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Pop diva Mariah Carey was axed by record company EMI on Wednesday with a $28 million pay-off, as the British music group decided it could not justify her huge contract after a dismal year for the company. EMI severed its ties with the Grammy-winning American vocalist after signing her to its Virgin Records label only last year in one of the most expensive recording contracts ever. Carey’s first album for Virgin, “Glitter,” fell well short of her previous hits, selling just two million copies worldwide. EMI’s shares fell 0.72 percent to 344 pence in early trade in London, as the… Read more »

Kazaa, the wildly popular free music-swapping service that emerged in the wake of Napster’s decline, may finally have shown a chink in its armor. Consumer Empowerment, the Amsterdam-based company that developed Kazaa and the Fasttrack file-sharing network on which it operates, has suspended all new downloads of the software, pending a decision by a Dutch judge in a copyright suit filed against the company by a European publishers’ rights group. The move doesn’t affect users who have already downloaded the Kazaa software; they were still able to swap music and other digital files via Fasttrack last week. Consumer Empowerment also… Read more »

Internet company KaZaA BV on Thursday said it suspended downloads of its popular software that lets users trade songs online pending a decision in a copyright lawsuit filed against it in a Dutch court. “Download of the KaZaA Media desktop software is temporarily and voluntarily suspended pending Dutch court decision on January 31,” the Amsterdam-based company said in a message on its Web site at (http://www.kazaa.com). In late November, a Dutch judge ruled in a court case, which has upped the ante for copyright abuse online, that KaZaA must stop its users sharing copyrighted music files. KaZaA has built its… Read more »

Olivia Harrison, widow of the late George Harrison, has sued her former brother-in-law in regards to some Harrison memorabilia stolen from a home the family used to own in Los Angeles. Harrison filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday (January 11) against her sister Linda Arias’s ex-husband Carl Roles and his current wife Carol Roles, accusing the couple of wrongfully possessing, selling, and profiting from the material, which is described as “household and personal items of sentimental value.” The suit asks for return of the property, unspecified damages (including interest), and attorney’s fees and other costs. A… Read more »

LOS ANGELES,Jupiter Media Metrix Monday cut its five-year forecast for the size of the online music market by 11.3 percent, citing weakness in the economy and music sales and later-than-expected Web service launches. In data due to be officially released Tuesday, Jupiter, an Internet research firm, said it had reduced its 2006 estimate of the size of the Web-based music market to $5.5 billion from its original forecast of $6.2 billion, announced in July. The forecast represents a jump from an estimated $900 million in online revenues in 2001. Of the $5.5 billion pegged for 2006, about $1.6 billion would… Read more »

One might expect Papa Roach, who toured for two years behind their multiplatinum major-label debut, to take some recovery time and leisurely write and record their follow-up. One might be wrong. As a matter of fact, Vacaville, California’s most famous export has nearly finished recording a new album after only three weeks in the studio. It’s expected in stores by June. “We really expected it would take longer, but everything is going so well,” drummer Dave Buckner said late Wednesday night after playing a few songs at a North Hollywood studio. “A lot of bands come into the studio and… Read more »

If diehard ‘NSYNC fans thought that surprising them with new material from their favorite group was a long shot, they’d be right. Songs by ‘NSYNC, O-Town and LFO that were previously unavailable in the U.S. will appear on the soundtrack to the straight-to-video film “Longshot,” due March 5, according to the LP’s publicist. Those groups, along with Britney Spears, also have cameo roles in the basketball-themed movie set in high school. ‘NSYNC lend the song “Feel the Love,” while O-Town contribute “See You Again” and LFO offer “Me (Boom Shelak, Lak, Boom)” to the album, which also includes tunes by… Read more »

Thieves broke into the DJ/producer’s Los Angeles studio over Christmas while he was recording in London and made off with more than $75,000 worth of equipment, including computers storing 11 tracks for his upcoming album and hundreds of other recordings, he said. “One of the FireWire hard drives that was stolen included my sound library since I was 15 years old,” a shaken BT said. “It’s a really heavy thing, a really hard thing to have happen when you are gone. The guys that work for me were crying over the phone – grown men crying. It was a really… Read more »

Freddy Fender, nominated for a Grammy for Latin pop album of the year, will undergo surgery on Jan. 24 in Texas to receive a kidney donated by his 21-year-old daughter. The transplant surgery is scheduled at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Fender is to receive the organ from daughter Marla Garcia of Jacksonville, Fla., the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences announced Saturday. Fender, whose hits include “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” is battling health problems including hepatitis C, NARAS said. The 44th annual Grammy Awards ceremony is… Read more »

A California state senator on Monday launched a legislative assault against the music industry on behalf of recording stars like Courtney Love and Don Henley who have been crusading to free artists from record company control. California State Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City) Monday introduced the bill to repeal an amendment won by the music industry in 1987 that keeps recording artists tied to personal contracts longer than talent in other industries like film and television. In announcing the bill at the Future of Music conference in Washington, D.C., Murray said the artist community should take its cue from the… Read more »