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Beatles fans received a double treat Tuesday with announcements of a new world tour by Paul McCartney and the release of a DVD of a 1994 jam session by McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. McCartney said he plans to include several Beatles songs in his first British tour in a decade, scheduling 22 songs from his Fab Four days for each two-and-a-half hour arena concert. Seven dates in April have been announced for the “Back in the World” tour, including stops in London and Manchester, northern England. McCartney then plans to tour France, Spain, Germany and Scandinavia. The world… Read more »

The recording industry directed its anti-piracy campaign at large companies in the United States, Europe and Asia on Thursday, warning them that employees are illegally downloading music on company time. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a global trade group representing the major music labels, said it had begun issuing brochures to thousands of companies spelling out the legal and technological dangers of giving employees access to online file-sharing networks. “We were surprised to see that peer-to-peer services are being accessed by a lot of companies’ computer networks,” Allen Dixon, general counsel at IFPI in London told Reuters.… Read more »

Matchbox Twenty is set to embark on a U.S. tour starting in late April. Dates are still being solidified, but the tickets will go on sale in mid-February. First up though is a European tour, which starts March 25 in Koln, Germany. Rob Thomas and crew are promoting their new album, More Than You Think You Are, which follows in the footsteps of the multiplatinum Mad Season and diamond award-certified Yourself Or Someone Like You. When it comes to making a set list Rob Thomas told us there are several ways to go about it. “There’s two ways to do… Read more »

The face of pop singer Michael Jackson will be the subject of a special edition of NBC’s news magazine “Dateline” next month. “Michael Jackson Unmasked,” set to air at 10 p.m. EST Feb. 17, will be “the inside story as told by some of the people who knew him best,” according to a network statement. Further details about the program weren’t given. For years, Jackson’s appearance – particularly his increasingly smaller nose and lighter skin tone – has been the subject of intense scrutiny and speculation. In announcing the program to television critics last week, NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker… Read more »

The value of the global music industry reached $47.6 billion in 2001, according to a report by British industry publication Music Week. The figures cover recorded music sales, music publishing, ticket sales for live events, merchandising and sponsorship, and Music Week said Wednesday they mark the first attempt to place a value on the global music universe. Sales of recorded music in 2001 accounted for 70 percent of global revenue, around $33.3 billion, with ticket sales for live events providing the second-highest revenue source at around $6.5 billion, the report said. Music publishing provided $4.6 billion, with merchandising and admission… Read more »

Michael Jackson, who arrived fours hours late to testify in a $21 million lawsuit against him, has asked the judge to delay next week’s scheduled testimony so he can travel to Germany to accept an award. “The award is of deep importance to me, it’s philanthropic,” he told Superior Court Judge Zel Canter. “I’ve done a lot of work for children.” The postponement isn’t the first that Jackson has requested. On Thursday, his second day of testimony, Jackson was granted permission to delay that day’s court appearance by several hours. He arrived Thursday without the surgical mask he had worn… Read more »

Papa Roach Kicks Off European Dates After a pair of shows in Japan this week, Papa Roach takes its tour in support of its latest album, Lovehatetragedy, to Europe beginning Sunday (October 6) in Helsinki, Finland. Dates on the continent and in the U.K. run through the first week of November. Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix said that the response overseas to his band has always been good, maybe even better than back home in the States. “In Europe people aren’t as jaded, you know? It’s like in the States every week you’ve got that cool tour coming through your… Read more »

Forty-six years after Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps helped define the rockabilly sound with their signature hit “Be Bop a Lula,” Vincent’s first two records, 1956’s Bluejean Bop! and 1957’s Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, will be re-released with bonus tracks on September 17th. Vincent himself died in 1971 at the age of thirty-six from a ruptured stomach ulcer, but bassist Jack Neal – one of two surviving members of the group, along with drummer Dickie Harrell – still remembers the early recording sessions vividly. “It was great to go ahead and cut a record where all the… Read more »

Zomba Music, the record label of Britney Spears and ‘N Sync, won European regulatory approval on Monday for its purchase by Bertelsmann Music Group. The European Commission said that BMG, part of German media giant Bertelsmann, could buy the U.S. record company in a deal that public records show is worth nearly $3 billion. “The transaction will result in relatively small increases of BMG’s market shares which will not significantly alter the competitive structure of the European music market,” the Commission said in a statement. The deal, announced in June, could boost BMG to one of the world’s top three… Read more »

A U.S. court hammered the final nail in the coffin of maverick music service Napster on Tuesday when it blocked a bid by German media group Bertelsmann AG to buy the one-time cult and now defunct Web site. Killing off a deal to revive the bankrupt service that millions of fans used to swap music over the Internet, a U.S. bankruptcy court rejected Napster’s sale to Bertelsmann after record labels and songwriters opposed the deal, saying the offer price was not fair. Faced with no financing, no revenues and no other buyers, Napster said it would most likely be forced… Read more »