The last find about that improbable digital distributor called Qtrax happened here at Musicblob this morning: there’s apparently pirate music in Qtrax (!).

Pirate what? Qtrax theorically should be the legalization of peer-to-peer legalizzato, meaning that if someday they ever allow downloading of a Madonna album (everbody is wondering if they ever will be able to do that…) the copyright owners involved would be compensated with the supposed advertising money.

But there seems to be a problem when somenthing that shouldn’t exist at all appears on the market among official releases.
By entering “KLF” in Qtrax, one can find several tracks from the British duo formed in late 1980s – early 1990s by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty.

Most of this material comes out of compilations and “The White Room” album which, probably for some contractual reasons, remained available in USA despite the whole record catalogue of this group has been deleted and withdrawn from the market several years ago by the artists themselves.

But, incredibily, “Ultra Rare Trax” can be seen listed as if it was an official release; this is a compilation of rare and alternated versions circulated on cd in 1993. Examining band discography, one can see that it is a bootleg, and it is even part of a larger series with the same title. Even if these cds were professionally printed, the tracks were often ripped off vinyls.
This material may be loved and sought by hardcore fans, but entirely illegal. Finding it in Qtrax – even if not currently downloadable for the known troubles with this service – surely seems weird and rises more doubts on the genuineness of the project.
Looking for “Ultra Rare Trax” more similarly unofficial publications appear about Orb, Kraftwerk, Duran Duran, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Erasure, OMD.

Not mentioning royalty payments (we doubt that Qtrax went back to the real copyright owners of the tracks included in these pirate collections) one might wonder: where did they find the master recordings, did they buy them off some market stall?

Pictures take from the Qtrax software, freely downloadable at www.qtrax.com.

LadyWallace is a 33 years old singer from UK. But she is also a 3D avatar on chat site/virtual world IMVU. Nicola (Dj Batman) Battista of Musicblob met her on february 25th, 2008, in one of her digital rooms, a sort of island floating in the sky. Her avatar is strangely equipped with firearms, too. ;)
She has a digital single out, “Lady Wallace Sings” on the Artificial Bliss label and the (mandatory, these days) MySpace page.

MusicBlob: You already told me you are interested in making a cd of your music…

LadyWallace: Yes, as soon as my album is finished, it will be available as a download, naturally, but I would like to press some CDs as well.

MB: Is that signed to Artificial Bliss already, or are you going to produce it by yourself, or maybe look for other producers too?

LW: Absolutely. The input of other producers is something I m very keen to implement into my projects.
Up to now, I have just co-produced with my husband (Lord Wallace).

MB: So… there is also a Lord Wallace :) I didn’t know that.

LW: Indeed there is :D Although, he isnt virtual… hehe.

MB: Do any of you two have previous experiences in recording or performing live?

LW: Yes, lots.

MB: How long have you been making music outside IMVU, then?

LW: We’ve both been professional musicians since we left college. (a track starts downloading and playing in the IMVU room) This tune I’m playing now is one of his.

MB: And this means how many years of experience?

LW: Well, we both started studying when we were about 5…

LW: Started doing pro gigs in our early teens, he went off on cruise ships when he was 19; I stayed at college. After that, just lots of teaching, various gigs and recording projects. Then we got together and married.

MB: Hmmm, dark ambient noises… and some funky guitar loop.

LW: hehe

MB: This track wouldn’t be out of place in some 1970s blaxploitation movie… :) I like it.

LW: Hehe, that’s what he does best… ;)

MB: Interesting. What are your influences?

LW: My biggest ever influence was seeing Elvis on TV when I was very very young. I also became very influenced by the music of Joni Mitchell.

MB: Elvis… hehe.

LW: Yes, he really inspired me immensely.

MB: Love some of his stuff… I don’t think many people would mention him as an influence these days.

LW: I was about 3 when I first heard his music. I would say that’s what got me into singing.

MB: The Beatles maybe, those can be used as a source of inspiration for anything from electronic to metal… do you perhaps have some of them among your inspirations too? Hehe… and sorry for the stupid question :)

LW: the Beatles? Hmm, I love their stuff, but I far prefer the Stones… hehe.

MB: Ahhh you’re a Stones fan… of course everyone has to take a position in the eternal fight among the two (for the record I’m on the other side ;))

LW: haha.

MB: And what about your husband? From what you just played I’d say Isaac Hayes or something like that. :)

LW: James Brown for him, definitely. He’s just into any of that old school funk though.

MB: yes, you can hear Mr.Dynamite’s sound through those notes… The JB’s.

LW: Don’t get me wrong though, I love the Beatles’ music. Such brilliant songwriting.

MB: hehe.

LW: Just the Stones seem to have more ‘balls’ somehow.

MB: Different attitude, huh?

LW: Yes, I would say so.

MB: …and among current artists? Someone you really like or that could be an inspiration?

LW: To be honest, there isn’t much really modern stuff I listen to, and when I do, its usually obscure or unsigned artists I’ve found from the ‘net.

LW: My current favourite is Bobby Darin :D – not exactly modern though.

MB: there is a lot of obscure but extremely interesting music on social networks and sites out there…

LW: Absolutely, I’ve been involved in various online music communities and I’ve found some brilliant music and talented artists.

MB: Also, the major labels these days seem more concentrated on finding a new business model and/or cutting the number of employees, rather than putting out good music…

LW: Definitely. With major labels, artistry/creativity is second to making money.

MB: When do you think you might have enough material to release an album? Later this year?

LW: Yes, should be towards Christmas time, I hope :D

MB: ok. I hope the rest of the album will be good as the single… do you also plan to do more IMVU videos?

LW: Yes, Im currently working on 2 films – another music video, and a short action film. :D

MB: I see you seem to have an interest for digital guns. ;) And the room you showed me seemed to fit with that too, huh?

LW: Yes indeed. Heh I have lots of places like that. People expect it now, I think…

MB: We will see you soon again on YouTube, too, then. :)

LW: Oh yes, definitely YouTube is a great resource. I have many of my other films on there too.

MB: Uhmmm… you’re sort of trapped in your own charachter? People expect to see more of you with guns?

LW: Hehe, no it’s not quite like that. The guns are great fun though.

MB: ok…

LW: People generally expect to see interesting rooms from me, and we usually have a lot of fun in them.

MB: Well… thanks for your time Lady… hope to see and hear new material from you soon and… thanks also for not shooting my avatar… it doesn’t happen too often that I speak to someone holding firearms while talking about music… ;)

LW: heh, dont worry, the safetys were on throughout ;)

At this point the interview was supposedly over. Before going, LadyWallace asks if the interviewer had heard some music she played, and apparently some track was missing. So she plays it again… It is a piano and voice track.

LW: Can you hear it now?

MB: Oh yes :) Nice. Great voice and good quality recording…

LW: There have been about 22 remixes of this… LOL

MB: haha! Hmmm, I hope the 22 remixes weren’t because the original track was so bad! ;)

LW: Hehe no, there was a remix competition a year or two ago. I have one of them on here, but the quality is poor, it was hell making the file small enough… It’s a dance version…

MB: I know, I’m trying to load more music from my label on IMVU… but it is so crap… 2 Mb…

Yeah I know… 2mb is tiny.

MB: You can’t make quality files of some of my long mixes that are like 9mb in 320kbps mp3…

LW: Exactly.

MB: A competition! Fun!

LW: Hehe…

MB: Maybe you should collect all those remixes onto a cd?

LW: It was some site in Poland.

(Another track is playing… this time apparently with sampled breaks and a latin jazz feel)

MB: Is it the remix that I’m hearing?

LW: No. This is a different song.

MB: ok.

LW: My husband produced this one…

MB: Wow… very classy.

LW: Aww thanks :D I fancy doing more stuff like this… as well as the ambient type stuff. Again, compression arsed up the quality a bit…

MB: This track has the funk under it but it is more like certain 1990s and current acid jazz projects…

LW: For sure. My husbands specialises in groovy bass lines…even though hes a piano player. LW: He does it all on keyboard.

MB: Yes, I hear the stupid compression… the usual metallic sound on the high frequencies and everything…

LW: hehe.

