WE CALL IT THE CASH MONEY

ITEM: Billboard has released its list of the Top 40 moneymaking artists of 2009, with figures including the artist’s take on CD/digital track sales and concerts (but excluding merchandising and sponsorships).

It’s worth reading for the methodology alone.

At #40:

Bette Midler ($9,421,947)

At #1:

U2 ($108,601,283)

The U2 figure is notable for a few reasons:

1. Their 360º tour is only halfway done.
2. Each show costs around $750,000 a pop.
3. The #2 act – The Bruce – only raked in $57,619,037.

Anyway, it’s an interesting list, albeit with few surprises – one of them being that Leonard Cohen ranked at #39, which is almost as comforting as the fact that AC/DC made the top five (which means they not only made more money than Jonas Brothers, but they also made more money than Toby Keith, Keith Urban and Brad Paisley COMBINED ... which is good to know).

Also, it’s not often you’ll see the term “Wal-mart exclusive” mentioned that many times in a list not explicitly about Wal-mart exclusive releases.

Anyway, there’s yr dying music industry for you.

Peeling off those dollar bills,

This is dF

FALCO’S GRAVE

... I want one just like it.



[Via Coilhouse]

Seriously. How awesome is that to haunt yr own grave?

Only Falco could do that, you know.

Here’s one of many reasons why.

"mini, mini, mini - jacques dutronc ft. francoise hardy (fh blues 1966)" (Watch on YouTube)

Doktor doktor,

This is dF

BREAKING: UNIVERSAL MUSIC GETS ITS ASS KICKED BY TODDLER

ITEM: Remember the woman who was ordered by Universal Music Group to take down a YouTube video of her toddler dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” because it was the same as stealing a Prince album from Wal-mart?

She fought back in court, arguing “fair use”. And won.

That’s good news because “fair use” is one of the traditional linchpins of copyright law. It’s what basically allows you to use copyrighted material for non-commercial purposes, be it a news story, a research paper or a parody. And the the music industry has made a point of arguing in its various copyright enforcement blitzes that in the Digital Age, there is no such thing as “fair use”. But then they’ve also argued in court that you don’t even have the right to back up yr CD collection on yr hard drive, even if the CDs are all legally paid for.

If UMG had won the argument that a 30-second Dancing Prince Baby video counted as copyright infringement, you’d never be able to upload a YouTube video again without checking to make sure that there’s no incidental music playing in the background – or forking over a fee to the record label.

It’s also worth noting that the music business (and Hollywood, for that matter) is interpreting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as being much more restrictive of fair use – and that the US govt is lobbying on their half to use the DMCA as the model for the global Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) – the same treaty being negotiated behind closed doors that would, among other things, require your Internet service provider to cut yr house off completely after two written warnings if UMG (for example) suspects anyone in yr family is infringing copyright in any way at all.

So right on, Dancing Prince Baby.

We can dance if we want to,

This is dF