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It must suck to be you, stone22. Quit sucking cock and balls and get your GED.

In case of late-night slashdotting, here's the article:

Customs, travellers will soon see eye to eye
Iris scans promise quicker trips through airports
By Susan Pigg
business Reporter
Advertisement:
WHO'S WHO: Elinor Caplan demonstrates the biometric technology that identifies fliers by their eyes.
If you're thinking that the $39 million iris-scanning program announced for Canada's major airports yesterday is just a clever new way to avoid those sometimes awkward and embarrassing eyeball-to-eyeball encounters with customs agents, think again.

The 12 kiosks that will go into service at Pearson airport and the Vancouver airport next March may be the ideal way for frequent fliers to save time, but there will still be random checks and customs agents watching to see if passengers are smuggling in an extra bottle of booze.

"People who sign up are expected to obey the law, as they have in the past," said National Revenue Minister Elinor Caplan, after unveiling one of the kiosks at Pearson's Terminal 3.

Toronto and Vancouver are about to become the first airports in North America to use biometrics -- iris recognition technology -- to try to cut frustrating waits for frequent travellers without jeopardizing security. Within five years, 27 of the machines, which look like an express check-in kiosk with a lens, will be in place at eight Canadian airports under the CANPASS-Air pilot project.

The United States is looking at the technology as well.

The iris scan is touted as being virtually foolproof as an identification tool because the colourful ring around the pupil is unique from eyeball to eyeball and person and person. Unlike a fingerprint, it can't be replicated, and the machines recognize only "live" eyes.

"With 300,000 people crossing the border every day, experts say looking for a terrorist in a crowd like that is like looking for a needle in a haystack. This technology ... reduces the size of that haystack," Caplan said.

The machines are meant to ensure that costly post-Sept. 11 security at Canada's airports is focused on "people we don't know instead of those that we trust," she added.

`Looking for a terrorist in a crowd like that is like looking for a needle in a haystack. This technology ... reduces the size of that haystack.'

National Revenue Minister Elinor Caplan

For a $50 annual fee, Canadian and U.S. citizens will be able to register for a CANPASS-Air card starting in January. They'll have to pass annual background checks for criminal or immigration offences to get their photo ID card.

Like other travellers entering the country, participants will still have to fill out declaration cards on the plane, detailing how much they spent while out of the country. But instead of having to line up at the customs counter behind a planeload of fellow passengers, participants can just swipe their card at a designated kiosk and put an eyeball up to the lens. When a match is registered, the machine prints out a ticket.

If a passholder goes over the $200 to $750 travellers are allowed to spend, depending on the length of stay outside Canada, the machine will even charge any duties to a preapproved credit card number.

But even CANPASS participants can't avoid customs altogether. An agent won't let participants exit the customs area until they've handed over both the ticket and declaration card. Passholders will also be subject to random checks.

The kiosks, designed by IBM, use technology developed by New Jersey-based Iridian Technologies but marketed and distributed by Mississauga-based RYCOM Inc.

Similar technology is already used in airports in the Netherlands and Britain, as well as some prisons, where it's used to prescreen staff and frequent visitors.

In time, it could also be used to scan airport staff.

While there are privacy concerns around the technology, Caplan stressed it is a voluntary program. The machines screen an iris from a limited range of just 8 to 25 centimetres, making them incapable of acting like traffic-light cameras -- able to do a scan without a person's knowledge.

New security and detection devices continue to be added to airports, ports and border crossings. Caplan said 369 new staff have been hired, 130 at border crossings alone, since last year's terrorist attacks.

... Here's an image to chew on.

Traded in my old piece of scank for this. I'm a much happier man now!

I don't know about you, but I don't care to see CNN's enormous flash ads. The full article is below:

Kids use PlayStation for high-tech homework
Software games add a new challenge to math, language

By Marsha Walton
Playing video games has become homework for some students, but it's not all fun. Games are designed to sharpen math and language skills.
Playing video games has become homework for some students, but it's not all fun. Games are designed to sharpen math and language skills.
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more video VIDEO
Sony PlayStation skills are paying off at schools, reports CNN's Ann Kellan.
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For more stories about science, technology and space, watch Next@CNN at 1 p.m. ET on Saturdays and 4 p.m. ET on Sundays

(CNN) -- "No video games until you finish your homework!"

"But mom, this IS homework!"

