Music Ally

The talks between Eminem’s music publisher Eight Mile Style and Apple over their pending court battle broke down yesterday, meaning the case will kick off as planned today. “The case did not settle today and we are expecting to start trial first thing tomorrow morning,” said Eight Mile Style lawyer Howard Hertz.

The lawsuit focuses on Apple’s sale of 93 Eminem tracks on iTunes, which were licensed from Aftermath Records, which Eight Mile Style claims didn’t have the right to approve. It seems the publisher isn’t just trying to get a share of the profits Apple and Aftermath made from sales of the tracks, but even a slice of Apple’’s iPod sales that were “attributed to the 93 songs”.

Could be a tough one to prove, that latter point. How many people bought an iPod specifically to play Eminem songs on?

Apple is reportedly having last-minute talks with Eminem’s representatives in an effort to avoid a court battle over unauthorised sales of the rapper’s back catalogue on iTunes.

Today is the deadline for reaching a settlement, before the court case kicks off in Michigan tomorrow. Eminem’s publishing company Eight Mile Style claims that Apple has sold 93 tracks on iTunes without permission, making $2.5 million in revenues, while label Aftermath made a further $4 million.

The case follows an earlier lawsuit against UMG by Eminem’s production company FBT Productions over digital downloads and ringtones royalties – although UMG prevailed in that case. The new case isn’t the only lawsuit that could have big implications for digital sales, though. The Allman Brothers Band is taking UMG to court over a digital royalties dispute too.

We’re big fans of the We Are Hunted daily music buzz chart, and co-founder Nick Crocker wrote a comment piece in last week’s Music Ally Report. Now the company has launched a Twitter music chart, tracking tweets about music on the micro-blogging site, and analysing them to produce a chart of the most popular.

Here’s today’s top 10:

1. Lady GaGa – Lovegame
2. Taylor Swift – You Belong With me
3. Eminem – We Made You
4. Green Day – Wake Me Up When September Ends
5. Jonas Brothers – Burnin’ Up
6. Coldplay – Clocks
7. Drake – Best I Ever Had
8. Paramore – Decode
9. Kings of Leon – Sex On Fire
10. Radiohead – Karma Police

(more…)

Twitter is enabling pop stars and superstar DJs alike to be more generous. How so? Recently celebrity presenter Jonathan Ross met hip hop icon Eminem, who (we suspect with the full assistance of his record company Universal) arranged for Ross a pair of tickets to the Eminem album launch in Detroit, complete with flights and hotels.

Unfortunately Ross (or Wossy as he’s nicknamed on Twitter and in the tabloids) couldn’t make it, so he offered the tickets out to the Twittersphere. “I am going to set question in about 5 minutes”, wrote Ross, “First correct answer gets my plane tickets, my room at hotel in Detroit and invite to party!”

The question was “On which Marvel comic book cover did Eminem just appear?” It was a matter of nanoseconds before a Twitter user, @mattywlkr, answered “Punisher” and won the tickets. “If mattywlkr will DM me I’ll give him contact number and they can sort out details, replied Ross, “Have a great time buddy. Post some pics.” Matty was clearly elated, writing: “Thanks to everyone who has messaged me. Can”t believe I won either.”

The moral of this story? Encourage fans to sign up to and keep an eye on your Twitter feeds by using a promise of alluring surprise competitions. You can follow wossy’s twitter chatter about his Eminem experience here

Who says major labels don’t get the internet? Eminem’s sixth studio album will come with three digital applications including a “browser skin, blog spider and augmented digital art competition.”

The ‘E-Lapse skin’ comes as a Firefox plug-in or a web-based browser skin, which flips every letter ‘E’ viewed through the browser backwards; while Eminem images and videos replace banner and video ads. It’s worth having a look at here: www.e-lapse.net. Or check this e-lapsed image for a general idea.

Web page filters and translators have existed for several years. Have a look at http://rinkworks.com/dialect/ the Dialectizer to see an old school favourite which translates web pages into Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron, and Pig Latin. The Eminem Firefox skin also replaces video ads on any web page with Eminem images and videos: effectively a rap artist ad blocker.

The augmented reality (AR) digital art competition offers fans the chance to create 3D visuals on their screens using a printout, a webcam and some online tools. It’s a pretty sophisticated competition (not necessarily always a good thing) but one which should identify the hardcore fans – which in the age of high end boxsets replacing CD income is what every self respecting established artist should be aiming for nowadays.

Finally the spider blog will sit alongside these two apps, acting as an activity hub for fans and tracking Twitter posts Flickr images and other online chatter around the release. Polydor UK is behind all this, together with UK firm Outside Line.

In terms of innovative digital marketing it’s almost up there with AC/DC’s release for Back in Black which won a MediaGuardian Award for Sony back in March.

The lawsuit from Eminem’s former production company against Universal Music Group over digital royalties has been resolved in UMG’s favour, after a federal jury voted unanimously in favour of the label’s case.

FBT Productions had claimed that artists should be paid half of the net receipts from digital downloads and ringtone sales, rather than the existing artist royalty rate. In other words, FBT wanted digital sales to be treated like licensing deals rather than traditional physical distribution deals.

The jury’s decision is sure to be controversial among artists who’d been campaigning for the change, but labels will be breathing a sigh of relief, given the impact if the verdict had gone the other way.

Eminem – together with pals Dr Dre and 50 Cent – has set a new Nielsen SoundScan record for opening week download sales. 418,000 people have bought the digital version of his Crack A Bottle single, putting the rapper way ahead of previous record-holder T.I’s 335,000 downloads.

However, Eminem’s track is only the third highest weekly download total of all-time (i.e. not first-week) – Flo Rida racked up 467,000 downloads of Low in one week last January, while this January Lady GaGa’s Just Dance totalled 419,000 in a single week.