Search Results for: 2003

It may not have the glitz and glamour of a televised performance-oriented awards show, but the annual SOCAN Awards honour something more important than pop-tart prancing: songwriting. Last night, the Society Of Composers, Authors And Music Publishers Of Canada handed out awards to the top songwriters in the country. Held at Toronto’s Carlu, the gala award dinner was hosted by Lawrence Gowan. Over the course of the evening, the body that pays songwriters their royalties (and keeps food on many of their tables) gave props to the most played songs of the year, as well as some golden oldies that… Read more »

Los Angeles – A judge ruled Wednesday that transcripts of grand jury hearings in the Phil Spector murder case should be made public, brushing aside vehement arguments by the defense that the documents are “full of lies.” Judge Larry Paul Fidler said lawyers for the rock music producer failed to show how releasing the documents would prevent a fair jury from being chosen for the trial. The judge gave the defense 10 days to decide if they want to appeal. The documents would then be released if no appeal is filed. Spector, 64, who created rock ‘n’ roll’s “wall of… Read more »

New York – San Diego veteran rockers, Unwritten Law return to the limelight with Here’s To The Mourning, the band’s long-awaited, new studio album which is scheduled for release on Lava Records February, 2005. Considered by many to be one of the founding fathers of the Southern California punk/skate scene, Unwritten Law continue to push the envelope while maintaining their credibility as one of the most successful bands to break out of the late 90’s SoCal arena. The band’s new album is undoubtedly one of the most highly anticipated, pure rock n’ roll records to be released in the New… Read more »

Paris – Note to readers: Vivendi Universal provided preliminary, unaudited revenue information on a French GAAP basis for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2004 to ‘Balo’ a French official bulletin for publication in accordance with French regulatory requirements. On a comparable basis(1, the revenues for the third quarter 2004 were up 6%, and 7% at constant currency. On a comparable basis(1, the revenues for the first nine months of 2004 were up 5%, and 7% at constant currency. Vivendi Universal’s consolidated revenues for the third quarter of 2004 amounted to EUR 4,703 million. On a comparable… Read more »

Los Angeles – Last week, the two highest debuts on Hot 100 Singles Sales were by Bright Eyes, the musical invention of 24-year-old Nebraskan Conor Oberst. This week, those two singles, “Lua” and “Take It Easy (Love Nothing),” move 18-1 and 7-2, respectively, to take over the top two spots on the survey. It is the first time in seven years that one artist owns the top two positions on this list. In August 1997, Puff Daddy was No. 1 with Faith Evans on “I’ll Be Missing You” and was featured with Mase at No. 2 on the Notorious B.I.G.’s… Read more »

San Francisco – America’s students are back to school, but it seems they have yet to learn their lesson about file sharing. Despite the efforts of digital music services, record company litigation, “spoofing” technology and legitimate offerings at various universities, illegal file sharing on peer-to-peer networks has risen since college students returned to their high-speed Internet connections this fall. According to Los Angeles-based P2P market research firm BigChampagne, the back-to-school months coincided with the typical spike of usage on file-swapping networks, with average simultaneous peak users totaling 5.7 million in the United States in October, edging up from 5.4 million… Read more »

New York – Of the multitude of New York-based rock bands to garner recent media attention, surely the most unique musical personality belongs to TV on the Radio, a Brooklyn quintet whose two releases on Touch & Go have fueled major interest. Curiosity peaked after the group – then the barely-out-of-the-loft project of lead singer Tunde Adebimpe and producer/multi-instrumentalist David Sitek – released the five-track EP “Young Liars” in July 2003. The record blindsided the indie rock community with the title track, the haunting dirges “Blind” and “Staring at the Sun” and an a cappella doo-wop cover of the Pixies’… Read more »

Los Angeles – Will it be a blue Christmas in the music business? The first eight months of 2004 were a romp, when labels and retailers were measuring their progress against the soft numbers from the first two trimesters of 2003. The question looming then was how numbers would hold up when we got to September, which was the point last year when same-week increases bloomed for the first time in almost three years. The answer so far? Not so great. Even with collective sales of this week’s top 10 on the Billboard 200 outweighing that from the comparable week… Read more »

New York, Ny – Punk superstars Simple Plan saw plenty of action as their new album Still Not Getting Any…soared to the top of the charts. The band’s sophomore album entered the Billboard Top 200 at #3 (trailing closely behind hard core rappers Jay Z/R. Kelly and Trick Daddy.) The album, with sales of 139,928, marks the band’s highest chart position to date and the highest rock debut this week. In addition to their monstrous success stateside, Still Not Getting Any…topped the chart in their native Canada at #2 and was the #3 top selling album in Japan. “Simple Plan… Read more »

In the midst of one of the most passionate and pivotal elections in history, as the early returns are coming in, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), the organization co-founded by Russell Simmons and Dr. Benjamin Chavis which has spent the past 18 months dedicated to inspiring and mobilizing young people to go to the polls, is witnessing the fruits of its labors today – long lines of young voters. In April of 2003, HSAN launched its Hip-Hop Team Vote Youth Voter Initiative at a Hip-Hop Summit in Detroit with Eminem and Nas. Its Philadelphia Summit in August of 2003… Read more »