Perez Hilton + Warner Music

Ok, I really don’t like to slam the whole blog movement, because one day I wouldn’t mind it helping out this old gal, but this just too much. NY Times is reporting that Perez Hilton, aka Mario Lavandeira, is in talks with Warner Music for his own label. Yep, you heard right. While I give Perez credit for outing closeted actors and sucking Hollywood's ass to make himself a celebrity, this is way too much. See, the thing with his “predictions” is that they are usually submitted by the readers. It is not like Perez is scouring clubs all over the country for the next best things, which most A&R reps do. What he does is utilize his website, which garners an insane amount of traffic each day, to publicize acts that are on the verge of breaking big. And sure, his site gets so much traffic, which might have something to do with the level of self-promotions, that anything on his site is going to pick up traffic for themselves. But this is incredibly different then doing the A&R for a small imprint on a major label.

Just ask Ultragrrrl, aka Sarah Lewitinn, who actually had a large amount of experience breaking bands to mainstream, i.e. My Chemical Romance, before most adults in the record business heard of them. The original music blogger, who became a celebrity with her pocket dj books and stints on "I love the 90's", gathered so much attention for her predictions that Island/Def Jam Records gave her own imprint in 2005. But just last year, her small imprint, Stolen Transmission left Island/Def Jam Records, after record sales and promotions were weak. With hands on experience at music mags, like SPIN and channels, like VH1 and Fuse, if she couldn’t make it work with a major label, how can Perez?

Since details are yet to be confirmed on Perez’s deal, everything is alleged right now, but so far he is expected to get $100,000 a year, as well as bonuses and sales percentages on bands and artists that do extremely well. Hilton promotes shows in various major cities, has incredible hits on his site and now has a voice on VH1, so odds are any band that finds their way to his label will do well for the first few years. And now I am wondering will Perez be sharing any of this anticipated wealth with his contributors, the readers of his site? Odds are, not so much.

Let’s just hope we aren’t going to see a bunch of album covers with “jizz stains” all over it.