Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

Blender lists 20 of the biggest record label screw-ups of all time. All the favourites are there: crushing Napster and thereby creating countless illegal filesharing outlets; not signing the Beatles; Stax and Motown being flogged off for pittances. But there's also a couple we'd not heard of before:

How sure was MCA that slinky Irish teen Carly Hennessy was going to be a gargantuan pop star? So sure that in 1999 they staked the former Denny’s sausage spokesmodel with a $100,000 advance, $5,000 a month in living expenses and an apartment in Marina Del Rey, California, spending roughly $2.2 million in all on her 2001 debut, Ultimate High. How wrong were they? In its first three months in stores, Ultimate High sold a whopping 378 copies, putting the label’s investment somewhere in the order of $5,820 per copy sold. Last seen, Hennessy had resurfaced—still looking for her big break—on season seven of American Idol.

[Thanks to Michael M]