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Archive for June 2007
According to HypeBot, BurnLounge continues their downward spiral into historical irrelevance by eliminating their MLM “cash cow” — the Mogul program. The Mogul package cost upwards of $500 when you bought into that program through your retailer; the bad news is that since they’re abandoning the model, they will not be refunding anyone who purchased that package and have no plans to continue supporting it. So much for getting what you pay for, hm?
“All retailers who purchased the Exclusive or VIP product packages retain all of the products and services they received, but the Mogul program and Mogul Team Bonuses have been discontinued.
“All existing paid members in BurnLounge become BurnLounge Basic retailers and receive a subscription to our Business Management Software (BMS). In addition, during this transitionBurnlounge we are waiving all renewal and monthly fees for existing retailers until December 31, 2007.”
“Currently, our terms and conditions state that complete refunds are not available after 3 days from the purchase date. In light of this transition, we are reviewing our refund policies but we have not made any changes at this time.”
Following this weekend’s performance at Glastonbury, An End Has A Start hitting streets in the UK on Monday, June 25th on Kitchenware/Sony BMG, and in the US on July 17th on Epic/FADER Label/Kitchenware, EDITORS announce a September US Tour.
EDITORS NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
9/4 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
9/6 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
9/7 - NY, NY - Webster Hall
9/8 - Montreal, QC - Osheaga Festival
9/9 - Toronto, ON - Virgin Festival
9/11 - Chicago, IL - Park West
9/12 - Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line Music Cafe
9/14 - Denver, CO - Monolith Festival
9/15 - Salt Lake City, UT - Club Sound
9/17 - Vancouver, BC - Richard’s On Richards
9/18 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
9/19 - Portland, OR - Berbati’s Pan
9/20 - San Francisco, CA - Fillmore
9/23 - San Diego, CA - Streetscene
9/24 - Los Angeles, CA - The WilternTicket pre-sales begin Tuesday, June 26th at 10:00 AM.
Tickets will be available at: http://tix.concertmaps.com/editors/.
Fans will also have the option to pre-order a Deluxe Edition of ‘An End Has A Start’ when purchasing tickets.
EDITORS will also be doing a special outdoor performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday, July 26th, which will air on ABC that evening at 12:00am (11:00pm central).On Tuesday, June 26th, EDITORS are releasing ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’ as the first US single, with B-sides ‘An Eye For An Eye’ and ‘The Picture’. Also available on Tuesday on iTunes, EDITORS are releasing a three song EP, including ‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’, ‘Bones’, and ‘Push Your Head Towards The Air’.
VIDEO: “Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors”
http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/Editors/video/Editors_SmokersOutside_VidFull.mov
http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/Editors/video/Editors_SmokersOutside_VidFull.swf
http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/Editors/video/Editors_SmokersOutside_VidFull_100.asx
http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/Editors/video/Editors_SmokersOutside_VidFull_300.asx
“Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors” on Jools Holland
http://mfile.akamai.com/1689/wmv/bmguk.download.akamai.com/1689/editors/jools_holland/editors_smokers_jools_holland_high.wmv
http://mfile.akamai.com/1689/wmv/bmguk.download.akamai.com/1689/editors/jools_holland/editors_smokers_jools_holland_med.wmv
http://mfile.akamai.com/1689/wmv/bmguk.download.akamai.com/1689/editors/jools_holland/editors_smokers_jools_holland_low.wmv
http://mfile.akamai.com/1689/rm/bmguk.download.akamai.com/1689/editors/jools_holland/editors_smokers_jools_holland_high.rm
http://mfile.akamai.com/1689/rm/bmguk.download.akamai.com/1689/editors/jools_holland/editors_smokers_jools_holland_med.rm
http://mfile.akamai.com/1689/rm/bmguk.download.akamai.com/1689/editors/jools_holland/editors_smokers_jools_holland_low.rm“Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors” (Radio Edit)
http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/709587/709587_01_01_full_100.asx
http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/709587/709587_01_01_full_smil.mov
http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/709587/709587_01_01_full.swf
According to this story on HypeBot, Loudersoft’s favorite online music retailer BurnLounge is, as predicted, changing its business model and moving away from its MLM past. This comes as no surprise as the company comes under fire and intense scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly operating a large-scale pyramid scheme. Under the new model, BurnLounge plans to do affiliate marketing not unlike other online retailers such as Amazon, giving users the tools to build their own online stores and offer commissions strictly based on sales.
