Lady Gaga Says Born This Way Is 'Absolutely' Not Worth More Than 99 Cents

'I applaud a company like Amazon for equating the value of digital versus the physical copy,' Gaga tells The Wall Street Journal.
By James Montgomery


Lady Gaga
Photo: Getty Images

Ever since Lady Gaga's Born This Way was released on May 23, much has been made of its pricing and promotion, a multi-tiered plan that included partnerships with everyone from the folks behind "FarmVille" to Best Buy ... and, of course, Amazon.com, which decided to price the album at 99 cents on the day of release to promote its Cloud Drive service (and when the download demand subsequently sank the site, they extended the deal for a second day).

According to some estimates, downloads through Amazon accounted for nearly half of Born This Way's 1.1 million sales — which certainly proved that it worked — but at the same time, it also sparked genuine debate about the inherent worth of an album ... and whether the Amazon model may have fundamentally changed the way new releases are promoted and priced.

So, in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, Gaga was asked whether she believed that Born This Way was worth more than 99 cents. And her answer was somewhat surprising.

"No. I absolutely do not, especially for MP3s and digital music. It's invisible. It's in space. If anything, I applaud a company like Amazon for equating the value of digital versus the physical copy, and giving the opportunity to everyone to buy music," she said. "It also wasn't really 99 cents, because Amazon paid the difference on all of those purchases as part of their promotional campaign for one of their new services. I think it's amazing and it was a really nice surprise and I felt honored that they chose my record to be part of it."

Amazon would be paying the difference on all those 99-cent purchases to Interscope/ Universal Music Group — a tab that could run as high $3.2 million, according to Billboard.biz — but in the long run, that loss might actually be viewed as a win, since it drove traffic to the site and raised awareness of its fledgling Cloud Drive service. And Gaga is the first to admit that the plan isn't for everyone ... it's up to individual artists (and their labels) to determine a price point. But she's happy with the results this time out.

"I don't know if other artists or other companies would want to adopt the same model," she told the WSJ. "Everyone always has the opportunity to sell their music at any price they want to. This sort of happened this way and it's very exciting."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1664978/lady-gaga-born-this-way.jhtml

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Chuckie Will Debut Michael Jackson Remix In Miami

Official 'Hollywood Tonight' remix coming to Miami Music Week.
By Akshay Bhansali


Chuckie
Photo: Jason Ano/ One and Only Productions

Leaving the South by Southwest festival, Lavo New York and Las Vegas' Marquee in his wake, house DJ Chuckie has his sights set on the week ahead. With Miami Music Week now upon us, Chuckie plans to seize the opportunity to debut new material. Fans will be tickled to know the Dutch producer has tracks in the can with Kelly Rowland and T-Pain, but when MTV News caught up with him Friday in New York, Chuckie shared the achievement of which he's most proud.

"I did a Michael Jackson remix, which was really scary — to touch Michael Jackson vocals," Chuckie said. "I did this remix for this track 'Hollywood Tonight.' I couldn't say it for a minute: The label called me, and they said, 'You can't say nothing about this. It's kind of a secret project.' It's gonna come out anytime now."

"Hollywood Tonight" was originally produced by Teddy Riley for Jackson's posthumous Michael album, and Chuckie's mix of the song will be the sole official remix of the track.

"I will play it Miami," Chuckie revealed. "I told them this is the best week to launch the remix. So it feels really good. I'm the only one remixing that Michael Jackson track, and they are considering it a single. For me, especially, it's an honor to remix the King of Pop because he died on my birthday."

So, will the mix be a thundering Chuckie Dutch house banger or will it have a melodic progressive house feel, like his Marquee remix of Diddy-Dirty Money's "I Hate That You Love Me"? Well, according to the "Let the Bass Kick" producer, fans will be getting a healthy dose of both.

"I had to bring in the raucous," Chuckie confessed. "Yeah, I did the Chuckie flavor, but then again, I wanted to make it really musical, so I went progressive (house) on it."

Chuckie will be performing twice at Miami Music Week: at the Cr2 Records Party at Wall Lounge on Wednesday, and then headlining "No Sugar Added" at Nikki Beach on Friday.

Are you excited to hear Chuckie's remix of Michael Jackson's "Hollywood Tonight"? Let us know in the comments below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1660345/michael-jackson-chuckie-remix.jhtml

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Recap: D.C. United 2 - San Jose Earthquakes 4

WASHINGTON ? A Steven Lenhart hat trick led the San Jose Earthquakes to a 4-2 win over D.C. United Saturday evening at RFK Stadium. Lenhart played a role in all four of San Jose?s goals on the evening by assisting on the club?s fourth, scored by Simon Dawkins as the Earthquakes extended their unbeaten streak to six games. Andy Najar and Blake Brettschneider tallied their first goals of the season for the home side.

Source: http://feeds.dcunited.com/~r/DCUnited/all/~3/uyhWTLYyKwk/recap-dc-united-2-san-jose-earthquakes-4

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Justin Bieber: I'm A Country Boy

The newly minted CMT Music Award winner says he shares his mother's love of the country sound.
By Jocelyn Vena


Photo: The Insider

Before he took home the trophy for Collaborative Video of the Year at the CMT Music Awards on Wednesday night, Justin Bieber professed his love for all things country on the red carpet.

"I'm really glad to be here," he told CMT, with the guys of Rascal Flatts by his side. "It's great."

It wasn't just an exciting night for him, but also for Mama Bieber, who happens to be a big country music aficionado. "It's great; it's so many people my mother admires, 'cause she loves country music, and I do too," he continued. "So it's really great to be here with Rascal Flatts."

It was on the set for his winning video, "That Should Be Me," that Bieber first cut his hair. In the end, the sacrifice of his trademark locks seemed worth it.

"Some of the fans liked it; some of the fans didn't. They were just upset he cut it," Bieber joked, nodding to Rascal Flatts' Gary LeVox.

The video for "That Should Be Me," a Never Say Never - The Remixes track (which was a reworked version of the song that first appeared on My World 2.0) is a lo-fi, behind-the-scenes, "making of the video" performance clip. But it was good enough to beat out the likes of country music superstars like Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson; Kid Rock featuring Sheryl Crow; Loretta Lynn, Miranda Lambert and Sheryl Crow, as well as Aaron Lewis featuring George Jones and Charlie Daniels.

"First of all, I just want to say how honored I am to be here ... with Rascal Flatts," Bieber said while accepting his first country award. "How amazing are Rascal Flatts, everybody? I want to thank my mom. I want to thank my family. And I want to thank Rascal Flatts for even jumping on the song with me."

Would you like to see Justin Bieber try out other genres of music? Talk about it in the comments!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1665517/justin-bieber-cmt-awards.jhtml

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Preview: DC vs San Jose

A pair of teams riding month-long unbeaten runs meet at RFK Stadium when D.C. United return home to take on the San Jose Earthquakes. United are coming off a two-game unbeaten Western swing, concluding with a scoreless draw at the LA Galaxy. The Quakes are back on the road at an Eastern Conference opponent after a stirring 2-0 win against the Houston Dynamo at home last weekend.

REFEREE: Andrew Chapin. SAR (bench): Greg Barkey; JAR (opposite): Corey Parker; 4th: Alex Prus MLS Career: 30 games; FC/gm: 27.5; Y/gm: 4.8; R: 8; pens: 4

Source: http://feeds.dcunited.com/~r/DCUnited/all/~3/rrD-Q_IWbeA/preview-dc-vs-san-jose

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