Monday, April 07, 2008

The Money Shot: Radiohead Gets Social, The Possibility of New Music From X, and Live Nation: Music Saviour or Evil Empire?

Today's news...

X Happy On Tour, But New Music Is 'Daunting' (Billboard)
MS: Doe says that even though the band -- which also includes original guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer DJ Bonebrake -- sounds hot these days, the notion of new material, X's first since "Hey Zeus!" in 1993, is still intimidating.

"It is a little bit of a daunting adventure," he acknowledges. "It's like, 'Alright, you've got to write X songs like you did 20 years ago, 30 years ago.' 'Huh?!' 'OK...let's see how this goes...' But I think if you direct whatever creativity you have towards a certain project, you'll come up with something. You just have to decide if it's good enough."


The rise of concert promoter Live Nation (The Independent)
MS: Record labels themselves are signing "360 degree" deals with their artists that cut them in on these non-music revenues, but Live Nation has been arguing that it has more expertise in these newly important areas. Its work to secure corporate sponsorship for tours and venues can be extended to find sponsorship deals for individual artists, it says, and it can take charge of a band's website to better promote the artists and their merchandise. Our aim, Mr Rapino says, is "further strengthening and monetizing the relationship between artists, fans and sponsors – before, during and after live events".


Radiohead launch social networking site (NME)
MS: The band have created a web-based forum called W.A.S.T.E. where fans and friends can share photos, details, view tour dates, and watch videos by various artists such as Battles, Nick Cave, and of course Radiohead themselves.


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