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Four years after a stroke, Dick Clark is relishing the prospect of another New Year’s Eve celebration determined to appear for his 36th year in Times Square And he’s hardly surprised by the current state of the music industry he helped build – he predicted this, after all. Clark, who turned 79 last month and has been in front of the cameras for 61 years, said in a recent interview by e-mail that his involvement in “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009,” diminished though it may be, is a labor of love and “not really a… Read more »
Digital music sales continue fast growth in the U.S., accounting for 18 percent of the music market there this year, and set to climb to 41 percent of total sales across the next five years, Forrester Research reports. The report predicts 55 percent of U.S. online consumers will pay to download music in 2013. Despite this strong growth, labels must get used to a smaller value music market, say the analysts, overall the U.S. music market will shrink from its current level of $10.2 billion to $9.8 billion in the next five years. Forrester also found 64 percent of subscribers… Read more »
LOS ANGELES -— Punk musician Travis Barker and celebrity disc jockey DJ AM will perform together for the first time since the duo survived a fiery plane crash in South Carolina. The former Blink-182 drummer and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, will headline New Year’s Nation’s Los Angeles New Year’s Eve Party at The Lot in West Hollywood. “I’m ready to get back on stage with AM and continue to rock the house,” Barker said in a statement. “I’m very excited to bring in the New Year in my hometown of L.A.” The performance will be streamed… Read more »
Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker is suing Bombardier Inc., a Canadian Aerospace conglomerate and makers of the Learjet; Clay Lacy Aviation, a jet-charter company; and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company for monetary damages stemming from a South Carolina plane crash he survived in September, according to TMZ.com. The crash resulted in the deaths of four of the plane’s six occupants, including Barker bodyguard Charles “Che” Still, whose mother, Thelma Martin Still, filed suit in L.A. County Superior Court alongside the drummer. DJ AM was the crash’s only other survivor. A federal inquiry into the crash two months ago led investigators… Read more »
Rolling Stone magazine is shrinking with the times. After more than four decades of standing out with a larger format than other magazines, it will step back and look like everyone else starting with the Oct. 30 issue, due out this week. The adoption of a standard format could boost single-copy sales and reduce production costs for advertising inserts such as scent strips and tear-out postcards. The magazine says any cost savings, though, will be offset by the inclusion of more pages and the shift to thicker, glossier paper. Like other devoted readers, Eddie Ward, 35, said he will miss… Read more »
Three weeks after narrowly surviving a Learjet plane crash that killed four people in South Carolina, including two of his pals, Travis Barker posted a message on his MySpace blog expressing gratitude for the outpouring of support he and fellow survivor DJ AM have received through their ordeal and giving an update on his condition. "Like the doctors said from the beginning, its [sic] been a slow recovery process. I am coming up on the 7th of my surgeries Monday," the former Blink-182 drummer wrote Saturday. "Today I finally was able to move all my fingers on my right hand.… Read more »
Travis Barker said he’s “thankful to be alive” after the plane crash in Columbia, South Carolina, last month that killed four people and seriously injured him and DJ AM. The former Blink-182 drummer opens up about the accident in the new issue of Us Weekly. “I hate planes,” he said. “My biggest fear ever is to be involved in a plane crash, so when that happened … well, I’m just thankful to be alive! I’m just grateful to be here at all.” Barker then choked up a bit, the mag said. Barker left a hospital in Georgia last week and… Read more »
