- Love Them We Do: 2.25m + Beatles albums sold in N/A, UK, Japan
- CAB Responds to CRTC Call For Discussion on TV Licensing
- Leonard Cohen’s Triumphant Barcelona Birthday Concert
- Recovery, What Recovery? Media Businesses At Best Flat
- Print Publishers Find Growth In Mobile Delivery
- Netflix Prize: Another $1M At Stake
- Seen & Heard
- Media & Broadcasting
- Video Of the Day
THE BEATLES (Apple Corps press release) have broken multiple chart 
records around the world following the 9 September 2009 (9-9-09) CD release of their digitally re-mastered catalogue. In the major music markets of North America, Japan and the UK, consumers purchased more than 2.25m copies of The Beatles’ re-mastered albums, both individually and in two multiple-CD boxed sets, one in stereo and one in mono, during the first five days of release (excluding non-traditional retail outlets whose sales are not tracked by the chart compilers). www.thebeatles.com
The Beatles’ original UK studio albums were re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.
The most popular band of the 20th century, The Beatles are beloved by music fans in the 21st century, as evidenced by their current unparalleled global chart performance:
Canada: The Beatles have 15 of the top 20 catalogue titles including all of the top 11. The stereo boxed set is a new entry in the current albums chart at number four, the highest debut for a boxed set in Canada since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales. Cumulative sales across all titles were just under 160,000 over the counter.
US: During the first five days of release, consumers purchased more than one 
million copies of re-mastered Beatles titles, and the individual albums and boxed sets debuted strongly across multiple Billboard charts.
On Billboard’s Comprehensive Albums chart, which lists the most popular album releases in the US, including current and catalogue titles, The Beatles set a new record for the most simultaneous titles by a single artist (18), including five of the top 10 and nine of the top 20.
On the Pop Catalog chart, The Beatles achieved another new Billboard chart first for the most simultaneous titles in the top 50 (16), a record they previously set themselves with 12 titles in December 1995. The Beatles have nine of the chart’s top 10 titles, and all 14 re-mastered CDs are in the top 20, led by ‘Abbey Road’ at number one, 40 years after its original release in 1969, and ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ at number two.
On the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, ‘The Beatles’ stereo boxed set debuted at number 15, and ‘The Beatles in Mono’ limited edition boxed set debuted at number 40.
UK: In last week’s chart The Beatles had four titles in the top 10, seven in the 
top 40 and 16 in the top 75, including both the stereo and mono boxed, as well as 2000’s ‘Beatles 1’ compilation. This set a new record for the most simultaneous albums in the UK charts according to the UK Official Charts Company. In this week’s UK chart The Beatles have 13 albums in the top 75. A further 84,000 CDs were sold last week, bringing their total sales of the re-masters to over 354,000 in 11 days and their total UK sales this decade to 6,755,000.
Japan: All 14 re-mastered titles and boxed sets debuted in the top 25 of the international chart, including seven of the top 10, led by the stereo boxed set at number two, the mono boxed set at number three, ‘Abbey Road’ at four and ‘Let It Be’ at six. Across all titles and boxed sets, more than 840,000 albums were purchased by consumers in Japan in the first three days of sales.
France: All 14 of the re-mastered titles and boxed sets entered the latest album chart, including three in the top 10, led by ‘Abbey Road’ at number four, a new record for the most original studio albums in the French album chart in one week.
Italy: The Beatles have 17 titles in the current chart – all 14 re-mastered titles, the two boxed sets plus the ‘1’ compilation, a record for the most simultaneous entries in the album chart.
Belgium: With 17 entries in the current chart – the 14 re-mastered titles, two boxed sets and ‘1’ compilation – The Beatles have set a new record for the most simultaneous albums in the Belgian chart as confirmed by chart compiler Ultrapop.
Sweden: The Beatles have 16 titles simultaneously in the top 60, led by ‘Abbey Road’ at number six. Local industry body IFPI have confirmed that this is a record for the Swedish charts.
