My First Annual X-Factor Predictions - Season 1 - 2011

As some of you know, each year I would make my predictions for who I thought would win American Idol and in what order I thought the contestants would be voted off. I also invited others to post their predictions in the comments or email them to me. We would then score our predictions each week as contestants were voted off. (Here were the predictions and score results for the AI predictions for the last four seasons: 2011 - 2010 - 2009 - 2008)

I've decided to do the same for the X Factor. Not sure how many of you who have participated in the AI predictions are also following the X Factor, so I may be the only one, but at least I'll be on record with my predictions here.

As I normally do with AI, I'm setting my predictions after the first performance night of the Top 12, which was last night.

Here are my predictions for this first season of the X Factor. As always, I'm not saying these are my PERSONAL favorites, but just how I think America will end up voting. (Although my top two predictions also happen to be my two favorites.) If you haven't been following X Factor, you can still hear how each of these artists sounds by clicking their photos below and sample 90 seconds of their songs from iTunes.

My predictions are:














Click arrow button to sample their performances.
#1 is my predicted winner, and #12 my
prediction as first to be voted off.

As with the American Idol seasons, email me with YOUR predictions or post them as a comment to this thread, and we'll use the same point system used in previous years with AI to see who is winning at the end of each week and how we all did by the end of the season. Don't worry if you miss sending me your predictions before they start voting people off this week, as the point system takes into account when you jumped in with your predictions with a penalty for jumping in late. (You can see the details of how the scoring works below.)

To make it easy to email or post your predictions, here are the contestant's names in text form, so you can easily cut, paste and move them around in the order you predict.

Melanie Amaro
Astro
LeRoy Bell
Marcus Cante
Rachel Crow
Drew
Stacey Francis
Stereo Hogzz
Intensity
Josh Krajcik
Lakoda Rayne
Chris Rene

Let's see who has the golden ears and can spot what America likes.

Kevin

SCORING POINT SYSTEM: Every week, you get 1 point for every number off you were for where someone would be voted off. For example, if you predict Astro will make it to #2, but he gets voted off #4, then you get 2 points. If you guess it smack on, you get no points. Like Golf, the LOWEST SCORE WINS.

BONUS POINTS: Top Three Bonus: You get to deduct 1 bonus point for each of the top three contestants you correctly guessed. Top Two Bonus: You get to deduct 3 bonus points if you guessed the Top 2 correctly. Winner Bonus: You get to deduct 5 bonus points if you predict the winner. (This can matter, so think hard on your top 3!)

PENALTY POINTS FOR LATE ENTRANTS: All predictions must be in BEFORE the performances this Thursday night (November 3rd). If you're predictions come in after that time, you are penalized 4 points OR the maximum points anyone else was off for the first round (when they vote off #12), whichever is higher. If you miss the first two rounds, you are penalized 8 points OR the maximum points anyone else was off for the second round (when they vote off #11), whichever is higher. No more entries after the first two rounds and we are down to 10 contestants.

117 of My Favorite Albums Growing Up

I just got back from seeing the movie Pirate Radio. I really liked it (8 out of 10 stars for me), particularly the music. It was great listening to all that music I grew up to, and the movie reminded me just how much I miss "albums," something we seemed to have lost with the digital music revolution. Watching this movie inspired me to put the below collage together of 117 albums that most influenced me growing up. I'm sure I missed some, but this gives you an idea of what shaped my musical tastes. Other than grouping the same band/artist together, these are in no particular order. (Click to enlarge.)

117 of My Favorite Albums Growing Up
(In no particular order) - Click to Enlarge.

How many of these do you know? Did any have an impact on you? What great albums did I miss? What were some of your most influential records growing up?

Kevin

My Video Tribute to Michael Jackson and 40 other "stars" who died too young.

I've been working with Jayson Haws on his first solo CD and it's just about finished. It's turning out to be an amazing collection of songs (more on that in a future blog). One of the songs on the CD is called "Stars." As I was listening to some of the early mixes of Stars, I couldn't help but think how appropriate the song was to the passing of not just Michael Jackson, but to the many "stars" who passed away far too young. Even though the song isn't finished, I asked Jayson if he wouldn't mind if I used it to pay tribute to Michael Jackson and the others. He was pleased to oblige.

So, here is my tribute to Michael Jackson and 40 others whose stars stopped shining far too soon.

How many of the 40 can you name? Which had the biggest impact on your life? Who did I miss? Post a comment and let me know. (After you watch the video, for the full list, scroll down. You can also scroll down for the lyrics.)



Click here to watch in Super High Def or to download.

Dedicated to Michael Jackson, Annie, Sara, and (in order of appearance)...

1. Kurt Cobain (27)
2. Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith (34)
3. Jimi Hendrix (27)*
4. Janis Joplin (27)*
5. Jim Morrison (27)*
6. Brian Jones (27)
7. Keith Moon (32)*
8. Jeff Buckley (30)
9. Freddie Mercury (45)*
10. The Notorious B.I.G. (24)
11. Tupac Shakur (25)
12. Heath Ledger (28)
13. Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes (30)
14. Kevin Gilbert (29)*
15. Selena (23)
16. James Dean (24)
17. Marilyn Monroe (36)
18. John Belushi (33)*
19. Chris Farley (33)*
20. Phil Hartman (49)*
21. Jerry Garcia (53)
22. John Denver (53)*
23. Karen Carpenter (32)*
24. Bob Marley (36)
25. Buddy Holly (22)*
26. Ritchie Valens (17)
27. Marvin Gaye (44)
28. River Phoenix (23)
29. Aaliyah (22)
30. Ronnie Van Zant (29)
31. Stevie Ray Vaughan (35)
32. Soldiers*
33. Victims of 911*
34. Crew of the Columbia Space Shuttle
35. John F. Kennedy (46)*
36. John F. Kennedy, Jr. (38) & Robert F. Kennedy (42)
37. Princess Diana (36)
38. Elvis Presley (42)*
39. George Harrison (58)*
40. John Lennon (40)*

*Those who most impacted my life.

Here are the lyrics. (Used by permission. (C) 2009, Jayson Haws.)

Stars by Jayson A. Haws

Hello, hello, are you in there
I'm as dark as the night
Let go, let go, find your freedom
Take a taste and chase the high

Colorful comes and color goes
Like throwing a stone through a stained glass window
We all disappear before we know

So look at the stars
We're beautifully blind
People are speaking in lullaby

With a shift of your glance
Your flowers have dried
We are just moments here
We're moments passing by

Jump off, jump off, this is living
You know I'm terrified of heights
The loss is the cost of your giving
You find your way a day at a time

Colorful comes and color goes
Like throwing a stone through a stained glass window
We all disappear before we know

So look at the stars
We're beautifully blind
People are speaking in lullaby
With a shift of your glance
Your flowers have dried
We are just moments here
We're moments here

Spinning 'round and 'round we go
We all fall down, we all should know
We circle for a moment around what is life

So look at the stars
We're beautifully blind
People are speaking in lullaby
With a shift of your glance
Your flowers have dried
We are just moments passing by
Passing by
We are just moments here

So look at the stars baby
Look at the stars all night
All night....

Kevin

PS: I've been asked why I didn't include Farrah Fawcett. Granted, her passing at 62 was too young, but I only included those who died before the age of 59.

Lala Music Service - THEE Best Place to Download DRM-Free Music!

In my last blog I called out Michael Robertson for his bogus put down of the Lala music service. Today I want to show you why Lala is hands-down my favorite place to buy DRM-free music.

Lala.com has:

• NO DRM! Use songs on virtually any computer, phone or other music device.
• The lowest prices.
• The best selection.
• High-quality 256 kbps MP3 files.
• The fastest way to find, sample, buy and download pretty much any song or CD.
• Instant sync with iTunes.
• Sample over 6 million FULL songs (not just 30-second clips).

For example, today I wanted to buy Paul McCartney's first solo record, McCartney. iTunes didn't offer it. Amazon only sold the CD, but didn't offer it in their MP3 store. But, watch how easy it was to find, buy and download it from Lala:



In his blog this week, Robertson is yet again trying to get you to think poorly of Lala in favor of his failing MP3tunes venture. Don't fall for his propaganda. Most people don't even care about a silly "locker" for their music, as they prefer to have their music stored on THEIR hard drive and devices. You can buy a 1 Terabyte drive at Costco for around $100. (In my opinion, anyone who stores their music at MP3tunes and expects that company to be around in the future is kidding themselves. Look at what happened to MP3.com, Linspire, and other Robertson ventures. Where are they today?)

I encourage you to give Lala a try. It doesn't get any easier to find, buy and download high-quality, DRM-free music. I'm happy to finally see a legit site that respects artists and copyright law and that is easier and more convenient to use than piracy.

Thanks Lala!

