Anyway, all this arguing and bickering about Chinese Democracy's sales may be moot, because look what's No. 1 on iTunes right now, much to a certain blogger's glee:

At least either way, Universal Music Group wins again. (Talk about deja vu!)

Rumor Mill [Hits]

Only Axl knows for sure. But part of the answer may lie in the idea that Chinese Democracy had, thanks to its many delays, transformed from an album-slash-punchline into a vehicle for Axl to resolve festering disputes and debts tied to his six-year stint as a client of the Sanctuary Group. Sanctuary, an ambitious British artist management firm, spent years-–and a small fortune—trying to branch into various segments of the music business. As financial disaster loomed last year, Sanctuary sold itself to Universal Music Group—which, you may remember, is the same company that puts out Guns N’ Roses’ music.

Axl effectively fired Sanctuary as his management firm in December 2006, after months of speculation and public comments from the company’s top manager, Merck Mercuriadis, trumpeting the imminent release of Chinese Democracy. Rose, in an open letter posted on the band’s Web site, cited “an overall sense of a lack of respect by management for the band and crew and each individual's particular expertise” as part of the reasons behind Mercuriadis’ firing. (He also claimed that the album would come out March 6, 2007. The best intentions…)

But Axl couldn’t completely kick Sanctuary to the curb—during his time as a client, he struck deals with Sanctuary subsidiaries and affiliates that resulted in them overseeing his music-publishing rights and the production of Guns N’ Roses merchandise. And since at least early 2004 (when Universal’s Geffen Records made clear it wouldn’t underwrite additional production costs for Chinese Democracy) Sanctuary had functioned as Rose’s bank as well, deferring or delaying some commissions for managing him and offering other financial support. According to sources familiar with the situation, Axl’s tab reached well into the seven-figure mark.

By the time Axl announced his firing of Mercuriadis, not only had he piled up a debt to the management company, he had been dragged into a series of disputes—public and private—tied to the publishing and merch deals. In 2005, ex-bandmates Slash and Duff filed a lawsuit alleging that he had switched publishers without their approval and pocketed the royalties, and there was a separate feud brewing where they raised similar charges about his dealings with Sanctuary’s merchandise unit, Bravado.

But two crucial events changed the course of Rose’s career: Sanctuary’s buyout; and Rose finding his way to the management fold of music heavyweight Irving Azoff and longtime hard-rock mastermind Andy Gould. Universal was in a position to sweep away all of Rose’s disputes at once, and Azoff was keen to deal—as it turned out, the number to remember in the Chinese Democracy saga isn’t 17, but 360.

Word is it was Azoff who initiated the push to resolve all the issues at once, in a negotiation led on the Universal side by the corporation’s president, Zach Horowitz—though who was leveraging who depends on who you ask. After months of back and forth, a deal was worked out to resolve all of Axl’s disputes, with Chinese Democracy—and a nice “thanks for the retail exclusive” check from Best Buy—underwriting the peace agreements. Slash and Duff are receiving a little payback for their troubles from Axl’s Sanctuary deals, and Axl himself received a new advance, though the currently undisclosed figure is said to be somewhat less than it would have been if he didn’t have to give something up to settle the outstanding debts.

It’s possible that the satisfaction of clearing both his books and his legal docket all by simply stepping away from the mixing board and saying “OK, I’m done” had no bearing on Axl’s decision to finally put out Chinese Democracy. But is it likely?

(And, of course, whether Chinese Democracy finally being off Axl's back will result in Guns N’ Roses’ next album coming out before the end of this decade is a question that should at least wait until Sunday's one-day SoundScan estimates are out.)

Idolator's Guns N' Roses coverage [Idolator]

Doug was obviously one of the main forces behind the nearly universally panned RIAA lawsuits, but does that mean he looks back on that consumer attacking move with regret? Of course not!

Were the RIAA lawsuits a good idea?

It was an act to try and publicize that this is stealing and this is wrong. That's one way to look at it. Did it work? I don't know. Maybe it stopped some people from stealing, maybe it didn't . . . Did they deserve to get caught? Probably. People don't like policemen. I understand that. And maybe they're right. But when you see all the stores close and you lose half your employees and you can't sign bands to record them because people are stealing, we do things to try and stop it. You have a lot of people who think that things should be free. I don't know how they think we should produce it for free, but there's a lot of people who aren't logical.

