Search Results for: alternative press

Every day, the roughly one million people who visit the iTunes Store home page are presented with several dozen albums, TV shows and movie downloads to consider buying — out of the four million such goods the Apple site offers. This prime promotion is analogous to a CD being displayed at the checkout stands of all 940 Best Buy stores or featured on the front page of Target’s ad circular. How do bands get these boosts? Who decides whether Arcade Fire is plugged at the top of the iTunes site — or whether Nickelback gets no mention? Apple has jettisoned… Read more »

Ten years ago, as the Internet began to mushroom in popularity and emerging technologies enabled consumers to make nearly perfect copies of digital content, the recording industry embarked on a two-pronged strategy in response to the changing business environment. First, it emphasized copy-control technologies, often referred to as digital rights management (DRM), that many in the industry believed would allow it re-assert control over music copying. Second, it lobbied the Canadian government for a private copying levy to compensate for the music copying that it could not control. While the industry’s approach proved successful on the legal front — the… Read more »

Late in the afternoon of Jan. 16, a SWAT team from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, backed up by officers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the local police department, along with a few drug-sniffing dogs, burst into a unmarked recording studio on a short, quiet street in an industrial neighborhood near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The officers entered with their guns drawn; the local police chief said later that they were “prepared for the worst.” They had come to serve a warrant for the arrest of the studio’s owners on the grounds that they had violated the… Read more »

Starbucks Entertainment announced today that it will release a CD of 15 original tracks by Starbucks partners (employees). The first-of-its-kind compilation is the result of a company-wide contest that invited Starbucks partners to submit original solo or band recordings. “Off the Clock Vol. 1: New Music from Up & Coming Starbucks Artists” will be available exclusively at Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada beginning April 3, 2007. This newest venture continues Starbucks unwavering support of new talent — in this case, from within its own family of partners.”Off the Clock Vol. 1: New Music from Up & Coming… Read more »

Sure, they say it every year: This summer’s Ozzfest will be like none that came before. But this time, it’s true: Admission will be free. Yes, free. At a press conference held in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon (February 6), festival co-founder Sharon Osbourne announced that, in response to the ever-escalating costs of concert tickets, admission to this year’s Ozzfest – which will be headlined by Ozzy Osbourne – won’t cost fans a dime. “For the last few years, ticket prices have steadily climbed as artists demand more and more money for summer tours,” she said in a statement. “We certainly… Read more »

It’s New Year’s Eve in New York and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is headlining the buzziest indie rock bill in town. The eclectic quintet — which has risen to notoriety for selling more than 110,000 copies of its 2005 debut album in the United States without the help of a record label — has plenty to celebrate. The band is using the show at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom to preview a half-dozen tracks from its self-released sophomore set, “Some Loud Thunder,” due January 30. CYHSY’s most rabid fans don’t need much of an introduction to some of the new material.… Read more »

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Grammy-winning singer and guitarist Jack White of the rock duo White Stripes married British model Karen Elson this week in a canoe in the Brazilian Amazon, according to a message on the band’s Web site. The marriage, conducted by a shaman priest, took place on Wednesday at the confluence of the Amazon, Negro and Solimoes rivers with a group of close friends attending, the site reported. The band’s drummer, Meg White, was maid of honor, and manager Ian Montone was best man. The couple were later blessed by a Catholic priest in a church in the… Read more »

Modern-rock promotion finds itself at a crossroads as a growing number of terrestrial radio broadcasters tune out the ratings-challenged format. Record companies are attempting to adapt to modern rock’s recent marginalization on the airwaves in major markets like Philadelphia, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. by emphasizing other options for building buzz. In lieu of airplay, touring, blogs, ringtones, downloads, Internet and satellite radio, videogame tie-ins, alliances with brand marketers, film and TV exposure, sponsorships and placements in commercials all are growing in value. The marketing strategies for a number of big-name rock artists with current or upcoming releases show… Read more »