Search Results for: rob thomas

Does the Recording Industry Association of America think that you have the legal right to rip MP3s off CDs that you own? The evidence says the RIAA thinks you are a criminal if you make MP3s out of your late 80’s hair metal CD collection, but probably won’t sue you unless you send that MP3 to a friend or share it on the internet. In a court filing (.pdf) that’s being much discussed on the internet today, the RIAA appears to say no when asked that question by a judge in an Arizona suit against Jeffrey Howell for sharing songs… Read more »

Among the legions of acts booked for this year’s South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival March 14-18 in Austin, here are 10 that people will be talking about. THE PIPETTES Sure, the Pipettes revel in the ’60s girl group sounds of the Ronettes and the Shangri-Las. And yes, they even conjure up cool memories of British sister-in-song, the beehived Mari Wilson, who covered similar musical ground in the ’80s. Still, the trio, who hail from the British seaside town of Brighton, manage to make songs like “Pull Shapes,” “Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me” and “Dirty Mind”… Read more »

Phew! CBS got through the halftime show without a “wardrobe malfunction.” The Artist Formerly Known as a Munchkin of Wardrobe Dysfunction began by singing “Let’s Go Crazy,” but he didn’t. Prince, who became a Jehovah’s Witness in the mid-1990s, no longer wears yellow, butt-baring pants as he did at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards (prompting Howard Stern’s send-up at the ’92 VMAs). The closest thing to a fashion statement Sunday night was an odd kerchief on his head. So the NFL had no repeat of the 2004 Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake show, which happened the last time CBS broadcast the… Read more »

Los Angeles – Warner Music Group reported a narrower loss Monday, crediting a restructuring effort that cut costs. The privately held New York-based firm, home to artists like Madonna and Kid Rock, reported a $136 million net loss for the 10-month period ending Sept. 30, compared to a $239 million loss in the same period last year. The company was reporting on a 10-month period because it has changed its 2004 fiscal year-end from Nov. 30 to Sept. 30. The period covers three months ending Feb. 29, when the recording company was still part of Time Warner, and the following… Read more »

When Good Charlotte wrote “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous,” the song that vaulted their last album into the mainstream, they were neither rich nor famous. These days, after selling more than 3 million copies of 2002’s The Young and the Hopeless, the guys in Good Charlotte are, to say the least, in a higher tax bracket. So their latest video – for “I Just Wanna Live,” off The Chronicles of Life and Death – skewers the fact that Good Charlotte are now in the precarious position of being rich people singing a song that complains about rich people complaining,… Read more »

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The judge in the Michael Jackson case delayed ruling Friday on a complex question involving search warrants, but reiterated he would start the pop singer’s child molestation trial Jan. 31. Santa Barbara County Superior Court Rodney Melville set up an exhaustive schedule of hearings to dispose of motions that may be filed before trial. He also shot down any chance of further postponements. Also Friday, lawyers on both sides spent hours poring over file folders seized by sheriff’s deputies from the home of Jackson’s personal assistant to sort out those that would be considered confidential. They… Read more »

Nashville – Billed as the Best of Both Worlds, the ill-fated co-headlining tour by Jay-Z and R. Kelly ended up with two worlds colliding. The tour’s implosion – at least as a co-headlining attraction – puts a damper on what could have been one of the year’s top-grossing R&B music outings, with a gross potential of about $30 million. Jay-Z is continuing without Kelly under the banner of Jay-Z & Friends. With such marquee artists as Mary J. Blige and P. Diddy in tow, the tour could still be a big winner. But few would argue that Best of Both… Read more »

If his bubble burst and all else failed, Benji Madden is sure there’d be more than a few regular jobs waiting for him. Flipping burgers, working in department stores, tending cash registers, living in small towns. That’s what Madden and his Good Charlotte bandmates were used to before rock stardom. “One thing I never worry about is money. Because I have my health and my family and I can always go back to work,” Benji said. “We’ve all had a million day jobs,” the 25-year-old guitarist/vocalist said during an interview at a Manhattan hotel. “We got by fine then. If… Read more »

Access to the new, improved and perfectly legitimate version of the Napster file-sharing software was given to students at Penn State University this semester as a way to show them that downloading music doesn’t have to run afoul of copyright laws. More than 17,000 students living in on-campus residence halls were offered access Napster 2.0’s premium service, which allows for unlimited streaming and tethered downloading (playback on only one machine) of the more than 500,000 songs comprising the Napster library. Should they want to burn a downloaded song, it would cost them about 99 cents, the industry standard for a… Read more »

Beyonce Knowles may be “Crazy in Love,” but she kept her cool Sunday at one of the more sober Grammy Awards shows in memory. She was the night’s big winner, taking home a record-tying five trophies to join recent Grammy queens Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and Norah Jones with the most wins in a single year by a female performer. OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below won Album of the Year, giving the eccentric Atlanta funk/rap group three wins, including Best Urban Alternative Performance and Best Rap Album. British band Coldplay took home the prize for Record of the Year for “Clocks,”… Read more »