Speaking of not logical, clearly we peanut-gallery types in the blogosphere haven't been terribly kind to Doug at times, but what does Doug think about the scoffers? He ignores them! I mean, he has a drawing by Bono in his office!

The lawsuits have been rough from a PR standpoint, in terms of developing a real hubris from a certain subset in the blogosphere and magazines like Wired. I felt, and many others I spoke with felt that Wired-a magazine I once wrote for, by the way-took some cheap shots in a November 2007 article that you were interviewed for. How did you feel about that piece?

They can write whatever they want. I think they see things differently than I do. My job is to protect artists, the people that work here, the copyrights . . . they have a feeling that I stop technology by trying to stop companies from infringing on our products-that we stopped the growth of all these companies because we don't like the use of our product without a license. I think that's their point of view. I have no problem with their point of view. I thought the magazine was funny because it's supposed to be a professional magazine but then they try to ridicule people to make a point.

They were trying to make fun of me because I'm older and because I come from a different era. But like I told you from the beginning, there's a couple of things that just don't change. People don't get that. They're so entranced and enthralled by all the shiny, new technology, they don't understand that it doesn't work unless you have music that people want. No one's going to download music they don't like.

What I take seriously is the fact that we're people who create art. Whether you like our art or not, it's what we do. My whole point of view is this problem we're in, which is caused by technology, will be solved by technology. Some genius on the other side will figure out how to stop the piracy that seems very logical to me. So all these people who come up with these opinions that they should have done this and that, it's all ridiculous.

Meanwhile, what have they done? We're running the most dominant company that there ever has been in the industry. We're trying to do it in a way where we're really respectful to people, where the people in this company are treated great, where they're paid properly, where women are working in key positions in the company, where two of our chairpeople are people of color. Our greatest asset in our company is our people.

It's such a bizarre equation that requires thought to separate what is real from what people would like people to think. I don't understand. There's a lot of unreasonable people in the world. You start with that. Frustrated, disgruntled people with their own lives who attack people who have done really important work. And I can judge this company because I've been here from day one, hired everyone here, and I know how we're doing. For me there's a great level of satisfaction.

I never listen to people. What will affect us is if we make a big mistake and we don't get any hits and as a journalist I'm happy people write whatever they want to write. Some of the records we've put out I hate much more than I did that article, but I've held my nose and said they're entitled to do it.

There should have been a follow-up question here, Billboard! What records made Doug Morris hold his nose? The public demands answers, or at least, I do. Still, I think he's got journalists pegged. I tend to be frustrated and disgruntled, sitting at my keyboard trying to destroy the real artists. I never heard it put that way before, but he really nailed it.

After I recovered from my psyche being destroyed, I wiped off the tears and moved on to Doug's real shining moments. Did you know that Universal and the other labels were cheated by MTV? Honestly, I didn't either.

What about the promotional value of YouTube?

We don't look at anything as promotion. Take a look at MTV. It turned out to be a disaster for us. We sold some records, but they built this huge company and we gave them our [music] for nothing, and what did we get?

Three years ago we were losing $7 million a year in the production of videos.

It's a little strange that Doug Morris feels like MTV ripped the music business off, especially during the era when the network's programming consisted mostly of music videos, but still Doug's sitting in his modest office cursing the millions stole for him. His perspective is vastly different than mine, although that could be because I was someone who spent way too much money on music purchased after seeing videos on 120 Minutes or Yo! MTV Raps. I guess that's not the type of promotion Doug was interested in.

Exclusive Billboard Q&A: UMG's Chairman/CEO Doug Morris [Billboard]

(As a note, Universal is an investor in Buzznet, the parent company of this site.)

The Company has completed the development, formulation, packaging and branding for the first spirits products arising out of its joint venture with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records. It is anticipated that the first of these products, a premium cognac through the Company's venture with music icon Dr. Dre and his Aftermath Beverage Company, will be introduced to the market within the next sixty days.

