The Simpsons, America’s favorite cartoon family, are now entering their 20th season in production, and the voice talent that creates the animation has just signed a new contract with 20th Century Fox for more money per episode.
The top voice talent for the program, including Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson), Yeardley Smith (Lisa Simpson), Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders), and Dan Castllaneta (Homer Simpson), had negotiated to receive an estimated $500,000 per episode. Although the group did not get (quite) as big a payday as they were looking for, they eventually settled for a healthy $400,000 per episode, making them collectively the most highly paid voice talent on network television.
The Simpsons, which is now entering its 20th year, has proven to be a financial windfall for everyone involved. After so many years in syndication, and with the recent Simpsons’ Movie, the franchise has become one of the best known and most successful shows of all time.
In fact, the only other prime time American TV program to reach the 20 year mark was the hit Western, “Gunsmoke,” back in the 1960s and 70s.
The new salaries being earned by the voice actors on The Simpsons put them up in the league of many A-list Hollywood actors. But unlike many of those stars, very few people would recognize the real faces of the Simpsons characters.
For example, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the United States who didn’t know who Homer Simpson was — and yet very few people would be able to recognize Dan Castellaneta’s face (the voice of Homer Simpson).
Because of of their relative anonymity, the voice actors on the Simpson’s enjoy a greater degree of privacy than most highly paid Hollywood stars. You’re unlikely to see Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns) or Hank Azaria (Moe) in the National Enquirer.
But even though the cast of the Simpson’s currently have a sweet deal, and are enjoying immense success and popularity portraying the voices of America’s most beloved (and dysfunctional) animated family, the party may not go on forever: the cast is under contract for four more seasons, but the series has yet to be renewed beyond the 2008-2009 season.
Even amazingly successful primetime shows like the Simpsons have to die eventually. Consider the enormous success of the sitcom “Friends.” The show became something of a worldwide phenomenon, and enjoyed high ratings for years. But eventually, the decision was made to pull the plug on “Friends.” And sooner or later, The Simpsons are bound to suffer the same fate.
For the time being though, the cast is enjoying the popularity of the show while they can — and making a VERY good living giving voice to some of the most interesting characters to grace American television screens in a long time.
From time to time most of us have day-dreamed of performing on stage with our favorite band — of being a rock ‘n roll hero, if only for a day. But in the dollars and cents world of the music industry these types of daydreams rarely come true. That’s why it’s all the more amazing when you hear about just such a “Cinderella story.”
Enter the new lead singer of the power pop-rock band Boston. Tommy DeCarlo is a 43-year-old suburban father of two from Charlotte, North Carolina, who until recently was employed as a credit manager at a local Home Depot. Amazingly, DeCarlo came to the attention of Boston founder Tom Schultz after his son posted a karaoke recording of his dad singing a song by Boston on his MySpace page.
DeCarlo has a voice that sounds eerily similar to former Boston singer Brad Delp, who passed away last year. The band had been searching for some time to find a replacement who could sing the incredibly powerful high notes which had become the trademark of Delp’s vocals. To their surprise, they found exactly the voice they were looking for on MySpace.
Boston guitarist Tom Schultz says the similarities between DeCarlo’s Voice and former singer Delp are amazing: “I forget it’s not Brad… it can get downright eerie.” As for DeCarlo, he seems to be living out a childhood rock ‘n roll fantasy in real life, saying “I could never have dreamed of this.”
In fact, DeCarlo has never even sang with a band before. Imagine that: Boston being your first band! The first gig DeCarlo ever played in his life was a 20,000 seat arena, fronting Boston at a benefit concert in honor of their deceased original singer.
But Boston isn’t the only classic rock band to find a new singer online. Journey discovered their new vocalist via a YouTube video. Singer Arnel Pineda was discovered by Journey Lead Guitarist Neal Schon while browsing music videos on YouTube. Pineda had uploaded several videos of his band “Zoo” performing classic journey hits. Schon says he was “blown away” by the power and style of the 40 year old Philippino singer, and immediately e-mailed him to set up an audition. The rest, as they say, is history.
Journey’s new album, Revelation, features Pineda on lead vocals, and the group has embarked upon a world tour to promote the new disk. For Pineda, DeCarlo, and other “bedroom superstars,” success can be as easy as demonstrating your unique talent on YouTube. I guess rock and roll dreams do come true after all.
