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Even though the music file sharing service Napster was taken to the US courts eight years ago and forced to go legit, the illegal download community is still being presented as the final nail in the coffin for the music industry.

But rather than kowtowing to these apocalyptic forecasts, some bands, such as Radiohead, have embraced the shift towards online downloadable material by using the appropriation and manipulation of their own music as a marketing technique.

After their contract with EMI came to a close in 2004, Radiohead, believing the relationship to be a decaying business model, decided not to renew the agreement and go it alone.

Although the band had already established a regularly updated personalised blog and MySpace page, by owning all the rights to their music they had the autonomy to instigate their first high-profile online marketing stunt by releasing their new album In Rainbows online and, amazingly, allowing customers to name their own price.

By forcing consumers to make a conscious decision about the value of music, the band generated a plethora of word-of-mouth marketing and created an image that Radiohead was not interested in making money but in the music ?itself – something many bands strive for, but rarely achieve.

With the middleman successfully cut out, Radiohead launched a ?series of user-generated content initiatives to build on their intimate relationship with the consumer, beginning with a tie-up with iTunes to release segmented portions of tracks for fans to create remixes.

They then launched a competition, in conjunction with the animation site aniboom.com, to create a music video for any of the new ?album’s tracks, with the winner set to receive a $10,000 prize to produce a full-length video.

Although none of these were original marketing concepts, Radiohead have transposed them online, and created an intimacy with their fan base that’s spurred not only a wealth of creative user-generated content, but also a culture of creativity that no band of that size has ever achieved.

Their latest video, for the track House of Cards, took the open-armed approach to digital one step further. Made using geometric informatics, the video was produced entirely from data captured by ?lasers, and without the use of video cameras.

Once again, the band have used an existing technology, but by showcasing the video on Google, alongside a making of documentary as well as the data itself, they’ve convinced audiences they are breaking new ground.

The innovative execution of these initiatives has sparked suspicion that behind what appears to be a uniquely personal approach driven by the band could be a team of marketers driving the ideas – after all, the music industry has shown itself to be  hugely manipulative.

But, amazingly, it transpires that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Although the House of Cards video was a combined effort between the band and their American record label TBD, the rest of their marketing initiatives are pretty much all conceived by the band, a spokesman for Radiohead’s UK distributor explains.

Undeniably, a globally popular band such as Radiohead are in a unique position to exploit the digital medium, especially user-generated content, without the fear of a consumer backlash that may plague other brands.

As Gavin Gordon-Rogers, the executive creative director at Agency Republic, explains: You can’t just be a big car company making gas-guzzling cars and throw out video footage and expect people to fawn over you.

What’s more, functioning as both the product, marketing department and agency enables the band to make snap decisions and implement ideas, without having to navigate the bureaucracy of marketing management, not to mention constant cab trips across town.

It’s also about money, Richard Skinner, a creative associate at ?Fallon, who has a long history of working at record labels, points out.

Radiohead don’t have much to lose. They will have spent about £5,000 on making a video so they can afford to give it away.

An agency isn’t going to say, ‘Hey kids, come and fuck around with our £500,000 ad’, are they?

But brands don’t need to turn into globally recognised entertainers in order to learn from Radiohead.

By mimicking their ad hoc approach to online marketing and moving away from glaringly obvious marketing strategies that can alienate consumers, brands could establish a far more personal relationship with them.

They’ve integrated with the fabric of the web rather than creating an island they’re trying to protect and bring people to, because they realise that’s not a sustainable way of doing things, Iain Tait, a founding partner at Poke and author of the blog www.crackunit.com, says.

Clients also need to relinquish control to the consumer and have the bravery to trust their audience.

Clients need to stop coming to agencies with not only the problem, but the solution they want and the type of response they expect.

The more clients are open to receiving a response they didn’t expect, the more likely they are to do famous work, Gordon-Rogers adds.

Replicating Radiohead’s nomadic presence on the web, and their fearless approach to online marketing, may only be suited to a niche group of brands, but those that are willing to take similar leaps of faith could reap huge rewards.

