ANOTHER SAD SACRIFICE TO THE GREAT GOD 'POP'

I don't ever wanna drink again
I just, ooh, I just need a friend
I'm not gonna spend ten weeks
Have everyone think I'm on the mend
And it's not just my pride
It's just 'til these tears have dried.

Amy Winehouse, Rehab

The shockingly unsurprising demise of Amy Winehouse is producing the predictable outpouring of hypocrisy and hyperbole that accompany celebrity death in the Information Age.

Pressed into service of the music industry at 17, Winehouse's ten-year career was good for only two albums before she was found dead in her north London home.

Her debut album Frank, released in 2003, brought her acclaim but it was her second release three years later, Back to Black, that became a worldwide hit and won her five Grammys including Record of the Year for Rehab.

The chaotic drug and alcohol-fuelled life she subsequently shared with her then-husband Blake Fielder-Civil derailed her recording career. She last appeared in Belgrade in June but was booed off stage after an incoherent and slurred performance.

Who's sorry now?

Early reports indicate an increase of approximately 1 800 per cent in digital downloads of her songs in the days since her death.

At Universal Republic, they barely had a spare moment to issue the standard 'deeply saddened' statement before pulling out all stops to get the commemorative CDs into the stores before the toxicology results are released.

Sick shrine: Cigarettes, alcohol and photos are left with flowers and messages near the house where the pop star's body was found on 23 July 2011.

The death of any young person is unquestionably a personal tragedy.

Yet I suspect Winehouse's demise may be only a foretaste of something even more unpalitable as the phenomonon of premature death among 27-year-old artists transcends the stereotypical to become monotonous and even wearisome.

Without question, the success of popular music for at least the last 60 years has stemmed in large part from a dangerous mix of substance abuse and mental illness.

As producers, distributers and consumers of music, we might reflect upon the extent to which we 'look the other way' while deriving profit, comfort and enjoyment from the emotional distress of those we call 'stars'.

Like all those in the 27 Club, Winehouse lived a miserable existence in the last few years of her adult life and ultimately died alone.

Her lyrics were not an anthem to the recklessness of youth; they spoke instead of the fear of an inescapable despair.

I'd rather be at home with Ray
I ain't got seventy days
'Cause there's nothing, there's nothing you can teach me
That I can't learn from Mr Hathaway.

Arrested on a narcotics charge in Indiana on 14 November 1961, the then-31 year old Ray Charles told police he had been a drug addict since the age of 16.

Following another arrest three years later, Charles checked himself into 'rehab' before releasing the songs I Don't Need No Doctor and Let's Go Get Stoned.

One of the 'lucky' ones, Charles died of lung cancer on 10 June 2004 at his home in Beverly Hills, California, aged 73 years.

Donny Hathaway, a paranoid schizophrenic, was found dead on the sidewalk below the window of his 15th-floor room in New York's Essex House hotel on 13 January 1979.

Hathaway was aged only 33.

As moral and spiritual beings, each of us bears a responsibility for every other life on the planet. By condemning singers and musicians to a trajectory of hopelessness, we undervalue our humanity and cheapen our collective creativity.

Life imitating art imitating life: Winehouse publicity shot for Back to Black 

Vale Amy Winehouse.

IT'S OFFICIAL: VIDEO REALLY DOES KILL THE RADIO STARS

Television has apparently dealt a double-blow to the Australian music industry this month.

The TEN Network has chosen to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Australia's longest-running TV music program, Video Hits, by axing the show as part of the Murdoch-Packer led quest for profitability through cost-cutting.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, former Sony executive and erstwhile 'A&R' guru, Jay Dee Springbett, was killed by his apparently troublesome ticker while attempting single-handedly to install a 61-centimetre television set in his eastern Sydney apartment.

Even worse, you can only suspect the TV that killed Jay Dee was a birthday present he'd been given at his party on Monday night. That's if you believe his on-again, off-again partner and former Sony publicist, Louisa McCole.

Why shouldn't we? I mean, when has a publicist ever been economical with the truth?

"On Tuesday night I spoke with him as the girls and I were lying in bed, looking up holiday destinations in Queensland for a two-week trip the four of us were due to make on July 20, after he'd left Sony," McCole said.

"On Wednesday, I tried calling him, as did his best friend Ian, but it was going through to voice message all day - which was odd. When he failed to come and collect the girls later that evening as planned, I panicked."

When Jay Dee failed to surface on Thursday, she raced across town to his apartment.

