Search Results for: fall out by

Napster Inc. on Tuesday opened what they claim is the world’s biggest MP3 download store with more than 6 million songs in a direct challenge to Apple Inc’s iTunes store. The new Web-based music store will have digital songs from all major music labels as well as thousands of independent labels. The MP3-format songs will be compatible with the vast majority of digital media devices and mobile phones including Apple’s popular iPod as well as its iPhone. Before now Napster has focused on selling all-you-can-eat monthly streaming music subscription packages but has struggled to win over the majority of fans… Read more »

Scores of workers from MTV Networks walked off the job yesterday afternoon, filling the sidewalk outside the headquarters of its corporate parent, Viacom, to protest recent changes in benefits. The walkout highlighted the concerns of a category of workers who are sometimes called permalancers: permanent freelancers who work like full-time employees but do not receive the same benefits. Waving signs that read “Shame on Viacom,” the workers, most of them in their 20s, demanded that MTV Networks reverse a plan to reduce health and dental benefits for freelancers beginning Jan. 1. In a statement, MTV Networks noted that its benefits… Read more »

Warner Music Group Corp, the world’s third-largest music company, on Thursday posted a 58 percent drop in quarterly profit, hurt by an industry-wide slump in CD sales, as more fans bought songs online. Although Warner’s revenue rose 2 percent to $869 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, it declined 2 percent when taking out the impact of the weaker dollar. The company also posted weaker international sales, particularly in the United Kingdom. Digital music revenue was up 25 percent at $130 million during the quarter, but this could not make up for the short-fall in compact disc sales. U.S. album… Read more »

During her Tuesday night performance in Orlando, Florida, Beyoncé took a rather epic header down a flight of stairs – a tumble, of course, captured on camera by several fans in attendance.To her credit, not only did B press on with the show, she later joked about the fall, telling the audience that it “hurt so bad” and imploring, “Don’t put [the footage] on YouTube.” Of course, those in the audience did the exact opposite, and by the following morning, several different clips of her spill were among the “Most Watched” and “Most Discussed” on the site. Given Beyoncé’s plea,… Read more »

The official story goes like this: On the last night of Jim Morrison’s life, the rocker went to a movie in Paris, listened to records, fell ill and died of heart failure in his bathtub at the age of 27. But rumors have always swirled around the death of The Doors frontman and, 36 years later, a former Paris nightclub manager is telling a different story. In a new book, Sam Bernett says that Morrison died in a toilet stall of his club after what he believes was a heroin overdose. He writes of his shock on finding Morrison’s body:… Read more »

Pete Wentz was treated to dinner a few months ago by Lyor Cohen, the renowned rap promoter and U.S. music chief of Warner Music Group. Wentz, 28, is the eyelinered heartthrob and bassist of punk band Fall Out Boy; but this dinner was in celebration of the hit single just released by another band, Panic! At the Disco, which records on Wentz’s own label, Decaydance. “He asked me, ‘What do you want out of life, Pete?’” Wentz says. His answer was flip: business cards. The next day he received a stack of cards listing his name and a new title:… Read more »

Lesson to all potential Fall Out Boy hecklers: If you plan on plying your craft, perhaps it’s better to do so from the relative anonymity of the arena cheap seats rather than during a private party attended by roughly 200 industry peeps and/or friends of FOB. That latter scenario is exactly what went down early Tuesday morning (June 12) at Chicago rock club Schuba’s, which hosted a Spin magazine party following Fall Out Boy’s concert at the nearby Charter One Pavilion. The band was scheduled to perform a brief acoustic set at the soiree, but thanks to one particularly aggressive… Read more »

The Grammy Awards, the music industry’s most prestigious event, are getting an early start on next year’s 50th anniversary with plans for a fashion line, coffee-table book, museum and TV specials, organizers said on Tuesday. Next year’s ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 10, although there might be remote broadcasts from such music centers as New York and Nashville, said Neil Portnow, the president of the Recording Academy. Talks are underway with Grammys broadcaster CBS to hold some specials later this year, so that next year’s awards show does not get too weighed down in nostalgia.… Read more »

INDIO, California – Perhaps it was a sign that the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Arcade Fire and Hot Chip were sharing the same bill. Whatever the case, Saturday was certainly one of the most scorching Coachella afternoons ever, with temperatures into the100s for hours on end. That meant the tented stages provided plenty of shadowy solace, while pre-sunset outdoor acts were playing to their diehards and suffering while doing it. (Let’s just say there were multiple hipster rockers quoting Lil Jon’s infamous sweat-dripping lyrics.) Still, Peter Bjorn and John and the Decemberists wore their suits and the Sahara tent was… Read more »

Like a school of starved sharks circling a water-treading man stranded in the middle of the Pacific, the major-label powers that be began besieging Charlotte, North Carolina’s melodic-hardcore quintet Hopesfall soon after the release of their 2002 breakthrough offering, The Satellite Years. At the time, of course, it seemed every underground band with even a slight hint of profit-making potential was wined, dined, wooed and eventually chewed up and spit out by the music-industry machine. Hopesfall were most certainly courted by the majors but never actually ended up inking a deal, deciding instead to stick with longtime label home, New… Read more »