MB: I’m sure labels like ESL in USA or Irma in Italy would love this style.
:)

LW: LOL… Cool.

MB: I love it too… no samples?

LW: No only some samples in the drums. Everything else is played in on keys. On this one though, the drums are lots of samples put together.

(This time the interview is really over… we are sure we are going to hear more great music from Lady Wallace sometimes soon!)

Original images by Nicola Battista (c) MusicBlob. “Lady Wallace Sings” cover image taken from http://www.audiorascal.com/release.php?release=40&artist=Lady%20Wallace. Thanks to Lady Wallace for the interview and for letting us use the images.

Here’s the draft of a timeline of artists or band that recently left major music labels to start releasing or distributing in first person or chose to give away their work or just to side with new industry players.

In the following list you will find dates, names, sources (a small percentage of them may be my pieces in italian) and details of the decision, deal and/or move with (possibly) some additional info or updates.

When:: 01/10/2007
Who: Radiohead
Details:
“Radiohead announced their new album will be exclusively available via their own website. The band’s newest album will cost whatever you decide to pay for it. The album, In Rainbows, will be released on October 10 as a digital download on the band’s Web site. Since it’s no longer tied to a record label, the band can do whatever the hell it wants with its music. So they’ve gone the museum route—donate what you feel it’s worth.”
Sources:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/08/nradiohead108.xml

When: 08/10/2007
Who: Nine Inch Nails
Details:
“Highly popular Industrial Rock Band Nine Inch Nails have announced that as of today they are free agents, and will not be using the services of a record company in the future.”
Sources:
nin.com/
www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/08/nine-inch-nails-help-seal-record-industrys-coffin
blog.mytech.it/index.php/2007/10/09/i-nine-inch-nails-sono-liberi/

Continuate la lettura »

Is Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen – also known as Tila Tequila – facing (at last!) some bad luck?

One would wonder about it, after hearing some recent news about the model/performer/MySpace superstar.

“Big month for Tila Tequila” says enthusiastically a press release dated July 12, 2007 sent from the United Kingdom to (re)launch a couple of online gaming websites – actually announced last January – who have Tila as a testimonial and are based in Alderney, a nice little tax heaven located in the English Channel and (as “sisters” Jersey and Guernsey) out of the British jurisdiction and also of the severe European Union laws.

That’s not all: Tila is also, simultaneously on the Penthouse cover and on the no.2 spot in the Apple iTunes charts.

It looks like a consecration for the presumed star of MySpace. But the press release, to someone, might look like a lot of smoke in the eyes. What happened to the supposed music career enhancements? Only a year ago, Tila seemed close to a major label release.

Tila’s next step, after becoming the so-called MySpace phenomenon, was getting a deal with a major label and release a complete music production: a cd single or, even better, a full album. In 2006, will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas announced that Tila had been signed to his personal label, linked to major label Universal Music Group.

Months passed and this work seems lost. In february 2007 Tila announces that her single is now ready: it is successfully released onto iTunes.
It rapidly sells 13.000 digital copies (in July 2007 this figure became 14.000 according to Wikipedia, but the track failed to break into the official Billboard charts) and since – in a definitely smart way – whoever downloads the track can freely download the music video, Tila enters the Top 100 in the iTunes music charts and hits the no.1 spot in the video chart.

The track, I Love U, put together by hip-hop producer Lil Jon, is available in two versions, a “clean” one and an “explicit” one for a “mature audicence”.

But it doesn’t show any major label copyright info: Tila released it without a label.

Or so she says, since in some sites the name “StratArt” is displayed: is it a company of her own, a consultants agency or the real name of the creator and manager of the Tila charachter?

On her MySpace page, Tila gives a contact e-mail address located on the samanagement.com domain, which is owned by “Strategic Artist Management”, based in Westwood, California. But the copyright info published on some music sites sometimes do not mean very much: a distributor’s name is indicated instead of the label, so it wouldn’t be so strange if the name of a management agency (which probably sent out the music cds) was indicated as copyright owner instead of the name of an unsigned artist.

