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American songwriters and music publishers have reached preliminary agreement with the on-line file sharing service Napster to settle the class-action lawsuit currently pending in federal court in California. The agreement includes terms under which the songwriters and music publishers will license their music to Napster’s new membership-based service. The announcement of the proposed settlement was made jointly by Edward P. Murphy, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, Inc., Gary L. Churgin, president and CEO of The Harry Fox Agency, Inc., George David Weiss, president of The Songwriters’ Guild of America, Inc., and Napster president and CEO Konrad… Read more »

The first glimmers of punk and New Wave have a chance to make their way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the 2002 class. The ballot of sixteen candidates has been released from which next year’s class will be chosen; a group that includes punk pillars the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, as well as iconic Seventies New York scenesters the Talking Heads and Patti Smith. This year’s first-time nominees also include Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Browne, Isaac Hayes, Gram Parsons, pop singer Gene Pitney, R&B ensembles the Dells, the Chantels and the… Read more »

Alice Cooper has been named the recipient of this year’s Living Legend Award from the International Horror Guild, marking the first time the Guild has reached beyond the literary world to give someone the honor. Previous winners have included authors Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, and Clive Barker, among others. The award is given to those “who have made a meritorious and notable contribution and/or have substantially influenced the field of horror and dark fantasy.” Cooper’s award will be handed out Saturday (September 1) at Atlanta’s Hyatt Regency Hotel as part of the weekend-long Dragon*Con, one of the largest conventions in… Read more »

The Who’s onstage collaborations with Eddie Vedder, Noel Gallagher and others at a U.K. benefit concert last fall are captured in a new home video due next month. “The Who & Special Guests, Live at the Royal Albert Hall,” which also features Bryan Adams, Paul Weller, Stereophonics singer Kelly Jones and violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy, will be released September 25 on DVD and VHS, according to producers of the project. The two-disc (or two-tape) set will include bonus material such as rehearsal footage and a performance of “Pinball Wizard” that can be viewed from multiple angles. Filmed at London’s famed… Read more »

Once a hip-hop artist achieves any semblance of success, expect to hear about it from his friends. More than simply brag about their platinum-selling homie, though, chances are they’ll rap with him on their own album. Within the last two months, collections from the Nelly-backed St. Lunatics and the Eminem-featured D12 have stormed into record stores. The Lunatics’ Free City debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart at #3 on June 13, while D12 earned the #1 slot with Devils Night two weeks later. Many other hip-hop acts have turned the same trick, piggybacking a new act on the strength… Read more »

“Come back to me,” the tiny figure onstage pleaded, her arms outstretched. Janet, they never left. At least that’s how it sounded as her attempt at that 1989 weeper was drowned out by two full minutes of a standing ovation – and that was three songs into the set. Pop Lolitas-of-the-week may come and go, but this Jackson, it seems, is forever, if Saturday night’s All for You tour kickoff was any indication. Following a sparsely attended set from opening R&B quartet 112 and a good 40 minutes of pre-recorded Motown hits, the arena lights went down and the screaming… Read more »

The feud between Eminem and the Insane Clown Posse appears to have led to another violent incident, this time involving a road manager for the Clowns and an Eminem fan in Nebraska. The road manager, William Dail, allegedly choked the Eminem fan until he blacked out after the clown-faced rappers’ show in Omaha on Tuesday, May 8, police said. Dail admits to holding 23-year-old Thomas P. Goonan by his neck and throwing him against a wall but denies the fan lost consciousness. He said Goonan was disrespecting the Detroit duo by waving a T-shirt emblazed with rival rapper Eminem’s image… Read more »

Veteran songwriters and singers Randy Newman, Tom Waits and members of the rock band Heart filed a $40 million copyright infringement suit against online music company MP3.com Inc., the artists’ lawyer said on Tuesday. “This is a case of artists banding together to protect their most valuable assets – their songs,” said attorney Bruce Van Dalsem, an attorney for Gradstein, Luskin & Van Dalsem, who is representing the artists in the case. The suit alleges MP3.com illegally copied tens of thousands of the plaintiffs’ songs by digitally converting music on compact discs into MP3 files for its My.MP3 service, which… Read more »