Over the past year it has become obvious that the public’s fascination with the DVD format is waning. DVD sales, which had been robust up until the second quarter of 2007, are (depending on your point of view) either in a slump, or a much more serious downward spiral. Warner Bros. entertainment has decided to try a new tactic to increased DVD sales: creating both feature releases and direct-to-DVD versions of the same film simultaneously.
The first film to receive this “double team” effort is an adaptation of the popular novel “Watchmen.” The film will be directed by Zack Snyder, and is set to be released in March of 2009. But in an unusual marketing twist, Snyder is also simultaneously directing a related film based on the same novel that Warner will distribute exclusively in DVD format.
A second film using this same unconventional method is already in the planning stages, and assuming the sales figures are good, one imagines Warner may try this approach with many of their future releases.
According to a company spokesperson, Warner Bros. sees this approach as a way to build retail excitement for DVDs, while simultaneously marketing and promoting a feature film. The company is already the number one distributor of DVDs in the US, but after years of expansion and growth, U. S. DVD sales fell nearly 3 1/2 percent last year, the first major drop in the history of the format.
DVD sales are important because in some cases the sales of the little silver discs can account for 70% of the total revenue earned from a feature film. Big-budget Hollywood features such as last year’s “I Am Legend” rely heavily on DVD sales to recoup their massive filming budgets.
With overall sales of DVDs slightly down from last year, some major retailers are reevaluating their commitment to the format. Wal-Mart, for example, is rethinking the amount of shelf space they currently designate for DVDs. Other retailers are also hesitant because of the recent lackluster sales.
The big fear, of course, is that DVD sales will decline over time as films and television programs delivered via the Internet become more popular and practical. Devices such as the Apple TV box or the new Netflix streaming movie box make it easier for consumers to order and watch films without bothering with DVDs at all.
But for now, DVD sales are continuing to be profitable — if a little less so than in previous years. It will likely be a few more years before downloadable films become the norm. So there is still life in the DVD format yet, though eventually, they’ll be just another relic of the past, like cassette tapes or vinyl records.
Appleinsider.com is reporting that Napster, the online music subscription service, has launched a new music download store to directly challenge the dominance of Apple’s iTunes. Napster claims their new MP3 store is the largest in the world, featuring more than 6 million songs.
The downloadable songs will be provided in a high quality MP3 format, WITHOUT any digital rights management, meaning that the MP3s can be shared, copied or transferred to any iPod, iPhone or other multimedia player.
While Apple’s iTunes offers roughly the same amount of tracks online (about 6 million), iTunes uses digital rights management for most of its tracks, and distributes songs in Apple’s proprietary AAC format. Only a small portion of iTunes songs can be purchased without copy restrictions, such as those by the EMI record label.
By way of contrast, Napster’s new MP3 store offers all of its music in unprotected MP3 format, leading the company to claim they are the largest MP3 store in the world. Prices for the downloadable music tracks are currently set at $.99 for MP3 singles, and $9.95 for most albums. This is roughly the same as iTunes pricing structure, so there’s no real difference there.
Napster’s MP3s will also be available at the higher quality 256kbps format; the higher resolution results in clearer, more “audiophile friendly” MP3s. Additionally, Napster’s MP3 download store will include high-resolution digital images of album art and liner notes.
Of course, what Napster is attempting to do here isn’t new; the Amazon.com MP3 store has been gradually gaining popularity since its launch early last year. And like Napster, the Amazon store offers most of its downloadable music in unprotected MP3 format. Amazon also offers higher bit rate 320kbps MP3s for its tracks, resulting in even better audio quality then Napster’s 256kbps MP3s.
Where Napster may have the edge is in the sheer number of MP3s available within their new service. Even Amazon.com’s MP3 store cannot rival the 6 million+ individual tracks available on Napster.