For several years now, students in some elementary and middle schools have been able to say that honestly. Instead of just workbooks, paper and pencil, they do some of their math and language assignments on a Sony PlayStation.

"The kids love it. They're interested in it, and if you can get students where they think they're learning and they're playing, it has hit the magic mark," said Joy Davis, assistant principal at Summerour Middle School in Norcross, Georgia.

San Diego-based Lightspan is the company that creates the educational games. Writers, animators, and educators seek out the right mix of fun and learning. And just like game developers who create the explosions and adventures of entertainment video games, one goal at Lightspan is to encourage kids to play each game many times.

"All our games are designed for replayability, to have kids play them over and over again," said Liz Herrick, vice president of curriculum and product design at Lightspan.

"Teachers want kids repeating the content until it becomes totally internalized and automatic for them, so that's one benefit of the game," she said. All the games are tied directly to a school's curriculum.
'Playing' their homework

So what do the kids think?

"I like it because it's challenging, and when I mess up I do it over and over again," said Adel Ahmed, a Summerour student using Lightspan's math games.

Adel's father Jamal says he was a little leery when his son first told him about the learning games. Now he's happy to see him doing math on the PlayStation instead of just his regular fare of shoot 'em up games. Adel's younger sister is watching and listening when her brother "plays" his homework, something his teachers are thrilled to hear.
Kids say the key to good software is a compelling story and interesting characters.
Kids say the key to good software is a compelling story and interesting characters.

"What we're really hoping for is banking for the future, so that brothers and sisters at home who are using this program will be building these skills, which in turn will pay off even more for us down the road," said assistant principal Davis.

Most schools using the Lightspan games encourage parental involvement. In some communities, parents who may not speak much English are encouraged to play the games themselves. At Summerour Middle School for example, 52 flags fly in the cafeteria to represent the nationalities of the student body.

Before getting the PlayStation unit and the Lightspan CDs to take home for the school year, parents must sign a contract promising to monitor and work with their children on homework assignments. And, of course, teachers test students on the material to make sure they're retaining the information. Teachers distribute new games every two or three weeks. The materials at Summerour are bought with federal funds, or schools can buy them on their own. There is no cost to students.
Software for hard work

Before the consoles and CDs were distributed at Summerour, educational consultants from Lightspan walked parents through the hardware and some of the games, in sessions in English and Spanish.

"And, if you have any questions at all after you leave here, just ask your kids," said consultant Adelma Stanford. "They know these things inside out!"

"In the beginning, I thought it was going to be too much of a distraction, but we used it in my classrooms last year, and they were able to stay focused with it," said Summerour seventh-grade math teacher Andrea Robinson-Smith.
Educational consultant Adelma Stanford goes over the hardware and software details with parents before they take the PlayStation units home.
Educational consultant Adelma Stanford goes over the hardware and software details with parents before they take the PlayStation units home.

For years now many teachers have realized they have to go way beyond the chalk and blackboard to keep kids' attention. TV shows like "Schoolhouse Rock" and computer games like "Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego?" have used the technology that kids enjoy to help them remember and want to learn more about math and geography.

The kids at Summerour did have a few recommendations. During some of the math drills they said the music got a little stale, and they sometimes just turned it down. Some said they'd prefer a little rap or a little jazz to go with their calculations of mean, median, and range.

Federal Title 1 education funds pay for the hardware and software in thousands of U.S. schools. Hundreds of follow-up studies have tracked how kids using the software have fared. Standard test scores have gone up in many schools. Most of the educators contacted by CNN said the software was one of many helpful tools for a classroom.

"The concept is a good one; let's capture some of that time away from school for educational purposes," said Dr. Alan Whitworth, director of information technology for Jefferson County Schools in Louisville, Kentucky. "Instructionally, Lightspan is quite sound," he said. Several elementary schools in that school district have used the software since 1998.

Link

In case the site gets slashdotted:

Inside the Rolling Stones Inc.
The Rolling Stones are an astounding moneymaking machine. Here's how Mick Jagger & Co. have perfected the business model behind the most successful act in rock & roll today.
FORTUNE
, 30,
By Andy Serwer

Mick Jagger is wearing a cool pink shirt, slim black trousers, and bright red socks. His hair is--well, there's a lot of it. But don't let the look fool you. Mick is all business. That's business with a capital "B," as in the stuff we write about all the time in the pages of FORTUNE.