Argentina: Seven of the current top 10 albums are Beatles re-masters, led by ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ at number two, ‘Abbey Road’ at number three and ‘The Beatles’ (The White Album)at number four. All 14 re-mastered titles are in the top 20 an the boxed sets are at numbers 73 and 74 in the chart.
Spain: 13 Beatles albums plus both boxed sets debuted in the latest chart, a record for a single artist. The combined sales of the boxed sets places them at number four in the chart.
Poland: All 14 re-mastered albums and two boxed sets debuted in the current top 100, led by ‘Abbey Road’ at six. This is a record for the highest number of simultaneous entries in the Polish chart.
Switzerland: 14 Beatles’ titles including the stereo boxed set debuted in the most recent album chart, a record for the most ever simultaneous titles in the album chart.
Denmark: The latest album chart includes 15 re-mastered titles plus the ‘1’ compilation, including four of the top 20.
Australia: The Beatles have 14 titles in the current chart, including the ‘1’ compilation.
Germany: The combined sales of the stereo and mono boxed sets, with one boxed set counted as one unit sale, places them as the number three best seller in the latest chart.
Austria: The current top 75 contains 12 re-mastered titles plus the stereo boxed set.
Portugal: The re-mastered titles occupy 11 places in the current top 30 album chart, includ
ing three of the top 10.
Norway: The combined stereo and mono boxed sets debut at number three with a further 12 re-mastered titles in the top 100.
Colombia: Half of the current top 10 albums are Beatles re-masters titles.
Korea: During the first sales week The Beatles occupied 16 out of the top 17 spots in Korea’s Hottracks album chart.
CAB: The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has filed its posion paper 
with the CRTC in advance of the regular holding hearings on TV licensing. The document paints a grim picture of broadcasters pitted against declining revenues and declining viewership as audiences shift their gaze to the Internet. The complete document can be viewed here and below a synopsis, along with changes the association would like the CRTC to adopt.
Canadian commercial broadcasters are even greater than those faced by broadcasters in other countries. With the greater use of product integration and other forms of advertising, Canadian broadcasters will have less control over advertising revenue for foreign programming, thus denying them an important source of revenue. At the same time,
Canadian Internet users are the most avid viewers of online video in the world, further fragmenting the video advertising marketplace and making the competition for consumer attention and advertiser dollars fiercer.
With this in mind, the CAB seeks regulatory redress for both its conventional as well as for its pay and specialty services members from current or intended regulatory measures that will, in their aggregate, have a detrimental impact on broadcasters’ ability to serve the Canadian public. As an outcome of the current proceeding the CAB seeks the following:
That the Commission eliminate the “one signal per province” policy established in PN 2008-100 and mandates carriage of all local television signals (French, English and third language local television services) on each DTH service provider for distribution in their local markets;
That the Commission require DTH service providers to file within 60 days of the Commission’s determination regarding the current proceeding a detailed plan where they will indicate how they will implement carriage of all local television signals into their local markets before August 31st, 2012; that the programming rights purchased by Canadian broadcasters not be conditional or diminished by regulation;
That the Commission give due consideration of the forthcoming regulatory and market changes that will specifically impact the pay and specialty services business model.
LEONARD COHEN (Hollywood Reporter ) made a triumphant return to the 
stage with a three-hour concert on his 75th birthday on Monday (21 Sep09).
The veteran singer sparked fears for his health after collapsing onstage in Valencia, Spain last week.
His concert was cut short after he fainted mid-song and was taken to the city’s Nueve de Octubre hospital, where he was treated for stomach flu. But he was back on his feet to perform the last show of his European tour in front of 14,000 fans in Barcelona, Spain on Monday – the same day he turned 75.
The Hallelujah hitmaker was given a standing ovation as he stepped on stage at the Palau Sant Jordi concert hall, where he played for more than three hours.
STATISTICAL SEMANTICS - Financial Times: It has been a brutal year for the media industry. Since the credit crunch began to hit the sector in August 2008, broadcasters, newspapers and advertising agencies have all been suffering, with thousands laid off across the sector in the UK alone.
Yet over the summer, many media executives dared to suggest that the worst was over.
Even Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp chief, said this month that business was “very much better than it was a couple of months ago”.
“Confidence is getting better but that isn’t translating into people spending more
on their brands,” Sir Martin Sorrell tells the Financial Times. The WPP’s chief executive’s sober outlook contrasts with the improving mood of other industry executives: he said last month that he expected revenue to be flat in 2010 after what Citigroup forecasts as a 7.7 per cent fall in like-for-like revenue this year.
“People keep saying I’m more gloomy than others,” Sir Martin says. “I think it’s a difference in tone or spin. We are being more realistic about it . . . To me, recovery is year-on-year growth of like-for-like revenues. I don’t think the fact that July and August were less worse than June is a recovery. It seems to me to be statistical semantics. If we are not falling off a cliff, the sequential quarters have to improve.”
This short-term improvement should be not surprising, he adds, given the scale of governments’ economic stimulus packages.
And in the Wall Street Journal, Sorrell has this to say: “We invest about $9 billion in people and $350 million a year in capital equipment. We made adjustments to our investment in people, which others could argue we should have done earlier. You can’t bring the average headcount rate down in line with revenues that are falling at the rate they are falling at the moment; it’s just too painful and demotivational. The number of people in the company was down by
about 7% by the end of July, compared with Dec. 31, 2008. It continues to fall at a rate of about 1,000 a month. That will flatten out as we come through the end of the year and into next year.”
MOBILE PUBLISHING – MediaDailyNews: A new survey from the Audit Bureau of Circulations found great interest in mobile strategies for content distribution and advertising among print publishers, which also expect print distribution to diminish over the next decade.
According to the ABC survey of 375 print publishing execs, 52% of print publishers are already distributing content via mobile devices. Newspapers are in the vanguard, with mobile-friendly, or created dedicated mobile Web sites.
On the downside, while over three-quarters of respondents said they expect to still be producing a print publication five years from now, fully 24% said they didn’t know if this would be the case.
NETFLIX - Business Week: In the annals of customer feedback, one Netflix 
subscriber might merit a place in the record books. This anonymous individual took the trouble to rate more than 5,000 movies in a single day. That’s the
equivalent of rating five movies a minute for 16 hours straight.
At most companies, the behavior of one unusual customer might fuel discussions in the hallways. But this user performed for a far larger crowd. Three years ago, Netflix released data for this prolific rater and millions of other customers, scrubbed of any names, and offered $1 million to the first person or group to improve the accuracy of their movie recommendations by 10%. Specifically, the winning team had to come closer than Netflix in calculating how many stars each user would give to a particular flick.
More than 50,000 people registered for the prize and downloaded the Netflix data. And on Sept. 21, Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings handed a $1 million check to the winners, BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos, a seven-member international coalition.
SEEN & HEARD: Just-announced additions to the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, taking place in B.C. from Jan. 22 to March 21, include an all-star tribute to Neil Young led by Broken Social Scene, and including Ron Sexsmith and Iron and Wine. Other acts to play the Olympiad include Steve Earle, with Joel Plaskett, and Stars, the Hilario Duran Latin Jazz Band, K’Naan, Tinariwen, Blue Rodeo and Veda Hille.
You can sample Bob Dylan’s Christmas In the Heart album here …
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT joins KT Tunstall and a number of other notables contributing to The Performance, Shirley Bassey’s forthcoming 
album and 1st in 20 years … Wainwright is also credited on The List, Rosanne Cash’s upcoming Oct. 6 release. Wainwright, along with Bruce Sprngsteen, Elvis Costello and Jeff Tweedy duet with the singer-songwriter on a set of songs handed down to her by her father Johnny Cash.
THE BEATLES have surpassed Jesus in terms of popularity on the Google search 
engine. An analysis of search terms showed more people searched for the band on Google than the son of God during September. More than forty years ago John Lennon was roundly criticized him for alleging that the rockers were bigger than Jesus. In March 1966 Lennon told the Evening Standard: “I do not know what will go first, rock’n’roll or Christianity … we’re more popular than Jesus now”.
ASHANTI is teaming up with singer/actress Judy Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft to perform at the 70th anniversary of film classic ‘The Wizard Of Oz’.
