Search Results for: alternative press

Radio is awesome, isn’t it? It’s free, it’s on whenever you want it, and you can choose from among eight or 10 stations. About the only people who could possibly complain about it, in fact, are people who have to listen to it. They’ll tell you that the music you hear on the radio is mostly the same cloying pop junk, played over and over. That 20 minutes of every hour is ads, played over and over. And that as you drive, the signal comes and goes with the territory. Two years ago, two companies – XM and Sirius –… Read more »

Monday October 27, 10:01 pm ET SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ – Soon, some lucky fan will become the fifth member of Puddle Of Mudd and enjoy a week of rock ‘n’ roll glory. The Flawless/Geffen Records band is launching the “Puddle Of Mudd Platinum Pass” contest, giving away sensational prizes including the grand prize: being the fifth member of the band for seven days! The winner and a guest will have their own bus accompanying Puddle Of Mudd on tour next year, joining the band in all their rock n’ roll activities, including: oversleeping, showing up late for… Read more »

Even though the RIAA continues to go after Internet file-sharers, millions of music fans keep downloading songs. Naturally, this hurts album sales, which were down around 12 percent for the first half of 2003. To try to convince people to actually buy albums again, record companies have offered value-added packaging such as the ever-popular bonus DVD, which typically contains backstage footage, exclusive interviews, videos and maybe a live recording or two. But adding a DVD can be costly. Labels typically pay between one and two dollars per extra disc, which means as much as an additional $2 million for an… Read more »

A Perfect Circle, described by Rolling Stone as “that rare supergroup… of veteran musicians that actually adds up to more, not less, than the sum of its parts,” announces their next round of concert dates and releases their much- anticipated second album in stores today, THIRTEENTH STEP, propelled by its first single, “Weak and Powerless.” The song has jumped to #3 Alternative and #7 Active Rock on both the Mediabase and BDS charts. The countdown now begins toward the first leg of A Perfect Circle’s 2003 arena tour, opening on Halloween in San Antonio (please see initial dates below in… Read more »

Hollywood will win the war against illegal downloading but the battlefield will be littered with casualties, including the DVD and CD formats as physical means of distributing video and audio, according to a Forrester Research study released Tuesday. The study predicts that in five years, CDs and DVDs will start to go the way of the vinyl LP as 33% of music sales and 19% of home video revenue shifts to streaming and downloading. Part of that stems from the continued proliferation of illegal file trading, which has caused an estimated $700 million of lost CD sales since 1999. But… Read more »

Long an artist’s sanctuary, the commercial recording studio is becoming a virtual fortress, guarding against the potentially devastating consequences of theft. The thieves’ targets are the rough mixes, outtakes, alternative takes and finished masters that traditionally have been loosely handled, even by the artists themselves. Leaks of this material are nothing new, but the advent of unauthorized file sharing on the Internet has greatly increased the consequences of this phenomenon. Recent albums by Eminem, 50 Cent, Korn and Radiohead were all available online prior to release, because unauthorized copies were leaked to unknown parties. In such cases, marketing strategies are… Read more »

Assembling a promotional campaign for a veteran band that has been out of the spotlight is a tough enough feat. But Capitol Records is facing the daunting task of reintroducing a group that hasn’t released a new album in 13 years. Luckily, the campaign behind pioneering alternative rock outfit Jane’s Addiction’s “Strays,” due July 22, has had a huge prerelease boost from first single “Just Because.” The song is No. 4 on Modern Rock Tracks after four weeks, returning Jane’s Addiction to the top of the format at which it scored five top 15 hits between 1988 and 1991. The… Read more »

They don’t have a record deal. They don’t have a music publishing deal. But they are on their way to having a hit single with “Set Me Free” off “The Hulk” soundtrack. Collectively, they’ve sold 70 million albums worldwide. Velvet Revolver’s lineup is stocked with the bad boys of rock supergroups, including Guns N’ Roses vets Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, David Kushner of Suicidal Tendencies and former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland. Thursday night, they play their first official show – a free, fans-only, short set after an international news conference – at the El Rey in… Read more »

Just a month after opening its doors, the Apple iTunes store is looking to expand. With content already available from all five major labels, the online music service is reaching out to independent labels in hopes of offering the broadest, deepest catalog of downloadable music. Apple has invited hundreds of indie label representatives to a private presentation on Thursday at the computer giant’s Cupertino, California, campus to discuss hopping onboard and adding their content to the more than 200,000 songs already available through the service. “The plan was to go out of the gate with the five major labels, but… Read more »

Southern rock outfit Kings Of Leon will release its RCA debut, “Youth and Young Manhood,” July 7 internationally and July 22 in North America. The group completed a U.K. tour last week at London’s tiny Madame Jo Jo’s Club in front of a packed audience that included members of Australian rock quartet the Vines. Kings Of Leon, now based in Nashville, features the brothers Nathan, Caleb, and Jared Followill and cousin Matthew. The foursome hails from an itinerant Pentecostal church family background. “We tell everybody we’re from Memphis, because that’s the only place we had as a home,” drummer Nathan… Read more »