AWmusic

For the last few months YouTube has been just another name being thrown around as a big, bad company involved in copyright scandals. Back in March, Universal Music Group chief Doug Morris stated that sites like YouTube and Myspace “are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars.” Come on, seriously? Are major labels really that money hungry for every bottom dollar that they’re willing to limit their artist’s exposure to potential new fans? God forbid they give access to view music videos without proper compensation to record labels. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used YouTube as a resource for outsourcing new bands for myself, or as a means to get others hooked on to music they may have never heard otherwise.

Well, it seems the folks at Universal aren’t that dumb. It was just announced that they and YouTube have partnered up to launch a new video-sharing website named Vevo.com later this year, which will be powered by YouTube with content supplied by Universal. While still free to the general public, both will share in revenue generated by advertising. Content will also still be accessible through YouTube on a Vevo channel through a special Vevo branded embedded player.

“VEVO will bring the most compelling premium music video content and services to the world’s single largest online video audience,” said Universal chief executive Doug Morris.

“We believe that at launch, VEVO will already have more traffic than any other music video site in the United States and in the world.”

As it stands, Universal’s YouTube channel is already the most watched on the site with over 3.5 billion views.

Google (owners of YouTube) CEO Eric Schmidt said they are “thrilled to be working with the Universal Music Group in what will surely be an exciting new service for consumers, advertisers, content creators and the music industry at large.”

In December, Warner Music Group pulled it’s videos from YouTube after no agreement could be reached on fees, while Sony Music Entertainment have recently worked out a new deal with YouTube this year.

As album sales have decreased, Universal has also been exploring new ventures with Myspace and Apple’s iTunes as a way to generate new forms of revenue. I guess it’s safe to say that cash really is king, and you have to do whatever to make yours. At least this time it doesn’t seem to be at the expense of the fans. Well, for now anyways.

And now…. Music from some Universal artists:

K-os – Burning Bridges
Sigur Ros – Hoppipolla
Beast – Microcyte

Beast, which not long ago was a hardly known support act for You Say Party! We Say Die is forging its way into the mainstream. This tour the band is on now will be Beast’s first major headline tour, which kicked off at the Mod Club last Thursday.

As always, the band opened the set with the trip rock epic “Fingerprints.” Betty, Jean-Phi and their guitarist/bassist bandmates slowly made their way on stage one by one to an elated crowd of a few hundred people.

Last time I saw them was an intimate performance in October at Wrongbar. At the Mod Club, the band’s sound was bigger and more all encompassing, and the impressive lighting setup that night certainly made a difference for the shock and awe factors. As always, the bassist and guitarist took posts towards the back of the stage, but there is no doubt in my mind that they were admired at some point by every single person in the crowd. The guitarist’s hollowed electric guitar filled the room with a tone that one could only imagine filling a castle, and the bassist effortlessly shifted between bass and the keytar attached. The sounds emanating from his instrument were as unique as they were trippy.

Every song was cohesive and the band gave justice to their name, operating as a singular hypnotic beast. The vibrato on Betty’s voice proved to be even more impressive and chill inducing live than on record. It was proven that certain aspects of the band’s infectious sound can only truly be produced live. There was never a dull moment in the set, the band played through virtually every song on the album (including Mr. Hurricane and City which both come out much edgier live). Jean-Phillipe Goncalve’s extremely creative drumming style seems to be in constant evolution, with him adding little things every performance to help make it more interesting for those who know the album or who have seen them before.

The one damper on the set was Betty’s timidity throughout the night. Though she became more comfortable as the night went on, it was clear that this was one of Beast’s first shows headlining the night at a relatively large venue. The absurd facial expressions and fervid on stage presence that Betty had at Wrongbar simply wasn’t there that night. With that said, she definitely did have a decent presence (better than most musicians) and sounded just as mindblowing as she did the last time I saw them. But the show demonstrated to me just how much a set for a band like Beast can change based on the way the musicians carry themselves on stage. Had she conveyed the same level of intensity she had at Wrongbar I would have enjoyed this show even more.

Beast are a band to keep an eye on, that is, if you somehow have managed to miss them this far. As their popularity swells they are going to get more comfortable, and the fierce on-stage intensity from small venues will eventually translate into the larger setting. When that happens, audiences won’t know what hit them.

Beast – Fingerprints