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“Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin added another jewel to her illustrious musical crown on Friday night when she was honored at the annual MusiCares dinner, a Grammy-related event that raises money for musicians in need. “There may be a debate about who is the president, but there is no debate on who is the queen,” said civil rights leader Al Sharpton, one of many luminaries on hand to pay tribute to the 65-year-old Franklin. The singer, who has garnered 17 Grammy Awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a career spanning four decades, will perform this Sunday at the… Read more »

Like it or not, major record companies are expected to continue drafting their artist contracts so that labels share a piece of most — if not all — of the artists’ rights in all types of revenue streams, not just record sales, but also concert tickets and t-shirts. Artist lawyers say that their responses are as varied as the rights and terms in each label’s “360-degree” deal. Some labels want to be the merchandiser, while others want rights only in certain types of merchandise connected to album cover artwork. And when it comes to artist royalties, some labels pay a… Read more »

Tommy Lee thinks the media is making a mountain out of a molehill. So, he’s making a pebble out of Kid Rock. The Mötley Crüe drummer wasted no time in addressing his well publicized brawl and subsequent ousting from the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night, insisting that while he has been painted in the press as the instigating party, it was fellow Pamela Anderson ex Kid Rock who initiated the throwdown. “Yeah!!….here I am minding my own biz having a great time with my friend Criss Angel (magician) and watching the MTV awards in the front row saying hello… Read more »

A federal appeals court has denied a petition by U.S. Internet radio stations seeking to delay a royalty rate hike due July 15 they say could kill the fledgling industry. While the July 11 ruling by the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was a setback, the SaveNetRadio coalition of Webcasters vowed it would continue fighting the hikes in Congress. Late last month, thousands of U.S. Internet radio stations, organized by SaveNetRadio, held a “Day of Silence” to protest the hikes in performance royalties paid to musicians and record companies. Under a Copyright Royalty Board… Read more »

There wasn’t a Thursday fan alive who wasn’t floored by last month’s announcement that the New Jersey emo innovators will be working with Victory Records on a retrospective CD/DVD package that, as a press release noted, will “tell Thursday’s 10-year-career story from the beginning to the present.” After all, Thursday’s 2002 split from Victory – which issued the band’s landmark 2001 LP, Full Collapse – was the very definition of cantankerous. Mud was flung from both sides when the band joined Island Records, and lawyers were eventually called in to clean up the mess.At the time of the band’s break… Read more »

There has been a lot of attention recently surrounding royalty rates for internet broadcasters. Let’s have a look. As a webcaster, artist, and owner of WebcastersUnite.net I would like to address some of the statements being made by SoundExchange. Lets first look at the recent claims SoundExchange has made about reaching out to small webcasters. My organization currently has 358 registered internet radio stations. SoundExchange has not “reach out ” to me, nor any other small organization of webcasters that I am aware of. I believe this to be rhetoric in an effort to make them look like the good… Read more »

Los Angeles – Academia’s loss is heavy metal’s gain. Ian Kilmister, a.k.a. Lemmy, the frontman for Grammy-winning English rock trio Motorhead, could have made a stimulating history professor, sharing his begrudging admiration for Goering and disdain for “bastards” like Hitler and Roosevelt with eager students. Instead, the 59-year-old achieved cult fame with generations of headbangers by singing and writing furious anthems like “Killed By Death” and “Orgasmatron.” But he remains fascinated by World War II and he spends his money collecting Nazi memorabilia, which is piled high in his two-bedroom apartment off the Sunset Strip. “I was born in ’45,… Read more »

Classic-rock fan George Petersen doesn’t need another copy of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” or Cream’s “Disraeli Gears.” He has spent the past four decades buying and re-buying his favorite music in a succession of new formats: vinyl, 8-track, cassette, compact disc, Super Audio CD, DVD-Audio. Enough is enough. The basement is full. “We as consumers have been trained by the music industry to go out and buy a new piece of plastic every few years,” said the 51-year-old Petersen, editorial director of Mix, a San Francisco-based magazine that covers professional sound recording. “Why do we keep buying… Read more »

Washington – Most musicians and artists say the Internet has helped them make more money from their work despite online file-trading services that allow users to copy songs and other material for free, according to a study released on Sunday. Recording labels and movie studios have hired phalanxes of lawyers to pursue “peer to peer” networks like Kazaa, and have sued thousands of individuals who distribute copyrighted material through such networks. But most of the artists surveyed by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project said online file sharing did not concern them much. Artists were split on the… Read more »

New York – Jerry Wexler is the classic record business guy. For more than three decades, Wexler, as co-owner of Atlantic Records and later senior VP at Warner Bros. Records, signed and worked with scores of vocalists and instrumentalists, and produced some of the greatest rock and soul records ever made. Now 86 and long retired, Wexler is still applauded as an insightful producer, crafty deal-maker and promoter, divining rod of hit songs and occasional writer of songs and liner notes. “He is one of my greatest heroes,” Sire Records founder Seymour Stein says. “Jerry is a consummate record man… Read more »