I'm up in Jagger's suite in Boston's Four Seasons hotel just before the Stones kick off their worldwide Licks tour. Mick turns down the volume on a boom box, packs off two of his young kids with their nannies, and then holds forth on product pricing, economics, and business models. Jagger is eloquent and informed, but he has a disclaimer: "I don't really count myself as a very sophisticated businessperson," he says as he leans back on the couch. "I'm a creative artist. All I know from business I've picked up along the way. I never really studied business in school. I kind of wish I had, kind of, but how boring is that?" he says with a grin.

Like the protagonist in one of his most devilish songs, Mick has been around for many a long year. He had plenty of smarts to begin with, and now he has 40 years of music industry experience under his belt. Jagger may be getting a trifle old to rock & roll--he'll turn 60 next July--but from a business perspective he's at the top of his game. Which makes sense in a way. After all, that's a typical age for a CEO of a large, multinational organization. (Okay, so most of the CEOs we follow don't have to swivel-hip their way through "Midnight Rambler," but you get the point.)

There are, of course, plenty of detractors who say the Rolling Stones should pack in their guitars and drumsticks. "Way old," they sniff, "and way irrelevant." I have two responses, one subjective and one objective. Subjectively, the Rolling Stones sound pretty damn good, even after all these years. And objectively, if they're such has-beens, then how do you explain the band's phenomenal commercial success over the past decade? No, they aren't writing groundbreaking songs anymore--in fact they haven't really recorded any new material of note in 20 years--but we sure are listening to their old stuff. A lot. And buying concert tickets. Millions and millions of them. And that's the wrinkle here. Even though the Stones have been in what you might call a creatively fallow period, we want to hear them more than ever. Couple that with the fact that they have perfected their business model, and it's easy to understand why they are such an astounding moneymaking machine.

The bottom line is this: "The only rock & roll band that matters," or "the greatest rock & roll band in the world," or whatever you want to call Mick, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood, they are far and away the most successful act in rock today. Since 1989 alone--the beginning of the modern age of the Rolling Stones (more on that later)--the band has generated more than $1.5 billion in gross revenues. That total includes sales of records, song rights, merchandising, sponsorship money, and touring (see charts: Hot Licks and Packing Them In). The Stones have made more money than U2, or Springsteen, or Michael Jackson, or Britney Spears, or the Who--or whoever.

Next: The Rolling Stones Inc. runs on a combustible mix of talent and labor...

Unlike some other groups, the Stones carry no Woodstock-esque, antibusiness baggage. The group has tendrils deep in American business, cutting sponsorship and rights deals with stalwarts like Anheuser-Busch, Microsoft, and Sprint. Remember the old Boston Consulting Group matrix of the four types of businesses? Well, if the Stones were a traditional company, they would be the cash cow.

As with most thriving enterprises, the Rolling Stones Inc. runs on a combustible mix of talent and intense labor--the product of four decades of trial and error. The band downplays the effectiveness of the organization: "I'm sure that if you looked at it and analyzed it, you could say, 'Well, that's fucked up,'" says Jagger. "That shouldn't be like that. No, of course it isn't run well. No show business organization is run well. There's always too much money paid out." Keith, for his part, just shakes his head: "It's a mom-and-pop operation," he laughs. "Mick is the mom, and I'm the pop, and then we have these offspring that need feeding." Well, kind of.

The Stones, or at least some members of the band, can still come across as wiggy rock stars. ("You're talking to the business right now," Richards tells me, holding up his two hands ceremoniously. "These are the business.") But in many respects the Rolling Stones are like any other large business. They are global, they pay taxes (grudgingly), and they litigate. The band has a P&L and budgets, and accountants, and lawyers, and bankers, and investments, and software, and hardware. "They know what they're doing," says Barry Diller, a Jagger confidant. "That's what separates them from any other band."

Spend time with their senior entourage and you quickly realize how the Stones got so market-wise. Sure, Mick attended the London School of Economics ("I mostly studied economic history"), but his greatest talent, besides strutting and singing, is his ability to surround himself and the rest of the band with a group of very able (they probably hate to be called this) executives.

The Rolling Stones are a private and secretive organization. Most of the team, like Joe Rascoff, the band's business manager, and tour director Michael Cohl, stay out of the public eye. So, too, does Prince Rupert Zu Loewenstein, a London-based banker who carries an old Bavarian title and who's been the band's chief business advisor for some 30 years--"and I hope for another 30 too," he says. (Keith calls Loewenstein "the mastermind of our setup.") But just because the Stones' financials aren't public doesn't mean there isn't rigorous benchmarking. "Mick likes to run a pretty tight ship," Keith says to me with a twinkle in his eye.

