Search Results for: Thursday

For generations, radio listeners have contended with static. That may be about to change if backers of digital radio have their way. The technology they want to roll out within a year promises custom news and information at the touch of a button, CD-quality sound for FM broadcasts and an end to AM’s hiss, crackle and pop. The Federal Communications Commission is to decide Thursday whether to allow radio stations to broadcast digital signals and how they should do it. Digital radio could be the biggest update to the medium since the debut of FM in the 1940s, said Ken… Read more »

Bono, the globe-trotting, conscience-tugging singer with Irish rock group U2, is the most powerful man in music, according to a poll of music industry figures. Bono, whose given name is Paul Hewson, tops a list compiled by music magazine Q. The top 10 names were released Thursday. U2, formed in Dublin more than 20 years ago, remains one of the world’s top-selling groups. Bono, 42, has also emerged as a powerful lobbyist for causes such as relieving the debt of the world’s poorest nations. Earlier this year, he traveled through Africa with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. Time magazine profiled… Read more »

Rock veteran Eric Clapton has organized an all-star tribute concert for his late friend and fellow guitarist, George Harrison, with the former Beatle’s two surviving bandmates slated to perform. The benefit concert, planned with the help of Harrison’s wife, Olivia, is scheduled to be held at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Nov. 29, the first anniversary of Harrison’s death, organizers said in a statement issued on Thursday in Los Angeles. Joining Clapton on the bill will be former Beatles Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and two other recording stars who performed with Harrison in the 1980s supergroup The Traveling Wilburys… Read more »

Record labels and artists were out in force Thursday to reiterate their blunt assessment of digital piracy’s effects on their financial well-being at a state government hearing in Sacramento. “I would like to begin with a simple proposition,” said Recording Industry Assn. of America president Cary Sherman. “The one-two punch of physical and digital piracy is threatening the livelihood of the music industry.” The hearing, convened by the California State Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism & Internet Media, was the second piracy gripefest in as many weeks for the industry, which is increasingly turning to the government for… Read more »

Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson are close to an agreement on custody of their two sons, lawyers told a judge Tuesday. “I believe we’re really down to language” in the agreement and it probably will be signed by Monday, Lee’s lawyer, Lance Spiegel, told a judge in a conference call. Details weren’t disclosed. Superior Court Judge Lee Smalley Edmon warned that if the deal isn’t completed by then, she would declare a mistrial. “We will work diligently. We have our orders,” said Susan Harris, Anderson’s attorney. The lawyers were told to report their efforts to the court on Thursday. Anderson,… Read more »

In a fight to win back fans from the “gray zone” of online song-swapping services, the music industry is borrowing a trick from its nemeses: free music downloads. For one week beginning Thursday, music fans in Europe will be able to download, stream or burn onto their hard drives a selection of tracks from 6,000 artists including ColdPlay, Dido and Elvis Presley. It is part of a marketing ploy called “Digital Download Day” devised by British firm OD2, a technology company specializing in digital music distribution and co-founded by recording artist Peter Gabriel. Backed by record labels and music retailers,… Read more »

Remember when Michael Greene, then-President of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, warned us all about the unlawful evils of Internet file sharing during the Grammy Awards back in February? Soon people will get an earful straight from those who make the music. Britney Spears, Missy Elliott and Nelly are among the artists set to appear in TV spots as part of an awareness campaign to educate people about the legal and financial ramifications of unauthorized file sharing, according to a Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) spokesperson. The ads were first shown Thursday at a congressional hearing… Read more »

Frustrated by the continuing presence of free music on the Internet, the recording industry asked for Congress’ blessing on Thursday to gum up the online networks they blame for slowing their sales. Congress is considering expanded legal protection for record labels who resort to sabotage in their ongoing battle with “peer to peer” networks that allow users to freely trade music, movies and other copyrighted material. The recording industry offered a glimpse into its tactics, which include blocking transfers and flooding the network with dummy songs, and promised a House of Representatives subcommittee that they would not disrupt the Internet… Read more »

Pop singer Justin Timberlake joined a campaign to fight drunken driving after a fan was killed this month by a motorist outside one of the singer’s radio appearances. The ‘N Sync performer announced plans Tuesday to work with Recording Artists, Actors & Athletes Against Drunk Driving – known as RADD – and to produce a public-service video. Anna White, a 21-year-old fan from Bellevue, Wash., was killed on Sept. 9 by a pickup truck going in reverse. She was standing in a group of people waiting to see Timberlake outside radio station KIIS-FM in Burbank, Calif., on Sept. 9. “The… Read more »

Canadian pop diva Celine Dion doesn’t like mockery, or maybe it’s her husband and manager Rene Angelil. Angelil sent a notice of claim to a popular Montreal-based radio station, demanding it stop playing a parody of Dion’s song “I’m Alive,” in which the singer is called, among other things, “annoying.” The radio station claims it was only trying to be funny, but Angelil didn’t laugh at the joke. “They took off her voice and invented vulgar lyrics. It’s unacceptable,” he told reporters on Thursday, stressing that copyright law prevented such unauthorized use of a recording. The Dion parody was withdrawn… Read more »