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U.S. album sales rose 10.4 percent in the first month of 2004, Nielsen Soundscan reported, welcome news to the music industry after a three-year slump marked by costly litigation, rampant piracy and consolidation. The uptrend began late last year, a development hailed by Sanford Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson in a recent report. But he said he was hesitant to say declines were over. Other analysts note that comparisons were easy with last year when U.S. album sales fell. But many saw signs the music business – led by big record labels at Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG, EMI Group Plc, Sony… Read more »

A long-anticipated partnership with Pepsi that Apple hopes will help raise the profile of its iTunes Music store is launching during the Super Bowl on Sunday. ITunes already dominates the still-fledgling online music industry. Pepsi will run a commercial featuring 16 teenagers who have been sued by the RIAA for music piracy to promote its giveaway of 100 million free downloads from the iTunes Music store on Pepsi bottle caps. But in a coup for what has been one of the lower-profile competitors in the digital music space, MusicMatch announced that is has signed a partnership deal with Coca-Cola and… Read more »

Youthful grunge-lite band the Calling call their new album Two for two reasons. First, it’s the group’s second record. More important, singer Alex Band and guitarist Aaron Kamin want fans to know the Calling are now, and always have been, a two-man band. That point was questioned in November, when former bassist Billy Mohler and drummer Nate Wood sued the group and its manager for fraud and mismanagement. The pair claimed they were owed significant song royalties and a merchandise percentage, and that they were only paid $26,000 each for two years’ touring, even though they’d been promised much more.… Read more »

A new sort of Pepsi Generation will get air time on the Super Bowl: music downloaders. Some 20 teens sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, which accuses them of unauthorized downloads, will appear in a Pepsi-Cola (PEP) ad that kicks off a two-month offer of up to 100 million free – and legal – downloads from Apple’s iTunes, the leading online music seller. The sassy ad, to be seen by Super Bowl’s 88 million viewers on Feb 1, is a wink at the download hot button. Pepsi hopes the promotion will connect its flagship cola, as well as… Read more »

Not content with fighting it out in the soft drinks world, Pepsi and Coca Cola are bringing the music business into it. Things are getting dirty. Today, PepsiCo announced their line up for their new “Dare for More” campaign. Get this: Beyonce, Pink, Britney Spears and Enrique Iglesias. One advert, 1/2 Billion Dollars. Ms Spears said: “Every year Pepsi has come up with new and exciting ways to entertain music fans around the world. With this year’s line-up of talent they can expect the best yet.” Meanwhile, Coca Cola continued movement into the music world was seen by the announcement… Read more »

A little time in rehab is better than a little time in jail. Courtney Love, who has been in entertainment headlines regularly over the last couple of months, has been in a drug and substance rehabilitation centre for the last two weeks, according to her lawyer. Ron Fischetti told MTV.com that Love had been staying at Wavelengths – a live-in center that has aided stars with drug and alcohol problems (including actor Robert Downey Jr.) – since November 21 and was doing “extremely well.” In early October, Love was arrested for being “under the influence of a controlled substance” (read… Read more »

Justin Guarini, the second-place finalist for the first season of “American Idol,” has reportedly been dropped by RCA. The label, which no longer lists him on its Web site, declined comment. Guarini’s eponymous debut album has sold 134,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. By contrast, the debut from first-season “Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson, “Thankful,” has sold 1.7 million copies. Second-season finalist Clay Aiken’s “Measure of a Man” has sold 1.3 million copies since its release in October. US Weekly quoted “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell as saying, “He’s been dropped. It happens sometimes.” Guarini did not appear… 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 »

Ryan Adams hasn’t arrived for a scheduled afternoon interview, sending instead an apologetic manager with an explanation. “Ryan went out last night with Ron Wood,” the manager said. Oh. Enough said. The bar tab for a summit between two generations of notorious rock ‘n’ roll party animals must have approached the gross national product of some small nations. But all is not as it seems. The next day, Adams insists it was a low-key evening; his Rolling Stones pal wasn’t drinking. Twin cups of Alka Seltzer and black coffee suggest some recovery time for Adams. His music is confounding expectations,… Read more »