Kevin

Click image above to see why Lala is the best music service

Michael Robertson Wants To Fool You About the Lala Music Store

I worked with Michael Robertson for seven years and watched first hand his methods. Anyone who follows my blog knows I wasn't impressed with his ethics or tactics. If you want to see a typical example of how Robertson tries to fool people to get his way by misrepresenting the facts (like when he falsely charged former employees for embezzlement to get money from his bank), look at his latest blog where he puts down the successful music service Lala.

The REAL reason Robertson dislikes Lala.

To me, this seems to be Robertson's typical cycle: start a business, fail, then start tossing garbage at the companies who did it right and succeeded, thereby justifying his failure. Linspire lost to Red Hat, Novell and Canonical (Ubuntu). MP3tunes lost to Lala. SipPhone lost to Skype. And so it goes, leaving Robertson with plenty of companies to whine about.

Let's look at his latest drivel about Lala to see his typical MO:

First he starts off like a politician, by trying to scare you with some horrible, over-the-top threat that only he can protect you from: "An insidious new plot to wrestle control of your personal music library is underway." He then goes on to compare it to a "roach motel." Ohhhh, the drama! Whatever shall we do?!? Please Michael, save us from this "insidious new plot!"

Robertson talks about how Lala must be evil because it has taken investment from music companies. I have absolutely no idea if that's true or not (as I don't believe anything that comes from of Robertson), but what I DO know is that when I was CEO of Linspire, Robertson was more than happy to have Linspire take millions of dollars from "the evil" Microsoft and partner with them. So I guess Microsoft was pulling all of Michael's strings at Linspire?

Robertson put millions in his own pocket that came directly from Microsoft ($3M while I was CEO, and I'm sure more after I left). The money that flowed from Microsoft to Robertson more than likely helped fund MP3tunes. So, using Michael's logic, we can all assume that Microsoft is pulling the strings at MP3tunes, right? Such hypocrisy. The only reason MP3tunes isn't backed by "big music," is because big music is smarter than that. Warner Music tried one time to partner with Robertson and got stabbed in the back the second the ink was dry on the agreement. If one of the big record labels offered to put money into MP3tunes, Robertson would take it in a minute, just like he did at Linspire with the Microsoft deal.

Robertson's claim that he will never "sell out the consumer," is utter rubbish. As CEO at Linspire, I didn't see him raise one objection to Linspire's "deal with the devil" Microsoft, or him concerned in the least about how this would affect the consumer. All I saw him care about was how big was the check and him making sure that $3M was wired to his personal account on the very day we got paid from Microsoft to cover a line of credit Linspire had with Robertson. Many times I watched Robertson intentionally do things that would annoy our users because it would sell more product. As soon as I became CEO, I made CNR free and put out a free version of Linspire (Freespire), all going against what Roberson did as CEO. Robertson helped to justify Microsoft's patent claims when Linspire entered into their deal with Microsoft, so his claims of being the champion against patents, DRM, and protecting consumers' rights rings hollow. I only thing I saw Robertson ever care about was himself, his ego and his net worth. Robertson is the one person I know who can make the big record labels seem like good, honest, honorable people.

Next comes more lies and half truths. He says, "To participate you just need to upload all the tracks from your personal library." Lala should sue Robertson for that line, because it's total rubbish. You don't have to upload a single song from your library to participate at LaLa, but by lying about this, Robertson can make Lala seem so much more "insidious," so why let the truth get in the way?

Robertson's nonsense continues with, "Your music will be controlled by Lala and will eventually vanish, because no company lasts forever." There is no truth to the first part, and the second part would apply even more so to Robertson's companies, given their poor performance.

If you upload your music library to Lala, you are in no way transferring ownership or control of that music. You will still have all your music on your computer's hard drive or on your CDs. Lala can't touch those files and in no way does it "control your music." Lala could go out of business tomorrow and you'd still have your music. (Besides, if anyone's going out of business, my money is on MP3tunes tanking long before Lala.)

Robertson then offers a table where he laughably labels LaLa as the "Record Label Locker," and MP3tunes the "Consumer Locker." Robertson insults the reader with this transparent "BS." Lala is an independent music service, even though Robertson wants to scare you into believing otherwise.

Here's the table I'd offer you about Lala, the one Robertson DOESN'T want you to see:


Read what Ed Bott has to say about Lala on ZDnet.

Most of the popular music stores now all offer non-DRM MP3 files, so Robertson has to start finding other excuses to pick at them. Most consumers just want the lowest cost MP3, and Lala is an excellent service for that, perhaps the best. MP3tunes has little content and can't possibly compete with Lala there, so Robertson wants to scare you about their locker service, which honestly, most consumers don't even care about. (Most people can carry their entire music collection in the palm of their hand and sync it to all their devices without a locker, rendering MP3tunes useless.)

