Search Results for: Alanis Morissette

A month after promoters declared the concert industry healthier than ever, big summer tours such as Ozzfest, Fleetwood Mac, the Dead and Lollapalooza have run into a concrete wall of slow sales. “Ticket sales are mixed, and in some cases they appear to be substantially off from the past,” says Alex Hodges, executive vice president of House of Blues Concerts, one of the three major U.S. promotion companies. The summer’s success stories so far are big-buzz superstar events such as Prince and Madonna, plus low-cost packages including the long-running Warped Tour, Alanis Morissette/Barenaked Ladies and No Doubt/Blink-182. Also, the three-day… Read more »

A Delaware Chancery Court judge has ruled that Los Angeles should be the venue for the hearing of the bitter legal clash between Warner Music Group (WMG) and top Warner act Madonna’s Maverick Records. WMG filed its preemptive action against Maverick in Delaware on March 24, seeking a declaratory judgment. Maverick filed its own suit the following day in California Superior Court in L.A., claiming that WMG had breached its 12-year-old joint-venture pact with the label, which is gearing up for the May 18 release of Alanis Morissette’s new album. The suits are believed to be tied to ongoing disputes… Read more »

Maverick Records, home to bands such as Tantric, Story Of The Year, Dakona and many others, has lost $66 million since 1999, according to recently unsealed court documents filed by its adversary and partner, Warner Music Group. Last month, Maverick sued Warner Music for $200 million, claiming breach of contract and fraud. The Warner documents were part of a pre-emptive claim filed in a Delaware court asking a judge to find that the company had fulfilled its commitment to Maverick. The documents claim that in order for Maverick to get out of its joint venture with Warner Music, which is… Read more »

The attorney for Maverick Records has dismissed as “hogwash” a claim by Warner Music Group (WMG) that Madonna’s label has lost $66 million since 1999. WMG’s claim is the latest wrinkle in a spat with Maverick’s principals – Madonna and Guy Oseary – over the value of the label and who will control it after this year. WMG has an option to buy the 60% of Maverick it does not currently own when the labels’ joint-venture agreement expires Dec. 31. Maverick attorney Bert Fields says WMG is “stabbing Madonna in the back” by filing the claim in the middle of… Read more »

The pop diva’s Maverick Records filed a $200 million lawsuit against Warner Music Group and Time Warner Inc. on Thursday, accusing the record label and its former parent company of breaching its contract through poor management and deceitful accounting which cost Madonna and her partners millions. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims Warner Music execs and other defendants “failed to abide by their contractual and fiduciary duty” by “engaging in acts of self-dealing and secret profit-taking, falsely accounting for receipts and expenses of the partnership [and] sacrificing the interests of the partnership and its partners for defendants… Read more »

Despite the major labels’ success in clearing hundreds of thousands of tracks for purchase online through services like Apple’s iTunes Music Store, some top artists continue to resist authorizing the dismantling of their albums for Internet consumption as a la carte singles. Some acts are requiring that their music be sold exclusively in album bundles. For example, Linkin Park recently pulled its music as a singles offering from digital services. Sources say the band has expressed concerns about undercutting album sales. Other acts with similar stipulations about their work include Radiohead, Madonna, Jewel and Green Day, sources say. Top acts… Read more »

Apple(R) today announced that over two million songs have been purchased and downloaded from its revolutionary iTunes(R) Music Store since its debut 16 days ago. Continuing the trend set during the first week, over half of the songs purchased to date were purchased as albums, further dispelling concerns that selling music on a per-track basis will destroy album sales. “Response to the iTunes Music Store has been phenomenal – we’ve clearly hit a chord with users,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re adding new songs every day, giving music lovers even more reasons to legally download their favorite music.” The… Read more »

Controversial Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, once famously booed offstage for tearing up the Pope’s picture, declared on Thursday that she’s had it with the music business and with being famous. “As of July 2003, I shall be retiring from the music business order to pursue a different career,” wrote O’Connor – who distinguished herself in the 1990s as much with her shaven head and brash opinions as with her music – on a Web site devoted to all things Sinead, (http://www.sinead-oconnor.com). Although the site is not the official home page for the singer, Lellie Capwell, a spokeswomen for Vanguard Records,… Read more »

Country star Shania Twain didn’t get her wish when she won three prizes at the 32nd annual Juno Awards, Canada’s equivalent of the Grammys, over the weekend. After winning the Country Recording of the Year nod at the untelevised ceremony in Ottawa on Saturday, she had said she would prefer not to win anything at the next day’s televised event because she wanted to concentrate on her role as host. Alas, she ended up nabbing the Artist of the Year and Fan Choice Awards the next day. “I’m here to host the show and perform,” Twain said Saturday at a… Read more »

Blink 182, Green Day, and Filter are among the artists featured on an upcoming album saluting Fender musical instruments. The Players: Powered By Fender comes out April 22nd, and it also includes songs played on Fender instruments by Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Remy Zero, the Goo Goo Dolls, Smash Mouth, Third Eye Blind, the Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, Collective Soul, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith, and the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band. The full tracklisting for The Players: Powered By Fender includes: Sheryl Crow, “Steve McQueen”; Eric Clapton, “Superman Inside”; Aerosmith, “Just Push Play”; Alanis Morissette, “Surrendering”; Blink 182, “All The Small Things”;… Read more »