Is Free Music Download Site Guvera the Future of the Music Industry?
Record labels have long been searching for a solution to combat the proliferation of illegal music downloads that has forced its once mighty industry to its knees. But how do you combat such a widespread practice on a platform as sprawling and lawless as the Internet? Queensland based company Guvera believe they have found a solution. Their approach does not involve policing illegal downloads, but rather finding a way to offer free downloads to consumers while ensuring royalties are still paid to recording artists/labels.
How is this possible? Well, Guvera employs an advertising-based model where corporations sponsor free music downloads, paying the royalties owed to artists/labels in exchange for displaying targeted advertising to Guvera users. And with licensing deals in place with the likes of Universal Music Group and EMI, Guvera is already offering a wide selection of popular music for download – from Lady GaGa to Kanye West – at absolutely no cost to consumers.
It sounds like a perfect solution to the music industry’s financial woes, right? Maybe. Maybe not. Continue reading »
Justin Timberlake Buys Stake in MySpace
Life appears to be imitating art as Justin Timberlake today secured an ownership stake in MySpace.
Timberlake, who played a social media tycoon in the film The Social Network, is part-owner of advertising network Specific Media – which has purchased MySpace from News Corp. for the bargain basement price of $35 million.
News Corp. purchased the social network in 2005 for $580 million only to suffer flailing traffic and revenue that forced a culling of more than 47% of MySpace staff in January.
Timberlake and Specific Media hope to reinstate the site as a social media mecca.
“There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect. MySpace has the potential to be that place. Art is inspired by people and vice versa, so there’s a natural social component to entertainment,” said Timberlake in a statement released earlier today.
Exclusive: Inside RNB Superclub
It is the largest urban clubbing brand in the southern hemisphere, playing host to tens-of-thousands of party-goers in over 20 venues across the country and spawning a music compilation series accounting for almost 500,000 in CD sales.
RNB Superclub is arguably the greatest commercial exploitation – and we use that term with affection – of R&B Australia has ever witnessed.
In anticipation of Superclub’s 10th anniversary and the recent release of its RNB Superclub Volume 11 album, Rhyme & Reason speaks with brand manager John Senakis about the inception, challenges and processes behind operating Australia’s premium urban clubbing brand. Continue reading »
10 Facts About: Dom Pérignon
Dom Pérignon set the benchmark for sparkling wines more than seven decades ago as the first prestige cuvée champagne, staking its place as an aspirational beverage and symbol of affluence. That high-end status enamoured Dom P to Hip-Hop culture as rappers sought to flaunt their ascendancy from the streets to penthouse suites in the mid-90s, referencing the pricey champagne in lyrics and visuals – perhaps no more blatantly than Little Shawn and The Notorious B.I.G. on the 1995 single “Dom Pérignon”.
Here, Rhyme & Reason delves into the legacy of the lauded champagne brand that captivated Hip-Hop in revealing 10 Facts About Dom Pérignon: Continue reading »
Beyonce Sued for $100 Million
Beyonce Knowles-Carter is the focus of a $100 million lawsuit filed yesterday by software developer Gate Five LLC. The company alledges Beyonce reneged on a deal to develop a motion-sensing dance video game and is taking the superstar to court for what they claim was “a bad faith breach of contract so callous that, on what appeared to be a whim, she destroyed Gate Five’s business and drove 70 people into unemployment, the week before Christmas.”
Gate Five claim to have lost $6.7 million in developing Starpower: Beyonce - the video game’s working title - and $100 million in profits. The summons reads as follows:
“Ms. Carter breached the Services and Exclusive License Agreement she entered into with Gate Five by abruptly abandoning the lucrative joint venture she and Gate Five were pursuing to commercialize a video game called Starpower: Beyonce. Though she had already negotiated lavish compensation terms to which she was contractually bound, Ms. Carter, at a crucial moment in the project’s development, made an extortionate demand for entirely new compensation terms she suddenly decided she wanted. When her maneuver backfired and drove away the financier (who found Ms. Carter too erratic to do business with), she pulled out of the project in breach of the Agreement. Her actions were so unscrupulous that her then manager (who is also her father) renounced them, while a senior executive of the company that had agreed to finance the project condemned her conduct as ‘morally reprehensible’ in an e-mail he sent to one of her talent agents”
Beyonce and her representatives are yet to release a statement addressing the lawsuit.
