Search Results for: Record Store Day

Napster Inc. is replacing its leader with an executive from its German backer, who will try to steer the company out of its renegade past into a legitimate service that requires fans to pay for music. Interim CEO Hank Barry, a lawyer who came to Napster from a venture capital firm, will remain with the company in a reduced role, serving on Napster’s board of directors. His replacement is Konrad Hilbers, a veteran of the German media giant Bertelsmann AG, which became the song-swapping company’s primary financial backer last October. Hilbers most recently served as executive vice president and chief… Read more »

Orange County act Corporate Avenger is seeing controversy continue to escalate as the release of their album approaches next week. In addition to threats and angry correspondence, it now seems the liberal media won’t even stand behind the artists. MTV, Comedy Central and E! have all refused to air the Corporate Avenger TV spot in top markets such as Chicago and Phoenix due to the words “THE BIBLE IS BULL****” in succession. The majority of stations will only run the Corporate Avenger spot after 10PM. Corporate Avenger have backed up their lyrics and songs’ focus from the beginning. In a… Read more »

Rock singer Melissa Etheridge has been ordered to bed with a bad case of the flu, but she won’t miss any of her upcoming tour dates, her publicist said Tuesday. The raspy-voiced rocker is following her doctor’s advice to take two weeks of bed rest now in order to fully recover in time to hit the road next month, with an opening show scheduled for Aug. 4 in Washington, D.C., the publicist said. While the tour should not be affected, the flu did force Etheridge, 40, to cancel several recent in-store appearances to promote her latest album, “Skin,” and her… Read more »

Job cuts are under consideration at Bertelsmann’s troubled music division as the company scrambles to slash costs and restore profitability, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Regine Hofmann said cuts at Bertelsmann Music Group were being discussed but added that the company had not yet finalized its restructuring plan. “We are in the middle of restructuring, but everything is being reviewed for ways to cut costs,” Hofmann said, adding that plans should be finalized sometime this summer. The comments come a day after BMG chairman Rolf Schmidt-Holtz told reporters in Madrid that “there are no holy cows” in his company’s turnaround plan.… Read more »

Neil Diamond, one of the most dependable touring acts in the music business, will return to the road in September to promote his first album of new material in four years, a spokeswoman said on Sunday. The 60-year-old singer/songwriter, famed for such tunes as “Cracklin’ Rosie” and “Solitary Man,” will be promoting his new album “Three Chord Opera” which hits U.S. stores on July 24. His arena tour of 31 North American cities will begin on Sept. 28 at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, said Diamond’s publicist, Sherrie Levy. The tour is tentatively set to end on Dec. 21… Read more »

Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean’s revelations of depression and alcohol abuse shook the pop world at its foundations, and perhaps no one can better understand the pressures of being in a multiplatinum pop group than the members of ‘NSYNC. While J.C. Chasez didn’t claim to fully relate to McLean’s plight, he did offer his condolences. “I really don’t know what to say about that, except for, you know, I hope he gets better,” Chasez said in a telephone press conference Friday (July 13). “It’s kind of sad that he’s got a problem like that, and I wish the guy the best.… Read more »

Fred Durst, President of Flawless Entertainment, Senior Vice President of A&R at Interscope Geffen A&M, frontman for Limp Bizkit, music video director, producer and provoker announces the impending release of the first new artist on his Flawless Entertainment label, Puddle of Mudd. And over the last three weeks, Puddle of Mudd garnished the most adds at all three radio formats – Active, Alternative and Mainstream Rock – even though the band’s single, “Control,” wasn’t scheduled to be added to station’s playlists until next week. The album, “Come Clean,” is due in stores August 28th. Putting his titles into action, Durst… Read more »

Melissa Etheridge may rank among the world’s most successful openly gay performers and a poster child for gay parenting, but until now the singer/songwriter has never directly referred to women in her songs. “Even though people know exactly what I’m singing about it, sometimes the gay community gets like: ‘When are you going to sing a song about a girl?”‘ Etheridge, 40, told Reuters in an interview at her favorite coffee house in Santa Monica, California. “And I think, haven’t I done enough already?” The musician from Kansas has sold more than 25 million records and has become an icon… Read more »

Garbage have pushed back the release of Beautiful Garbage until September, but they’re teasing fans by offering a complete track listing for their third album, which they finished recording in April. The album was recorded at drummer/producer Butch Vig’s Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, and had been expected to hit stores this summer. Beautiful Garbage will contain 13 tracks, including “Drive You Home” and “Cup of Coffee” – tunes that singer Shirley Manson wrote about in her studio diary on the band’s Web site over the winter. No official release date has been set, according to the group’s manager, Gayle… Read more »

Pudgy and shy, 13-year-old Matt Shafer had an outlet in rap but few to really share it with – until a chance day he saw Bob Ritchie work the deejay’s turntable. “Wickie-wickie-wickie,” was how the skinny, smug 16-year-old Ritchie scratched records during a deejay contest, his baseball cap’s visor flipped up and a rapper’s clock dangling from his neck. The showman did his thing backward, even upside down. “Everything about him was cool – the way he dressed, the way he talked. I admired him, looked up to him. He was kind of like an older brother to me,” Shafer… Read more »