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After offering politically correct comments regarding their future with Sean ” P. Diddy” Combs’s Bad Boy Records, Combs’s protege group 112 said they are parting ways with Combs, and have signed a recording deal with the Island Def Jam music group. The Atlanta-based quartet that includes members Daron Jones, Quinnes “Q” Parker, Michael Keith, and Marvin “Slim” Scandrick released its 1996 self-titled debut on Combs’s label that also featured the late Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, and Craig Mack. 112 signed with Def Jam after it was relieved of its commitment to Bad Boy, Scandrick revealed, “We’re already signed to Def… Read more »

Independent online music company Listen.com said on Monday it had clinched a licensing deal with Universal Music, becoming the first Internet song provider to feature content from the five major record labels. Under the latest deal, Universal Music, a unit of media giant Vivendi Universal, will make its digital catalog of titles available to Listen’s Rhapsody service. Both Listen.com and another independent service, FullAudio’s MusicNow, are competing with big-label backed services known as MusicNet and Pressplay. Industry analysts have remained skeptical that any of these services will take off, particularly since until now, none of them, including MusicNet and Pressplay,… Read more »

Leave it to Austin Powers to have two leading ladies, and two fine ones at that. Britney Spears and Beyoncé Knowles will release the leadoff singles from the Austin Powers in Goldmember soundtrack, with Knowles’ “Work It Out” dropping shortly before Spears’ “Boys,” which was remixed by Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes, who produced the original version. Knowles’ up-tempo “Work It Out,” which was also produced by the Neptunes, will premiere Thursday (May 23) on AOL.com. The Destiny’s Child singer will shoot a video for the song in New York in early June. “Work It Out” will also be the… Read more »

Oscar-winning singer-actress Cher has announced that her upcoming tour will be the last one of her career. The Living Proof: The Farewell Tour will kick off in Toronto on June 14 and will visit more than 50 cities throughout the United States, according to tour promoter Clear Channel Entertainment. “The road is tough, but the audience makes it all worthwhile,” said the legendary singer, who will celebrate her 56th birthday on May 20. Cher’s final tour is in support of her current Warner Bros. Records album Living Proof, which debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.… Read more »

Ja Rule knows what it’s like to be in the shoes of Ashanti, his Murder Inc. labelmate and “Always on Time” co-star. He can remember when not too long ago he felt the pressure of being a star on the rise. Now that he’s a bona fide hitmaker, Ja still feels pressure. But keeping the songs coming that help his star hover in the stratosphere is the least of his worries. Lately he’s been feeling some heat from below the heavens. “I’ve rethought a lot of things,” he said Tuesday about his work in progress, The Last Temptation. “I have… Read more »

Three years after her last full national outing, Alanis Morissette is preparing to hit the road with opening act Ryan Adams. So far Morissette has announced 12 dates for the U.S. trek, which begins May 1 in San Diego. The shows wind down the West Coast and across the Midwest, then twist through Texas. Morissette is touring behind her third record, Under Rug Swept, which came out February 26 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Alanis Morissette Tour Dates, According To Her Web Site: 5/1 – San Diego, CA – Cox Arena 5/3 – Universal City,… Read more »

The beat can only go on so long. Cher’s upcoming tour behind the just-released Living Proof will be the 55-year-old singer’s last. “I want to do some movies and I really haven’t had time to,” Cher said last week. “There’s a musical that I really want to do called ‘The Enchanted Cottage,’ and that is the thing that is really closest to me right now. I have never had the chance to sing and act in a movie.” Cher, who won a Best Actress Oscar for 1987’s “Moonstruck,” believes musicals could make a comeback following last year’s Oscar-nominated “Moulin Rouge.”… Read more »

Steve Jobs is pleased to have been awarded a Grammy by the recording industry last Wednesday night, for technical achievements in music for Apple Computer. But that doesn’t stop him from criticising record labels’ efforts in digital distribution. Jobs complained that the digital music services backed by the labels don’t make it easy for consumers to burn tracks from CDs they buy. “No one is going to use such services,” Jobs says. “If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own.” The lesson of Napster, which popularised unauthorised… Read more »

Having just left their label following 23 years and 11 albums, Van Halen’s career is in limbo and their future seems uncertain. The band severed ties with Warner Bros. Records last month, according to a source close to the group, who emphasized that the band willingly left the company. “There’s been a major housecleaning at the company over the last couple months, and anybody that was actually any part of anything when we were around is gone,” he said. “They’re all about taking care of their young bands now.” A publicist at Warner Bros. confirmed the band is off the… Read more »

Virgin Recommends artist Rufus Wainwright will begin his first-ever headlining tour with a full band beginning on Feb 8 at Boston’s Avalon Ballroom, and ending Mar 9 in San Francisco at the famed Fillmore. The coast-to-coast North American endeavor lies in the wake of the singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist’s critically-hailed album, Poses (Dreamworks), appearing in the #1 spot on Billboard’s Heatseeker’s Chart. It also comes on the brink of a new emotive song, a Beatle’s cover featured on the I Am Sam soundtrack , “Across The Universe,” where Sean Lennon accompanies him on guitar. Wainwright performed the song on The Tonight Show With… Read more »