        A consensus estimate produced by 17 Chinese and foreign institutes is that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow 10 percent and the consumer price index (CPI) will rise 6.1 percent during the third quarter, down 0.1 percentage points and 1.7 percentage points, respectively, from the second quarter.
        ”The government’s tight monetary policy is beginning to work to bring down inflation with the quickened pace of renminbi appreciation and a slowdown in money supply and GDP growth, ” Lu Feng, a professor at Peking University and one of the forecasters, said on Monday.
        ”The dramatic increase in demand since last year was driven by money supply growth,” said Song Guoqing, another Peking University economist. “However, statistics released in June showed a steady downward trend in money supply.
        ”Besides, a large portion of the ‘hot money’ is deposited in banks to profit on interest rate and foreign exchange rate differentials. Plunging stocks have caused wealth losses. These are being translated into a slower pace of fund circulation,” said Song.
        ”Considering changes in the pace of fund circulation and money supply, the growth rate in overall demand is expected to continue slowing,” Song observed.
        China’s GDP grew 10.6 percent in the first quarter and 10.1 percent in the second, with 10.4 percent growth for the first half of 2008. The CPI stood at 7.9 percent in the first half.

      MASSIVE JOB AND WAGE LOSSES

       Every state lost good-paying jobs;Displaced workers’ lost wages surpassed $19 billion in 2007
WASHINGTON – As the nation’s economic woes mount, a new study details the devastating impact that the growing U.S. trade deficit with China is having on American jobs, wages and key industries. Between 2001 and 2007, 2.3 million American jobs were lost due to the China trade gap, including 366,000 last year, according to the report released today by the Economic Policy Institute .
        Those displaced workers lost an average of $8,146 in wages last year, a total of $19.4 billion, as they took lower-paying jobs. China is also the predominant source of downward pressure on wages of other production workers, about 100 million Americans. Competition from low-wage workers in less developed countries and less bargaining power here at home pushed the median wage for full-time workers without a college degree – about 70 percent of the U.S. workforce – down about $1,400 in 2006.
         Contrary to the stereotype and to some economic theories which hold that jobs lost are predominantly in low-skill, low-pay industries, the trade deficit with China has in fact forced workers from better-paying jobs to lower-paying sectors. More than half (55.6 percent) of the displaced jobs were in the top half of American wage earners. Nearly a third (31 percent) of the jobs lost were among workers with a college degree. Growing China trade deficits have contributed to the loss of 200,000 scientist and engineer jobs within the manufacturing sector, a 10.7 percent drop.
       The U.S. trade deficit with China increased from $84 billion in 2001, when China was granted entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), to $262 billion last year. Proponents claimed China’s admission to the WTO would increase U.S. exports and reduce the trade deficit, but instead the gap has increased by an average of $30 billion a year, or 21 percent annually.
        “This new data is a wake-up call about the devastating effect of our unbalanced China trade on American jobs, wages and our economy,” said EPI senior economist Robert Scott, author of the report. “The damage is being felt in every state. And as the trade deficit continues to grow and China moves into higher-wage sectors, the trend lines on the future loss of jobs and depression of incomes are especially alarming.”
         The jobs lost due to the China-trade deficit range from those in traditional manufacturing to newer technology sectors. The largest states lost the most jobs since 2001 – with California losing over 325,000, Texas nearly 203,000 and New York about 127,000. Eleven states lost more than 10,000 jobs last year alone. But smaller states, in many cases, lost the largest share of their total state employment to the China trade gap. For example, Idaho’s job losses were the equivalent to 2.6 percent of its workforce, New Hampshire 2.5 percent, and South Carolina 2.3 percent.
         The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States and around the world. EPI’s mission is to inform people and empower them to seek solutions that will ensure broadly shared prosperity and opportunity.
         More than two-thirds of the lost jobs were in manufacturing, which generally pays better wages and benefits. The type of manufactured goods imported, however, is changing. “China is rapidly diversifying its export base and expanding into higher value-added commodities such as computer and electronic products, aircraft, and auto parts and machinery,” the report said.
        Rapidly growing imports of computers and electronic parts accounted for nearly half of the $178 billion increase in the trade deficit between 2001 and 2007. More than a quarter of last year’s trade deficit, $68 billion, was due to advanced technology products, nearly six times the deficit in 2002. In contrast, the United States has a $15 billion trade surplus with the rest of the world in advanced technology products. The growth in the U.S.-China trade deficit has eliminated 561,000 jobs in computer and electronic products since 2001, more than 3.5 times the loss in the apparel sector.
       “The direct impact on incomes, more than $8,000 per displaced worker per year on average, is catastrophic for the individual workers and the single most visible cost of globalization for American workers,” said EPI economist Josh Bivens. “But it’s also critical to recognize the indirect impact of trade on workers. Trade with less developed countries has reduced the bargaining power of all workers in the U.S. economy who resemble those displaced workers in education, credentials, and skills. Annual earnings for workers without a four-year college degree are roughly $1,400 lower today because of this competition, and, this group constitutes a large majority (70%) of the entire U.S. workforce. China, the source of nearly 40 percent of our non-oil imports from less developed countries, is a chief contributor to this downward wage pressure.”
        The growing trade imbalance with China displaced about 230,000 black workers and 339,000 Hispanics. Asian Americans and other minorities lost over 219,000 jobs, a disproportionately large share.
       “The major causes of the skyrocketing trade deficit with China are no mystery,” said Scott. “China’s manipulation of its currency makes the yuan artificially cheap, effectively subsidizing exports. Beijing’s suppression of labor rights lowers wages. China subsidizes some key industries and maintains barriers to some imports. We must demand a fundamental change in exchange rate policies and labor standards in the Chinese economy as a critical first step toward restoring a level playing field where American workers can compete fairly.”