With respect to the production and supply of the Aftermath Cognac, the Company has entered into a letter of intent for the production, supply and European distribution of the cognac with Abecassis Cognac, a producer of premium cognacs. Completion of this agreement will not only give the Company access to a superior and necessary inventory of fine cognac, but calls for the Aftermath Beverage Company brands to be distributed by Abecassis in the European countries in which it is now doing business.

Following the introduction of the Aftermath Cognac, the Company's joint venture with Interscope/Dre/Aftermath will introduce a unique new line of 80-proof flavored and unflavored sparkling vodkas. The Company, having completed any necessary formulations, bottle and label design, marketing plans, and regulatory approvals, expects that this new line of products will begin to be shipped to distributors within the next sixty days. These products are to be introduced in coordination with the launch of Dr. Dre's long-awaited "Detox" album, and will be supported by a fully integrated marketing program with the performer and his record company.

The Company has taken note of apparent customer anticipation for the Company's Aftermath line of alcoholic beverages as evidenced by over one million "Google" mentions in advance of any actual product availability in the marketplace.

Of course, most of those mentions were along the lines of "Why the hell is Dr. Dre concentrating on lending his name to things like sparkling vodkas when he's had this album hanging over his head for years now," which might explain the whole coordinated launch idea. Looks like it's your move, Dr Pepper!

Drinks Americas Announces Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Year-End [BusinessWire via Bloomberg]

Well, yes and no. It wouldn't be surprising to find out that UMG had decided to quietly reblock the video once the run-up to Weezer was complete, not to mention that the album getting trounced by Disturbed, Usher, and a Now compilation may have been a sign that seven million views and a lot of Diggs don't necessarily translate to album sales. So the time was right for Weezer to start making money off its music the old-fashioned way: From the banner ads running on the clip's YouTube page. (How it took them this long to figure out that the self-proclaimed nerd elite is more into finding out which musicians look like old ladies than paying for music they allegedly like is a mystery to me.)

Anyway, those of you who can't live without seeing Chris Crocker cry on your favorite blog needn't fear, as the official version of the clip posted on French video-sharing site Dailymotion is still embeddable, just like other videos from the label. They really are more laissez-faire in France, aren't they?

Who Pulled The Plug On Weezer's "Pork And Beans" YouTube Video? [Silicon Alley Insider]
Pork & Beans [YouTube]
Weezer - Pork & Beans [Dailymotion]

No music editors here - the Vibe is simply a place where music fans collectively determine the value of the content. We display the best stuff as determined by the browsing activity of our users — what they watch, save, rate, and more. If something catches fire, it's displayed on the Vibe page for the community to see.

Ah, a world without music editors. What a paradise, right guys? Anyway, so far the site's most popular videos are U2's "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" and Afroman's "Because I Got High," with the U2 video being the only one that's broken the thousand-plays mark so far. Apparently there are more features on the way, although the fact that said features were previewed on the site's official blog with a Jerry Garcia quote makes me wonder just how forward-thinking they could possibly be.

PluggedIn [Official site]
Music-Video Pros Challenge YouTube [WSJ]

This revelation came in a brief for summary judgment filed by UMG against Troy Augusto. Augusto (aka Roast Beast Music Collectibles, eBay handle roastbeastmusic) buys collectible promo CDs at used record stores around Los Angeles and resells them on eBay. UMG sued him last year, claiming that the "promotional use only" labels on the CDs mean that UMG owns them forever and that any resale infringes copyright. EFF took Augusto's case to fight for the proposition that a copyright owner can't take away a consumer's first sale rights just by putting a label on a CD (after all, the Supreme Court first recognized the first sale doctrine when a book publisher tried the same thing with a label stating "may not be sold for less than one dollar," and we've seen patent owners trying the same trick on printer cartridges). In other words, EFF believes that if you bought it, or if someone gave it to you, you own it.

UMG seems to think that the "promotional use only" label somehow gives it "eternal ownership" over the CD. While this might make sense to a goblin living in Harry Potter's world, it's not the law under the Copyright Act. According to the first sale doctrine, once a copyright owner has parted with ownership of a CD, book, or DVD, whether by sale, gift, or other disposition, they may not control further dispositions of that particular copy (including throwing it away). It's thanks to the first sale doctrine that libraries can lend books, video rental stores can rent DVDs, and you can give a CD to a friend for their birthday. It's also the reason you can throw away any CD that you own.