Exclusive Interview: Two-Minutes with Trina
Katrina ‘Trina’ Taylor has a catalogue of songs that could make a pornstar blush. The Miami beauty first defiled our auditory canals thirteen-years ago on the Trick Daddy hit ”Nann N**ga” and has since built on that legacy with a catalogue of sordid songs that include “Da Baddest Bitch”, “Dang-A-Lang” and “Good Pussy”.
Now the Diamond Princess has plans to make even more people blush with Amazin’ cosmetics - a company she launched last year alongside her album of the same name. The 32 year-old rapper recently sat with Rhyme & Reason Magazine to discuss this foray into cosmetics and her key rule for protecting the Trina brand.
Check out our short Q&A after the jump: Continue reading »
Foot Locker Launch World’s Richest Colouring Competition
One of Australasia’s most prestigious art prizes, The Archibald Prize, has today been trumped by the launch of a new Sneaker Art Prize that’s set to shake up the art world and force people to question once more what can legitimately be called ‘art’.
Foot Locker Australasia today announced the launch of the Foot Locker Art Prize: The World’s Richest Colouring Competition and with a first prize cash value of AUD$50,001 it trumps the notorious Archibald Prize, by one dollar exactly!
Joining Foot Locker Australasia’s mission to turn the art world on its head is a host of world-renowned brands and a raft of renowned artists and Competition judges – including UK Artist, Dave White, Sneaker Freaker magazine Editor, Simon ‘Woody’ Wood and Australian art critic, Andrew Frost. Continue reading »
Jay-Z Launches Lifestyle Site
Jay-Z has added to his burgeoning empire with the launch yesterday of lifestyle website Life + Times.
Lending its title from the Jay-Z album Vol. 3… Life And Times of S. Carter, the online publication has been in development for the past year and stretches the gamut of youth culture with editorial encompassing music, sport, technology, fashion and art – as curated by Jay-Z.
Life + Times currently features interviews with French fashion blogger Garance Doré, 17 year-old soccer prodigy Charles Renkin, and New York-based French Chef Daniel Boulud, amongst others.
Watch the official Life + Times promotional video after the jump: Continue reading »
Video: Les Twins Appear in Hi-Tech Adidas Originals Campaign
French dance phenomenon Les Twins have been tapped by Adidas Originals [despite sporting Nikes in the above photo] to appear in a campaign for their new MEGA footwear collection.
The commercial showcases the MEGAlizer – an enhanced version of the MEGA range of shoes fitted with force sensors in the toe and heel that allow dancers to create music with their feet. Percussive sounds are triggered when pressure is applied to the heel and toe in this hi-tech reincarnation of the tap dance shoe.
But don’t get too excited. It is understood Adidas have no plans to release the enhanced MEGAlizer shoes commercially.
Watch the Adidas Originals commercial featuring Les Twins below, along with two bonus videos of the French duo doing what they do best: Continue reading »
Video: Snoop Dogg Stars in Air New Zealand Commercial
Snoop Dogg continues his endorsement spree with an appearance in the new Air New Zealand campaign alongside controversial globe-trotting puppet Rico.
“Meet this guy [Rico] and you’ll understand why I wanted to work with him. He’s funny. He’s a little bit edgy and a little bit naughty, which is a nice change for an industry that is known for having some of the dullest marketing known to mankind,” said Snoop of working with the hilarious puppet created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
In the commercial, Snoop phones Rico – who is trekking through New Zealand - and invites the furry creature to Los Angeles to record their very own ladies anthem “Hello Sunshine”. Surrounded by a bevy of beautiful ladies, the clip is brimming with innuendo and misspronunciations courtesy of the faux-Latino puppet.
Watch the Snoop x Rico Air New Zealand commercial [along with bonus Rico clip] after the jump: Continue reading »
