Search Results for: 2007

BROOKLYN, New York – What does Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig have in common with Sting and Gene Simmons? It’s definitely not a shared sense of style. But like Sting and Simmons, the cardigan-and-Top-Sider-sporting 23-year-old spent a year as the antithesis of the flashy, rule-breaking rock star: a teacher. Before belting out tunes like “Oxford Comma” and “A Punk” in front of sold-out crowds and landing on the cover of Spin – along with bassist Chris Baio, keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij and drummer Chris Tomson – Koenig was juggling band practice and performances with a day job as an eighth-grade teacher… Read more »

A musicians union has filed a federal lawsuit against the producers of “American Idol,” claiming musicians were underpaid because the show’s live music was re-recorded for reruns. The American Federation of Musicians filed the suit seeking unspecified damages Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleging that American Idol Productions Inc. and its subsidiary Tick Tock Productions Inc. violated a collective bargaining agreement. That contract says the show’s musicians should be paid royalties for rebroadcasts of the show, the lawsuit said. The producers are required to pay 75 percent of scale to musicians who appear in the original show… Read more »

Coldplay sold 125,000 copies of its new album on the first day of release in Britain, a solid tally industry experts say should be music to the band’s ears and those of its ailing record label EMI. “Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends” now looks “certain” to top Sunday’s album chart, according to The Official Charts Company which tracks record sales, even though it was released on Thursday rather than at the start of the week. “Coldplay are an international act … and these sales figures in the UK are the first indication of how the album… Read more »

Maroon 5’s 2007 album, “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long,” will be reissued in expanded form July 8. The A&M/Octone package will include a bonus DVD with four music videos and a full concert shot last year in Montreal. In addition, the original CD is bolstered with five B-sides: “Infatuation,” “Miss You Love You,” “Until You’re Over Me,” “Story” and “Losing My Mind.” Also tacked onto the track list is “If I Never See Your Face Again,” Maroon 5’s new single featuring Rihanna. The original version of “Won’t Be Soon” has sold 1.85 million copies in the United Stated, according… Read more »

When Hartmut Ostrowski was an up-and-comer in Bertelsmann’s printing and services division in the 1990s, his bosses were discouraged from speaking at meetings of the top executives. In the glamorous world of Bertelsmann, a global media empire with music, television, and publishing properties – Germany’s answer to Time Warner – services were viewed as strictly a backstage function. Now, with Mr. Ostrowski at the helm of Bertelsmann, the stagehands are striding into the spotlight. Two weeks ago, he named Markus Dohle, a 39-year-old German who runs the company’s printing operations, as chief executive of Random House, the world’s largest consumer… Read more »

Honestly, given the amount I write about Digital Rights Management, you’d think that I’d rather the industry kept using it, just so I’d continue to have fodder for writing and writing–and occasionally talking–about it. As I was looking into the trajectory of DRM in this past year for my latest look at DRM, a pattern began to emerge. We’ve seen the prevalence of DRM-free music skyrocket over the last twelve months, with vendors like iTunes, Amazon, and Napster all joining the legions of the undamned. In fact, it’s practically gotten to the point where it’s news when a company launches… Read more »

Ashlee Simpson and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz got married Saturday night (May 17) in an intimate ceremony. “We’re delighted to confirm that Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson were married this evening in front of family and close friends,” the spokesperson told the mag on Saturday, when the couple reportedly exchanged vows in front of 150 guests at her parents’ Los Angeles-area home. People’s report also apparently confirmed Ashlee’s long-rumored pregnancy, stating Simpson is “pregnant with the couple’s first child.” Although Wentz told MTV News via e-mail, “Blah, I got nothing,” when asked if he were getting married this… Read more »

Newly-released figures from the Official UK Charts Company – the group which tracks UK chart positions – reveal that digital album sales climbed by 69.3 per cent in comparison with the first quarter of 2007. That’s encouraging because it means digital music buyers are beginning to see album purchases as viable using services such as iTunes. The industry has often voiced concern that iTunes does not stimulate enough album sales, but this seems set to change. The company also confirmed that sales of digital single tracks climbed 42.3 per cent, year-on-year. These figures are all the more interesting because 2007… Read more »