The business side of the Stones has several facets. As for any executive running a conglomerate, understanding and managing these diverse businesses are the key, says Jagger. "They all have income streams like any other company," he says. "They have different business models; they have different delegated people that look after them. And they have to interlock. That's my biggest problem." And as we will see, his biggest opportunity.

The touring side of the business produces a torrent of revenue when the band is on the road, and then of course absolutely zilch when the tour is done. The record business also blows hot and cold--depending on if a new album is released or if old ones are promoted--though it's not as erratic as touring. Music rights, on the other hand--money paid to a band when its songs are played on, say, the radio--are predictable enough that some artists (most famously David Bowie) have been able to securitize these rights and sell bonds backed by their revenue streams.

To harness these businesses, to make them "interlock," the Stones and Prince Rupert have set up a unique business structure, which looks roughly like this: At the top, not unlike at a blue-chip law firm, is a partnership consisting of the four core members of the group: Jagger, Richards, Watts, and Wood. Do all four get equal shares of touring and new-record sales? No one in the Stones party will touch that one. "In the old days they all got equal splits," says the Stones' former manager, Allen Klein, "but I doubt it now."

Connected to the Stones partnership and Prince Rupert is a group of companies that include Promotour, Promopub, Promotone, and Musidor, each dedicated to a particular aspect of the business. This family of companies is based in the Netherlands, which has tax advantages for foreign bands. When the group isn't touring, these companies employ only a few dozen employees. At the high-water mark of a tour, on the night the band is playing, say, Giants Stadium, the Stones may employ more than 350. Backstage the enterprise resembles a flourishing startup, with dozens of fast-moving junior employees in black T-shirts running around to make sure the IPO, er, the show, gets off without a hitch. It looks crazy, but it works. Perhaps Keith sums it up best: "With our business, who really knows what's what. You go and look at Lake Superior, and you say, 'Look at all that water, and that's just the top!' "

Next: Touring is the biggest moneymaking part of the Stones' operation....

Today touring is professionalized, complete with immigration lawyers, traveling accountants, and real-time budgets. It is also the biggest moneymaking part of the Stones' operation. Since the 1989 Steel Wheels tour, the Stones have grossed over $1 billion on the road. Though exact profit margins are hard to come by, it's safe to say that tens of millions of that total flowed to each of the band members. It wasn't always this way. "When we first started out, there wasn't really any money in rock & roll," says Jagger. "There wasn't a touring industry; it didn't even exist. Obviously there was somebody maybe who made money, but it certainly wasn't the act. Basically, even if you were very successful, you got paid nothing."

Jagger recalls that in the beginning, "you'd just jump from gig to gig. There'd be no sound or lights or anything." Gradually, beginning with the Stones' 1969 American tour--which ended with the debacle at Altamont--the touring business would become modernized, with traveling lights, sound, and stage. Jagger himself had a major hand in this, sometimes negotiating directly with promoters in various regions and countries. But it wasn't until the 1989 Steel Wheels tour, when Canadian rock promoter Michael Cohl took over managing the band's shows, that the Stones would begin to fully exploit the economic potential of this business.

Generally speaking, prior to Steel Wheels, the band would hire a tour director--the late Bill Graham of Fillmore West fame once filled this role--who would call local promoters in each city to set up shows. Individual deals would have to be cut with each promoter, who took, say, 10% to 15% of ticket sales after the cost of the show. The tour director would then have to collect $250,000 here, $400,000 there, from promoters all over.

Cohl, who started out as a self-described "drugged-out, late-teens strip-club owner from Ottawa," had been one of those local promoters. After a run-in with the volatile Graham in 1988, Cohl came up with an idea that he thought would tantalize the Stones, who at the time weren't on speaking terms with each other, never mind touring. "I knew the guys from Pink Floyd, who knew Prince Rupert, and I asked them if they would call Rupert for me," he tells me as the sounds of the Stones rehearsing "Street Fighting Man" echo backstage. "Ten minutes later Rupert was on my phone saying, 'Excuse me, young man'-- he talks in this very nice, formal British accent--'excuse me, I understand you have something to say to me.' And I said $40 million for 40 shows. He said, 'Very interesting.' "

The way Cohl's plan worked is that he would book the entire tour himself, dealing with the venues directly and cutting out the local promoters. He would also produce new streams of revenue by selling skyboxes, bus tours, and TV deals, and by taking merchandising to a new level. He would bring in corporate sponsors like Volkswagen and Tommy Hilfiger. And most important, he would help stitch these operations together, through cross-promotion and the like, to maximize their earning power.

