Search Results for: 2003

With 2K3 coming to a close, ChartAttack have started a campaign to ask a bunch of smart-ass questions to rockers for the end of the year. What was the dumbest thing that happened to you this year? Steve-O: We didn’t sell as many records as last year. Nah, just kidding. This band doesn’t do dumb things; believe it or not this band doesn’t do anything stupid. What was the wickedest thing that happened to you this year? Steve-O: Nothing. Did we do the Spider Man soundtrack video this year? If so, that’s another dumb one. Cause when you surround yourself… Read more »

The music industry’s traditional packaged-goods retail business may be continuing its long decline, but the sale of downloadable tunes is hot and getting hotter. On December 16, Apple Computer announced that it has sold more than 25 million songs through its iTunes Music Store since its inception four months ago. The Cupertino, CA-based technology pioneer is now selling about 222,000 individual songs per day, at 99 ¢ each, a volume more than three times the 70,000 per day the company was selling in September, when the iTunes service was available only to Apple users. In October, the service was expanded… Read more »

Multi-platinum-selling rapper Juvenile has returned to the Cash Money fold and is set to release his fifth solo album, Juve The Great on December 23. This marks Juvenile’s first release since 2001’s gold certified, Project English. The first single from the CD, “In My Life,” was produced by Cash Money’s in-house hitmaker, Mannie Fresh. The track has already garnered massive early radio airplay in major markets such as Washington D.C., Norfolk, Dallas, Raleigh and Juvenile’s native New Orleans. The video is in regular rotation at BET’s Rap City and will hit MTV2 Friday, December 19th. As a pioneering southern rapper,… Read more »

After 19 original albums, decades of hit singles, and a career marked by truly classic records, Joe Cocker, one of rock’s most intense and passionate performers, has chosen 20 of his favorites for his most expansive career retrospective to date. JOE COCKER: ULTIMATE COLLECTION (A&M/Hip-O Records), released January 13, 2004, offers most of his biggest hits and more from 1968 to 2000, spanning his years on A&M, MCA, Island, Capitol, Sony and Eagle Records. In addition, the package’s booklet spotlights an essay by J.P. Bean, author of the September 2003-published JOE COCKER: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY, along with song annotations and… Read more »

Teen idol Aaron Carter isn’t in the middle of his parents’ messy split. He’s taking sides. The 16-year-old younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter announced Wednesday he was firing his mother-slash-comanager, and ordering an audit of his pop-star riches. “I feel betrayed by own mother,” Aaron Carter said in a statement. The singer has alleged that a “significant” portion of earnings-reportedly more than $100,000-from his recent tour were tapped into, in part, by mom Jane Carter. “I worked hard for months-10, 11 hours a day, not including school and press appearances-and I come home and owe money!” Aaron Carter… Read more »

Online music piracy isn’t likely to vanish soon, but the rise of paid online services and the growing popularity of portable digital music players portends greater demand for digital music next year and better fortunes for the embattled recording industry, music executives said Monday. Taking a mostly positive outlook on an industry racked by a three-year slide in CD sales, executives for recording companies and Internet music retailers told hundreds at the Music 2.0 conference in Universal City that online music sales should take off in 2004. “What we see is an explosion of interest in this space. It’s a… Read more »

Simple Plan have reached new found heights of success. The band will perform on MTV’s New Year’s celebration live from Times Square on December 31st, alongside special guests Hillary Duff, Ludacris and Chingy. Simple Plan will continue the MTV tradition by ringing in the New Year with a special surprise cover song performance just after midnight. Other artists who have shared this honor include No Doubt, P.O.D., Foo Fighters and Sum 41. In addition, the quintet’s platinum-selling debut No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls has consistently appeared on the Billboard Top 200 for the past 52 weeks, making it one of… Read more »

In their 13 years together, the members of P.O.D. have never denied their faith. And frontman Sonny Sandoval says the group never will. “It’s going to come out, whether I build houses or collect garbage,” he says. Spirituality and positivity have saturated the band’s material to date and have helped turn P.O.D. into a multiplatinum-selling act in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001. With the new Atlantic effort, “Payable on Death,” both band and label hope that the faith of the 2.7 million U.S. fans who bought P.O.D.’s previous album also remains intact, as the new set – the group’s… Read more »

For the first time since the chart’s rollout in July, the No. 1-selling song on Hot Digital Tracks bests the weekly total of the No. 1 title on Hot 100 Singles. With the rollout of Napster 2.0, sales data of digital tracks takes another step north, resulting in OutKast’s “Hey Ya! (Radio Mix)” selling 8,500 downloads compared with 7,500 physical singles scanned of MercyMe’s “I Can Only Imagine.” This occurrence, if not the speed with which it was accomplished, was predicted in most music quarters once the business model of digital distribution was in place. While it appears that the… Read more »

Jennifer Lopez is being sued for copyright infringement for her video “I’m Glad,” an homage to the 1983 film “Flashdance,” by the real-life welder and dancer who was the inspiration for the film. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges Lopez illegally depicted the life of Maureen Marder. She had refused to grant sequel rights or to permit any further use of her story or identity after the film became a success, according to her attorney Robert Hefling. “She is penniless, disabled with a spinal injury, and trying to raise a teenage daughter,” Helfing said… Read more »