Search Results for: october

JUST days after the European launch of Apple Computers’ online music store, a chorus of customers are voicing their complaints. The lack of songs from artists on independent record labels – which account for a quarter of the UK market – has left iTunes looking like a poorly-stocked American import store, lacking local talent such as Travis and Franz Ferdinand. “Most Scottish acts are on independent labels,” says Alison Wenham, chairman and chief executive of the Association of Independent Music (AIM), which represents the majority of the UK’s indie labels. “Celtic acts typically start off very strong in their home… Read more »

The unclassifiable rock band Coheed and Cambria has signed with Columbia Records, who, in conjunction with Equal Vision Records, will re-issue the group’s watershed album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, on Tuesday, June 29. One of the biggest indie band breakout stories of the year, Coheed and Cambria, already legendary for delivering incandescent live performances, will be among the headliners on this year’s Vans Warped Tour. Coheed and Cambria is: Claudio Sanchez (lead vocals, guitar), Michael Todd (bass, backing vocals), Travis Stever (lead guitar, backing vocals), Josh Eppard (drums, backing vocals). Officially christened Coheed and Cambria in 2001,… Read more »

Apple Computer Inc. launched its highly anticipated iTunes Music Store in Europe on Tuesday, expanding the popular digital music service to users in Britain, France and Germany. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said iTunes would be available without subscription. The charge for downloading a single track would be 79 pence ($1.43) in the United Kingdom and 99 euro cents ($1.20) in Germany and France. Jobs boasted that more than 85 million songs have been downloaded from iTunes in the United States. Along with the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom account for 60 percent of global music sales.… Read more »

Marilyn Manson has a wedding and a greatest-hits album on his plate, but his next project may be a lawsuit. The rocker and his bandmate Madonna Wayne Gacy have filed a suit against former bandmember Scott Putesky (a.k.a. Daisy Berkowitz) and Empire Musicwerks Records to stop the continued distribution of an early Manson album, according to Richard Wolfe, lawyer for Empire Musicwerks. The album was released on April 20. Manson and Gacy (a.k.a. Brian Warner and Stephen Bier, respectively) filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Western Division, on April 28. The action… Read more »

Linkin Park are saving the best for last. The final single from their 2003 album, Meteora, will be their favorite track, “Breaking the Habit.” They dig the tune so much, in fact, that they’re planning to use it as a model when they start working on their next album in October. “Creatively, ‘Breaking the Habit’ is one of the songs we’re most proud of,” guitarist Brad Delson said. “It’s so familiar, but at the same time it’s so foreign to anything we’ve ever done. It really is just a unique animal, and when we approach making the next record, I… Read more »

In its first year, Apple Computer Inc.’s online music store has sold more than 70 million songs and the computer maker is offering a free song to customers for the next eight days to mark the store’s anniversary, the company said Wednesday. Apple, maker of the Macintosh computer and the wildly popular iPod digital music players, also upgraded its iTunes digital jukebox software with new features such as “iMix,” which lets customers publish their playlists on the iTunes online music store which other customers can then purchase. “We’re very, very excited about the results from the first year,” Steve Jobs,… Read more »

Marilyn Manson may just have blown his street cred. The raunchy rocker allegedly popped the question to his gal-pal, burlesque artist Dita Von Teese, on Mar. 22, according to Us Weekly. Manson (real name Brian Warner) even took the traditional route, reports the tab, getting down on bended knee to present her with a seven-carat round-cut diamond ring. A call to his publicist was not returned, but Us expects the pair to tie the knot within a year. Prior reports suggest the two may already have gotten secretly hitched. Out with the old, in with the new. Just over a… Read more »

Instead of fries, how about a little Beyonce or Bruce Springsteen to go with your Big Mac? In the latest blend of e-music with the food-and-beverage industry, Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. is working out a deal to promote the upcoming launch of its download music service through fast-food chain McDonald’s Corp., the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday. According to the newspaper, McDonald’s is expected to commit about $30 million in advertising to the partnership in exchange for unspecified discounts to license some songs from Sony’s new download service, Sony Connect. Those songs would then be offered to McDonald’s… Read more »

Federal regulators opened a new front in their crackdown on offensive broadcasts Thursday, saying that almost any use of the F-word on over-the-air radio and television would be considered indecent. The Federal Communications Commission overruled its staff and said an expletive uttered by rock singer Bono on NBC was both indecent and profane. It marked the first time that the FCC cited a four-letter word as profane; the commission previously equated profanity with language challenging God’s divinity. The FCC on Thursday also proposed maximum fines for the broadcast of the Howard Stern radio show and for a program on two… Read more »

As Britney Spears readies for her tour, she’s making sure there’s plenty of her to go around while fans wait for her to come around. The singer’s about to release a DVD that’ll include pre-tour concert footage as well as bonus tracks. Two new songs are found on the CD portion of Spears’ “In the Zone” DVD, due March 23. The first is called “Don’t Hang Up,” and it finds the singer pleading on the phone for her lover to keep her satisfied long-distance. The second song is the P. Diddy-produced “The Answer,” which both artists had talked up before… Read more »