Search Results for: Alan Day

Scores of workers from MTV Networks walked off the job yesterday afternoon, filling the sidewalk outside the headquarters of its corporate parent, Viacom, to protest recent changes in benefits. The walkout highlighted the concerns of a category of workers who are sometimes called permalancers: permanent freelancers who work like full-time employees but do not receive the same benefits. Waving signs that read “Shame on Viacom,” the workers, most of them in their 20s, demanded that MTV Networks reverse a plan to reduce health and dental benefits for freelancers beginning Jan. 1. In a statement, MTV Networks noted that its benefits… Read more »

The Grinch might be stealing Christmas from music retailers, but thanks to Josh Groban and Oprah, there’s still some singing in Whoville. For the sales week kicked off by Super Tuesday–the release date before Thanksgiving when record labels typically schedule their big guns–the figures were abnormally bad, with only one Top 10 bow and a seven-week-old album topping the charts. Still, that album, Groban’s Noël, can thank last week’s performance on The Oprah Winfrey Show for driving it past Alicia Keys and into the number one spot. Noël crowned the Billboard 200 by selling 405,000 copies for the week ended… Read more »

Nick Haley took just 30 minutes to pluck the Brazilian band CSS from obscurity and hurl it into the national spotlight. In September, Haley paired the band’s dance-pop song “Music is My Hot, Hot Sex” with his 30-second amateur video, displaying the capabilities of Apple’s new iPod Touch. The video ends with the lyrics, “My music is where I’d like you to touch.” “I was like, ‘This song is too perfect,’ ” said Haley, 18, by phone from the University of Leeds in England, where he studies politics. “It’s punchy, loud, fast and naughty.” Marketers at Apple headquarters in Cupertino… Read more »

Timbaland’s next musical collaboration might be a lullaby. The rapper-producer and fiancée Monique Idlett welcomed a baby girl a few days ago, People reported Tuesday. “They’re both really happy together,” a source told the magazine. “They’ve known each other for years.” Timbaland, whose real name is Tim Mosley, has hit the studio with a mind-boggling number of artists ranging from Dr. Dre to Duran Duran to Björk, but the visionary who helped bring “SexyBack” with Justin Timberlake hasn’t had much to say as far as his nonprofessional partnerships go. Although apparently he doesn’t mind taking a little business home with… Read more »

Global domination and making a new album are on the docket for chart-topping pop-rock band Plain  White T’s in 2008.Currently opening for Fall Out Boy, the Chicago quintet plans to head overseas in January to promote the recent international release of its “new” album, 2006’s “Every Second  Counts.” The group will play the U.K., Europe, Australia, New  Zealand and Japan, according to frontman Tom Higgenson.”We’re possibly bigger in the U.K. than we are in America now,” Higgenson told Billboard.com. “It’s still fresh over there. We’re going over to headline 2,000-seaters, which will be great.”But Higgenson and company are even more… Read more »

There comes a time in every band’s career when it has to choose between staying on the well-worn path or taking a detour onto the road less certain. For Simple Plan, that decision was made earlier this year when they headed down to Miami’s Hit Factory studios to work with producer Nate “Danjahandz” Hills, Timbaland’s protégé and the man responsible for Britney Spears’ “Gimme More.” “We’re a band that’s sold something like 7 million records, had two records that did really well, so we had to find a way to change without changing, to kind of reinvent ourselves,” frontman Pierre… Read more »

If it seems like you are listening to music more but enjoying it less, some people in the recording industry say they know why. They blame that iPod that you can’t live without, along with all the compressed MP3 music files you’ve loaded on it. Those who work behind-the-mic in the music industry — producers, engineers, mixers and the like — say they increasingly assume their recordings will be heard as MP3s on an iPod music player. That combination is thus becoming the “reference platform” used as a test of how a track should sound. (Movie makers make much the… Read more »

Justin Timberlake and Beyonce lead the pop parade of nominees for the MTV Video Music Awards with seven nods apiece, it was announced Tuesday. Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” was nominated for video of the year, as was Timberlake’s ambitiously cinematic “What Goes Around … Comes Around,” which co-starred Scarlett Johansson. Also competing in the category are Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” Kanye West’s “Stronger,” Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (featuring Jay-Z) and Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” Timberlake was also nominated for male artist of the year and “most earth shattering collaboration” for pairing with Timbaland for “Sexy Back.” Beyonce was nominated for female artist of the year and for… Read more »

LOS ANGELES, CA –NEW FOUND GLORY will cover classics hits such as “Kiss Me,” “Iris” and “Don’t You Forget About Me” on their upcoming release, From The Screen To Your Stereo 2 out on September 18th. The album consists of the band’s own take on soundtrack songs from popular movies from the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s. The album also features guest vocalists from friends of the band including Adam Lazarra from Taking Back Sunday, Chris Carraba from Dashboard Confessional,Will Pugh from Cartel, Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy.  Lisa Loeb sings on her own number one single, “Stay.”  Complete track… Read more »

KT Tunstall’s apparently tireless capacity for work makes even her laugh. “I feel like a camel,” the Scottish singer-songwriter says with a giggle. “Because I had 10 years of nothing, it does give me an enormous capacity for embracing what’s going on and remembering all that time when I was really wishing things would happen.” That’s why, after two straight years of touring and promotion behind her multiplatinum debut, “Eye to the Telescope” — first released in the United Kingdom at the end of 2004, although its U.S. release was not until February 2006 — Tunstall is, eagerly, right back… Read more »