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Here’s the Deal with Men At Work

Here’s what I’ve discovered today.

One of the goofiest plagiarism cases ever has come to a resolution.  Remember the song “Down Under” by Men at Work from 1982?  It was one of the biggest hits of the early 80s.  Several years ago, a music publishing company filed a plagiarism lawsuit against the band, saying that they blatantly ripped off the charming kids’ song from the 1930s, “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.”  It was written by a music teacher for the Girl Guides.  The problem was the flute solo in the song.  “You’ve stolen our song,” said the publishers.

Back in February, a judge agreed and now we know how much Men at Work has to pay—and really, it could have been a whole lot worse.  Men at Work have to give up just 5% of all royalties generated by the song dating back to just 2002 plus 5% of future profits.

This will mean hundreds of thousands of dollars—but that’s a lot less than what the music publishers were asking for.  They wanted between 40 and 60% of all royalties from the song, which would have been millions and millions of dollars.  But will there be an appeal?  What do you think?

Here’s the Deal with HMV

When it comes to buying music online, iTunes is king—but competition is heating up.  Maybe you heard me talk about Google Music which is launching by the end of the year.  This week, HMV Canada officially launched their digital store.

It’s actually been operating under the radar for seven months now on a shakedown cruise.  I’ve used it and I really like it.  The big feature is how the store keeps track of your purchases, so if your computer goes down, you don’t lose anything.  You simply go back to the store and re-download your purchases.

Pricing is about the same as iTunes and the library gets bigger every day.  Check it out the next time you’re going shopping for music online.

Here’s the Deal with Prince

Apparently, this whole Internet thing is over.  It’s done.  How do I know that? Because Prince says so.  He won’t let iTunes or YouTube access any of his music—and he’s even closed down his official website.  Here’s a quote:

“The Internet’s completely over.  I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else.  They won’t pay me an advance for it and then get angry when they can’t get it.  The Internet’s like MTV.  At one time, MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.  Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.  They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”

So there’s the ruling from Prince.  The Internet is finished.  Best move on and find something else.

Here’s the Deal with the Polaris Music Prize

Finally, we’re now down to the ten finalists—the so-called Short List—for the 2010 Polaris  Music Prize.  This is the annual cash prize voted on by critics and broadcasters and journalists and bloggers and ‘zine publishers to try and determine the best Canadian album of the year, regardless of genre, commercial success or label affiliation.  I’ve posted the entire list with my comments here.

After the announcement, I talked to Sean Dean, the bass player of the Sadies.  Their album Darker Circles, made the cut.  We talked about what it means to be nominated for the Polaris.

ExploreMusic Playlist: The songs featured on the radio show today were:

“Drugs” by Ratatat
“Another Year Again” by The Sadies
“Honest Man” by The Gracious Few
“Diretco” by Alex Cuba