After months of negotiations and a desperate, failed bid by Graham to retain the Stones, the band accepted Cohl's offer. Cohl even ended up signing on as the band's tour director. There was one small problem: "I didn't have $40 million," recalls Cohl with a grin. "I had sold half of my company to Labatts [the Canadian beer company], and the truth of the matter is when I offered Rupert the $40 million, I didn't have their permission to offer it either." Ultimately Cohl was able to come up with the money, and he and the Stones put together the tour. (Another wrinkle: Steel Wheels had to be insured--Lloyd's covered Stones tours--and before the insurer would issue a policy, the band had to take physicals. Keith passed, legend has it, to his own astonishment.)

"First and foremost, the show itself was the seminal, watershed point," says Cohl. "When you look at what a stadium show was pre-Steel Wheels, it was a bit of a scrim, and a big, wide, flat piece of lumber, and that was it. The band turned a stadium into a theater. It all started with Mick. He simply said, 'We have to fill the end space.' It was complicated to the third power and expensive to the fifth. But it worked."

It was also incredibly hairy. "I think Michael would admit that it was a huge learning curve for him doing Steel Wheels," says Jagger. "Michael had never done it before really, so it was a bit of a gamble." The tour began in August, and by October Cohl looked at the numbers and realized they were losing money. Gobs of it. The band and the organization had to cut costs quickly. "It was a deal where I said they could make a whole lot of money, and I would guarantee it 'subject to,' and the 'subject to's' made us partners at the end of the day. So we all had to learn how to do it," says Cohl. And they did.

Next: Ticket prices have been the subject of much grousing....

In the end, the Steel Wheels tour--tickets, merchandising, sponsorship money from Anheuser-Busch--made over $260 million worldwide, then a record for a rock tour. The venues, Cohl, the band, and Labatts all made out bigtime. Steel Wheels became the template, and Cohl has been doing Stones tours ever since, refining the operation each time around.

On the new, E*Trade-sponsored Licks tour, the band, which includes keyboard whiz Chuck Leavell and bassist Darryl Jones, is playing three types of venues: stadiums, arenas, and small clubs, each with a unique set of songs (the band has rehearsed more than 130 for this tour), staging, and lights. "It is an amazing challenge," says Patrick Woodroffe, the lighting designer on the tour, who's jumped in a cab with me after the Boston show, "but it's great for the audiences and it keeps the band fresh." The props and set are downplayed a bit. The giant, multimillion-dollar videoscreen, the staging, and the lights that change for every song don't overwhelm but complement.

Because they are doing smaller venues, the Stones and Cohl know revenue from Licks won't approach the monster Voodoo Lounge Tour in 1994-95, which brought in close to $370 million worldwide. Nor will it eclipse 1997-99's Bridges to Babylon/No Security tour, which did over $390 million. But merchandising (Jagger's and Charlie Watts's domain) will be more sophisticated than ever. Jagger tells me that there will be some 50 products--such as underwear by Britain's Agent Provocateur and new, expensive items like shirts, jackets, and, yes, dresses. And it will be "our most efficient tour ever," promises Rascoff, though he refuses to divulge any of the band's financials. "Doing fewer stadiums this time cuts costs because in previous tours we had to have three stages and three crews. This tour we have one stadium stage with one crew." In other words, when sales in your core business aren't maximized, you look to cut costs and boost tertiary revenues.

As usual, ticket prices ($50 to $350) have been the subject of much grousing in the press. But Jagger is happy to delve into the topic. "This is one element of the business thing that I try to really control as much as I can," he says. "Pricing a concert ticket is very different from pricing a Lexus or toothpaste. It's more like a sports event. And you are prepared to pay the market price. So if U2 or Madonna costs $100 (I'm making these up), you don't want to be charging $200. I try to keep ticket prices within the market price range. It's America. We're not living in a socialist society where we're all paid so low and no one can afford it."

