This Day in Music…January 7

New ‘Idol’ judge says male contestants hold edge

“I hope people find I bring something to the show that’s different, and I can help these contestants learn something, whether they win or not,” she said.

For some would-be pop stars DioGuardi encountered during auditions for the show, the lesson is a hard one.

“A bunch of them would come on and really believe that they were great. That was one of the biggest shocks for me. I was thinking, ‘Wow, are you kidding? … I think this is going to be a hobby, and that’s a great hobby to have.’”

DioGuardi said she spotted some uniquely talented performers during tryouts, especially among the men. But the pressure is on them to keep improving or they’ll leave the door open for an underdog.

“They may have been great at the beginning but as the season goes on they have to keep upping it,” she said.

Speaking of gender, don’t expect to see any dramatic clashes between DioGuardi and Abdul, who is losing her throne as the sole female judge.

“Paula and I co-wrote my first international hit (Kylie Minogue’s Spinning Around ),” DioGuardi said. “I feel indebted to her for that, and I’ve never been of the thinking that women should drag each other down.”

Simon Cowell’s visa fight

Simon Cowell has hired a team of top lawyers to help get Cheryl Cole a US working visa.
The music mogul – who hired the Girls Aloud singer as a judge on UK TV talent show ‘The X Factor’ – is so keen to kick start the star’s career in America he is doing everything he can to convince authorities to allow her to sing in the country.
Cheryl has been struggling to obtain the essential paperwork after being convicted of assault in 2003.
A source said: “Simon was dazzled by Cheryl’s performance on ‘The X Factor’.
“He’s certain he can turn her into a global star, but he just needs to iron out her visa problem. He’s employed a firm of experts in Miami and is confident they will be able to reach some kind of arrangement.”
Cheryl confessed to hitting a female toilet attendant in a UK nightclub in self defence – an incident she has recently defended, saying she “would have done it again” – which landed her 120 hours of community service, £500 compensation and £3,000 court costs.

Beatles’ back catalogue taken offline

An attempt to make the Beatles’ back catalogue available for legal download has been axed.

Earlier this week, Norwegian radio station NRK announced that it was posting 212 Beatles’ tracks online in the form of individual podcasts, each preceded by around three minutes of discussion.

However, the plans have now been cancelled because the podcasts would have breached the broadcaster’s agreement with the rights holder.

“Due to terms still under negotiation, our own lawyers have advised us to pull back the podcasts,” said NRK technology adviser Oyvind Solstad. “This is not how we would like things to be… But we can’t break our agreements.”

NRK made a deal with TONO, who own the rights to work recorded by Norwegian artists, to make their archive material available as free downloads online. However, their agreement with the IFPI, who own the rights to the Beatles’ back catalogue, only allowed for podcasts of programmes aired within the last month.

The original documentary series Our Daily Beatles, which spawned the potential podcasts, was broadcast in 2007 and thus ineligible under the deal.

Solstad revealed that NRK had opted to reject a possible loophole by deciding not to re-broadcast the documentary series, saying: “We could have done it, but choose not to. I think the record company would have tried to stop it anyway.”

The Beatles’ back catalogue has never been made available as a legal download and Sir Paul McCartney admitted last year that talks to release their songs on iTunes had “stalled”.