Nick Cave/Bad Seeds Catalog Gets Deluxe Reissues

Nick Cave has joined the push to up sell devote fans with "premium packages". Artists and labels have been late to grasp the fact that their core fan base is not impressed nor do the highly value MP3 by themselves. Expect a serious 'pile on' in the coming 6-12 months as everyone embraces new digital packaging ideas.

Dapper don Nick Cave and his old friends the Bad Seeds must be used to the deluxe treatment by now; after all, they're rock royalty if anybody is. But the band's monstrous back catalog? It may have never been treated so good before.

Mute Records is set to reissue remastered, 5.1 surround sound-enhanced versions of the entirety of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds discography, with the initial batch of four titles due later in 2008. Cave and the Seeds' first four discs-- 1984's From Her to Eternity, 1985's The Firstborn Is Dead, 1986's Kicking Against the Pricks, and 1986's Your Funeral... My Trial-- make up that initial batch, and boy, are they in for a treat. The collector's editions will be double disc sets containing both the remastered stereo album and the new surround mix, B-sides, and new liner notes. Each album will also contain one of a series of short films (collectively titled Do You Love Me Like I Love You?) made by the UK-based team of Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.

Indeed, Forsyth and Pollard are putting together Do You Love right now, and they need your help! "Have you been affected by the songs of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds?" they ask on their website. If the answer is yes, and you'd like to explain just how in front of a camera, you should probably click here pronto.

In other Cave rumblings, the theatrical production of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck-- for which Nick Cave and Bad Seed/Dirty Three dude Warren Ellis composed music a couple years back-- is coming to NYC. Woyzeck will play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House on October 15, 17, and 18 as part of BAM's Next Wave Festival.

Sony buys out Bertelsmann. Recorded music is not worth what it use to be.

Sony has announced that they are buying the 50% stake in Sony BMG held by German media giant Bertelsmann in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. The deal is a touch convoluted but it basically results in Bertelsmann receiving approximately $900 million in value for its 50% stake in Sony BMG.

"Last year the BMG unit saw revenue fall 27% to $2.25 billion while operating profit dropped 46% to $144 million." Bertelsmann obviously wanted out. The business is crumbling, and they are in no position to try and leverage the master recordings like Sony can with its electronic products. Sony understands that Apple leverages music to sell iPods. They should be able to do the same.

Obama campaign rejects rapper Ludacris' rhymes

AP - Barack Obama's presidential campaign says a new rhyme by supporter and rapper Ludacris is "outrageously offensive" to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Republican Sen. John McCain and President Bush.

Read the whole article: Obama campaign rejects rapper Ludacris' rhymes (AP)

Indie Acts Gear Up For Festival Season

Yahoo! Music - Rock festival season is underway, with Coachella and Bonnaroo already over, the Warped and Ozzfest tours traveling from coast to coast, and Chicago's Lollapalooza and New Jersey's All Points West events around the corner in early August.

Read the whole article: Indie Acts Gear Up For Festival Season (Yahoo!

Newly discovered Beatles tape up for sale

AP - A tape recording of The Beatles chatting and breaking into giggles during an early recording session is to be sold next week in England.

Read the whole article: Newly discovered Beatles tape up for sale (AP)