew who would be there when I woke up," said Williams of his life growing up in Nashville with his mother, Audrey Williams, who promoted the young Hank as a singer of his father's songs. Williams took banjo lessons from Earl Scruggs and learned boogie woogie piano from Lewis.

Williams said he was very passionate about making the new album and agrees that he leaves no room for people to wonder where he stands when it comes to his beliefs about the direction in which the United States is headed.

"I've always been that way. If you like it, fine; if you don't, great ... People everywhere from New York to California can't take it anymore, and they are ready for a change."

"Old School, New Rules" was produced by Williams' company, Bocephus Records.

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Andrew Hay)

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Maybach Music Group Holds 'Self Made Vol. 2' Album Listening at NY Strip Club

by Lacey Seidman, N.Y.  |   June 14, 2012 3:45 EDT

"All we know how to do is be self-made," Rick Ross declared last night (Wednesday, June 13), at an exclusive listening session designed to unveil tracks from the sequel to Maybach Music Group's first collaborative album, "MMG Presents: Self Made Vol. 1."

Well-versed in manufacturing a spectacle as seen with their press conference last month, the members of MMG -- Ross, Meek Mill, Wale, Omarion and Stalley -- chose Bronx's gentlemen's club, Sin City, for the evening's proceedings, transforming a run-of-the mill press gathering into an exhibition of excess that visibly ran the attendees' comfort zone gamut.

Maybach Music Day: Label Signs Omarion, Sets Rick Ross Album Release Date

"June 26 is the official release date for 'Self Made 2,'" Ross reiterated to the room before handing the mic over to DJ Khaled to introduce each track, one-by-one. After nodding to Power 105's DJ Self  -- who spun back-to-back MMG favorites for the preceding two hours -- Ross saluted the album's core contributors who were also present: MMG, Gunplay, and Bad Boy's French Montana.

Drake, Busta Rhymes, DJ Scoob Doo, Fred Da Godson, and Warner Bros. Records and Def Jam label execs
-- Def Jam President, Joie Manda, Senior VP Shawn "Pecas" Costner, Senior VP of Marketing Chris Atlas --  also convened in support of the project that kicks off MMG's string of summer releases. Upcoming MMG projects include "MMG Presents: Self Made Vol. 2" (June 26), Meek 's debut album, "Dreams & Nightmares" (August 28), and Ross' highly-anticipated, "God Forgives, I Don't," out July 31.

Though in an untamed atmosphere with dancers' shift-assignments announced every so often over the PA system, MMG's music still managed to project growth. A balance of hard-hitting street anthems like "Actin' Up" and "Black On Black," featuring Ace Hood and Bun B, co-exist with smooth, R&B-leaning tracks, "M.I.A" and "Let's Talk," courtsey of their new acquisiton, Omarion. Verses from the album's featured marquee artists were finally revealed and stand-out flows from Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Nipsey Hu$$le, Wiz Khalifa and T.I. commanded head nods.

Whether or not intended, MMG gave all a Petri dish peek into their fast lives. Hosting the "Self Made Vol. 2" listening session at Sin City -- where French shot "Everything's A Go" -- the scene was set. The braggadocio-laden cuts were unleashed in the same atmosphere that births them. But for those examining the landscape a bit closer, the celebratory vibe was oddly juxtaposed by some of the rappers' own subdued temperaments.

Omarion and Stalley spent much of the evening on their cells, albeit standing on couches in the VIP section. Meek politely declined repeated advances from the female staff members. Not long after an intoxicated female associate became visibly ill,  Noah "40" Shebib and Drake, who had kept a parental watchful eye on her, were escorted out the building appearing relieved. Drake left a smiling French behind to hold down the section that stood just below of the rabid VIP area.

Cocktail waitresses donning tuxedo bustiers were instructed to "make it sparkle" on command. The dancers shook their lady parts while performing their best tricks, attempting to catch eyes with MMG and their entourage. Watching the ladies' efforts go unnoticed was telling considering the environment. Rap clichés permeated the room and were, in turn, absorbed through all five sensory channels of those invited as a majority of the rappers, themselves, seemed not the least fazed. 

Celebratory events like yesterday's listening are a recent mainstay for the Maybach Music Group conglomerate and friends. Last month, they took over New York to celebrate Omarion's MMG signing, Meek's birthday and their headlining slot at Hot 97's Summer Jam. Whether work or play, it would appear that the MMG movement is in full-throttle.

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Music industry leader Frances Preston dies, age 83

LOS ANGELES | Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:14pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Frances Preston, a music industry pioneer and former president and chief executive of record company BMI, died on Wednesday at home in Nashville of heart failure, the label said. She was 83.

A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Preston was a driving force in music spanning six decades as she fought for songwriters' rights and for her company's growth in representing a diverse roster of talent.

Singer Kris Kristofferson called Preston "the songwriter's guardian angel," and Fortune magazine said she was "one of the true powerhouses of the pop music business."

Born in Nashville on August 27, 1928, Preston began her career at the city's WSM radio station. She was hired to open BMI's southern regional office in 1958 as the first full-time performing rights representative in the Southern United States.

Preston was promoted to vice president in 1964, named president and CEO in 1986 and held that title until 2004. During her tenure, royalty payments increased for songwriters and publishers, ultimately tripling under her direction.

She was known as a staunch champion of songwriters' rights and worked to make Nashville a viable force within the music industry. She also helped get the U.S. Copyright Amendments Act of 1992 passed to extend protection to older compositions.

Outside music, Preston was a member of the Panama Canal Study Committee and sat on the commission for the White House Record Library in the administration of President Jimmy Carter. In 1995 and 1996, she served on Vice President Al Gore's National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council.

Preston is survived by her three sons, Kirk, David, and Donald, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

(Reporting by Vernell Hackett; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte; Desking by Peter Cooney)

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Patent Pending's Joe Ragosta Reflects on His Billboard Music Awards Adventure

My name is Joe Ragosta and I sing in the band Patent Pending. (That's me in the center of the above photo.) To give you a little bit of a back story on who we are, Patent Pending is a pop-punk/rock band that's been around for 11 years. We're a rag-tag group of kids from Long Island, NY that have been touring in the same dingy, smelly, air-condition-less van for the past 9 years. Scratching and crawling our way through the musical trenches in venues ranging in size from basements in New Jersey to Warped Tour amphitheaters across the country.

With gritty, grass-roots promotion and a whatever-it-takes attitude, we've been able to carve a (very) small pocket for ourselves in the gigantic ever-spinning wheel that is the music industry. A few months ago, Billboard called and asked us to be part of The Billboard & Chevrolet Battle of The Bands that we eventually went on to win. You can learn more about our band, the battle and our struggle over at Billboard.com/battle , but for now, this is the story about the biggest night of our lives, the 2012 Billboard Music Awards!

Battle of the Bands Main Page

Battle of the Bands Photo Shoot

Winning Battle Performance

Billboard Music Awards Red Carpet

BBMAs Performance

Backstage After the BBMAs Set

Being in a small band, it's easy to have the attitude of "pop music sucks." It's easy to say that what Justin Bieber sings about, what Katy Perry is wearing  or what LMFAO is saying is of no concern to the music that we are making. To me, this couldn't be further from the truth. These are the taste-makers. These are the people who, like it or not, are pretty much the soundtrack to the lives of anyone who leaves their home for any length of time because you can't walk down a city street without seeing their faces or hearing their songs. To be included in a night like this with people like that was something I couldn't possibly begin to accurately describe without sounding like a 13 year-old fan girl. SO FAN GIRL I SHALL BE!  Here are some of my personal highlights from the 2012 Billboard Music Awards.

Patent Pending Wins the Billboard Battle of the Bands

First of all, we were assigned "talent escorts." Their job is to stay with us all day to make sure we have anything that we may need and to make sure that we get where we are going on time all day long! This may not sound like much, but it's pretty much a human alarm clock with water bottle holding capabilities! They were so kind and organized, I honestly can't get over how fantastic it was to have them on our team for the day. We arrived at the MGM Grand Arena for a closed dress rehearsal soundcheck early in the day. Just the site of the arena from the state of the art stage was enough to make our heads spin. We're used to playing in small dark clubs in scrappy towns, so this was obviously quite a change of scenery for us. When we got there, CeeLo Green was finishing his soundcheck… I think it goes without saying, CeeLo + Goodie Mob + Pyro = Bonkers! I counted over 35 stage hands helping us load our 15 pieces of gear onto the stage. Their efficiency was only outdone by their kindness.

After we were done checking, many men with headsets swooped in like ninjas to break down our gear. Within seconds, our equipment disappeared like it was part of a Chrss Angel show (sans the douche-y commentary!). As we turned to walk off the stage we heard the dudes talking into their headphones saying "Set for Kelly Clarkson!"… "Ms. Clarkson is almost to the entrance ramp, please set staging to mark." I know that this sounds like just words muttered into a headset, but WE ARE TALKING ABOUT KELLY FREAKIN' CLARKSON HERE! She's a legend that has more top 10 hit songs than we have albums. We were sharing a stage with her, icon Stevie Wonder, Usher, Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood and not to mention the entire thing was being hosted by Ty Burrel and Julie Bowen of (one of my favorite shows) "Modern Family"! It was right about then that we started to realize the gravity of the situation that we were in and the magnitude of the opportunity that we had been blessed with.

Just then I walked down the ramp and found myself singing out loud "Jason Deruuuuulllllooooo." I imagine this is a common reaction by anyone who runs into him, but I do remember putting my hand to my mouth immediately in an effort to hide what i had just said out loud! I remember having to tell myself "Dude, you're going to see a lot of famous people who have no idea who you are today and if you say things out loud, they are going to hear them… so SHUT UP!" It seemed like he didn't notice, which I'm guessing is a good thing.

We were then whisked away to wardrobe. They were super cool about letting us dress in our own style and letting us be ourselves. Minus a tie or two for the red carpet, we all just wore things that we already owned. I think that was one of the most relieving parts for us. It was important to us throughout the whole process that we didn't sell ourselves out and do something or wear something that we wouldn't do on our own already and the powers that be were incredibly accommodating to that.

While we were at wardrobe we actually got the chance to meet Kelly Clarkson! She talked to Anthony about how much she loves his hair. You could see him melting inside. I think he's always had a thing for her. I'm only saying that because of the Kelly Clarkson poster that hangs behind his TV in his room back home. He handled himself like a real pro! He was even able to form two complete sentences which actually turned into a full conversation. Like most people we met this weekend, Kelly's talent is only outshined by her kindness. We met Carly Rae Jepsen's band. Those dudes were rad and I was stoked to find out later in the day that not only do they play every note when they perform, but they also play them perfectly!

NEXT PAGE: Joe and the Band Trade Cold Pizza for Swag Bags... Also: CLAIRE AND PHIL DUNPHY ARE STANDING NEXT TO ME!

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