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER could reunite next year for their first tour in over a decade. Carl Palmer told the Birmingham (U.K.) Post “We were going to reform ELP this year but we had a few medical problems involving Keith”.
COLDPLAY are facing yet another plagiarism claim from a disgruntled singer, who alleges the band’s new video is “awfully similar” to previous release.
Just weeks after settling a copyright dispute with guitarist Joe Satriani over their single Viva La Vida, singer/songwriter Andy J. Gallagher is pointing the finger at the group’s new promo Strawberry Swing – made using stop animation and featuring the band acting alongside chalk drawings.
Gallagher claims it bears similarities to his music video for Something Else, which he released last year (08). The singer tells CMU Music, “While I can’t say they copied me, there are an awful lot of similarities between my video and theirs. I think it’s unfair that Strawberry Swing will probably be nominated for numerous awards and is being universally-acclaimed as groundbreaking, when (Something Else director) Owen Trevor had virtually the same idea at least a year before.”
MADONNA has revealed she thinks Michael Jackson was “too shy”.
She tells the Daily Record that she spent weeks working with the King of Pop, but she never recorded a duet with him because Michael was scared of her “provocative” music “We became friends. I wrote a bunch of words and presented them to him but he didn’t want to go there. “I said, ‘Well, why come to me?’ That’s like asking Quentin Tarantino to not put violence in his films.”
FOR THE DIGITAL STORAGE GLUTTON, Seagate has today announced the launch of the first hard disk drive, the Barracuda XT, which is capable of delivering a theoretical maximum of 6Gb worth of data per second and comes with up to 2TB unformatted storage capacity. The unit has a US SL of $299.
SHAKIRA’s new album She Wolf has been pushed back from October 13th to November 17th.
AMY WINEHOUSE has rekindled her partnership with Mark Ronson to begin recording her long-anticipated third album. Well, actually it is her fourth but tracks recorded earlier this year using Caribbean beats were nixed by her record company.
Given the crippling debt weighing down EMI, speculation continues to surround a possible sale of EMI Music Publishing to the new Bertelsmann-KKR joint venture.
MEDIA & BROADCASTING: Unofficial “New Newstalk 1010 lineup: John Moore mornings, Bill Carroll 9 a.m., Jim Richards 1 p.m., John Tory afternoon drive” … Ingrid Moore is joining Mark Philbin on the Classic Hits CJOJ 95.5 FM morning show after having spent 14 years at competing Belleville, ON radio station, Mix97 … Nice Fish, a locally produced fishing adventure series with noted Victoria angler Gary Cooper, has been picked up by the new ownership behind CHEK TV in the BC capitol city … SILK FM in Kelowna now called EZ ROCK …
Edmonton’s CJNW 107.1 NEW FM is now testing. The new independent CHR facility, owned by John Yerxa, is mixing the conventional with some absurdity in its pre-launch marketing. Example, the following slogan: “All the rock you want and some you don’t!” One can listen here
A 17-year veteran at Billboard magazine, Phyllis Stark has been named Executive Editor of Country Music at Radio-Info.com.
A Day In Radio-September 21, 1939-70 years ago today
America’s 1st female rock jock on AM radio in Chicago–1st female in America to
broadcast live on HD radio in 2005–Written into the U.S.Congressional Record. Connie tells how she lost that ABC-TV gig to Oprah; surprised Elvis, and had a date with Neil Diamond. She emceed shows for Wayne Newton, Tom Jones, & Bobby Vinton and partied with Elton John, Stevie Nicks and more. Over 200 photos and memorabilia include Chicago radio stations–WCFL, WIND, WSDM (the station with the girls), WJJD, WJEZ, WUSN (US-99), WJMK, and WJMK-HD2. A Chicago Sun-Times cover story captioned her “The Woman Who Invented Strip Radio.” Dubbed “Chicago’s Polish Princess,” Connie is also a portrait artist and author; and refutes that–”DJ’s are too lazy to work or too dumb to get another job.”
VIDEO OF THE DAY:
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