Search Results for: Radiohead

Metallica’s eighth studio album, “St. Anger,” has been certified multiplatinum for U.S. shipments in excess of 2 million copies in a little over a month of release, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America’s July numbers. Hip-hop innovator Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott earned her first multiplatinum album with “Under Construction.” Fleetwood Mac earned its 14th gold record (U.S. shipments in excess of 500,000 units) in July for “Say You Will.” The classic rock group’s overall U.S. album sales have surpassed the 50 million mark. R&B icon Luther Vandross’ “Dance With My Father” was certified platinum for sales of more than… Read more »

It may have been the year of 50 Cent, but he’ll play second fiddle to Missy Elliott, Justin Timberlake and country legend Johnny Cash heading into the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. Elliott led the pack with eight nominations for her eye-popping “Work It” video when the nods were announced Thursday morning. The clip counts nominations for Video of the Year, Best Female Video, Best Hip-Hop Video and Best Direction in a Video among its stash. Christina Aguilera and Coldplay were also unveiled as the first performers confirmed for the awards show when nominations were announced on Thursday. Right behind… Read more »

Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, citing concerns about student privacy, moved yesterday to quash subpoenas issued by the recording industry to discover the identities of students the industry says are illegally distributing copyrighted music. The moves represent one of the first major obstacles for the recording industry in its campaign against ordinary computer users who share copyrighted music. Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, said he was disappointed and vowed legal action to obtain the information. “These universities have chosen to litigate this in an attempt to deny copyright holders the right… Read more »

Long an artist’s sanctuary, the commercial recording studio is becoming a virtual fortress, guarding against the potentially devastating consequences of theft. The thieves’ targets are the rough mixes, outtakes, alternative takes and finished masters that traditionally have been loosely handled, even by the artists themselves. Leaks of this material are nothing new, but the advent of unauthorized file sharing on the Internet has greatly increased the consequences of this phenomenon. Recent albums by Eminem, 50 Cent, Korn and Radiohead were all available online prior to release, because unauthorized copies were leaked to unknown parties. In such cases, marketing strategies are… Read more »

Ticket sales are down, and big tours are scaling back to smaller venues. It looks to be a long, hot summer for the touring industry. On the cusp of the industry’s peak period, a number of high-profile tours and festivals have already hit snags, among them highly touted outings from Mariah Carey, the Field Day Music Festival, Lollapalooza, and Beck and Dashboard Confessional. Faced with a crowded tour market combined with high ticket prices, permit hassles, a sluggish economy and poor buzz, these tours and a handful of others have either had to scale back the size of the venues… 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 »

The Epic Records Group, a unit of Sony Music, is approaching the sticky problem of prerelease music’s being traded online with an even stickier solution. Writers receiving review copies of two soon-to-be-released albums – Tori Amos’s “Scarlet’s Walk” and Pearl Jam’s “Riot Act” – are finding the CD’s already inside Sony Walkman players that have been glued shut. Headphones are also glued into the players, to prevent connecting the Walkman to a recording device. By locking up the discs, Epic hopes to keep writers from converting the music to MP3’s that can then be traded over the Net. But even… Read more »

The pairing of unabashed riff mongers Queens of the Stone Age and… And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead should make for a show that falls somewhere between rock and a harder place. The bands are scheduled to hit the road together beginning August 30 in Washington, D.C., according to an Interscope spokesperson. Thirteen shows have been confirmed thus far, ending with September 21 in Columbia, Missouri. Additional dates will be added to the itinerary that will take the trek into October. … Trail of Dead will support Josh Homme and the boys on all dates with… Read more »

Detroit blooze duo the White Stripes have chosen “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” as the third single from their latest album, White Blood Cells. The tale of woe, composed of sluggish verses that explode into a rough-hewn, feedback-tweaked chorus, follows previous cuts “Hotel Yorba” and “Fell in Love With a Girl.” A video for the song will be shot by Michel Gondry, according to a spokesperson for V2 Records. Gondry, who has directed groundbreaking clips for Björk, Cibo Matto and Radiohead, was the visual artist responsible for the living Lego style of the Stripes’ “Fell in Love With a… Read more »

EMI Group emerged on Tuesday from a dismal year of slumping profits confident that things could only get better, but the music giant’s shares spun lower as a glum industry outlook rattled already jangled nerves. EMI, home to artists such as Radiohead and Kylie Minogue, posted a sharp but expected 40 percent fall in adjusted pre-tax profit and said its radical overhaul was going to plan despite an industry ravaged by an economic slowdown and piracy. The world’s third biggest music company saw its battered stock slide almost seven percent as analysts took fright after a post-results meeting, shrugging off… Read more »