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San Francisco – America’s students are back to school, but it seems they have yet to learn their lesson about file sharing. Despite the efforts of digital music services, record company litigation, “spoofing” technology and legitimate offerings at various universities, illegal file sharing on peer-to-peer networks has risen since college students returned to their high-speed Internet connections this fall. According to Los Angeles-based P2P market research firm BigChampagne, the back-to-school months coincided with the typical spike of usage on file-swapping networks, with average simultaneous peak users totaling 5.7 million in the United States in October, edging up from 5.4 million… Read more »

The 10 finalists for Takeover Records’ “Sign My Band” contest have been announced! Check out the contest webpage at http://contest.takeoverrock.com to see who made the cut. Voting begins on November 15, so get to know the bands because you’ll be choosing the winner. From Nov. 1 through Nov. 15th the bands will have the opportunity to promote themselves as much as they can and get fans to register to vote at PureVolume.com. Voting will begin November 15 to registered listeners. Each week, two bands will be eliminated. After four weeks, the winner will be announced. The winning band will be… Read more »

Green Day will toast the release of American Idiot on Tuesday, but perhaps an even bigger cause for celebration these days is the 10-year anniversary of their breakthrough LP, Dookie. The modern-day classic not only launched the Bay Area punk trio into the mainstream, it opened the door to a mid-’90s wave of popped-up punk and provided a launching pad for the current crop of melodic pop-punkers. “[Dookie] changed my life,” confessed Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden. “It made me want to start Good Charlotte…. Right after that record came out, we were like, ‘We have to start a band in… Read more »

Music visionary, Prince unveiled his next discovery in front of 20,000 fans on September 4th in Portland, Oregon – the hypnotic singer/songwriter Toby Lightman. The Lava Records recording artist was handpicked by the mysterious legend to open a select night on his national tour. Lightman comments on the experience: “When Prince asked me to open up for him, I felt like I was dreaming, and I still do! I cannot put into words how gratifying it is to know that the ultimate musician appreciates my music. Prince and his crew went out of their way to make sure we were… Read more »

Microsoft Corp. launched a new online store for music downloads on Wednesday, taking direct aim at Apple Computer Inc.’s popular iTunes music service. MSN Music, which is aimed at luring more users to the world’s largest software maker’s online service, launched in beta, or test mode, offering songs for download at 99 cents each, the same price as Apple’s online store. Users can access MSN Music from a browser as well as a brand new version of the Windows Media Player that also was unveiled. “We believe we’ve built a better service than the Apple service,” Yusuf Mehdi, MSN vice… Read more »

The trophy is a silly Moonman. Treasured memories include girl-on-girl kisses, a flying Fartman and the bobbling of a pasty-covered breast. Where other shows confer honors and respect, this one relishes gaffes, guffaws and giggles. Forget “The envelope, please.” It’s time to push the envelope. MTV’s Video Music Awards is among the most irreverent of awards shows. Which may be precisely why it matters. “It’s pop music; how seriously can you take it?” said MTV news correspondent Kurt Loder. “It’s not Martin Heidegger or something. There’s a lot of empty pomp associated with other shows, like the Oscars and even… Read more »

Green Day will preview its forthcoming album, American Idiot, in its entirety on a short run of club dates beginning in Los Angeles on September 16th. The four-date tour will also visit Chicago on September 18th, New York on the 21st and Toronto on the 24th. The band has called the thirteen-track Idiot a “punk rock opera,” a concept album that includes “Jesus of Suburbia,” a nine-minute song broken into chapters with separate titles. “A band that’s known for the perfect two-minute song is now writing nine-minute epics,” singer Billy Joe Armstrong told Rolling Stone in May. “It’s scary to… Read more »

A quarter century after Sony Corp. first shipped the legendary Walkman personal stereo, the electronics giant is launching a high-tech model that aims to topple Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod as today’s leading digital music player and status symbol. Sony has its work cut out: In less than three years, the simple white iPod has undergone four revisions, each time capturing more customers and acclaim with slick designs, clean interfaces and ever increasing versatility. For now, Apple has nothing to fear. Sony’s Network Walkman NW-HD1 is as clunky as its name. The gadget looks great, but it’s ruined by a bizarre… Read more »

The first Moonman won’t be handed out for another month, but Jay-Z and Beyoncé are already looking like the king and queen of the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards: The two led the pack when nominations were announced Tuesday morning. Usher, Kanye West, Jessica Simpson, Hoobastank, Yellowcard and Jet were also unveiled as the show’s first performers at Tuesday’s announcement in Miami, where the show will be held August 29, marking the VMAs’ first staging outside of New York or Los Angeles. Jay’s gritty “99 Problems” clip grabbed the most nominations with six, including nods for Best Video of the… Read more »