Whattup, G?

On CNET, Is Google's Eric Schmidt the next David Geffen?, in which the mighty G-Force emerges as the next great powerbroker in the music business, what with the current re-negotiations over 3/4 of the Majors' licensing deals with YouTube underway (WMG has thrown its rattle well clear of the pram), and its mobile OS Android underpinning Amazon.com's MP3 sales system. The real question for me is why no-one appears to have seen this coming. I followed a link from this to Amazon, Apple and the price of music from January, which has lots of juicy tidbits on recent shenanigans in the paid online music space. Are the major labels and Amazon in cahoots to stymie Apple? Does MySpace Music have any legs? Is anyone using DRM any more at all? Great stuff.

Symphony of destruction

The New York Times reports on 14-year-old Danny Johnson, who recently broke the record score on Guitar Hero III. He says he's busted 80 guitar controllers in nine months of intensive practice -- he broke the one he used to beat the record -- but his new sponsorship deal should pay for the next hundred at least.

Two best bits:
"When you’re hitting that many notes and playing that fast, it just terrorizes the controller," said Scott Johnson, 45, Danny’s father.
Danny, who plays piano, guitar, drums, saxophone and oboe in real life, said his Guitar Hero prowess made it easier to complete complicated sequences on an actual guitar.

Danny has his own YouTube channel run by his brother. Here he is pulling off 100% on 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia'. Watch and marvel.