        On July 24, the Free Trade Agreement between the governments of the People’s Republic of China and the New Zealand signed in Beijing on April 7 was passed by an overwhelming majority of the New Zealand Parliament, with 104 affirmative votes and 17 dissenting votes. Upon the approval of this decision by the Governor-General of New Zealand, the domestic procedures needed to be fulfilled by both sides shall be completed, and the agreement shall go into effect as of October 1, 2008.
        The Free Trade Agreement between the governments of the People’s Republic of China and the New Zealand is the first comprehensive FTA covering cargo trade, trade in services, investment and many other areas signed between China and other countries. It is also the first FTA signed between China and the developed countries.
        After the agreement becomes effective, China and New Zealand shall, according to their respective commitment, reciprocally reduce the cargo trade customs duty, open trade in services market, facilitate the personnel flowing between the two countries, protect and promote the two-way investment and strengthen the communications and cooperation in the fields of customs, inspection and quarantine, intellectual property rights, etc.

    China’s fixed-assets investment in the first five months amounted to 4.026 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.6 percent. Investment in real estate totaled 951.9 billion yuan, 31.9 percent higher than in the same period of last year.

    The National Statistics of Bureau of China (NSBC) released the figures on Monday.

    By the end of the May, a total of 2.72 trillion yuan have been planned for investment in newly-initiated projects, reflecting the future investment direction; and was down 2.5 percent.

    Among the different industries, the mining industry saw the highest increase. Statistics show that from January to May, the coal mining and dressing industry investment grew by 47 percent; and the non-ferrous metal mining and dressing, smelting and rolling processing industry increased by 41.5 percent.

Petrol will cost 0.8 yuan (12 cents) and diesel 0.92 yuan more for a liter from today, and electricity charges for commercial units will go up by 0.025 yuan ($0.4 cents) per kWh from July 1.The price of aviation fuel has been raised, too, by 1500 yuan ($217) a ton, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The prices of natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), however, remain unchanged.

Urban and rural residents and the farming and fertilizer production sectors have, however, been exempted from the increased electricity charges. Areas in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu hit by the May 12 quake too have been exempted, the NDRC said.

The government was forced to raise oil prices from midnight last night, the first time in eight months, because of the soaring price of crude in the international market.

The move is expected to bring some relief to domestic refineries, which have been reeling under losses, and ensure a stable supply of oil in the market. “The increase in the prices will benefit domestic oil companies,” the NDRC said in a statement yesterday.

The price of crude oil in the international market has crossed $130 a barrel. Crude price is linked fully with the international market in China, while prices of refined petroleum products are still controlled by the government.

