ARTICLES and Columns

The numbers are supposed to be big in online marketing, but are they significant in the online marketing of music? Clearly, we need someone with 'Net experience to set a few things straight. Scott Meldrum is a businessperson and musician with a dry wit and a background in bulk mail. Oops, excuse me, direct response advertising. He's also the man called on by major labels when they want to brand an artist and reach millions of fans via the Internet.

If you're young enough, all you know is digital music. Forget about records. Or vinyl. Or eight-tracks. Or even cassettes. To these people, the brouhaha over digital rights management and pay-per-download models seems pretty silly. And the changeover from physical products to sound files isn't even an issue for them.

An interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner, human rights activist and world renowned author and lecturer Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who shares a few thoughts on his book "God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time."

COLUMN: Apparently shaving is no longer hip and cool. I'm watching TV, the commercials come on, and I am blinded by the stubble... oh the stubble ... Does Paris Hilton think "that's hot?" Ohmigod! I need to stop shaving or I'm not going to get past that velvet rope!

Where music meets licensing, there's money to be made. How much money? "I have synched quite a few thousand songs into productions over the years," states Peter Jansson of CRC Jianian Co., "and have charged anywhere between US$1.00 and US$250,000 for each one."

Some ad campaigns don't work. Like the recent mistake of putting an American Idol winner in a retail automotive ad. Scott G comments on Ford's chopping of Taylor Hicks.

Copywriters and art directors get much of the attention in the ad world, but Scott G is one creative director who claims it's the account management function that controls how a campaign soars or collapses.