But even though Napster and Amazon.com are both directly competing with iTunes, Apple’s downloadable music store shows no signs of weakening. iTunes recently replaced Wal-Mart as the largest single retailer of music in the United States, with over 19% of the overall market. iTunes online statistics are even better: the company has greater than 85% of the market share of downloadable music, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
So Napster certainly has some serious competition in the downloadable music market, but with a huge library of tracks available in unprotected MP3 format, they may just be able to unseat iTunes from their dominant position in the marketplace. I wouldn’t bet on it happening quickly though: iTunes continues to gain popularity, even when other segments of the US economy appear stagnant.
The major records are certainly a litigious lot. And come to that, they’ve never really been comfortable with the idea of the internet in general. Their new lawsuit against the music search application SeeqPod (www.seeqpod.com) is a good example of this:
SeeqPod is a simple search engine, like Google, Yahoo, or any of the others. The only difference is, SeeqPod searches exclusively for media content — i.e. music and videos, and streams the result directly from their search results page. A nifty idea, and one that is akin to online radio, except the user gets to search for whatever they want, not simply wait for the next song and hope they like it.
SeeqPod does not allow users to download the music tracks and videos it finds, they are only streamed online. However, it does allow registered users to save playlists and even share playlists with friends. And it could be this “sharing” aspect of the site that is sticking in the throat of the major record labels. A suit has been filed against SeeqPod requesting millions in “damages” for unfair use of intellectual property.
There’s only one flaw in the music industry’s plan to sue SeeqPod out of existence: they’re not doing anything illegal.
The Digital Millennium Copyright act clearly allows all search engines to report the existence of any file accessible online, without being held accountable for the legality of said file. And this is exactly how it should be. Can you imagine if Google was held responsible for the legality of every single web site it catalogs online? That’s absurd at best, and it would virtually shut down the Internet as we know it.
And this, in a nutshell, is why the record labels will lose this one, and lose big. Basically, if SeeqPod can be sued for the files it “finds” online, so can Google, and Yahoo, and Ask, and Microsoft, and…well, you get the picture. The internet would be a pretty barren place if such ridiculous laws were allowed to stand.
So, if it is clear to any interested observer that the recording industry is fighting a battle here that they cannot possible win, why exactly are they doing it? That’s the million-dollar question, and journalists and industry experts seem just as perplexed about the rationale of the suit as anyone else.
Perhaps the major label music companies have become so lawsuit-happy since the dawn of the Internet era, that it is simply a knee-jerk reaction; when faced with any new technology or challenge, their policy has become “sue first, ask questions later.” Whatever the reason, one thing is for certain: the music industry has some serious “control issues,” and they’re wasting serious money here on a lawsuit they can’t win.
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Pepsi is bringing back their great MP3 giveaway, beginning on Super Bowl Sunday, 2008. But this time, Pepsi will be giving away one billion MP3’s in cooperation with… wait for it… Amazon.com.
Pepsi will be including download codes into five billion bottles of cola, but you’ll need to collect five codes to get a free MP3, ruling out the chance for non-Pepsi drinkers to buy one bottle and win an MP3 song. No, this time Pepsi is attempting to make sure the public gives its product a solid try, in hopes that many Coke drinkers will switch over (good luck with that).
But the most interesting thing about the new MP3 giveaway is Pepsi’s arrangement with Amazon.com’s new MP3 store. The new Amazon MP3 outlet beats the tar out of iTunes in several different ways. First, Amazon does not use digital rights management, which limits the user’s ability to copy an MP3, or use it on a different computer or MP3 player. Secondly, both Amazon MP3 singles and full albums are (slightly) cheaper on average than you’ll find on iTunes.
And perhaps most importantly, Amazon MP3’s are presented as just that — MP3’s, meaning that you can play them back on any standard computer media Center, or in pretty much any portable MP3 player on the market. In contrast, iTunes songs are downloaded in a proprietary format that is NOT compatible with Windows Media Player, for example, and most other portable MP3 players.
While it seems clear that the Amazon MP3 store is a superior service to iTunes, so far Amazon.com has not succeeded in getting the word out amongst music fans. ITunes name recognition, for example, is still much greater than the new Amazon MP3 store. In fact, many people haven’t realized that Amazon is offering the service.
But the new Pepsi/Amazon MP3 giveaway is bound to change all that. The new deal with Pepsi to sponsor their one billion MP3 giveaway will attract lots of new attention to the fledgling Amazon MP3 store, and more than likely convert many iTunes users over to the simpler, cheaper, and more flexible Amazon service.
