Fox 411 gossip Roger Friedman has a crackpot idea for stopping the tide of
record-store closings, and he can at least blame some of the genesis for it on the guy who helped shepherd Michael Jackson's career back in the day: "Frank DiLeo, Michael Jackson's former manager, recently suggested that the labels get together and open a 'state' store, one in each big city, to carry their catalogs and new releases. It's not a bad idea. Otherwise, the record industry will soon have no public face at all." Well, first of all, the record industry does have a public face—although it resembles that of
a snarling, wild-eyed lawyer—and second of all, I don't know if a "state-run" store where only product from and distributed by the major labels would really help that perception so much, given that said idea is pretty much in line with the "bumbling cartel" front they're currently presenting to the world. (Although I have to admit that watching it get launched would probably be
great fodder for future blog posts.) [
Fox 411 via
Coolfer]
Idolator
A late-breaking item, just hitting my inbox: according to Press Here, the Raconteurs' publicity firm, the indie supergroup featuring singer-songwriter Brendan Benson and White Stripes singer-guitarist Jack White, are one-upping, um, everyone else—not only will Consolers of the Lonely, the band's second album, be available digitally in a week, it will be in stores then. The press release after the jump.
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