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In early 1984, when Epic Records executives presented their slate of upcoming releases at the convention in Hawaii of parent company CBS Records they couldn’t resist playing up the success they were experiencing. So between the pitches for new albums, Epic inserted stock footage of semi trucks and a voice-over that thunderously announced, “There goes another load of Michael Jackson’s Thriller albums!” Trucks weren’t really leaving the warehouse every few minutes, but Thriller was still shattering expectations more than a year after its November 30, 1982, release. Epic was selling more than 1 million copies per month in the United… Read more »

Hip-hop pioneer and entrepreneur Russell Simmons on Wednesday pledged to raise awareness about slavery around the world after being appointed a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. Simmons, who joins celebrity ambassadors including British soccer player David Beckham, tennis player Roger Federer and actress Angelina Jolie, was appointed as ambassador to honor past and present victims of slavery. “Providing awareness is a key factor, there’s ongoing suffering and new modern day slavery,” Simmons told reporters at UN headquarters. UN agencies have been trying to draw attention to human trafficking and the enslavement of women and children in the sex trade. Goodwill ambassadors… Read more »

DETROIT –  It seems that Metallica will be a two-bassist band at Saturday’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland. A day after former bassist Jason Newsted told Billboard.com that his replacement, Robert Trujillo would not take part in the performance part of the induction, a spokesman for the group’s Warner Bros. label clarified that “Jason and Robert will both be playing Metallica’s induction songs.” He did not indicate what the songs would be or if Newsted and Trujillo would be on stage together or separately. Metallica is flying in from Paris, where the group plays Wednesday… Read more »

In another sign of the music industry’s recently announced retreat from a five-year-old antipiracy strategy, the Recording Industry Association of America has dumped the company it used to help it gather evidence for mass lawsuits it filed against people it claimed were illegally uploading copyrighted music. The RIAA long used a company called MediaSentry to troll the Internet in search of people who uploaded large amounts of music. The information that MediaSentry collected became an integral part of the RIAA’s aggressive litigation campaign. Since 2003, the RIAA — a trade organization representing Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, Sony Corp.’s Sony… Read more »

Morrissey has signed with Nashville-based roots label Lost Highway for the U.S. release of his new album, sources told Billboard. “Years of Refusal” will be released on February 17, and will be supported by a U.S. theater tour that kicks off February 28 in Boca Raton, Fla., and runs through April 15 in Albuquerque, N.M. The project marks the follow-up to the former Smiths frontman’s 2006 set “Ringleader of the Tormenters.” It will come out internationally on February 2 via Universal, which bumped the album from a fall 2008 release for unspecified reasons. Lost Highway is an intriguing destination for… Read more »

He had one of the biggest opening sales weeks of 2008, and now, Lil Wayne is the year’s most-nominated Grammy contender. Wayne and his latest LP, “Tha Carter III,” lead the pack with a total of eight nominations, while one of the year’s other biggest sellers, Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” garnered seven nods. Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West each earned six nods, while Alison Krauss, John Mayer, Robert Plant, Radiohead and Jazmine Sullivan received five each. Adele is up for four – including Best New Artist – as are Lupe Fiasco and T.I. The… Read more »

Could the return of Phish spark a revitalization of the jam-band scene? After splitting in 2004 with a muddy sendoff at its Coventry, Vermont, festival, Phish will re-school in the spring for a three-night run at one of its favorite venues, the Hampton (Virginia) Coliseum. The prospect of the March 6-8 shows has been greeted with unbridled glee by loyal Phish-heads. According to the band's Web site, there will be additional tour dates for guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist Page McConnell and drummer Jon Fishman throughout 2009. To what extent the band will tour remains a mystery. Chip… Read more »

Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and Rihanna will perform at the fifth annual Fashion Rocks concert celebrating the relationship between music and fashion. The event will be held Sept. 5 at Radio City Music Hall, and will air in a two-hour special on CBS the following night. Proceeds will benefit Stand Up to Cancer, a program established by the Entertainment Industry Foundation to raise money for cancer research. Also performing: Keith Urban, Chris Brown, Kid Rock, Fergie, Lil Wayne and the Black Eyed Peas. “Fashion Rocks uniquely celebrates the intersection of two of the most sexy cultural paradigms: fashion and… Read more »

The Spice Girls' shelf life has finally expired. What started out as plans for an 11-date comeback tour and inevitably morphed into an all-out, months-long globe-trotting phenomenon, concluded in Toronto Tuesday night, when the Girls wrapped up their Return of the Spice Girls World Tour. "Our time is up…we've come to the end of the road…there are tears of both sadness and joy," the group collectively posted in a farewell message to their website Wednesday. "Who would have though that our reunion could have turned out to be this amazing? It just shows what can grow out of an exciting… Read more »