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The Democratization of the Music Industry


As I write this, iTunes ranks as the 2nd largest seller of music in the U.S. — only Wal-Mart’s physical stores sell more. Digital revenue is real, and there is a lot of it being earned. Sales from iTunes alone can provide a band enough revenue to achieve true financial success. Don’t take my word for it, just look at some of the sales by the following unsigned artists utilizing the Net for both digital distribution and marketing: Kelly sold over 500,000 songs in five months, Eric Hutchinson sold 120,000 songs in three weeks, The Medic Droid sold over 25,000… Read more »

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Q&A With Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig


Michael Roberts: For all of the articles that have been written about you guys, very few of them have very much biographical information. It’s as if you were born at Columbia when you were twenty. So I thought I’d try getting some actual facts. Where are you from originally? Ezra Koenig: Well, originally, I was born in New York. My parents lived on the Upper West Side. But I have no memory of living here, because I almost totally grew up in Northern New Jersey, in the suburbs of New York. MR: Tell me about your parents. What jobs did… Read more »

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The Really, Really Good Looking Tour: Cobra Starship, Metro Station, We the Kings, the Cab – Review


The bands on this tour could have held an open casting call, but they wouldn’t have found a better set of screeching, adoring fans than the sold-out, 98-percent female ’tweens at tonight’s show.Sure, the performers are making a silly poke at the 2001 Ben Stiller-starring comedy Zoolander with their tour title, and they even incorporated Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” before playing, but from the crowd’s reaction, this tour might as well have been a serious male model showcase. Young girls nearly broke out into cat fights, storming the stage, shoving their peers (aka competition) just to make eye contact… Read more »

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Green Day: Sly Like a Foxboro?


It appears hot tubs can now be powered by green energy. On Dec. 8, newbie garage rockers Foxboro Hot Tubs launched its website with the six-song EP Stop Drop and Roll available as a free download. It didn’t take long for music junkies to realize this new band might not be so new after all. “The internet is ablaze!!!!” proclaimed celeb blogger Perez Hilton last month. “A band called Foxboro Hot Tubs has released an EP of six songs that has people speculating that it’s the Green Day boys experimenting with a new sound.” The songs were pulled a short… Read more »

News

Bands, fans find new ways to reach each other


Lily Vasquez, a marketing manager from Clifton, New Jersey, spent nearly eight years trying to break into the music business as a singer before she stumbled across SellaBand.com. The Web site is one of several where artists can have their albums funded by fans — a proposition that takes advantage of digital technology, online social networking and the current uncertainty in the established music industry. The sites are reinventing the relationship between artists and their fans, upsetting the traditional role of the record label as the tastemaker, promoter and distributor of music. “I didn’t really understand the site when I… Read more »

News

PluggedIn: Bands, fans find new ways to connect


Lily Vasquez, a marketing manager from Clifton, New Jersey, spent nearly eight years trying to break into the music business as a singer before she stumbled across SellaBand.com. The Web site is one of several where artists can have their albums funded by fans — a proposition that takes advantage of digital technology, online social networking and the current uncertainty in the established music industry. The sites are reinventing the relationship between artists and their fans, upsetting the traditional role of the record label as the tastemaker, promoter and distributor of music. “I didn’t really understand the site when I… Read more »

News

Tipping Point For MP3s


The scope of a yearlong download promotion planned between Pepsi and Amazon, Billboard has learned, is among several developments forcing further consideration by Warner Music Group (WMG) and Sony BMG Music Entertainment to follow EMI and Universal Music Group’s lead in distributing music in the MP3 format. News of the Pepsi promotion, which is expected to be announced Feb. 3 during the Super Bowl, coincides with an ultimatum from Wal-Mart asking major labels to supply walmart.com with their music in MP3, sources say. Labels, meanwhile, say they have been watching the success of an MP3 test UMG began in August;… Read more »

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Britney Spears Producer Leads Simple Plan Farther Down Pop Path With Third LP


There comes a time in every band’s career when it has to choose between staying on the well-worn path or taking a detour onto the road less certain. For Simple Plan, that decision was made earlier this year when they headed down to Miami’s Hit Factory studios to work with producer Nate “Danjahandz” Hills, Timbaland’s protégé and the man responsible for Britney Spears’ “Gimme More.” “We’re a band that’s sold something like 7 million records, had two records that did really well, so we had to find a way to change without changing, to kind of reinvent ourselves,” frontman Pierre… Read more »

News

Evanescence Splits With Guitarist, Drummer


And then there was one. With the recent departure of drummer Rocky Gray and guitarist John LeCompt, Amy Lee is now the only member of Evanescence left who has been in the band since the release of its smash 2003 breakout album, Fallen. LeCompt was either fired by the band or decided to move on – depending which account you believe – while Gray left of his own accord recently, making them the latest members of the group to fall by the wayside. Original guitarist/ co-founder Ben Moody left in 2003 , and bassist William Boyd quit last June after… Read more »

News

The Album, a Commodity in Disfavor


Now that the three young women in Candy Hill, a glossy rap and R&B trio, have signed a record contract, they are hoping for stardom. On the schedule: shooting a music video and visiting radio stations to talk up their music. But the women do not have a CD to promote. Universal/Republic Records, their label, signed Candy Hill to record two songs, not a complete album. “If we get two songs out, we get a shot,” said Vatana Shaw, 20, who formed the trio four years ago, “Only true fans are buying full albums. Most people don’t really do that… Read more »

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