LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Like Napster and BitTorrent before it, LTDnetwork's Qtrax is a brand from the early days of peer-to-peer music piracy that is relaunching as a completely legal service.

The reborn version formalized the evolution by announcing a deal with EMI Music to make the music company's catalog available to its users.

Qtrax still allows consumers to get free music, but there will be no free lunch. The service is ad-supported, and the free songs are in a proprietary ".mpq" format that can only be played a limited number of times and only on the computer to which they were downloaded.Additionally, each time a track is played, the Qtrax player offers click-to-buy purchasing.

It also suggests that the user upgrade to a premium subscription service for a flat monthly fee, in which case they get unlimited downloads in Windows Media format that can be moved or transferred to almost any digital music player except Apple's iPod. The songs become unplayable should the subscription lapse.

"Qtrax is going to offer the consumer a pretty cool way to sample and discover music in a way that P2P users are used to," said Ken Parks, EMI's senior vice president for strategy and business development. "The difference is, you'll be presented with stuff that is cleared in a way that respects copyright yet preserving that 'free' experience. You'll not be asked to pay until you want to pull the trigger, so it's a pretty friendly place to explore and discover music."

Financial terms of the EMI deal were not disclosed, but EMI does get a share of advertising revenue generated by Qtrax.

"Advertisers are willing to pay a lot of money to be associated with music, and the music industry is willing to cooperate as long as the value is preserved and the artists get paid," Parks said.

Some of the advertising will be served in way relevant to the results of song searches and will include click-through options to buy products on Shopping.com.

An additional opportunity allows labels to promote artists through spotlight placement on the Web site. EMI is testing the capability internally with such artists as KT Tunstall, Coldplay and Gorillaz.

Parks said that EMI also will get valuable data because it will know every time a song is played and whether that resulted in the consumer making a purchase. That same tracking capability ensures that royalty payments are very accurate, he added.

There is no firm date for Qtrax to launch, though EMI has begun delivering and registering its content with Qtrax's filtering system, powered by Audible Magic. The company has said it is waiting to sign with the other major labels before it goes live to the public and is on schedule to enter a test phase this year.

Qtrax will incorporate community-building and music discovery tools along with incentive programs that provide discounts or additional music plays.

Founded in October 2000, LTDnetwork is a division of Brilliant Technologies Corp. that specializes in technologies, software and services for online retail, advertising, media and marketing companies.

In April, EMI Music announced a separate initiative with Rhythm NewMedia, the first major label agreement to provide videos to an ad-supported mobile service.

Collaborative trials already are under way. The ads are embedded in the on-demand programming similar to television but are highly targeted to individual users.

Source: Various

The Isle of Wight music festival is back on the festival A-list more than 35 years after artists like Jimi Hendrix and The Doors drew hundreds of thousands of fans.

When some 600,000 hippies travelled to the Isle of Wight festival in 1970, crowds tore down the fences in protest at the "capitalist pigs" who were charging £3 a ticket. It is slightly different these days. Almost 60,000 were at the festival's modern incarnation this weekend, with tickets costing £105 a pop, the fence intact and scarcely a hippy in sight.

So would veterans of the original recognise the modern festival?Both had just one stage at the end of a big field, but the sound quality has improved and big screens invented since the class of '70, who were lucky to see or hear the musicians. The site did not run out of food and drink this time, with no shortage of stands selling global cuisine. Some of this year's attendees may not believe it, but festival toilet facilities have also advanced in the last few decades.

But a visitor from 1970 might have been aghast at the prominence of brands like Carling, Nokia and Virgin. Even Marks & Spencer had a stall, selling take-away food and festival supplies. And the cashpoints, bag searches and fields of shiny cars may also be alien to someone stepping out of the hippy era. But the most obvious difference is probably the crowd itself.

People are still trying to escape the daily grind - but the hippies' war against the capitalist pigs has long been lost and this year's crowd is resigned to being back at work on Monday morning. Music festivals are now at the heart of mainstream culture and the variety of tribes at events like Isle of Wight has widened to cover most corners of society.