You thought that front-cover stamp was as meaningless as those tags on mattresses, didn't you? Hey, I did too. Especially given that judging by the racks at the Princeton Record Exchange, UMG has been good at overpressing promos of lousy albums and not so good at policing the resale racks.

UMG says throwing away promo CDs is illegal [EFF via Coolfer]

Bryan Adams THE BEST OF ME
Bon Jovi CROSS ROAD: GREATEST HITS
Boyz II Men LEGACY: THE GREATEST HITS COLLECTION
James Brown 20 ALL-TIME GREATEST HITS!
Jimmy Buffett SONGS YOU KNOW BY HEART
Eric Clapton CREAM OF CLAPTON
Patsy Cline DEFINITIVE COLLECTION
Sheryl Crow VERY BEST OF SHERYL CROW
Def Leppard VAULT - GREATEST HITS
Eagles HELL FREEZES OVER
Melissa Etheridge GREATEST HITS: THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
Marvin Gaye EVERY GREAT MOTOWN HIT
Vince Gill SOUVENIRS
Jimi Hendrix EXPERIENCE HENDRIX
K-Ci & JoJo ALL MY LIFE: GREATEST HITS
Toby Keith GREATEST HITS
KISS VERY BEST OF KISS
Lynyrd Skynyrd ALL-TIME GREATEST HITS
Van Morrison STILL ON TOP
Willie Nelson SONGS
New Found Glory HITS
Nirvana NIRVANA
Lionel Richie DEFINITIVE COLLECTION
Rush THE SPIRIT OF RADIO
Scorpions BAD FOR GOOD: BEST OF SCORPIONS
Soundgarden A-SIDES
Steely Dan DEFINITIVE COLLECTION
Styx GREATEST HITS

The Ultimate 'Green' Album Package Sprouts Wildflowers! Universal Music Enterprises Teams With Wal-Mart for Special Album Packaging [Yahoo! Finance; HT Reed Fischer]

For €5/month (about $7.30), Zaoza members can download all the media they want (right now, content comes from Universal, Sony BMG, and a few larger European indies) and swap each whatever they've downloaded with other subscribers—although similar to the Zune's "squirting" restrictions, users can only share their files with five pals or less. Whether or not Zaoza's underpinnings will serve as the model for the majors' fantasy-world subscription music service remains to be seen, although the whole idea of allowing users to share is kind of interesting, and will no doubt get the pro-legalized peer-to-peer crowd all fired up. [Ars Technica via Hypebot]

On how the record industry has failed
"This business has never had a relationship with its customer."

On stoking hopefuls' needs
"It's not hard to get a record deal. The heat has to come with it. It has to be really, really good ... or someone has to believe it's really, really good."

On the present-day nature of the business
"The reason why music is in trouble on the Internet is 'cause it's the best app, 'cause it flows through that thing like water."

On the future of the business
"Whatever it is, there'll be someone to organize it and put it together, and it'll be called a record company."

On staying current with his label's priorities
"Four million people watched Soulja Boy." (NB: The official "Crank That" video currently has 32 million-plus views.)

On who should take the blame when an album flops
"The hardest thing for any artist to do is look in the mirror and say [the reason for the album flopping] was me.... Everybody wants to be Shaggy and say, 'It wasn't me.' .... 'My album was great, it wasn't me, it was that building.'"

On why albums do flop
"A lot of times, the music's stupid."

On the soul-crushing sameness of present-day rock radio
"If you put on alternative radio, the guitars sound exactly the same ... a lot of people blame the record companies for that, but it's not the record companies. It's got to do with the lack of imagination that we're going through right now in certain areas of music, and kids think they're supposed to copy things on television, or on the Internet."

On that note, the current musicians who Iovine thinks are geniuses
Pharrell, Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Akon, and the "still not on the Billboard 200 despite everyone else getting a Grammy bump" will.i.am. (So wait, is it always the music that's stupid, then?)

Interview: Jimmy Iovine [Crazed Hits via The Velvet Rope]

"Warner Music Group has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax's recently announced service," WMG spokesman Will Tanous told SAI via e-mail. Universal Music Group, the world's biggest music label, doesn't have a deal with QTrax either but is in talks with the company, says a person familiar with the situation. The LA Times quotes an EMI pr person saying that they're not in either. We haven yet to hear back from Sony-BMG, the fourth big major.

