Ending a nine-month standoff, YouTube said Tuesday that it had reached a new agreement with Warner Music Group that would return the label’s music videos to the world’s largest video Web site.

Warner Music had demanded that its videos be removed last December after licensing talks stalled with YouTube, a unit of Google. The new deal means that YouTube has deals with the country’s four major record labels and four major publishers.

SOURCE

If you aren’t hip to the “Lefsetz Letter” you need to check it out. Bob tells it exactly how it is in this latest piece. End of discussion, HSK is way ahead of the curb!

Madonna was narcissistic, Kanye demonstrated he knows no limits, the Michael Jackson tribute was lacking oomph, a neutered Russell Brand was strangely unfunny, but none of that truly mattered. What we saw last night was a television network that was once different, playing to a disenfranchised younger generation, employing the same damn playbook as the networks. And have you caught the networks’ ratings recently?

In an era where the niche is king, where the mainstream is shrinking, MTV tried to be all things to all people. Like a cheerleader being nice to the nerds for a few hours. But didn’t MTV get the memo, THE NERDS RULE!

MTV established a monoculture. There was no longer an underground, there was no FM to compete with AM, it was what MTV played and everything else, winners and losers. And to think it was about music is to believe visual stimulation holds no weight, that seeing Britney Spears shake her hips titillates you not a whit. MTV was the paragon, driving hell-bent into the distance, defining youth culture, for those truly young and those who desired to be young. But, MTV never saw the cliff ahead, never saw the nascent Internet, a village off to the side. Hell, the whole entertainment industry didn’t see the Internet and still doesn’t. (more…)

Is BET really the Belly of the Beast?
An open letter from Andreas Hale

To friends, colleagues and those that should know,

As of today (September 8, 2009) I am no longer the Executive Editor of Music at BET.com.

Upon entering the position at BET I said that I needed one year to see what really went on inside the belly of the beast. I needed 365 days to sleep with the enemy and infiltrate the system. One year to see if they REALLY wanted change at BET.

As someone who has been critical of BET for many years, it surprised many that I would leave my post at HipHopDX last year to take a position at BET. But it was an opportunity I absolutely had to take. I could no longer be critical of this company without accepting the opportunity to change it when given. Although I was hired to bring about change, I was systematically shut down. I wasn’t hired to make noise, I was hired to be silenced. (more…)

Yet another missed opportunity by the labels. What better promotion of music to a demographic that would never search out said artists. Instead of dealing or innovating the major labels choose litigation. It’s a long lonely road to self destruction.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Some of the world’s largest recording companies are suing “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” claiming producers violated their copyrights by playing more than 1,000 songs without permission.

Many of the songs were played during the “dance over” segment of the show, when DeGeneres dances from the stage to the interview area, often through the audience. According to the suit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, when representatives of the recording companies asked defendants why they hadn’t obtained licenses to use the songs, defendants said they didn’t “roll that way.” “As sophisticated consumers of music, Defendants knew full well that, regardless of the way they rolled, under the Copyright Act, and under state law for the pre-1972 recordings, they needed a license to use the sound recordings lawfully,” the suit states. (more…)

Check out more stuff @ 123 Klan

Hip-hop pioneer takes local artists to task
Posted by Federico Martinez | Muskegon Chronicle August 27, 2009 06:03AM

MUSKEGON HEIGHTS — The question: “Who is the face of hip-hop today? Whoever says ‘Jay-Z’ is an idiot,” Prof Griff of the legendary hip-hop group Public Enemy bluntly responded during a recent forum in Muskegon Heights.
Griff was addressing more than 150 people who attended the event, which was held Saturday at the Muskegon Heights Boxing Club. The program, sponsored by local radio station 103.7 The Beat, is one of a series of culturally related workshops that the station is hosting this year.

“The face of hip-hop today is white — white, corporate America,” added Griff. Griff’s lecture was titled “Black Music: The Psycho Analytical Destruction of a Stolen Legacy,” and anyone thinking they could cruise through this class was quickly put on notice by “The Professor.” ”You’re not going to agree with everything I’m going to say, I’m just going to tell you that from the beginning,” said Griff. “Those people who are going to get angry and red-faced with me, that’s fine too, because I have to move you out of your comfort zone.

“If you listen to the local radio station and you’re digging what’s going on the station and you’re going down to the club and partying into that same madness, you’re going to have a problem with The Professor today,” he continued. “If you think — someone on the panel said Jay Z is the face of hip-hop — if you think he is, you’re definitely going to have a problem with Griff today.”

With that, Griff served up a music history lesson that highlighted the contributions of socially conscious singers and musicians such as Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield. He also pointed out that the roots of hip-hop stem not just from music, but also poetry.

PROF GRIFF AUDIO
• Prof Griff Part 1
• Prof Grifff Part 2

Some of the early rap and hip-hop pioneers include Gil Scott-Heron and Afrika Bambaataa, he said.
Griff argued that the white music industry has profited from black music — including jazz, blues, R&B, rap and hip-hop — for years. The same music industry frequently rewards black performers who live up to negative stereotypes, such as the rap “gangsta,” he said.

(more…)

Christina Milian has done it.  This no-talented bitch has finally
found a trick that can make her pass-go.  Not only is she fucking for
tracks, she’s fucking for record deals.  What is this world coming to?

Milian’s fiance “The Dream” is now Executive Vice President of Island
Def Jam Records.  If this is the case, Kanye should be the President
of Island Def Jam…he’s far more talented than The Dream, agreed?

What kind of examples are the non-talented fucks leaving for today’s kids?

I’ll tell ya…porn is mainstream.  If ya can’t sing, ya have
autotune.  And if ya can’t make a record alone, ya can get five of
your friends to jump on tracks with you (if you don’t believe me, ask
Jamie Foxx).

(more…)