The visibility that Amazon.com’s MP3 division will get from the new Pepsi promotion should be considerable, especially when you factor in the huge marketing push that advertising over the Super Bowl weekend will bring.
The biggest winners in the new Pepsi/Amazon giveaway will be consumers. Many people will discover the Amazon MP3 service for the first time via the promotion, and that’s probably just about all it will take to switch over many former iTunes fans.
The biggest loser in this new promotion is, of course, iTunes. But with Amazon nipping at their heels, Apple may finally be forced to drop many of the limiting aspects of the iTunes service, including the digital rights management and nonstandard music files. Who would’ve thought we’d have Pepsi to thank for that?
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There’s no denying that MySpace has become an online phenomena. The social networking site is one of the most popular destinations online, with millions of registered users around the world. Musicians, politicians, priests, authors and of course, students all have MySpace pages and regularly use the site to stay connected with old friends, and make new ones.
But as successful as MySpace has been in the Web 2.0 world, as a company, the social networking site has yet to turn a profit. But that could all be about to change, as MySpace prepares to introduce a selection of online games and other “sticky” content in early 2008.
The move toward MySpace games is seen as an attempt to increase the time users spend on the site. MySpace has partnered with Oberon, a developer of so-called “casual” online games to provide new content for the site. Although details of the expansion have not been fully revealed, MySpace is expected to put games on user profile pages, with a focus on multiplayer games that will allow competition between friends and other users.
The multiplayer games will likely be monetized with online advertising, sponsored tournaments and pre-game, video-based ads, providing a much-needed source of income for MySpace and, so the company hopes, increasing the “stickiness” of individual MySpace pages.
Oberon and MySpace are also expected to solicit game content from third party developers, a move that could see the two companies partnering with dozens, or even hundreds of smaller online game and software developers.
Internet experts see the inclusion of gaming content as a strategy to begin expanding MySpace from a social networking site into a full-fledged Web portal, not unlike Yahoo or MSN. The idea is to create a central MySpace “Hub,” which includes a variety of Web services from social networking, online search, classified ads, online gaming, entertainment and media content, and even a news portal.
If successful, MySpace’s new strategy could finally push the company’s account balance into the black, through expanded advertising and sponsorship possibilities.
But can MySpace really take on the giant portal sites like Yahoo.com and expect to compete for market share? Analysts have mixed views on this, but at least some believe that there is functionally very little difference now between the big portals like Yahoo and MySpace, excepting of course that MySpace has a younger demographic.
But in the end, the inclusion of online games on MySpace will only be effective–and profitable– if the games themselves are good. Good online games = sticky content.
George Lucas is a very busy man. With four Academy Award nominations under his belt he is the producer of some of the largest grossing films ever. He is good friends with Steven Spielberg, and together they created the Indiana Jones series. However, it is undoubtedly his masterpiece saga, Star Wars, for which George Lucas is best known.
In 1977, George Lucas wrote, directed, and produced the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, originally it was released as Star Wars, but with the newest additions of the unfolding space odyssey, it was later renamed. Today, Star Wars fans can brace themselves as George Lucas prepares to steer them on another galactic ride. Star Wars is coming to a television set near you! Yes, it’s true. George Lucas has announced that he is working on a television series that will be a computer-animated program. The working tile is, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. George Lucas has stated that the animation series will not be based upon characters such as Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker, but on other characters that are prevalent throughout the saga. Yet, you will hear some familiar voices in the animated show. The actor who originally played C-3PO, Anthony Daniels, has already been signed to recreate his animated character and you will see a number of other familiar characters. Other than that, George Lucas and Lucasfilms aren’t revealing too much of what the story lines will entail. Though he has stated that although the show will be animated, it is not geared towards children, it is an adult program.
Networks may be a bit skeptical regarding how well the new Star Wars series will fare, however I suspect that it will do well. George Lucas has had some ill-fated television Star Wars series and episodes in the past, but times have changed. This is the day of the World Wide Web, adult swim, and computer animation dominates the silver screen. Though there are some nay-sayers who think that the new series will meet the same fate, I disagree. Star Wars is the epitome of science fiction movies, and set the caliber for which future movies strived to accomplish. This is a different generation and today, animated series are widely prevalent. At 63 years old, George Lucas is again trying his hand at animated television and this time, I feel he is going to have a hit. Truly, George Lucas is ahead of his time and though the animated Ewok series from 1985 failed its mission, I think viewers are now ready for what George Lucas has prepared.