The ticket-pricing controversy burns Cohl up. Athletes like Derek Jeter and Marshall Faulk are free to make whatever they can, "but people complain that Mick and Keith can't. I think that is the biggest load of crap. We are only charging $50 a night for club shows, which we lose money on. I read on eBay one of the tickets to Roseland Ballroom [in New York] went for $10,000. That makes us schmucks! When we charge $300 for some seats, somebody's out there selling them for $500. If we were to charge $500, somebody would sell them for more. Come on, what are they complaining about?" It's true that ticket prices to Stones shows have outpaced inflation (along with health care and college tuition), but you kind of get the feeling that the same people who are complaining about high ticket prices also rue the fact that Blind Boy Fuller died poor.

The Stones are famously tax-averse. I broach the subject with Keith in Camp X-Ray, as he calls his backstage lair. There is incense in the air and Ronnie Wood drifts in and out--it is, in other words, a perfect venue for such a discussion. "The whole business thing is predicated a lot on the tax laws," says Keith, Marlboro in one hand, vodka and juice in the other. "It's why we rehearse in Canada and not in the U.S. A lot of our astute moves have been basically keeping up with tax laws, where to go, where not to put it. Whether to sit on it or not. We left England because we'd be paying 98 cents on the dollar. We left, and they lost out. No taxes at all. I don't want to screw anybody out of anything, least of all the governments that I work with. We put 30% in holding until we sort it out." No wonder Keith chooses to live not in London, or even New York City, but in Weston, Conn.

Of course, it wasn't just the taxman's pinch that forced the Rolling Stones to focus on the bottom line. They also got screwed by record labels. "In the early days you got paid absolutely nothing," recalls Jagger. "The only people who earned money were the Beatles because they sold so many records."

By the mid-'60s the Stones had reportedly sold ten million singles, including "Satisfaction," and five million albums, but the band was still living hand to mouth. "I'll never forget the deals I did in the '60s, which were just terrible," says Jagger. "You say, 'Oh, I'm a creative person, I won't worry about this.' But that just doesn't work. Because everyone would just steal every penny you've got."

In 1965 the band began to work with Allen Klein, a New York manager, who would help it negotiate a new contract. Klein, now 70, recalls his big day with the band some 37 years later: "I told the guys, 'I want you to come down with me to Decca. Wear dark sunglasses and look angry but don't say anything. Leave the talking to me.'" By intimidating the British record execs, Klein helped land the Stones their first million-dollar payday. Klein (whose company, ABKCO, still owns rights to the Stones' songs from the earliest days through 1971) and the band would have a falling-out and part ways in the early 1970s. With vintage photographs of the Stones covering his office walls, Klein leafs through the old contracts in his office and shakes his head: "The others didn't look at them that much, but I remember Mick would read every single page."

Interestingly, the Stones have never had a blockbuster album, like Fleetwood Mac's Rumours or Michael Jackson's Thriller. But what they have done is make 42 albums. And they've sold tens of millions of those records and CDs, and singles and EPs too. Since 1989 alone, for instance, the band has sold more than 38 million albums at roughly $12 each, for gross proceeds of over $460 million.

The new Stones albums haven't been as hot as the oldies, obviously, but the band has high hopes for the Forty Licks album, due out this fall. The album has 36 of the band's biggest hits, plus four new songs. Also, Allen Klein's ABKCO has just re-released 22 of the band's earlier albums on SACD hybrid, a new CD format (compatible with traditional CD players), including all of the band's great records from the 1960s. In a way, the Stones' older music is like Coke Classic. The band tries to introduce new varieties, some of which do okay, but it's the original stuff we still love the best.

Next: So what keeps the Stones going?...

Serwer: Your income must vary all over the place, year by year, because the tours give you this huge bump and then there's nothing.

Richards: But there's always an awful lot of PRS coming in.

Serwer: What the hell is that?

Richards: Performing rights. Every time it's played on the radio. I go to sleep and make money--let's put it that way.

Now this is the Microsoft part of the Stones' business empire. Profitable. Steady. And stretching out to the horizon. "Music publishing is more profitable to the artist than recording. It's just tradition," says Jagger. "There's no rhyme or reason. The people who wrote songs were probably better businesspeople than the people who sang them were. You go back to George Gershwin and his contemporaries--they probably negotiated better deals, and they became the norm of the business. So if you wrote a song, you got half of it, and the other half went to your publisher. That's the model for writing."

