HOT
Sell ’Phones
The high-end headphones craze popularized by Dr. Dre’s Beats looks to only be getting bigger in 2013. Several other artists have entered the ’phone business, but it’s mostly hip hoppers like 50 Cent and Ludacris. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, according to Billboard, some notable Rock & Roll musicians announced that they were entering the potentially lucrative headphones fray, even though their reputation as one of the world’s loudest bands suggests earplugs might have been the way to go. If there’s too much bass in your Dre headphones, try Motorheadphones, which bring out the mid-range frequencies of Rock music (like, say, Motorhead’s) better. For those with sensitive ears, keep holding out hope that Christopher Cross-branded “all-treble” headphones are on their way.
WARM
Copyright Does Beatles Wrong
Thanks to laws established by the European Union, the copyrights on recordings from 1962 have run out and those tracks are now considered part of public domain, giving anyone in Europe the right to release and profit from a song like The Beatles’ debut single from 1962, “Love Me Do.” In the U.S., copyright on a recording now runs out 95 years after a work is published. But the standard in Europe had long been 50 years, which is why rights owners of various 1960s recordings were in a panic until the EU finally voted to extend the period to 70 years. Fear not, those planning on dropping a two-hour compilation of “Love Me Do” remixes on iTunes — the extension is only for recordings from 1963 or later.
COLD
Congressional Haters
According to a new poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, the American people think Congress sucks. Those polled were asked to compare their opinion of Congress to a variety of widely disliked entities. The poll revealed Genghis Khan, carnies, NFL replacement refs, cockroaches, Brussels sprouts, lice, Donald Trump and noted punching bag, Nickelback, are all more popular than Congress. That’s enough to make John Boehner weep (even more than usual). The poll found Congress is prefered over a few things — North Korea, meth labs, the ebola virus, the Kardashians, Linsday Lohan and gonorrhea. So keep an eye out for the “Nickelback: More Popular Than Gonorrhea” T-shirt, coming soon to a Hot Topic near you.