"As I turned into his street, I was confronted by police. They told me they had found him on the couch."

Working the room...Louisa McCole and Jay Dee Springbett at Nino's Hideaway, Bondi Junction, Sydney.

In fact, events surrounding Springbett's death suggest a flurry of publicist activity in the hours before his body was 'discovered' by first responders at about 3.30 on the afternoon of Thursday, 30 June 2011. (Nicely timed to miss the evening's news bulletins without necessarily appearing so. That's class!)

While McCole was 'racing' across town to arrive at Jay Dee's place some time shortly before 4.00pm, the balloon was about to go up.

Denis Handlin AM, ARIA Chairman and Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Australia and New Zealand and President of South East Asia and Korea (of Sony Music that is, not the actual countries) claims to have raised the alarm himself after Springbett failed to return his calls.

Handlin would of course be concerned. After all, he's not a man accustomed to being ignored by anyone in the Australasian music industry. He told Alan Jones, "We thought we better let the police know because it's really not like him and you know they went to his residence and found him". Enough said.

 Happier times...Jay Dee Springbett (left), Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Sony BMG's chairman and chief executive Denis Handlin at the signing of Bassingthwaighte's solo deal at the Sony BMG offices in Sydney in 2006.

Of course we only have the word of McCole and that of Australian entertainment luminary, Kyle Sandilands, that the allegedly 36-year-old Springbett was seen alive and well any time after celebrating his fortieth birthday on the evening of Monday, 27 June 2011.

In time-honoured tradition, Handlin and the gaggle of industry figures expressing shock and grief at Springbett's sudden death are hinting at suicide by talking up the deceased's ebullient emotional state in the days immediately prior to his demise.

Made to walk the plank at Sony, itself a sinking ship, separated from his children and stripped of his celebrity, "Jay Dee was so very enthusiastic and passionate about his family, his music projects and his plans for the future," Handlin says in a short statement on the ARIA website.

Just in case that's not enough for you to take the hint, someone's even let in be known that two stubbies of beer and prescription drugs were present in Springbett's hotel room, I mean, serviced apartment, I mean, bachelor pad, I mean residence where his body was found.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you opened two stubbies for yourself at the same time? Now, that's thinking ahead.

Speaking of thinking ahead, I'll reserve judgement until the police and the coroner have thoroughly investigated the matter. Unfortunately, as these things go, we may have to wait a couple of years until we know the truth.

By an interesting coincidence, that's about the time by which boy wonders Murdoch and Packer will have dumped the husk of what we know now as the TEN network, having bled it of whatever life is left in it after the "necessary but inevitably painful restructure" foreshadowed in Murdoch's missive to TEN employees this week.

Of course, the demise of Video Hits won't surprise those of its Melbourne viewers who were stupefied not that long ago to find the long-running program bumped from its Sunday morning timeslot to make way for The Bolt Report.

Hosted by Australia's most smug Tory mouth piece, News Limited's Andrew Bolt, The Bolt Report managed to float itself in the face of a virtual tsunami of cost cutting and job losses at TEN.

News Limited...that's daddy's media conglomerate, isn't it Lachlan? I wonder if that's why we have, or at least had, cross-media ownership laws in this country?

Anyway, in its predictably myopic way, the stock market reacted positively to the news of the job cuts and program axings, with TEN rising 6.5 cents, or 5.9 per cent, to close at $1.165.

Not being a publicly-listed company, there's no way of telling what impact Springbett's death is expected to have on Sony Music Entertainment Australia and New Zealand.

But you can bet the blood on Handlin's hands isn't going to wash away any time soon as he continues to preside over his own necessary but inevitably painful restructure.

Vale Jay Dee Springbett, Video Hits and the Australian music industry.



Le's be friends...Australian Idol judges Ian Dickson and Jay Dee Springbett on the red carpet.





THE AUSTRALIAN RECORDING INDUSTRY: DROWNING NOT WAVING

Nobody heard him, the dead man,

But still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought

And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking

And now he's dead

It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,

They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always

(Still the dead one lay moaning)

I was much too far out all my life

And not waving but drowning.

Stevie Smith, Not Waving But Drowning

The Australian record industry has experienced a constant decline for much of the last decade, and last year the sale of its plastic product fell off a proverbial cliff.

According to wholesale sales figures released last month by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), the sale of CD albums fell by 21 per cent last year alone.

This, we're told, is apparently good news but exactly how this could be a positive result is not made clear in the accompanying ARIA media release.

