No. 52: Perez Hilton And Sony BMG Have A Slapfight
The record industry’s attempts to throw spaghetti at the wall and see if it stuck, no matter how rancid the pasta or listeria-laced the meat sauce, resulted in guttersniping blogger Perez Hilton getting courted for an A & R by major labels who were confused about that maxim regarding all press being the good kind. But then his dreams of record-industry riches were torpedoed by the company formerly known as Sony BMG, who sued his brightly clad ass for streaming Britney Spears tracks on his site without permission. Because he had to get all “this means war” about it!
See, when Perez got sued, he decided to get all high and mighty about it, saying that he was going to ban any artists from the label, even though he totally has the music-industry smarts to know that a singer who was promoted heavily by the most popular TV show in the UK, and then promoted on Oprah, would be big! I mean, honestly, Sony BMG, how could you have made such a musical mind mad?
We also have several other artists that are “dead to us.” They include: Tori Amos, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, The Gossip, Adele, Lil’ Mama, Pink, Usher, Justin Timberlake, Whitney Houston and more. These are some of our favorite musicians. It really, truly pains us not to talk about them. But, it is something we HAVE to do!
Well, he HAD to do it… until the next day, when he let loose about an alleged makeout session with John Mayer for the purposes of self-aggrandizement. OK, OK, so the ban actually stood until November, right around when Britney Spears’ Circus leaked. Note, however, that his mea culpa doesn’t say anything about streaming music, which was the crux of the whole argument and which Hilton, like all good leakblog proprietors, claimed was “promotion”:
They’ve caved in!!!!
We have reached an agreement with Sony BMG/Zomba that we are very very happy with, and we can write whatever we want, good or bad, without any restriction, about all their artists. That’s the only way we know how!
And, keeping true to that spirit….
In case you hadn’t heard, Britney’s new album, Circus, leaked online this past weekend.
It’s all over the Internets! And, it’s not that good.
You keep speaking truth to power, Mario. The First Amendment was made for people with your unflinching stance!
