Search Results for: Record Store Day

Even though the RIAA continues to go after Internet file-sharers, millions of music fans keep downloading songs. Naturally, this hurts album sales, which were down around 12 percent for the first half of 2003. To try to convince people to actually buy albums again, record companies have offered value-added packaging such as the ever-popular bonus DVD, which typically contains backstage footage, exclusive interviews, videos and maybe a live recording or two. But adding a DVD can be costly. Labels typically pay between one and two dollars per extra disc, which means as much as an additional $2 million for an… Read more »

Coming soon to a Windows PC near you: Apple Computer Inc.’s. popular iTunes online music store, which analysts say will join an already crowded market that could mute its chances of repeating the success of the Macintosh-only version. The computer maker is set to unveil this week the long-promised Windows-compatible version of its online music service. Last week, it sent invitations to reporters for an event on Thursday in San Francisco proclaiming, “The year’s biggest music story is about to get even bigger.” An Apple spokesman declined further comment. Yet now, some analysts say that while iTunes for Windows may… Read more »

Nearly a year after software maker Roxio Inc. scooped up the Napster brand from the ashes of the pioneer file-swapping service, a revamped online music store bearing the familiar brand name debuted Thursday in limited release. The company shelved its former online music service, pressplay, and began moving subscribers to a beta, or test version, of Napster 2.0. The service will be available to all in the United States beginning Oct. 29, officials said Thursday. Napster 2.0 users will have access to more than a half-million songs from all the major music labels. They can download individual songs for 99… Read more »

Arista on Oct. 21 will release a Sarah McLachlan EP as a download, to be available for the first 30 days exclusively via Apple’s iTunes Music Store. “Acoustic Live EP 2003” has five cuts recorded in concert earlier this year: a pair from McLachlan’s new album “Afterglow,” due Nov. 4, and three older tracks. “Fallen,” the first single from “Afterglow,” debuted in two versions last week on Billboard’s Hot Digital Tracks chart, at No. 1 (album mix) and No. 4 (radio mix). The former logged 2,500 paid downloads, the largest one-week tally in the chart’s three-month history. Both tracks were… Read more »

Connecticut’s Hatebreed is getting ready to drop another album at the end of this month, following up on their highly successful 2002 album, Perseverance. The album will be titled The Rise Of Brutality and is scheduled to hit stores on October 28. The Rise Of Brutality will mark the band’s third full-length album (their debut record, Under The Knife, is technically an EP) and second release on Universal. The Rise Of Brutality will feature 12 new songs in total. There’s already a cute little four-song sampler of the album in the hands of radio radio and journalist types, which I… Read more »

Atlantic Records, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., and Atlantic recording group P.O.D. announced today a groundbreaking collaboration to create the entertainment industry’s first-ever combined music CD/PlayStation(R)2 videogame release. The first one million copies of P.O.D.’s eagerly awaited new album, “PAYABLE ON DEATH,” will include an exclusive bonus PlayStation(R)2 DVD containing a custom videogame track from the critically acclaimed PlayStation 2 music game title, Amplitude, featuring a newly recorded, non-album P.O.D. track, “Space.” Playable only on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, this disc will also feature a 50-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, “Inside P.O.D. Culture,” and a special feature on Daniel Martin… Read more »

The pressures on a frontman are fierce. Besides remembering the words and singing in key, you have to look cool. Keep the guitar slung low. Get close to the mic and sneer. Don’t be afraid to windmill. But what if you’re a singer without an axe to wield? Good luck trying to make like Pete Townshend with a piano, but somehow Andrew McMahon pulls it off. “I think it’s the whole idea of not trying to look cool,” he offered as an explanation of why he appears just the opposite when leading his band, Something Corporate. “I don’t think that… Read more »

It’s been the summer of fear online because of the music industry’s campaign to sue file traders. But after millions of instant-message warnings, some 1,600 subpoenas and at least 261 lawsuits, there’s been no discernable effect on piracy. Traffic on Kazaa dipped thirty-five percent after the Recording Industry Association of America announced its new anti-piracy initiative, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. But roughly 4 million users each week are still on Kazaa, and many of them are beyond the reach of the law. One reason the RIAA strategy is having a limited effect is that the organization can pursue only file traders… Read more »

Who would’ve pegged Jon Bon Jovi as a Soul man? The New Jersey rocker and pigskin aficionado announced Monday that he has purchased a stake of the Philadelphia Soul, making him a co-owner of the Arena Football League’s latest expansion team. “I’m a football fanatic. I like other sports, but I love football,” Bon Jov said. “I live and die football. The day after the Super Bowl, I usually go into mourning.” Before he landed his team, Mr. Livin’ on a Prayer had to convince league execs that he was a serious businessman, not some chuckleheaded celeb looking for a… Read more »

An Internet company wants a federal appeals panel to help disarm lawyers for the music industry, blocking them from using special copyright subpoenas in a campaign to track and sue computer users who download songs online. Verizon Communications Inc. is challenging the constitutionality of the subpoenas under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. A trial judge, John D. Bates, earlier had approved use of the subpoenas, forcing Verizon to turn over names and addresses for at least four Internet subscribers. The 1998 law, passed years before music downloading was popularized, permits music companies and others to force Internet providers to… Read more »