What is clear is that the decline of the Australian recording industry has accelerated to the point where its future can now be measured in years rather than decades.

These charts have been prepared using wholesale sales figures for units and value, extracted and compiled from statistics published by ARIA:

Despite claiming to represent more than 100 members, ARIA is predominantly a front for the four largest labels operating in Australia, namely EMI Music Australia Pty Ltd, Sony Music Entertainment (Australia) Pty Ltd, Universal Music Australia Ltd and Warner Music Australasia.

(Don't take my word for it; check out the ARIA board members and judge for yourself.)

None of these four companies are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange as each is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a foreign multinational corporation.*

It's impossible to distinguish between the four major Australian labels as ARIA's figures are aggregated, but it's conceivable that Sony (due to the enormity of its back catalogue) is selling the most in the way of plastic product, but probably only at Christmas.

This could explain why ARIA failed to publish its first half figures last year, despite a bi-annual publishing model in operation since at least 2004.

(Instead, Ed St John quietly 'relinquished' his role as ARIA chair following 'his decision' to step down as President and CEO of Warner Music Australia. Enough said.)

It might also help explain the difficulty you have doubtless experienced when trying to obtain plastic product released elsewhere in the world without local distribution.

Licensing deals aren't the problem; it's that nobody still working in the rapidly emptying Sydney head offices of the 'big four' labels can be bothered keeping the Australian market up to date.

No one's buying the plastics anyway; they're not even buying digital albums. Sure, stick the single on iTunes and it'll sell, but the labels aren't making any money out of that, so who cares?

As bad as these results are, the situation is even worse than it appears on these charts.

The big four have been falling from an annual wholesale turnover of around $600 million on plastic product since as recently as 2003. Even according to their own figures, they've gone from raking in $10.75 for every CD album to a mere $1.15 for each digital track download.

(In fact, an interesting statistical adjustment ARIA quietly made last year to previously published figures for album and single downloads points to the possibility that iTunes may be paying them less than 25 cents a throw.)

Worse still, these numbers are only for Australian sales; the same phenomenon is occurring simultaneously around the world. Little wonder, then, the labels are desperately looking for someone to blame.

In the accompanying statement, ARIA chairman and Sony Music Entertainment (Australia) Chief Executive Denis Handlin described the 'illegal consumption of music' as a constant challenge, further stating the industry continues, "to work with government and ISPs to address this matter".

Really Dennis? I suppose you'd also say NATO is working with Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi to address the matter of his dictatorship in Libya?

In reality, the same foreign multinational corporations which own the majority of the Australian recording industry, and employ Dennis in his dual roles, are among those which have spent the last two years fighting a forlorn campaign to wrestle a favourable result out of the Australian legal system namely, Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Limited.

So far, it's two-nil against.

After 19 days of hearings in the Federal Court, Justice Cowdroy last year told the 34 applicants in the case (see below) they had failed to even mount a legal argument:

"The law recognises no positive obligation on any person to protect the copyright of another." Neither does it, "necessitate or compel, and can never necessitate or compel, a finding...merely because it is felt that ‘something must be done’ to stop the infringements".

Instead, the judge found that the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), another front organisation acting for the applicants, had unlawfully attempted to bully and bluff the respondent, internet service provider iiNet, into bullying and black-listing its customers on the applicants' behalf.

The applicants immediately appealed the judge's decision to the full bench of the federal court and lost. Last week they announced their intention to seek an opportunity to appeal their case to the High Court.

We wish them well.

In chasing the 'pirates', the industry invariably claims to be motivated by anything but self-interest. Indeed, its feigned concern about the impact of piracy on emerging artists is probably the most appalling piece of sophistry of all.

But, as the charts above demonstrate, the piracy issue is a complete red herring.

The big labels aren't losing money to 'illegal downloads'. They're bleeding cash because their business model was based on the exorbitant profits generated by forcing consumers to purchase albums full of filler songs, to which no one really wanted to listen.

Neither has digital music created piracy; plenty of people used to tape albums rather than buy them.

No, digital music has freed consumers from the monopolistic dictates of the record companies by allowing them to purchase only those tunes they want.

That's why the 34 applicant corporations have kept, and will keep, losing their big test case every time they trot out another appeal: they have no one to blame but themselves.

So what does a struggling but earnest artist do to succeed in this new environment?

Your choice is stark: continue to walk in the footsteps of the major labels on their journey towards oblivion or strike out on your own.

After a century of monopolistic control, it's little wonder the music and recording industries have become synonymous in the minds of so many artists.

