Search Results for: Bad Company

Qtrax, a new legal online file-sharing service that allows fans to download songs for free, said on Sunday it will launch with 25 million to 30 million copyrighted tracks with backing from major labels. The free service will be funded through advertising revenue that Qtrax will share with the music companies. Qtrax executives said the company’s digital rights management technology will count the number of times each song has been played in order to fairly compensate artists and rights’ holders, without restricting consumer use. The company has focused on ensuring that its network is free of spyware or adware such… Read more »

Veteran British rock band the Rolling Stones has signed an exclusive worldwide recording agreement to release its next album through Universal Music Group, prompting speculation that it could leave EMI. EMI has been hit by a wave of bad news in recent weeks, with key artists threatening to walk away from the company after its new owner, financier Guy Hands and his private equity group Terra Firma, unveiled plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs. A statement released by the band on Thursday said it had signed a one-album deal for the group’s next release which is due in March… Read more »

Hannah Montana fans are getting the best of both worlds, leaving the less entertaining aspects to the show’s lawyers and publicists. A lawsuit brought against the Disney Channel by an award-winning comedy writer who claims he pitched the original idea for Hannah Montana and was never compensated for his efforts was referred Friday to mediation in the hope that the two sides can cut a deal. Buddy Sheffield sued parent company ABC Cable Networks Group on Aug. 23, alleging breach of implied contract, breach of confidence, unfair competition and unjust enrichment. He is seeking unspecified damages. ABC Cable has denied… Read more »

Relationships in the entertainment world can be famously fraught. And few are more so these days than the one between Steve Jobs and Universal Music chief Doug Morris. You may recall that Morris recently refused to re-up a multi-year contract to put his company’s music on Apple’s iTunes Music Store. That’s because Jobs wouldn’t ease his stringent terms, which limit how record companies can market their music. Now, Morris is going on the offensive. The world’s most powerful music executive aims to join forces with other record companies to launch an industry-owned subscription service. BusinessWeek has learned that Morris has… Read more »

Early in July, Rusty Shaffer, the founder of Optek, a small music company in Reno, Nev., visited Salon’s offices to show me his invention, the Fretlight guitar. Though it looks and feels like a standard, rock ‘n’ roll-ready instrument, the Fretlight contains a set of LEDs invisibly embedded inside its fretboard — connect the guitar to a computer and the lights spark up to indicate where to put your fingers in order to play a chord. Shaffer is certain that his guitar is a great leap forward for the normally tech-averse guitar industry; the Fretlight, he says, will transform guitar… Read more »

During her Tuesday night performance in Orlando, Florida, Beyoncé took a rather epic header down a flight of stairs – a tumble, of course, captured on camera by several fans in attendance.To her credit, not only did B press on with the show, she later joked about the fall, telling the audience that it “hurt so bad” and imploring, “Don’t put [the footage] on YouTube.” Of course, those in the audience did the exact opposite, and by the following morning, several different clips of her spill were among the “Most Watched” and “Most Discussed” on the site. Given Beyoncé’s plea,… Read more »

People tend to look at you funny when you jump into the pool with your iPod strapped to your arm and a pair of waterproof headphones stuck in your ears. Having access to music and podcasts while knocking through a few laps at the gym cuts down on the monotony of this type of exercise — but it’s probably not for self-conscious folks who mind getting a few double takes. Mixing electronics with water is generally discouraged, after all. Yes, Apple’s digital-music revolution has extended to the swimming pool, thanks to devices like this waterproof contraption, called an OtterBox, I’ve… Read more »

Recently, Maureen Callahan wrote a piece for the New York Post about Crush Management, the NYC cadre that shepherds the careers of Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, the Academy Is … , Boys Like Girls and Armor for Sleep (or, as Callahan puts it, “basically any band that a 13-year-old girl with a blog and a Hot Topic habit obsesses over”). Aside from providing readers with some genuinely bananas quotes from songwriter/ rock-and-roll vampire Butch Walker about credibility (especially considering this is on his résumé), the article is excellent primarily because it floats the hypothesis that the artists… Read more »

It was a good, flatulent, slur-filled and sexist-gag-soaked run, but the bad boys of radio appear to be living on borrowed time. On Tuesday (May 15), XM shock duo Opie and Anthony were slapped with a 30-day suspension for last week’s gag involving a homeless character discussing his desire to sexually assault Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, first lady Laura Bush and the Queen of England. “Nobody in radio thinks they’re a shock jock; they’re entertainers. But if [the genre] isn’t dead, it’s certainly had a storm warning,” said Tom Taylor, editor of Inside Radio, citing last month’s firing of… Read more »

Damon Albarn has confirmed he is concluding his animated pop act Gorillaz later this year with a feature-length send off. Rumours had been circulating throughout 2006 as to the band’s demise, particularly with Albarn focused on his musical work with side project The Good, The Bad and the Queen, and his return to the new Blur album, and speaking to BBC Radio last week, the singer/songwriter confirmed an animated film and accompanying film score would be the band’s swan song. “We’re trying to make a film next, starting in September hopefully,” said Albarn, commenting that they had approached famed Monty… Read more »