And Jagger/Richards have written more than 200 songs. The pair has had a few monster hits like "Honky Tonk Woman," but more significantly they have dozens of songs that are played on FM radio, which is still a vibrant category. And it's not just the radio. Every time "Shattered" or "Jumping Jack Flash" is played anywhere around the globe when commerce is involved--at an ice-skating rink, on a jukebox, or at a club--the Jagger/Richards cash register goes ka-ching.

Again, Jagger is intimately involved in this business. Perhaps the most famous product rollout of all time used a Stones song--Windows 95 and "Start Me Up." Microsoft reportedly paid $4 million for those rights. ("Yeah, we met Bill Gates," says Jagger. "And [Paul] Allen is always around.") Not to be outdone, Apple used "She's a Rainbow" to launch the colored iMacs. But, says Jagger, "we don't really do a lot of commercials. I mean, I'm not against them per se, but we don't do them that much. We do a lot of film licensing. We get lots of requests, and I usually say yes. It's a great business. You have a sort of price that you like to keep to, unless it's a low-budget film and it's a really interesting film--then you can make a deal maybe." Though the cost of buying rights to use a Stones song in a film varies, on average it runs a filmmaker in the low six figures.

Over the past decade Fortune estimates that the songwriting team of Jagger/Richards has garnered $56 million from songs being played on radio and in public venues, as well as being used in advertising and movies. A significant chunk of change. "The thing that we all had to learn is what to do when the passion starts to generate money," says Richards. "You don't start to play your guitar thinking you're going to be running an organization that will maybe generate millions."

The tours, the records, the rights: They've all made the Stones the wealthiest rock & roll band on the planet. None more so than Jagger and Richards, who unlike the others enjoy the full fruits of all that licensing. Their portfolios are mostly in the hands of the trusty and tight-lipped Prince Rupert. Though Jagger follows the financial news in the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, he isn't doing much with stocks these days. "I used to play the market, but I'm not that interested at the moment because I don't think it's a very interesting time," he says.

Keith is more philosophical: "I watch the [Dow] go up and down and wonder. It's like watching the horses really. How much is that an indication of anything? Oh, the Dow's up.... And you go, okay, who's running in the 3:30 at Belmont? I have a small portfolio. I find things I love, like houses--bricks and mortar. Nothing wrong with a bit of land. I've invested in my friends' projects. And there's Rupert. He is a great financial mind for the market. He plays that like I play guitar. He does things like a little oilwell. And currency--you know, Swiss francs in the morning, switch to marks in the afternoon, move to the yen, and by the end of the day, how many dollars? That's his financial genius, his wisdom. Little pieces of paper. As long as there's a smile on Rupert's face, I'm cool."

So what keeps the Stones going? Money, yes. But the band could make big bucks simply by doing commercials instead of touring. Going on the road is about ego gratification. "This whole thing runs on passion," says Richards. "Even though we don't talk about it much ourselves, it's almost a sort of quest or mission."

The Stones and their estates will continue licensing songs and selling records for years. But sooner rather than later, the touring will cease. Jagger's stage antics are remarkable when you consider his age. But how much longer? Charlie Watts, the oldest Stone, is already 61. The band hasn't said this is the last tour, though it could be--and of course that kind of speculation is great for ticket sales, particularly in second-tier cities, where this really could be the Stones' last show.

"How long can we go on?" asks Keith. "Forever. We'll let you know when we keel over." And when that day comes, it will mean not only the end of the world's greatest rock band but also a winding-down of one of the most successful enterprises this crazy business has ever known.

In case of slashdotting:

Calif. bans mobile phone spam

By Lisa M. Bowman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 20, 2002, 9:52 AM PT

California's mobile phones should soon be officially freed from unwanted text messages.

On Thursday, Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill that would prohibit companies from spamming mobile phones and pagers with unwanted text messages. The law, sponsored by Assemblyman Tim Leslie, R-Tahoe City, goes into effect in January.

Davis said he endorsed the plan because he didn't want unsolicited messages on mobile phones to reach the same level of mayhem that spam e-mails have.

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"These days, telemarketers and advertisers are intruding on everything--our home phones, our cell phone, our fax machines and our pagers," Davis said in a statement. "Today, California cuts the line on unsolicited faxes, phone calls and text messages."

Representatives from the wireless and text messaging industry did not immediately return requests for comment.

Davis also signed two other tech privacy bills, including one that would mandate stricter junk fax laws and another designed to speed the creation of a "do not call" list.