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Smaller Internet music broadcasters are getting an extension on copyright royalty payments that would have been due Sunday, which means they can avoid shutting down. The webcasters will still have to pay up to $2,500 each in fees by Monday. But that is far less than the tens of thousands of dollars that many of them would have owed. The extension, granted by the recording industry and performance artists Friday, came a day after the Senate recessed for the elections without approving copyright rate revisions negotiated between webcasters and the copyright holders. The changes, unanimously approved by the House earlier… Read more »

The five major record label groups and the three largest music retailers have agreed to pay $143 million in cash and CDs to resolve a long-standing class action price-fixing case. The settlement, announced Monday, brings to a close allegations that the major labels and retailers had violated antitrust laws and illegally inflated the cost of CDs. At issue was a policy called “minimum advertised pricing,” or MAP, under which the major labels would jointly pay for advertising if a retailer agreed to sell CDs above a certain price. This pricing practice began nearly a decade ago as a way for… Read more »

The world’s five largest music companies and the three largest music retailers will pay $143.1 million to settle a CD price-fixing case launched by New York and Florida two years ago, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Monday. In August 2000, most U.S. states joined in a lawsuit alleging that an industry practice called “minimum advertised pricing” (MAP) artificially inflated the price of CDs between 1995 and 2000, violating federal and state antitrust laws. Under MAP, the labels subsidized advertising for retailers that agreed not to sell CDs below a certain price. The five record labels –… Read more »

Chicago rockers Disturbed have upset the Dixie Chicks’ three-week run as chart champs, selling more than 283,000 copies of their second album to debut atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday. The riff-wielding quartet has come a long way in its short career. Disturbed’s 2000 debut, The Sickness, while eventually selling more than 2.6 million copies, took nearly two months to crack the chart after its release. What’s even more impressive is that Disturbed’s first-place showing came without an unavoidable, playlist-friendly video. The clip for the LP’s first single, “Prayer,” encountered restrictions because it was… Read more »

About 50 Syrian protesters crashed a U.S.-sponsored public rock concert in Damascus on Thursday held in honor of victims of the September 11 attacks, demanding Washington stop its battle cry against Iraq. “Stop the drums of war so we can hear your music,” protesters yelled at the rock memorial, which was attended by around 150 people, including some Americans. The protesters also waved signs and shouted slogans protesting against U.S. support for Israel, accusing the United States of “serving Zionist criminals” and participating in “dirty crimes” against the Palestinian people. President Bush told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that… Read more »

Terrorism struck the United States on a Tuesday, the day labels release albums, and that day had its share of potential blockbusters: Jay-Z, Bob Dylan and Mariah Carey were among the artists who released records on September 11, 2001. The first anniversary of the attacks, by contrast, will pass quietly in the nation’s record stores, with no big-name releases hitting shelves this week and retailers predicting that new records will be the furthest thing from fans’ minds. “It just seems to be in bad taste,” said bassist Joe Escalante of veteran punk band the Vandals, who chose a September 17… Read more »

Yahoo and Internet service providers have sided with Verizon Communications in its legal spat with the recording industry over revealing the identity of an alleged peer-to-peer pirate. In court papers filed late Monday, the groups said that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has not followed the law in its efforts to learn more about a Kazaa user accused of illicitly trading music files. Monday’s move highlights the latest battle lines that have been struck in the legal war over peer-to-peer networks. On one side are Internet companies, civil liberties groups and telecommunications providers, an alliance that is opposed… Read more »

Guns N’ Roses’ surprise performance at Thursday’s 19th annual MTV Video Music Awards was easily the night’s highlight presentation, even though P. Diddy, Eminem and Justin Timberlake had more pizzazz and Bruce Springsteen and Sheryl Crow had more heart. Click here for the complete 2002 MTV VMA Winners List. The group – which included longtime GN’R keyboardist Dizzy Reed and a batch of new faces like ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, ex-Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck and guitarist Buckethead – kicked off its medley with “Welcome to the Jungle,” the song that had thunderingly announced GN’R back on their first… Read more »

The world’s largest record companies sued major Internet service and network providers on Friday, alleging their routing systems allow users to access the China-based Listen4ever.com Web site and unlawfully copy musical recordings. The copyright infringement suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks a court order requiring the defendants to block Internet communications that travel through their systems to and from the Listen4ever site. The suit says the plaintiffs have not been able to determine who owns the Web site. Plaintiffs in the suit include such major labels as UMG Recordings, a unit of Vivendi Universal, Sony Music Entertainment, a unit… Read more »

The world’s biggest music labels on Wednesday said they have offered major concessions to a group of angry pop stars to try to settle a high-profile dispute regarding recording industry contracts. But a representatives for the artists, who have been lobbying for a change to California labor law, said that a settlement was still not in sight. “I want the artist community to know that the record companies came to the table with substantial compromises and it’s now in the artists’ hands,” said Hilary Rosen, president and chief executive officer of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Rosen said… Read more »