Jazz as a racist term? That’s rich. African-Americans provided the world with one of the most vibrant styles of music ever created. Almost immediately, musicians of every possible race and permutation have adopted it in a wonderful variance of ways, from Latin to Soviet. That someone of the musical caliber of Nicholas Payton can say something like this -

“Jazz is a lie. America is a lie … Playing Jazz is like running on a treadmill: you may break a sweat, but ultimately you ain’t going nowhere. I am Nicholas Payton and I don’t play ‘the j word.’ I play BAM (Black American Music).”

and not get called out on it immediately is rather sad. It’s also rather offensive, as Payton is trying to forcibly rip away the contributions of whites, latinos, Russians, Azeris, Norwegians, French, various African nationals, et cetera, of their roles in the development of the genre.

Read Victor Fiorillo’s article in full here, courtesy of the Philly Post.

Michael Robertson, former CEO of MP3.com and owner of MP3Tunes, I service I happen to enjoy quite a lot, writes for TechCrunch on Amazon.com defying the major labels regarding MP3 lockers. For those who don’t know, these lockers are a source where purchasers of MP3s can store their purchases and play them back in a number of devices and locations.

Steve Seidenberg of the ABA Journal writes on a good-news-bad-news treasure-trove of a find:

The question, however, is whether that will happen anytime soon. And if it doesn’t, music fans might be justified in putting the blame on copyright law. “The potential copyright liability that could attach to redistribution of these recordings is so large—and, more importantly, so uncertain—that there may never be a public distribution of the recordings,” wrote David G. Post, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, on the Volokh Conspiracy blog. “Tracking down all the parties who may have a copyright interest in these performances, and therefore an entitlement to royalty payments (or to enjoining their distribution), is a monumental—and quite possibly an impossible—task.”

If this isn’t enough for music fans to start getting themselves immersed into the inner workings of copyright law, nothing will.

Many good people are working on their own alternatives to Amazon’s proposed locker service (Michael Robertson, for example), but it’s nice to see a heavyweight take on the music industry regarding lockers, places where one can store their music and access it at any location they wish to.  The music industry, record labels especially, will either have to get on board or watch their sales plummet due to continued piracy.  The rip-off game is stopping, whether they like it or not.

Billboard Magazine’s Ed Christman discusses the topic further here.

In a case of absolute hypocrisy, Michael Robertson and MP3 Tunes makes the allegation that EMI, who breathe fire on upload services like Rapidshare, are using Rapidshare to to give away music themselves. Read the full article at P2P.net.

Of course they are. Google is about to raise the stakes in the digital downloads game and finally give Apple a run for its money.

The headline’s a shame, as those same execs have done much to ruin the business, peddling crap to people who don’t get a chance to hear what else is out there to listen to. Still, if it keeps the RIAA and their ilk from harassing students and housewives who download a couple of tracks, so much the better.

Though I would use a better descriptor than shark for this Machiavellian cretin, he was precisely the sort of manager you’d want on your side if your aim was to horde money and terrorize your opponenets. Allen Klein, the accountant who ended up managing some of Rock’s most famous bands, died of Alzheimer’s at the age of 77.

Kathy Sandler of the Wall Street Journal reports that Virgin is working on a partnership to try to end music piracy.  Good luck.  At least they can be commended for trying out new business models, because, let’s face it, the old models are dead.

A Norwegian singer and violinist of Belarusian descent pulled off the victory at this year’s Eurovision Contest.  It’s usually laced with dreadful competitors singing twee songs, but this year’s winner, Alexander Rybak, actually has a bit of talent.  Next year’s Eurovision will be held in Oslo thanks to the Rybak win.

Here’s a clip from the BBC: