Jim Carrollon music

What do Live Nation, Madonna, Ticketmaster and McFly have in common? All demonstrated this week that the music industry is still very much in flux.

There was blood on the Live Nation boardroom floor as a rift developed over the company's policy of handing out Lotto-sized deals to senior pop citizens such as Madonna, Jay-Z and U2.

The first casualty appears to be company chairman Michael Cohl, who stepped down from his position last week. Cohl headed up the Live Nation Artists division and was a firm advocate of the new business model.

It doesn't help that Madonna is finding it tough to sell tickets for some of the dates on her forthcoming tour. Many European shows have sold out, but some US shows have done less than 50 per cent business.

Sluggish sales of her new album Hard Candyshow just confirm that Madge fans are unwilling to get busy with the credit cards.

Meanwhile, On The Record understands that Live Nation's takeover of MCD Concerts is nearing completion.

One area where Live Nation hopes to increase future revenues is ticket sales. When its partnership with Ticketmaster ends this year, Live Nation will be moving into direct ticket selling with the help of German company CTS Eventim AG from 2009.

Ticketmaster, though, is not crying over spilt milk. The company - which spun off from parent IAC/ InterActiveCorp this week with debts of about $750 million - plans to expand its international operations, resale business and marketing arm. That leveraged debt may well see Ticketmaster fees and charges increasing in time.

But live music remains king. Pop band McFly certainly hope so, as they're giving away their new album free with The Mail on Sundaynext month.

Their intention is that giving away three million CDs for free will result in a big audience bump when the band tour later in the year. They may even to get to cancel a show at Croker at short notice like last year's Mail on Sundaygiveaway star Prince.

Spain's new digital canon

While the rest of the EU waits for electronics companies and musical rights societies to kiss and make up, the Spanish government this week announced the introduction of digital levies from July 1st.

The "digital canon" will see additional taxes lobbed onto mobile phones (€1.10), CD-Rs (17 cent), laser printers (€10), scanners (€9), CD/DVD recorders (€3.40) and many other electronic goods.

Naturally, there has been much fuming about this sudden move, with gadget-makers querying just how this money will get through to the content creators. However, collection agency SGAE rep Pedro Farre was more interested in spinning the blame for increasing prices. "Technically, the manufacturers pay the canon. Whether they pass the cost on to the public is their decision."

Sea dogs cast a' growing

Ahoy me hearties! Producer and mischief-maker Hal Willner's cast of singing pirates, one-legged scoundrels and salty sea dogs for his Rogue's Gallery night in Dublin continues to grow in number.

The Three Pruned Men, AKA ex-Virgin Prunes Gavin Friday, Guggi and David Id Busaras, are the latest conscripts for Willner's night of sea shanties, pirate ballads and seafaring songs.

These gentlemen join Lou Reed, Tim Robbins, Reddy Thompson, Pere Ubu's David Thomas, Ed Harcourt and many more for the show on July 18th at Grand Canal Square as part of this year's Analog festival. More information from  www.analogconcerts.ie

ETC

• Belfast's Trans festival runs from July 14th to August 10th, with Los Campesinos, DJ Rupture, Lisa Hannigan, Jim White, and countless others.  www.transbelfast.com

• Earagail Arts Festival takes over Donegal from July 10th to 20th with Ulrich Schnauss, The Fall, Richard Hawley, Cathy Davey, Dave Geraghty and Lisa Hannigan.  www.eaf.ie

• A Tribute to Jimmy Faulkner sees Christy Moore & Declan Sinnott, Don Baker, Frankie Lane, Henry McCullough, Honor Heffernan, Mick Hanly, Richie Buckley and more remember the late guitar player at Dublin's Olympia on September 22nd.

Quote of the week:
"These songs are harder than gansta rap. There's sex and debauchery and murder and fighting and drinkning" - Damien Dempsey on his new album,The Rocky Road