NBC ... You just don't get it, do you?

For a media company, NBC Universal sure doesn’t get the importance of reaching an audience.
According to IMDb, NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker lashed out at Apple and its iTunes Store Monday, saying the service is “preventing media companies from selling online content at profitable rates.” Sale of individual episodes of NBC’s shows was recently halted after the company said it wanted to charge more than iTunes' download price of $1.99. Zucker, who was apparently dropped on his head as a child, said NBC only earned $15 million from episode sales through iTunes and complained the service would not let NBC raise it’s prices.
“We know that Apple has destroyed the music business - in terms of pricing -- and if we don’t take control, they'll do the same thing on the video side,” Zucker said.
This is about the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
It’s bad enough that NBC only has four or five good shows, the best being The Office and 30 Rock, but now they want to make more money off of shows, that will eventually be sold on DVD, HDDVD, BluRay, into syndication and whatever new formats come along in the next 10 years.
What the hell are you thinking? $15 million isn’t a lot of money, but how much were you making on new episode downloads before iTunes? NOTHING! NOTHING AT ALL! IT DIDN’T EXIST!
And as far as how Apple “destroyed the music business,” you are about a misinformed as the head of a major communications company could be. The music industry couldn’t charge any more for music downloads than it already is. In fact, if you look at the emusic factor, iTunes downloads cost three-times more than they should. THREE TIMES. In fact, the whole music industry should probably be investigated (again) for price fixing, since the cost of a physical CD that has actual worth is about the same as the download price – for a product that can’t be physically touched or resold.
The fact remains that no matter how much you think you should get for your shows, we can watch them – and record them – for free. Anytime you can get paid for something you give away for nothing, you should take the money and run. And while NBC and Fox have teamed up to maintain a Web presence with the video service Hulu, NBC Universal’s lack of understanding for programming sales through emerging media services is as short sighted as it is shocking stupid.

Hello, again, hello

It has been a really long time since I've written anything on Mad Mad Media. My job duties here at the Press have changed, so I've been busy learning about a thousand new and exciting things. So, I'm sorry I haven't written anything in some time.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the entertainment industry. Every day it seems like there's a new crusade against file sharing, or some filmmaker/musician, whatever, complaining about how they are being robbed by people downloading their stuff for free on the Internet.

I feel for them.

A few months ago, I interviewed a musician named Mary Bue. She's an awesome indie artist who hits Sheboygan every once in a while. When I was researching her music, I typed in her name and "mp3" in a search engine to see if I could find any of her music online. What I found was a Russian Web site selling her latest CD, Boat With No Oars, for $2.

When I was interviewing her, I asked her how her CD ended up on that site. It was the first she had heard about it. A couple of weeks ago I emailed her on her MySpace page to see what she had found out. Here is her reply.

"I don't know what to do about it!! i mean, these sites are selling my music for two dollars and thirty four cents. my label really is hands off with whatever i'm doing. i have control of all my discs and their sales, etc. i doubt i'm selling enough to hire someone to prosecute for these sales, so basically i'm being ripped off."

It's the same thing with movies. This summer, filmmaker Eli Roth released Hostel: Part II, the follow-up to his 2005 gory spectacle Hostel. Many expected it to be a huge it...it wasn't. Hostel 2 became one of the most downloaded films ever.

In a recent interview with MTV, Roth said "And a copy of "Hostel 2" leaked out before its release and they had it, it was like millions and millions of hits. Not only was it downloaded, but in the countries it was downloaded — like Mexico and Brazil — there were copies on the street for practically a penny. You could buy "Hostel 2" for a quarter in Mexico City. As a result, in a lot of countries where the piracy was bad, they just didn't even release it."

Most recently, early versions of Britney Spears' latest CD, Blackout, were leaked on the Web, forcing Spears' record company, Jive, to release the disc early. It will hit stores tomorrow.

In a recent AP article, Jive record reps said, the company was "doing everything possible to prevent and avoid any further illegal distribution of songs," including the leaking of "unfinished material and demos represented as completed legitimate songs" to the internet."

This pisses me off.

It makes me angry because art is important. And while I'm seething with this animosity, I am having a hard time trying to figure out who to blame.

Obviously, any company that is selling something without the owner's permission is stealing. Russian law is still pretty lax (even after the closing of AllofMP3), as are copyright laws in other countries ... but, in my limited knowledge of the laws in these countries, these companies may be selling this material legally under their law.

My question is, how did they get these CDs in the first place? How did Britney Spears' demos hit the net before news of her last hit and run? How did an early version of Hostel 2 hit the web before it hit theaters? How did Mary Bue's CD, which is distributed by the tiny Cephalopod Records, find its way onto now several Russian online music sites?

No one seems to have answers. We need to find some.

It's 1980s Day!

Why? Why not!
Apparently there’s a place in Plymouth that has ’80s Saturdays. People were talking about it here at work and then we got to talking about 1980s music … and here we are. It’s ‘80s Day! So put on your Izod shirts – collars up – and swing your arms up and down to the soothing sounds of the vacuous 1980s.

A-ha “Take On Me”


Taylor Dane “Tell It To My Heart”


Run DMC “Walk This Way”


ABC “The Look of Love”


Thompson Twins “Hold Me Now”


Rick Springfield “Celebrate Youth”


Stacey Q “Two Of Hearts”


Samantha Fox “Touch Me”


Jane Child “Don’t Want To Fall In Love”


Expose “Come Go With Me”


Def Leppard “Photograph”

TBS, Fox Cartoon Network, Syndication … you have ruined Family Guy

I loved the Family Guy. I thought it was one of the most groundbreaking cartoons aimed at adults in years—comparable to the min-1990s seasons of The Simpsons. It did everything right. It pushed the enveloped, mildly offended and entertained. But now that it’s on regular rotation on four different networks — TBS, Fox Cartoon Network and syndicated locally on Channel 24 — the show has been ruined.
Now TBS and Cartoon Network have been running reruns of Family Guy for years, and those stations and DVD sales are the reason Family Guy was brought back to network television. But to continue running it in syndication on numerous networks is stupid. On some nights there is three hours of Family Guy on.
Come on. There are only five seasons in syndication. Law & Order isn’t on as much as Family Guy, and that show has been on the air for nearly 20 years and has had two successful spin-offs. Please, I’m begging you. Take Family Guy off of cable. You are ruining an awesome show.


Peter Griffin takes on the FCC. Contains questionable material. Viewer discretion is advised.

An honest review about the leaked Britney Spears CD

For the last two years, Britney Spears has been recording her comeback CD. In that time she has gotten divorced, become a media train wreck and embarrassed herself with a horrific performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards. But her latest CD, Blackout, which is scheduled for release on Oct. 30 (early because several songs were leaked on the Web), should help out the pop singer’s profile a little.
Yes, I know that Britney isn’t doing so well, and the standard plan of action would be to kick her while she’s down, but to be honest her latest attempt at music isn’t horrible. At this time, all of Britney’s tracks have been leaked onto the net (including all of the CD’s 12 and more than a dozen songs that haven’t made it on the new CD).
This version of the disc, which I found on babble.com, has Brit’s disc kicking off with the upbeat “Break the Ice,” listed as “It’s been a while.” Nothing groundbreaking, but Spears delivers some interesting pop rhythms and reminds listeners of some of her better work before she was “In The Zone.”
“You Got Me High,” (which is probably called something else on the official release) is at least as good as anything Kylie Minogue has put out in the last couple of years and “Gimme More” the disc’s first single is, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, fairly infectious. Some blogs have reported that several songs are laced with profanity, I have found one (“Stupid Things”) but I have no idea if it will be on the finished disc.
The rest of the tracks are pretty much the same: Generic pop with sexual undertones and a danceable beat. But what else would anyone expect? This is Britney Spears, not Diana Krall.
But, if the leaked tracks are any indication of what Spears has in store for listeners, it may shine a better light on the pop princess. It won’t take all of the negative away, but it will make things slightly better.

NIN says bye bye to record label

I got a text this morning that Nine Inch Nails and TVT have parted ways.
Nine Inch Nails frontman, Trent Reznor, wrote on the group's Web site that after 18 years with a record label, the group has finally achieved free-agent status.
“I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different,” Reznor wrote on his site, “and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.”
NIN recently released Year Zero, and shortly after Reznor made waves in the music industry for embracing file sharing.

Here are some Nine Inch Nails videos from YouTube.

Spears' CD leaked online?

She bombs at the VMAs, she loses her kids and now Britney Spears may have another hurdle to overcome ... the Internet.
Spears yet-to-be-finished CD has apparently already been leaked online. The 13 track disc has made its way on a couple of blogs, including MP3 Mix.
There is no way to verify if the tracks are indeed Britney's, but from what I've heard, they sound darn close if they aren't her. And, to be honest, even if they aren't finished tracks - or not even Spears singing - they could definitely spark some interest in her new CD.
Now, if someone could leak directions on how to get a driver's license renewed, Spears might be OK.