Because of the big gap between the high crude price abroad and the relatively low price at home, China’’s oil refineries have suffered huge losses.

The country’’s largest refinery, Sinopec, incurred a loss of more than 20 billion yuan in its refining business in the first quarter of this year.

The largest oil company, PetroChina, saw its net profit fall by more than 30 percent in the first three months, with losses in its refining wing being the biggest contributor.

Analysts said the high consumer price index (CPI) in recent months had been a deterrent for an increase in oil prices.

The country’’s CPI, the main gauge of inflation, rose 8.5 percent year-on-year in April. It was 8.3 percent in March and a nearly a 12-year-high of 8.7 percent in February.

It, however, dropped to 7.7 percent in May, paving the way for the government to increase oil prices, an analyst said.

But increased oil prices could push up the rate of inflation, Zhou Dadi, vice-director of China Energy Research Society said.

Electricity charges

The government will raise the electricity tariff to prevent power companies from incurring further losses.

The price of coal will be brought under government control temporarily, the NDRC said, because soaring coal price is the main factor behind higher electricity charges.

The increase in power tariff will help the development of desulfurization equipment in the power plants, and renewable energy sources such as wind power and biomass power, the NDRC said.

The increase in power tariff will not create a big impact on the CPI because urban and rural residents have been exempted.

       Home prices registered their sharpest annual declines in at least two decades as consumer gloom about the labor market deepened, according to two closely watched surveys.

       The S&P/Case-Shiller index, which tracks prices in 20 U.S. markets, found that in the 10 metropolitan areas it has tracked since 1987, prices declined 17% in May compared to the same month a year earlier, the largest annual decline since the survey began. Home prices in 20 metropolitan areas followed since 2000 dropped 16% in May from a year earlier, with a decline of 23% since the peak in July 2006.

       On a month-to month basis, the 10-market survey declined 1% in May and the 20-market survey dropped by 0.9% Not all the data were negative. Of the 20 markets tracked, house prices rose in seven in May from April. But many economists said the housing market has yet to bottom out nationally because home supply still outstrips demand.

       Las Vegas and Miami, once hot housing markets, had the biggest drops in value, declining 28.4% and 28.3%, in May from a year earlier. Prices in those areas also fell 2.9% and 3.6%, respectively, in May on a month-to-month basis. Charlotte and Dallas were the only two markets to have three straight months of rising house prices.

       “It’s not all a matter of tighter financial conditions scaring borrowers,” said Alan D. Levenson, chief economist for T. Rowe Price Associates. “Borrowers don’t want to borrow as much because the expected returns aren’t as great.”

       Separately, the Conference Board said its consumer-confidence index rose slightly to 51.9 in July from 51.0 in June, the first increase after six months of sharp drops. But consumers’ assessment of their job prospects worsened somewhat, with those saying that jobs are harder to find increasing by about 0.6 percentage point.

       About 16% of respondents now expect their family income to decrease in the next six months, up from 9.8% at the start of 2008. That is the highest reading since the survey began in 1967.

       The gain in the overall index came from slightly improved expectations, which rose to 43.0 from 41.4, as gas prices edged downward and the stock market improved. Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, said consumer confidence was still “extraordinarily weak.”

Just to prove that weird things happen when clients decide “Social Networking” is the next big thing they should jump into.. McDonald’s “Big Mac Chant Off,” went looking for the best performance of its “Two all-beef patties” jingle, they soon found a winner. But one of the runners-up is grabbing the headlines… Why? ‘Cos he held up a McDonald’s back in 1994!

Launched on June 16 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Big Mac, the contest asked users to perform their own version of the famous Big Mac ingredient list and to post the results to a contest page on MySpace, the 1,000 entries were winnowed down to 5 finalists, one of which was Tamien Bain and his hip hop-flavored entry. Bain, revealed that he served 12 years in prison for holding up a Miami-area McDonald’s restaurant at gunpoint on Memorial Day 1994. Bain was 14 at the time of the crime, but was charged as an adult! He served his full term.

Kent Voetberg, marketing director for McDonald’s Corp., says that Bain’s “interesting” background never posed any problem regarding his contest eligibility.