If all of the talk about the new series has you in a state of anticipation, you’re in luck. Star Wars.com has a special preview of Star Wars: The Clone Wars online, that you can view as a trailer.
I think once you see the quality of the graphics and supreme computer animation, you’ll agree that George Lucas continues to raise the bar and set the standard for other filmmakers to follow.
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The UK indie rock band Radiohead is preparing to release a new digital album online. The album entitled, “In Rainbows,” débuts the 10th of October, and so far several million Radiohead fans have pre-ordered the album.
Rather than the usual CD release, “In Rainbows” will be released exclusively as a digital album, and only available online as a download from the band’s web site. All of the new tracks are encoded at 160 kbps in MP3 format, and — here’s the kicker — with no copyright protection.
The entire digital download album takes up approximately 50 MB of space as a zip file, prompting some web experts to wonder if Radiohead’s web site can handle the extreme traffic they will likely be receiving on the morning of the 10th. With so many fans set to download the album at the same time, the possibility of a server overload or crash is certainly real.
Radiohead jumped on the digital release bandwagon early are on and have been outspoken critics of digital copyright protection. The decision to release their newest album without copyright protection surprised many in the industry. But then, going against conventional music industry wisdom has always been Radiohead’s forte.
All Radiohead fans who have pre-ordered copies of the new release will receive a unique activation code by e-mail at roughly the same time on Wednesday, October 10. The band’s Web hosting company, Vert Tech, insists that they’ll be able to deal with the huge amount of bandwidth used by the millions of fans downloading the new album at once. Other web experts, such as Wired magazine’s Elliott Van Buskirk, are not so sure.
Radiohead skyrocketed to indie rock success in the early 90s with the release of their most popular album to date, “The Bends.” The band maintains an intensely loyal cult following all around the world, and especially at home in the UK. The release of their new album is something of a “thank you” to their hard-core fans. For example, the digital download of “In Rainbows” is priced at a mere $10US.
By taking the distribution of their music into their own hands, Radiohead continues to break new ground, while maintaining their outsider status. Music industry insiders have criticized the band’s decision to release “In Rainbows” online, and specifically at such low price.
At the end of the day though, it’s just another example of Radiohead doing what they do best: thumbing their nose at the record industry, while maintaining their highly personal relationship with their fans.
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Gentlemen will be happy to know the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition hits stores this week. Beyonce Knowles is gracing the cover for 2007 edition. She is the first non supermodel or athlete to grace the annual cover. Knowles, who is a singer and actress, said she watched what she ate in order to look the part for the photo shoot. “At dinner, I kept thinking: this extra piece of pie will show up,” she recalled. “I always make sure I celebrate it up, but I was so terrified with every little thing I ate this year.” Her line of photo’s are tabbed as “The Dreamgirl As You’ve Never Seen Her.” Beyonce will also becomes only the second African-American to grace the cover (Tyra Banks being the other).
Another feature in this years swimsuit edition is a feature at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. A five-page spread featuring model Anne Vyalitsyna was shot at the Museum in Cleveland. The 20 year old Russian Supermodel is featured at many of the featured exhibits and will sure to be pleasing to men’s eyes. Other ladies featured this year include Julie Henderson, Jessica White, Daniella Sarahyba, Aline Nakashima, Tori Praver, Yesica Toscanini, Brooklyn Decker, Selita Ebanks, Bar Refaeli, and Marisa Miller.
Throughout the years, the magazine has had covers by famous supermodels featured on the cover such as Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Paulina Porizkova, Elle Macpherson, Rachel Hunter, Valeria Mazza, Heidi Klum. The Swimsuit Edition has been a yearly Sports Illustrated staple since its debut in 1964. Throughout the years, there have been controversies over the racy photos that some conservative groups find slightly pornographic. The best selling edition was the 1989 edition, the 25th anniversy of the magazine, which graced Kathy Ireland on the cover.
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