In mid March a CD EP quietly appeared in the lists of new music releases; a small Washington-based label, The Saturday Team, enthusiastically announced the release: “The Sex EP” – the first real Tila Tequila record – was recorded in Sweden and produced by Daniel “Supergrass” Johansen. Lyrics and melodies are penned by Tila herself, as the label’s website says.

The website briefly mentions a legal controversy to stop the EP release and the subsequent court victory that paved the way for the publication (after some months, though, this information seems to have disappeared from the Saturday Team website). Who are the parties involved in the controversy and why, is the second mystery in our story.

Links to Amazon and the relatively unknown Merchster are provided, but while the latter seems to have the disc, the Amazon link has been apparently removed.
Amazon’s English branch lists the cd but doesn’t show the cover image. Meanwhile, the EP shows up also in some digital distribution services such as Sony Connect and Juno (which has also the physical cd and seems the only site currently displaying the covers in their actual size; the cd exists, and it also comes with a second (bonus) disc, a “sampler” of the label’s other productions: looks like another smart move).

So, it looks like Tila choosed to remain an independent.

But did she really choose? Or did this happen after being dropped by a major? Or by the major(s): apparently, there was also a second offer for her, apart from the one from the Universal subsidiary (Tila herself in more than one occasion mentioned she turned down two record contracts)…

Or maybe, did Miss Nguyen – tired to wait for the slow times required by a large structure – think to do something else, and did this cost her her previous contract?

These could be a couple of possible scenarios.

Only, MusicBlob came to possess a copy of an unpublished – and curious to say the least – legal document.

It is a complaint filed in California by The Saturday Team and Icon Music Entertainment Services against Tila and Does (the word “Does” is just the plural for “John Doe”, the classic name given to an unknown party in a legal case).

Contents of the lawsuit? According to the document, Tila had signed a contract with The Saturday Team in 2005 to record the disc and authorize its release. Later, The Saturday Team closed a distribution deal with Icon. Tila at this point “revealed” (?) to her fans (presumably in a MySpace bulletin which we weren’t able to trace) that the cd is a “fake”.

The Saturday Team guys get angry and think that Tila breached a contract.

A copy of the above-mentioned document can be found in the MusicBlob Documents Archive.

What can we say: neither The Saturday Team nor Tila seem available for more details on this story. Did Tila – at least intially – get involved in the creation of a “fake” to be sold thanks to her Internet popularity and her extra-artistic qualities, or was she the victim of someone willing to unfairly exploit her fame, or did she breach in a definitely not very professional way a deal with some honest record producers?

A CV like this might not presuade other professionals in the industry to work with her.

The absence of the EP from sites and services such as Amazon and Apple iTunes is easily explained: as the The Saturday Team lawyers say, Tila herself would have contacted the sites to persuade them not to sell the disc. Some shops and services (apart from Juno, Merchster and Amazon UK also Rhapsody and Best Buy, for example) still have the tracks or the cd.

An element that would seem favourable to The Saturday Team is a video clip posted onto YouTube: in it Tila is shown during the production of The Sex EP and fragments of the track “Little Brat” can be heard.

Somebody could say that these days digital editing allows to show pretty much everything in a video clip. But that seems really Tila and she doesn’t seem uncomfortable with the production of some of the material that will later end up onto the disputed EP. She even asserts to be the author of the lyrics.

In the archives of ASCAP Tila’s full name and her CAE/IPI, a number used internationally to identify an author/composer, are listed. So Tila seems now covered from this point of view. But we weren’t able to locate any info neither on the tracks included in the “Sex EP” nor on other works she composed. But this doesn’t mean much: tracks registered several years ago or and regularly protected may be absent from similar online archives.

However, this might be the beginning of a definitely more complicated phase for Tila Tequila and her (rigorously half-naked) persona, at least for the musical section of her “career”: this time, not even her MySpace friends will be enough to get by; even being almost two millions, as someone pointed out, they weren’t so helpful in contributing huge sales onto iTunes. This could be the beginning of a descending parable for Tila, in the exact moment in whichMySpace itself – with whom her career has practically identified until now starts suffering for the presence of a competitor such as Facebook.