Search Results for: atlantic records

To many touring bands, the East Coast of Canada is uncharted territory due to logistical and financial reasons. Some bands manage to make it to the Maritimes, but few are able to extend their tours over to Newfoundland. Even many Maritime bands have never been over to The Rock. And in reverse, some Newfoundland acts have never performed outside of their home province. The St. John’s music scene continues to thrive, but longtime scene veteran Liz Pickard says that it’s time for local bands and labels to get their respective acts together and to get some national exposure. As a… Read more »

Record labels have historically invested significant financial resources toward new acts’ touring efforts, whether it be $20,000 for a regional van trek or $200,000 for a national bus outing. But in today’s world of shrinking revenue and tight budgets, tour support funds – though almost always recoupable against album sales – are becoming harder to come by. “There’s not as much money at any level, whether it’s signing bonuses, (recording) albums, tour support or anything else,” says Tim DuBois, senior partner of Nashville-based record label Universal South, home of such ascts as Pat Green and Joe Nichols. “But even in… Read more »

The newly private Warner Music Group, having significantly reduced its worldwide staff, is now turning its cost-cutting efforts toward its artists. As part of the integration of Atlantic and Elektra into one label, Warner Music Group’s new management team is looking at the artist roster with the goal of paring it “from 180 to below 100,” says WMG U.S. Recorded Music chairman/CEO Lyor Cohen. The company is attempting to get the roster down to a size that’s in proportion with the organization and respectful of the acts remaining on the roster, Cohen says. It’s unclear which specific artists might get… Read more »

Sometimes your big break comes easier than you imagined it would. Just ask the members of Finger Eleven. After six years, the Canadian quintet is finally getting its just desserts with “One Thing,” the second single from the band’s self-titled third album. While predecessor “Good Times,” a quick-tempo confrontational rocker, didn’t make much of an impact, “One Thing” is a gentle acoustic ballad that arrived with surprisingly little effort. “It came out pretty easily,” singer Scott Anderson said. “It’s the result of [guitarist] James [Black] and I going to a cottage with an acoustic guitar to try to finish up… Read more »

Sir Richard Branson offered to buy back Virgin Records, the label which set him on the road to a fortune, from its owners EMI, it emerged yesterday. A spokesman confirmed that Sir Richard was still hankering to bring the business which launched his career back into the Virgin stable, “if the opportunity arose”. Set up in 1973, when Branson was prescient enough to guess that Mike Oldfield’s quirky Tubular Bells album would sell like hotcakes, Virgin Records went on to sign the Sex Pistols in 1977. It was sold to EMI for £650m in 1992, and the proceeds used to… Read more »

Jive Recording Artists Three Days Grace are gearing to tour the U.S. opening for Roadrunner recording artists Nickelback. The tour, which will hit over 20 markets nationwide, begins October 14th in Lubbock, TX and ends in November. Hailing from Canada, this exceptional band is poised to take over the U.S. with their relentless harmonies and sharp-edged lyrics. Their debut self-titled CD was produced by Gavin Brown, of Big Sugar. Standout hits include “Home” with it’s desolate intonations bonded with lead singer Adam Gontier’s guttural shrieks. “I Hate Everything About You,” the first single from Three Days Grace continues to make… Read more »

More than a quarter-century after his death, Elvis Presley has something new to get his fans all shook up. A never-before-released song recorded by Presley nearly 40 years ago was recently unearthed and will be issued this fall by RCA Records as part of a new collection of favorites from the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, the label said on Friday. The announcement comes on the eve of the 26th anniversary of Presley’s death, on Aug. 16, 1977, at age 42. The song, “I’m a Roustabout,” originally was written for the 1964 Presley film “Roustabout,” co-starring Barbara Stanwyck, and was… Read more »

Music fans have until Monday to register for their $5 to $20 share of a settlement involving major U.S. record distributors and retailers. All U.S. residents who purchased at least one compact disc, cassette or album between 1995 and 2000 can register online for a piece of the $44 million class-action settlement. The latest figures, from October through Tuesday, indicate 2.8 million people had signed up on the Web. That may seem like a lot, but it probably represents just a small fraction of Americans who purchased retail music during the late 1990s. Figures from the Recording Industry Association of… Read more »

The five major record label groups and the three largest music retailers have agreed to pay $143 million in cash and CDs to resolve a long-standing class action price-fixing case. The settlement, announced Monday, brings to a close allegations that the major labels and retailers had violated antitrust laws and illegally inflated the cost of CDs. At issue was a policy called “minimum advertised pricing,” or MAP, under which the major labels would jointly pay for advertising if a retailer agreed to sell CDs above a certain price. This pricing practice began nearly a decade ago as a way for… Read more »

Bruce Springsteen kept a firm grip on the top spot on the album charts for the second straight week, despite a 55% slide in sales. “Rising” (Columbia), Springsteen’s first disc of new material since 1995, sold just under 239,000 units, according to numbers released Wednesday by Nielsen SoundScan. The Jersey-born rock legend recently launched a U.S. tour to support the release, backed for the first time in a decade by the E Street Band. The Boss was followed in the rankings by a trio of Universal Music Group hip-hop stars. Nelly rebounded one spot to second with “Nellyville” (Universal), selling… Read more »