From what I hear, all the best employees have left MP3tunes and there are hardly any employees even left there. Why would anyone want to waste their time uploading their music to a business that will probably go the way of MP3.com, Linspire, AJAX Windows, and so many other ventures started by Robertson?

I've had years of watching Robertson closely. I wouldn't trust anything he says. If you want to have a great selection of music that you can buy in non-DRM MP3s, I'd ignore Robertson and check out Lala. You'll see why it's succeeding.

Kevin

My Second Annual American Idol Predictions - Season 8 - 2009

Each year I make my predictions for who I think will win American Idol and in what order I think the contestants will be voted off. (My predictions for last year.)

Here are my predictions for this year. As always, I'm not saying these are my PERSONAL favorites, but just how I think America will end up voting.

My predictions are:

#1...

#2...
#3...
#4...
#5...
#6...
#7...
#8...
#9...
#10...

Let me know your predictions, and come back and see how we did.

Kevin

PS: Here are the contestant's names in text form, so you can easily cut, paste and move them around in the order you predict, if you want to post or email me with your predictions.

Adam Lambert
Allison Iraheta
Anoop Desai
Danny Gokey
Kris Allen
Lil Rounds
Matt Giraud
Megan Joy
Michael Sarver
Scott MacIntyre

My 4th of July Project--Jayson Haws Web Site

Last year when I left Linspire, I decided it was time to get involved with independent music again. One of the most talented recording artists I ever had the pleasure of managing and working with was the singer/songwriter Jayson Haws, lead singer for the popular Salt Lake City band The Given.

Jayson was only about 20 years old at the time, and anyone who worked with him knew he was a musical prodigy and the classic "triple threat," being a solid song writer, with an amazing voice, and a powerful on-stage presence. I watched, time and time again, Jayson blow people away as they watched him perform, be it in the living room of my house with just his acoustic guitar, or on stage in front of hundreds at popular clubs in LA.

Of all the thousands of musicians I was exposed to during the MP3.com days, Jayson was the one I always knew just HAD to break out.

So, what happened?

Like me, Jayson, also took a detour away from music for a few years. Fortunately, these were very good years for Jayson. He made a tremendous amount of progress in his life, got married, had a son, and successfully snubbed out most of the demons of his youth, emerging out the other side better than ever.

Jayson and I had stayed in touch over these past years, and when I left Linspire, I knew I had to get together with him and catch up. I was pleased to discover how Jayson had been spending his time, not only becoming a better man and father, but musically, he was better than ever! I knew this was the time for us both to finish what we had started all those years ago.

Jayson and I started planning his return to the studio, only this time on his own, without The Given. We both instantly agreed who the perfect producer would be for Jayson's first solo CD, our friend and Grammy-winning producer John Jones (Duran-Duran, Fleetwood Mac, Celine Deon, Alan Frew).

I remember that first time John and Jayson met. I'll never forget the look on John's face all those years ago, when Jayson and I drove over to John's house in the Hollywood hills, and Jayson sat on John's couch with just his guitar and sang. John, as I expected, was blown away. (A bit of trivia for any "Lindows" fans, John was my musical cohort for all those silly Linspire parody videos.)

It didn't take any convincing at all. John too knows what a phenomenal talent Jayson is. With just one phone call, John was in his car driving from LA to San Diego for a weekend meeting with Jayson and I. And, so it began. A new year, new songs, and new attitudes.

These past months, we've been working together on the new record. The CD is about 80% done, and we're all giddy with excitement to soon be sharing it with everyone. We're all very happy with how the songs are turning out.

Because we were getting close to finishing, it was time to start thinking about a website for Jayson and his first solo CD project. So, yesterday, for the 4th of July, I decided to get creative and play around with Flash and put together some rough ideas for a website for Jayson. In less than a day, and with the help of a cool new Flash tool (wix.com), here's what I came up with...

http://jaysonhaws.com

There's not a lot of content there yet, but it was a lot of fun just being creative and playing around with ideas for the site. I'll be getting with Jayson in the days ahead and filling in the content and adjusting things to his liking, or scrapping this one all together and doing something different.

I hope you'll all take a look at the new site, and let me know what you think, and PLEASE sign up for Jayson's mailing list, so we can notify you when the CD is finished. You won't regret it!

Kevin

PS: Emily, the "star bursts" are for you. =)