Search Results for: AVOID

The recording industry and several high-tech groups battling over copyright laws declared a tentative truce on Tuesday and said they would try to hash out rules to govern how to protect digital movies and music from widespread bootlegging. The two sides hope to avoid a big lobbying battle this year in Congress over whether to enhance digital copyright protection or preserve the rights of users to make copies. They said they will try to settle their differences and devise rules to govern how movies and music may be used, instead of looking to Congress or the Federal Communications Commission. But… Read more »

Sprint Corp. on Wednesday said it would offer Listen.com’s Rhapsody music subscription services to its broadband customers, joining a growing list of such providers to provide music services. Sprint also said it would offer its PCS wireless customers Rhapsody 411, a music information service, including album reviews, artist recommendations, album art and full-color artist photos directly from their phones. Sprint is the second wireless company to offer Rhapsody 411 after AT&T Wireless Services Inc, underscoring the trend that wireless carriers are increasingly looking to offer music features. Sony Corp., for instance, recently bought a provider of cellphone ring-tones while two… Read more »

In just eight months’ time, Justin Timberlake’s feelings toward former love Britney Spears have gone from hurt to hate. At least that’s what Us Weekly alleges in its current cover story, “Britney Vs. Justin: The War Is On.” The article, which surfaced on New York newsstands Wednesday and will be available nationwide Friday, suggests that pop music’s hottest couple are feuding like the Hatfields and the McCoys, singling out Timberlake’s video for “Cry Me a River” as the latest, and loudest, bomb dropped. The video, which premiered November 25, features 18-year-old model/actress Lauren Hastings playing what could only be construed… Read more »

Concert tours to Southeast Asia have become the latest casualty of recent bomb blasts in Bali and the Philippines with veteran jazz guitarist George Benson and rock groups Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oasis canceling shows. “George Benson did cancel some dates that he had lined up for Indonesia,” promoter Nigel Peters said on Tuesday. “It’s obviously a direct relation to the Bali bombing. That’s the only reason this decision was taken.” A bomb attack at a nightclub on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali on October 12 killed more than 180 people, most of them Australian. Ten people were… Read more »

Smaller Internet music broadcasters are getting an extension on copyright royalty payments that would have been due Sunday, which means they can avoid shutting down. The webcasters will still have to pay up to $2,500 each in fees by Monday. But that is far less than the tens of thousands of dollars that many of them would have owed. The extension, granted by the recording industry and performance artists Friday, came a day after the Senate recessed for the elections without approving copyright rate revisions negotiated between webcasters and the copyright holders. The changes, unanimously approved by the House earlier… Read more »

The five major record label groups and the three largest music retailers have agreed to pay $143 million in cash and CDs to resolve a long-standing class action price-fixing case. The settlement, announced Monday, brings to a close allegations that the major labels and retailers had violated antitrust laws and illegally inflated the cost of CDs. At issue was a policy called “minimum advertised pricing,” or MAP, under which the major labels would jointly pay for advertising if a retailer agreed to sell CDs above a certain price. This pricing practice began nearly a decade ago as a way for… Read more »

The world’s five largest music companies and the three largest music retailers will pay $143.1 million to settle a CD price-fixing case launched by New York and Florida two years ago, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Monday. In August 2000, most U.S. states joined in a lawsuit alleging that an industry practice called “minimum advertised pricing” (MAP) artificially inflated the price of CDs between 1995 and 2000, violating federal and state antitrust laws. Under MAP, the labels subsidized advertising for retailers that agreed not to sell CDs below a certain price. The five record labels –… Read more »

Chicago rockers Disturbed have upset the Dixie Chicks’ three-week run as chart champs, selling more than 283,000 copies of their second album to debut atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday. The riff-wielding quartet has come a long way in its short career. Disturbed’s 2000 debut, The Sickness, while eventually selling more than 2.6 million copies, took nearly two months to crack the chart after its release. What’s even more impressive is that Disturbed’s first-place showing came without an unavoidable, playlist-friendly video. The clip for the LP’s first single, “Prayer,” encountered restrictions because it was… Read more »

About 50 Syrian protesters crashed a U.S.-sponsored public rock concert in Damascus on Thursday held in honor of victims of the September 11 attacks, demanding Washington stop its battle cry against Iraq. “Stop the drums of war so we can hear your music,” protesters yelled at the rock memorial, which was attended by around 150 people, including some Americans. The protesters also waved signs and shouted slogans protesting against U.S. support for Israel, accusing the United States of “serving Zionist criminals” and participating in “dirty crimes” against the Palestinian people. President Bush told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that… Read more »

Terrorism struck the United States on a Tuesday, the day labels release albums, and that day had its share of potential blockbusters: Jay-Z, Bob Dylan and Mariah Carey were among the artists who released records on September 11, 2001. The first anniversary of the attacks, by contrast, will pass quietly in the nation’s record stores, with no big-name releases hitting shelves this week and retailers predicting that new records will be the furthest thing from fans’ minds. “It just seems to be in bad taste,” said bassist Joe Escalante of veteran punk band the Vandals, who chose a September 17… Read more »