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Pepsi has a new affiliation with a hot, rising music star. But this time, Apple Computer’s iTunes is shoving aside the likes of Britney Spears and Beyonce. The soft-drink giant plans to give away 100 million downloads from iTunes next year and plug the service in a Super Bowl commercial. The relationship between Pepsi and Apple – the brainchild of Interscope chief executive Jimmy Iovine – is an effort to drive consumer interest in the iTunes service, which is now available for Windows-based computers. The offer kicks off Feb. 1 with the Super Bowl ad, and it will run until… Read more »

British rock band The Darkness struck a blow for the big hair, skin-tight catsuits and wailing guitar solos of the 1980s Thursday, outshining rivals at Britain’s biggest heavy metal awards. The much-hyped quartet won two awards, for best album and best live act, at music magazine Kerrang!’s 10th annual ceremony in London. It was a far cry from the band’s humble roots in rural Suffolk, eastern England, where lead singer Justin Hawkins and the band used to perform before tiny audiences in bars. “We’ve always behaved like stadium rockers, even at the beginning when we were playing in pubs,” Hawkins… Read more »

Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz, Jakob Dylan, Willie Nelson and T-Bone Burnett have leant a hand to the debut album from Rusty Truck, the brainchild of former Rolling Stone photographer Mark Seliger. Coda Terra Entertainment will release the 12-song effort on Sept. 24. Seliger met the artists while working for Rolling Stone, but Rusty Truck only began to take shape when a pair of Wallflowers encouraged Seliger’s musical endeavors. Band leader Dylan invited Seliger into the studio to cut a demo. Later, keyboardist Rami Jaffee asked Seliger to play a show with him in Los Angeles. Seliger agreed and later relocated… Read more »

We feel like MTV felt twenty years ago,” says Marc Juris, the president of Fuse, a small but flourishing cable channel that’s staking its future on a simple idea: Music television should play music videos. So far, the results are encouraging: Fuse more than doubled its reach to 31 million households in the last twelve months, though that’s a long way from the 86 million homes MTV reaches or the 49 million households of MTV’s music-video spin-off MTV2. Fuse, which debuted in 1994 as a tiny U.S. offshoot of the Canadian music station MuchMusic, hired TV vet Juris away from… Read more »

While former Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland thinks he will soon find a lead singer for his new outfit Eat The Day, Borland does not believe that his new band will ever be as big as Limp Bizkit. Borland, who recently traveled to England in the ongoing search for a vocalist for Eat The Day, said in an interview in Kerrang! magazine that he has narrowed down the list to three potential frontmen. According to Borland, the three candidates are all fantastic singers. The guitarist said, “My favorite singers are PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple, Trent Reznor, Maynard James Keenan, Perry… Read more »

Sharon Osbourne is free of cancer after months of treatment, her rock star husband, Ozzy, said. Ozzy Osbourne said he still feared his wife would become ill again, and added that he was emotionally overwhelmed last year when her illness coincided with the success of their MTV reality show. “She’s got no cancer in her body now, they tell me, but there’s always a chance of it coming back,” Ozzy Osbourne told the music magazine Kerrang! “She’s doing great, but I must confess that I’m still worried about her.” Sharon Osbourne, 50, announced last year that she was undergoing treatment… Read more »

In an aggressive move to boost subscriptions, online music firm Listen.com on Thursday cut what it charges users to burn songs from its Rhapsody service from 99 cents to a loss-making 49 cents. The drastic discount underscores the lengths to which legitimate online music companies will go to jump-start the fledgling marketplace, which is competing against still popular unauthorized services like Kazaa which attract millions with offers of virtually limitless content for free. “We look at this as a limited-time promotion and an effort to get people in the door,” said Matt Graves, a spokesman for independently-owned Listen.com. “We may… Read more »

With songs like “Fat Lip” and “Motivation,” Sum 41 developed a reputation for cheekiness and tomfoolery. Their new album doesn’t exactly transform them into tree-hugging environmentalists or pulpit-preaching activists, but it shows the bandmembers leaning toward maybe growing up just a little… kinda. Many songs on Does This Look Infected?, due November 26, aren’t about downing brews, scamming chicks or teenage angst. Instead, Sum 41 singer and lyricist Deryck Whibley addresses issues a little more sobering. “I guess I watched too much CNN while making this record,” he said. “Also, I guess I’m getting older. When you’re young you have… Read more »

Some popular online services are using a new kind of software to divert sales commissions that would otherwise be paid to small online merchants by big sites like Amazon and eToys. Critics call the software parasite-ware and stealware. But the sites that use the software, which is made by nearly 20 companies and used by dozens, say that it is perfectly legal, because their users agree to the diversion. The amounts involved are estimated by those in the industry to have mounted into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and are likely to continue to grow – in part because… Read more »

It makes sense that Backstreet Boys crooner Nick Carter is releasing his debut solo album Now or Never the week of Halloween. Some Backstreet fans will likely think of it as a delicious treat, while others might view it more as a fiendish trick. On the album, which comes out October 29, Carter leaves behind the glossy harmonies and grandiose production of Backstreet Boys and heads in a more ’80s pop-rock direction that will thrill some and alienate others. Now or Never features 12 songs pared down from 37 written for the disc. Songwriters include Carter, the Matrix, Mark Taylor,… Read more »