Search Results for: sting

For generations, radio listeners have contended with static. That may be about to change if backers of digital radio have their way. The technology they want to roll out within a year promises custom news and information at the touch of a button, CD-quality sound for FM broadcasts and an end to AM’s hiss, crackle and pop. The Federal Communications Commission is to decide Thursday whether to allow radio stations to broadcast digital signals and how they should do it. Digital radio could be the biggest update to the medium since the debut of FM in the 1940s, said Ken… Read more »

Anyone old enough to remember spinning vinyl records also remembers relegating them to the nostalgia pile when CDs became the listening standard more than a decade ago. Now, CDs may be headed for the same fate. Over the last couple of years, manufacturers and record companies have rolled out two new musical formats – DVD-Audio and Super Audio Compact Discsthat they hope will replace the CD. “It’s really getting rolling. The number of titles is increasing rapidly,” says John Trickett, chairman of the 5.1 Entertainment Group, which has produced almost 100 DVD-Audio titles. “If you compare it to the launch… Read more »

Mickey Mouse’s days at Disney could be numbered and paying royalties for warbling George Gershwin tunes could become a thing of the past if the U.S. Supreme Court sides with an Internet publisher in a landmark copyright case this week. The high court will hear the case Wednesday that could plunge the earliest images of Disney’s mascot and other closely held creative property into the public domain as early as next year. If upheld, the precedent-setting challenge could cost movie studios and heirs of authors and composers millions of dollars in revenue as previously protected material becomes available free of… Read more »

Coldplay is working on a live DVD of backstage, onstage and “stupid stuff,” according to the band’s bassist and de facto cameraman, Guy Berryman. “We want to make it good, not do it for the sake of doing it,” Berryman says. “I know a lot of bands go, ‘Oh, let’s just do a DVD,’ and get a film crew and they film it and record music and stick it out. I’d like to do something a bit more interesting than that.” Berryman, the man behind the camcorder, has been gathering footage as the U.K. band tours behind its latest album,… Read more »

Garageband Records (http://www.garageband.com) demonstrated its support for Internet radio today by announcing a new turnkey service that will provide webcasters with an alternative and more affordable source of music. This announcement is part of the company’s broader plan to promote its independent artists through multiple channels including Internet, college and commercial radio. In addition, as part of the International Webcasting Association’s (IWA) “Campaign to Save Internet Radio,” Garageband announced that its artists will be showcased during a twenty-day live broadcast in Las Vegas. The broadcast begins today at 12:00pm PDT and can be accessedfrom www.SaveInternetRadio.net and www.Webcasters.org. Garageband’s service comes… Read more »

“Surreal” is about the only word to describe it when that kid you remember from “Gremlins” and “Goonies,” all grown up now, is rocking out in the middle of a record store. And surreal it was when Corey Feldman and his band played for a bewildered crowd numbering less than a hundred recently at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. As fans and curious shoppers waited (and waited), a drummer, a guitarist, a bassist named Pharaoh and a keyboard player (none of whom would look lost at a construction site) along with two backup singers crowded onto a makeshift stage, where… Read more »

Yoko Ono and Frederic Seaman, a former personal assistant to John Lennon, privately reached agreement early today in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan, foregoing closing arguments and jury deliberation after four days at trial. The lawsuit, filed by Ono over three years ago, charged Seaman – who worked with the Lennon family between 1979 and 1982 – with failing to return several documents and hundreds of photos after he was found guilty of grand larceny in 1982. Seaman had stolen and subsequently returned Lennon’s personal diaries as well as letters, drawings, contracts, demo tapes, and stereo equipment. However, Ono’s… Read more »

Remember when Michael Greene, then-President of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, warned us all about the unlawful evils of Internet file sharing during the Grammy Awards back in February? Soon people will get an earful straight from those who make the music. Britney Spears, Missy Elliott and Nelly are among the artists set to appear in TV spots as part of an awareness campaign to educate people about the legal and financial ramifications of unauthorized file sharing, according to a Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) spokesperson. The ads were first shown Thursday at a congressional hearing… Read more »

Kurt Cobain fans are closer to Nirvana than they have been in years. A studio version of the unreleased Nirvana track “You Know You’re Right” has surfaced online in its entirety. The song, which was reportedly recorded in January 1994, less than three months before frontman Cobain took his own life with a shotgun in his Seattle home, is expected to a appear on the long-awaited Nirvana greatest-hits album, which, according to Courtney Love, is due by Christmas. A Universal Music Group spokesperson, however, said that while the LP would come out, there was no specific release date. By Monday… Read more »

A copyright dispute over two pieces of silence, one by American avant-garde composer John Cage and the other by a composer best known for novelty tunes, has been settled, Cage’s publishers said Monday. Mike Batt was accused of plagiarism by Edition Peters, publishers of the late Cage’s work, after he put a track called “A Minute’s Silence” on his latest album “Classical Graffiti,” performed by pop-classics group The Planets. The piece was credited it to Batt/Cage. Cage’s ground-breaking silent composition, 4’33,” was first performed half a century ago. The piano piece, divided into three movements, consists entirely of silent notes… Read more »