Runner-Up 'Idol' Snags Music Deal

Help artists rather than being a 'digital vampire,' he urges

(NEWSER) - Pete Townshend has a message for Apple: It can either help the struggling record industry or bleed it “like a digital vampire." Speaking at a lecture in honor of a BBC DJ, The Who guitarist called on iTunes—which “exists in the wild west Internet land of Facebook and Twitter”—to provide services to “the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire, like a digital Northern Rock, for its enormous commission." More»

Lessons from a tiny Swedish firm that's raked in $10M

(NEWSER) - As the music industry navigates a path for the digital era, a tiny Swedish label has proven itself an excellent guide. Though it has just 43 employees, X5 Music Group topped the classical charts last year, its sales on par with Universal, the biggest label there is. Its strategy is a novel one: With no CDs, no contracts with artists, and no new music to offer, it focuses its efforts entirely on the Internet, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

But nowadays, all he needs is 'American Idol'

(NEWSER) - Steven Tyler graces two magazine covers this week, waxing nostalgic about "snorting everything" a few years back in Rolling Stone while telling People how he gets high nowadays, even without drugs. When Aerosmith tried to record a new album a couple years ago, Tyler and Joe Perry did drugs together for the first time in 17 years—and it did not bode well for recording. "Joe was high and he couldn't play," says Tyler. "I couldn't sing, really, because I was snorting everything, and it f***s up your throat. It was the wrong time." More»

But ultimately, the show isn't much different, critics say

(NEWSER) - American Idol’s two new high-profile judges debuted last night, and critics, for the most part, yawned:

• “Losing Simon Cowell from American Idol was like losing Alan Alda from MASH,” moans Ken Levine on the Huffington Post . In his place, we have Jennifer Lopez, “a vacuous former movie star/former recording star,” and Steven Tyler, “a walking cautionary tale to not do drugs/alcohol/glue/mushrooms/tobacco/cannabis/electric bananas/sleep deprivation for five weeks in a row.” Between them and original judge Randy Jackson, “there wasn't one insightful comment.”
• The introduction of the new judges was “labored, long, and almost painfully lighthearted, like a divorced husband awkwardly presenting the new wife to his grown but unforgiving children,” writes Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times . And Tyler’s “bad boy reputation” was overplayed with a montage of him “leering and flirting … he looked too much like a long-haired version of Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.”

Now she's just ... Paula Abdul's replacement

(NEWSER) - Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler have finally been confirmed as the newest American Idol judges, but wait a sec before you break out the congratulatory champagne. You might recall that Jennifer Lopez used to be an “international music and movie sensation/fashion icon/business mogul,” writes Ben Barna in BlackBook . Somehow, she went from that … to “Paula Abdul’s replacement. Ouch.” How did this happen? More»