Here's the QTrax response, as of 9:57 pm eastern Sunday night: ""We are in discussion with Warner Music Group to ensure that the service is licensed and we hope to reach an agreement shortly."

QTrax officials had previously said they had deals with all four majors, which would give them access to a catalog at least as big as the 5 million tracks that Apple sells through its iTunes service. But we're told that the service's previous deal with Warner, signed in 2006, expired last year.

Launch delays strike again! Although it's probably not a good sign that they decided to go through with the press blitz despite not having 75% of the major-label population on board. (Didn't anyone learn the lessons of AnywhereCD?) The site's sort of up, although people have been reporting issues with downloading the client to me. (I'm locked out until March 18 at least since I'm on a MacBook.) You can see its inner workings (no download required!) at music.qtrax.com; right now they appear to be offering albums from the labels they're currently squabbling with, although given the delays that I've heard about I wouldn't be surprised if those pages were just placeholders. At least they give you the option of buying digital copies of said albums through their Amazon affiliate links, right? I bet they'll make tens of dollars off those today!

Warner, UMG, EMI: No Deals With Free Music Service QTrax (WMG) [Silicon Alley Insider]

The last album by Mick and Co.—2005's A Bigger Bang—wasn't exactly a sales gangbuster. It debuted at No. 1 and was certified platinum shortly after its release, but a Lefsetz Letter from Dec. 22, 2005—three months after the album came out—says that the album had actually moved only about 390,000 copies by that point. Most of the money the band realizes these days comes from touring; they made $138.5 million in grosses from being on the road in 2006. So this development, while superficially seeming like a bad thing for EMI, is actually pretty in line with Terra Firma chief Guy Hands' new forced-slimming-down strategy for the label. He's gone on record as saying that he's done with big advances for bands, and I'm sure the Stones were among the artists who could command a huge paycheck by virtue of their name alone—and that said paycheck wouldn't really result in big returns for EMI. What's more curious to me is the Stones' insistence on signing with a label at all; if any band could hook up with Live Nation in a Madonna-like deal, or even self-release their album, it should be them, since their tours are basically a license to print money. Maybe Doug Morris is a lot more charming than we all thought! And by "charming," I mean "willing to write huge checks."

Rolling Stones Move New Album From EMI [FT]
[Photo: AP]

Universal Music: MIA on iLike [Silicon Alley Insider]

"imeem entered into a crushing financial agreement that allows them to survive as long as venture capital money continues to flow into the company, but spells almost certain financial calamity once outside funding halts." Why? Well, not only did imeem have to pay $20 million upfront to UMG, and the ad-revenue sharing deal is structured as such: "Imeem's contract with UMG calls for payments of just under one cent per song play, regardless of whether there's any advertising that actually happens." Hope that the imeem staff can at least afford Ringboxxxes while the cash is flowing in!

Imeem Gets License And Death Sentence [MichaelRobertson.com via TDS]

Subject: hey everyone it's Colbs......
Body: Hey everybody! I know you are all bummed out about the shortened song clips on my page. I am too, and I'm not sure what to do in this situation.

Let me first say, I love my label! They have helped my music reach so many new listeners, and they treat me wonderfully!

But it's because of you, my myspace fans, listening to my songs from day one, that I even got a chance to start this amazing career.
So many of you have gone out and bought my album, even though full length versions of my songs have been on my page, for 2 years!

I wish I could take it back to how it used to be!
I'm doing what I can, so hang in there. I completely understand the frustration!
I will keep you updated on what's going on ok!

Thanks you guys! ~Cc

Hmm, is her noting that people were buying her album in spite of her songs being available on MySpace a veiled dis at Universal's new anti-marketing strategy? That's how I read it, especially with the way that she took the time to first say "Dear UMG, you are awesome and xoxo and all that but...." This girl may have a future as an executive yet!