What everyone is wondering: what happens to all that money they already took in from people who bought packages on which commissions were being earned? Nobody knows yet, but the writing is on the wall — my guess is that, should the FTC find them guilty of operating a pyramid scheme, a requirement to refund people who invested on the front end would get worked through. Even though BurnLounge is working to change its model and its image, historical data on companies who have been found guilty of being involved in pyramid schemes frequently end up being forced to reimburse investors. No judgment has been made against the company as yet, though several investors/store owners remain under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly inflating sales figures. Earlier this week, CEO Alex Arnold resigned from BurnLounge and was replaced by Grant D. Johnson, a board member and early BurnLounge investor.
PRESS RELEASE - New York, NY, June 21, 2007 – BurnLounge, the world’s first fan driven digital download community, today announced a simplification of its business model that will eliminate the network marketing element of its business while providing greater business benefit for entrepreneurial members of the BurnLounge community.
The company intends to focus on its free service and will deliver increased rewards per sale. BurnLounge will continue to build strong partnerships and high-margin product lines providing a viable business for its members and artists. The free service is comprised of BL2, the software that enables anyone to open up their own download store and become a digital retailer; and BurnPages, a personal web page with customizable widgets.
“Despite our strong disagreement with the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint against the network marketing portion of the business, BurnLounge has voluntarily decided to make this bold move to show our commitment to our artists, partners, and independent retailers who have supported us from the beginning,” said Grant D. Johnson, chairman and chief executive officer, BurnLounge.
Johnson added, “Network marketing was a unique channel to promote our products, but not integral to the future success of the company and its retailers. We took this strategic action to benefit the greater BurnLounge community.”
HipHopRX is reporting that M.I.A., who is scheduled to appear Friday at Glastonbury, has pulled out of the show last minute. Her highly-anticipated sophomore release Kala is expected to drop on August 20th.
Many years ago, I remember reading Trey Anastasio from Phish saying, in an article about what MP3’s would mean to the music industry, that he felt sure that eventually, every song would have an advertisement attached to the end of it.
In an eerie case of artist meanderings on technology imitating reality, Trey Anastasio was correct: thanks to a new partnerships, users can hear music for free — with advertising attached. With 16 million users and ranked currently the #4 most popular entertainment-multimedia site in the United States, music social networking site imeem.com has partnered with Snocap to offer digital delivery of copyrighted music that can be shared between site members. The not-so-revolutionary idea has been bandied about for years, but imeem is putting it into practice, potentially to avoid having to pay damages to Warner Brothers — the company who last month sued them for copyright infringement.
It will be interesting and exciting to see the direction that this takes.
Getting word that someone you’ve known for a long time is sick is always bad news. Finding out that they’re dying is even worse. The worst, however, is when the person who tells you all of this is a person you hardly ever talk to anymore. Such is the case with this article in Rolling Stone magazine which graphs and charts the death report we already knew was coming — the major label system.
The major labels are struggling to reinvent their business models, even as some wonder whether it’s too late. “The record business is over,” says music attorney Peter Paterno, who represents Metallica and Dr. Dre. “The labels have wonderful assets — they just can’t make any money off them.” One senior music-industry source who requested anonymity went further: “Here we have a business that’s dying. There won’t be any major labels pretty soon.”
This 2-part series is both an interesting and worthwhile read that tells us how things got to where they are.
NOTE: This is not the “Ryan Adams” blog, and neither is the one I used to write for. But we all like Ryan and it’s not just because he’s good looking and a smart dresser. He does this other thing called “writing good songs” and people ought to listen to him. Sure, he doesn’t need blogs to promote him, but we do anyways. Why?
Life’s too short to write about music that sucks.
Go here and check out the full stream of Easy Tiger by Ryan Adams.
A new song by my favorite new band of 2006, The Bird and the Bee, has been posted to their MySpace page today. “Polite Dance Song” will appear on their EP, Please Clap Your Hands, which is slated for a fall release from Blue Note Records. It’s obvious that Inara George and Greg Kurstin are no flash-in-the-pan. Go check it out. It should be no surprise that it’s lovely.