Search Results for: soft play

One of the premier bands of the 1980s, Australia’s Midnight Oil is plotting a return to international prominence with that unmistakable big-bass, big-drum sound and the charismatic, herky-jerky flailing about of its 6-1/2-foot-tall bald leader, Peter Garrett. The band debuted a few new tunes Wednesday at the second of two packed L.A. club gigs that revealed a tonal softness, almost Beatlesque, that could permeate its new release, now slated for February. Generally speaking, though, the performance was more a re-acquaintance gig to remind fans that the act has not lost any of its ferocity. Garrett still possesses an enviable mix… Read more »

First the bad news, Creed fans – your chance to play ping-pong with singer Scott Stapp isn’t going to happen this year. But the good news is that the inaugural Creedfest gathering was postponed partly because the band is putting the finishing touches on its new album, Weathered (November 20), and the disc’s soaring first single is available now via an interactive online “pager.” Creedfest was to be a multiple-day festival in Orlando, Florida, next month, providing fans an opportunity to meet the band. Two Creed performances, ping-pong and golf competitions, and other activities were planned. “We were very disappointed,… Read more »

MusicNet, Pressplay working out kinks in technology, licensing – now they need paying users. Although the major labels have been making strides in their efforts to deliver music to listeners’ desktops while collecting money for themselves and their artists, the road ahead is still littered with questions, and the labels’ long-promised services still are not a reality. When will music fans see them? When they do, will they be willing to pay for something they now can get for free? Can the industry shoot down all the new hotshot – and free – file-trading services? And whatever happened to Napster,… Read more »

New research points to the possibility that Napster’s demise is actually exacerbating the spread of Internet piracy of copyrighted materials. According to research firm Webnoize, consumers transferred more than 1.5 billion digital media files during September using FastTrack, the back-end technology of Kazaa, MusicCity, and Grokster. In July, Webnoize forecast that FastTrack would reach 1 million users by the end of September, and it appears that they were correct. During September, roughly 1 million users were typically logged on to the network at any one time, compared to 580,000 simultaneous users in August. Webnoize estimates 1.51 billion files were downloaded… Read more »

Striking another blow in its fight against unauthorized music downloads, the record industry on Tuesday sued Morpheus, Kazaa and Grokster, three of the services music fans have used to trade files over the Web since the shutdown of Napster. “We cannot sit idly by while these services continue to operate illegally, especially at a time when new legitimate services are being launched,” Recording Industry Association of America president and CEO Hilary Rosen said in a statement. Each of the five major record companies is backing either MusicNet or Pressplay, two services that are promising to offer subscription downloading services by… Read more »

Pop diva Janet Jackson on Monday called off the European leg of her star-crossed “All For You” tour, citing safety concerns in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on America. “If anything happened to anyone on this tour, I could never forgive myself,” the singer said in a statement released in London. “Like most people the events of Sept. 11 have troubled me enormously and I remain concerned about the foreseeable future.” The statement said the singer had decided the risk to her tour personnel was “too great to proceed comfortably.” Full refunds will be given to fans who… Read more »

RadioVoodoo, producers of interactive radio programming and supporting software systems, today announced that radio vet Dave Hill will join the company as vice president of programming. Hill was most recently PD for Regent Communications’ WQBK-Albany. Prior to that, Hill held programming positions with Clear Channel stations in Hartford and Atlanta. “Dave Hill is a very talented program director with a clear understanding of the promise of interactive radio, and I am thrilled to have him on board,” said J. Scott Hamilton, president and chief executive of RadioVoodoo. “He’ll play a key role in helping us continue the development of our… Read more »

Music publishers on Wednesday won an important legal ruling against the world’s largest record label in a case that could set rules for streaming copyrighted songs over the Internet. New York federal Judge John S. Martin Jr. found that Universal Music Group’s Farmclub.com online music service streamed songs without obtaining licenses from music publishers. Universal had asked that the case be dismissed on the grounds that Farmclub’s service was covered by licenses its parent previously secured in the context of recording songs for sale on albums. “This decision means record companies aren’t in total control of how music will be… Read more »

What a dismal future looms ahead for music lovers, if online subscription services turn out anything like promised. Real Networks already has a pay-per-view model – and its own Digital Rights Management framework – in place. And in Napster, the industry has a ‘brand’ name everyone’s heard of, which likewise is gearing itself for a subscription-based model. Yesterday Real Networks announced that it would roll its clients into one application – combining Player and Jukebox – in a textbook exercise in gigantism it calls RealOne. Player has been getting ever more bloated since its debut – although by using it… Read more »

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 »