Colbie Caillat [MySpace]

And unsurprisingly, it's because Jay "wanted big, big money that was way out of sync with the realities of today's record business," i.e. all the cost-cutting that his parent company's been doing via layoffs over the past week or so. Add to that the fact that people are starting to see American Gangster as something of a flop (it's sold 695,000 copies in four weeks and is slowly sliding down the SoundScan charts), his lack of visibility around the office, and the artists who have been pretty disgruntled with his leadership and the writing's on the wall—even if, as some observers have claimed, IDJ is going to throw most of its resources into hip-hop and R & B in the coming years. Not that companies in the current era aren't used to having overpaid show-runners who have been the source of much "bad boss" public ire from a dwindling roster of employees, but giving Jay a raise amidst all this chaos is too far for even the record business to go.

Jay-Z in Jam over contract [Rush & Molloy]

Well, details on the program were pretty sketchy, save one: Comes With Music is launching with the catalogue of Universal Music Group, a record company that has proven in the past to hook up with winners when it comes to innovative ways to get music digitally distributed anywhere that isn't iTunes. And as far as I can tell, the Ovi platform that Comes With Music runs on doesn't have a timetable as far as a US launch. But, you know, today's announcement makes Doug Morris look kind of like he knows what he's doing as far as new technologies go! It even got written up in the Wall Street Journal, man! Which means that someone should bookmark this post for August 2008 to see if the thing has actually launched by then.

Nokia unveils "Comes With Music" [Nokia]

Hey everyone...bad news. Due to circumstances beyond my control I have to swap the songs out on my page for 90 second versions instead of full length versions. In fact some of the songs have already been swapped as I write this.

Every artist signed to a Universal label has to comply immediately.

You can listen to full versions of some of my songs on my personal webpage www.colbiecaillatmusic.com. I will make sure that the songs that were available here are available there as soon as possible.

I apologize to everyone for the inconvenience especially those that use my songs for personal profiles. Hopefully the politics involved here gets worked out soon and we can return to full length songs as soon as possible. Thank you everyone for your continued support!!

Checking MySpace pages from other Universal artists shows that this policy isn't limited to Caillat's page, although newer signings appear to have not yet complied. But why is MySpace being singled out here? After all, as Caillat noted, the full songs are still being streamed from her personal site. Is it in celebration of the one-year anniversary of Universal's lawsuit against MySpace? And is it really smart to give your artists fewer places to promote their music?

Colbie Caillat [MySpace]

Discussing Universal's various initiatives, Caraeff, an even-keeled 32-year-old in a crisply tailored suit, is explaining that it's important to be "invigorated and challenged by the opportunities of digital music." At this, Morris puts down his tuna fish on white, wipes some crumbs off his khakis, and clears his throat. I expect him to deliver an explanation of how he learned to stop worrying and love the MP3. Instead, he launches into a rant about a creature that resembles a misshapen bowling ball.

"There was a cartoon character years ago called the Shmoo," he says in a raspy tenor. "It was in Li'l Abner. The Shmoo was a nice animal, a nice fella, but if you were hungry, you cut off a piece of him and put onions on it, and if you wanted to play football you just made him like a football. You could do anything to him. That's what was happening to the music business. Everyone was treating the music business like it was a Shmoo.

"It was only a couple of years ago that we said, What's going on here?' Really, an album that someone worked on for two years — is that worth only $9, $10, when people pay two bucks for coffee in Starbucks?" Morris sighs. "People never really understand what's happening to the artists. All the sharing of the music, right? Is it correct that people share their music, fill up these devices with music they haven't paid for? If you had Coca-Cola coming through the faucet in your kitchen, how much would you be willing to pay for Coca-Cola? There you go," he says. "That's what happened to the record business."

I'd argue that the average consumer's perception of artists is different—and much less negative!—than her perception of the industry, especially its denizens who have corner offices where they can eat their tuna on white. But those sandwiches are merely fueling Morris up for more ire at the digital age!

Back in his dining room, Morris is incredulous. He's once again talking about how his job should simply be finding and breaking new acts. The problem, he says, is that "there's sympathy for the consumer, and the record industry is the Shmoo."

Aw, it's so sad, isn't it? Although why do I seem to not remember the Shmoo having lawyers at the ready. After all, if it did, surely it would've sued the pants off whoever was trying to turn it into a football.

Universal's CEO Once Called iPod Users Thieves. Now He's Giving Songs Away. [Wired]