But if you can imagine a future without recording labels, you can imagine a future for yourself as an artist and performer.

It's not as hard as it might sound:

1. Give the consumer what they want rather than try to force them to buy what they don't: the current legal and political campaigns being run by the labels against 'pirates' and ISPs are simply extensions of their monopolistic mind set;

2. Forget national and international distinctions: these are artificial constraints imposed on consumers by record companies to create further monopoly market opportunities for themselves;

3. Go viral: Online personal communication technologies have freed consumers from the record companies; those same consumers now stand ready to be mobilised.

Most importantly, always bear in mind the words of Eleanor Roosevelt:

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."

---

The 34 applicants in Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Limited:

1. ROADSHOW FILMS PTY LTD

2. UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS LLLP

3. PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION

4. WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.

5. DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.

6. COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC

7. TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

8. PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT (AUSTRALASIA) PTY LTD

9. BUENA VISTA HOME ENTERTAINMENT, INC.

10. TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION (AUSTRALIA) PTY LIMITED

11. UNIVERSAL PICTURES (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD

12. VILLAGE ROADSHOW FILMS (BVI) LTD

13. UNIVERSAL PICTURES INTERNATIONAL B.V

14. UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS PRODUCTIONS LLLP

15. RINGERIKE GMBH & CO KG

16. INTERNATIONALE FILMPRODUKTION BLACKBIRD VIERTE GMBH & CO KG

17. MDBF ZWEITE FILMGESELLSCHAFT MBH & CO KG

18. INTERNATIONALE FILMPRODUCKTION RICHTER GMBH & CO KG

19. NBC STUDIOS, INC

20. DREAMWORKS FILMS L.L.C

21. WARNER BROS INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION INC

22. TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION

23. WARNER HOME VIDEO PTY LTD

24. PATALEX III PRODUCTIONS LIMITED

25. LONELY FILM PRODUCTIONS GMBH & CO KG

26. SONY PICTURES ANIMATION INC

27. UNIVERSAL STUDIOS INTERNATIONAL B.V.

28. SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT PTY LTD

29. GH ONE LLC

30. GH THREE LLC

31. BEVERLY BLVD LLC

32. WARNER BROS ENTERTAINMENT AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

33. TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT LLC

34. SEVEN NETWORK (OPERATIONS) LTD

* EMI Music Australia Pty Ltd is part of EMI Group, acquired by Maltby Capital on 17 August 2007. Maltby Capital is owned by funds managed by Terra Firma and advised by Terra Firma Capital Partners Limited.

NSW ELECTION RESULT CONFIRMS MELBOURNE AS NATION'S ROCK CAPITAL

Four weeks ago to the day, former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally condemned her government to obliteration with the farcical announcement of Sydney’s pretention to be the nation's 'rock capital'.

If re-elected, Ms Keneally promised to appoint a NSW Commissioner for Rock with a brief to promote Sydney as the premier destination for the live performance of rock and roll.

The rest, as they say, is rapidly becoming history…

On the weekend an almost unprecedented 16.5 per cent swing against NSW Labor saw its 16-year-old government thrown out in this country's most dramatic voter backlash since the second world war.

The swing against the NSW government surpassed even the 14.6 per cent swing which devastated its 1955 Victorian counterpart, led by John Cain Senior, after the Labor party tore itself apart in the catholic/communist schism which was to last two decades.

In fact, the only greater swing against a government in the history of Australian electoral politics is the tsunami-like 22 per cent which swamped the Scullin federal Labor government in 1931 after the onset of the Great Depression. Even the swing against the Whitlam government, in the turbulence of 1975, was a poultry six per cent.

While thousands of pundits, pollsters and professional commentators are now pointing to the plethora of factors which contributed to the weekend's result, none of them have identified anything capable of creating a seismic political shift on a scale previously associated with the Great Depression or the Evil Empire.

Like the proverbial butterfly wing that creates an earthquake, her blunder went

almost unnoticed; its significance misunderstood.

This clear demonstration of their former premier's delusion clearly horrified NSW

voters, recognising as they must that Australia can have only one rock capital and

one rock commissioner.

Comments contained in posts such as 'Cue the fat lady' and 'Begone you stupid, stupid woman' gave a foretaste of the force with which the NSW electorate would remove its teenage Labor government. One reader even advised the ex-Premier to 'invite Michael Jackson so she can also be a part of never-never land'.

Methinks she already is.