England-shirted boozers and bruisers sit next to fat-bottomed couples, while teen party animals rub shoulders with young children, middle-youth mates and ageing rockers. But bohemian beatniks are on the verge of extinction - or have at least evolved out of all recognition. "Everybody was feeling very free and anything could go," says Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker of the original event. He is the only person to have played at both the 1970 and 2006 festivals. It was a breakaway from years and years of following an establishment pattern," he says. "We were part of that then and so were the audience. Now it's a different world."

The utopian atmosphere of the hippy days may be remembered fondly, but that event was so chaotic that an Act of Parliament was passed to ban further festivals on the island.

So the festival lay dormant until the law was repealed and the first modern event took place in 2002. Organiser John Giddings says he has deliberately tried to make the 21st century Isle of Wight Festival a descendant of the earlier event. "I was there in 1970," he says. "That was the defining moment of a generation, wasn't it? You came together with these other people of a like mind. I'm not sure people think like that any more."

He has used a hippy face as this year's festival logo, psychedelic imagery adorned its stage and T-shirts and Hendrix lyrics hung from fences on site. "The Isle of Wight festival is iconic so you can market the heritage of Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Bob Dylan - you're not starting from scratch," Mr Giddings says. "They had some of the best acts in the world ever, so you can utilise that as a marketing angle."

This year's headliners Coldplay were attracted by the fact that Bob Dylan played there in 1969, Mr Giddings says. Dylan himself was drawn by the island's connection with poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. But the hippy legend is more than just a marketing tool, according to Mr Giddings. "We try and instil a hippy ethic throughout the whole thing because we think that protects the image of the event. I think that's really important."

In practice, the hippy logo is the most obvious example of that ethic. But rose-tinted comparisons are not really fair on the modern event. It is, indeed, a different world - and by any standard, this year's festival was a success. The non-stop sunshine helped, as did the musical line-up, which straddled mainstream and alternative tastes, with most acts chosen for their live prowess.

Asked for their highlights, most fans mentioned two names - Friday's headliners The Prodigy and Saturday's stars the Foo Fighters, while Coldplay also went down a storm with Sunday's closing set. It is hard to compete with the legend of Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Bob Dylan. But the Isle of Wight Festival has become a hit in the post-hippy world.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk

A consumer watchdog is warning music fans to take care when buying tickets online for music festivals and other events.

Consumer Direct, the government's consumer advice service run by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), says punters have fewer rights when they buy privately and getting their money back when things go wrong can prove a real headache.

Consumer Direct spokeswoman Michele Shambrook said: "We receive a lot of calls from people complaining about tickets not being delivered, seats in the wrong location and counterfeits. If you want to be sure you will get the tickets you pay for, book tickets through official channels."Online auctions are a popular alternative but you may not really know who you are dealing with or where they are based, and you may be faced with highly inflated prices. If you have a problem, your options are also limited so it's important to know what to look out for and what your rights are."

The warning comes as the Isle of Wight Festival kicks off today, featuring bands including The Prodigy, Foo Fighters and Coldplay.

Source: http://theregister.co.uk

The surgeon in Operating Room 7, Dr. Marc Bessler, jockeyed a patient's spleen to get to the kidney. "White Shadows" by Coldplay murmured in the background. A resident cut away tissue near the kidney. Abba's "Waterloo" came next in the shuffle.

Across the corridor on Thursday afternoon, Dr. William B. Inabnet, an endocrine surgeon, prepared to cut into a patient's neck. His iPod played Verdi's "Traviata."

"Madness! Madness!" sang the soprano Anna Moffo. A heart monitor beeped to a different rhythm, like a metronome run amok.

Scalpel, suture, iPod.It was a normal day at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights, where music fills the operating rooms much of the time, as it does in other hospitals. Like most of modern life, surgery has acquired a soundtrack, whether it be Sinatra or Vivaldi, Mozart or Bob Marley, "La Bohème" or the Beatles. Surgeons say it relaxes them, focuses their attention and helps pass the time.

Mention of the subject in medical journals goes back 50 years, and a growing body of recent research shows mild benefits for the patient going under the knife as well as for the surgeon holding it. The topic also figures in hospital television shows like "Chicago Hope" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Less examined are the rituals and protocols about how music is played and who decides the program.

Music can become a subtle bone of contention among the members of the surgical team or a practical aid. Loud rock 'n' roll is good for routine operations, they say, Mozart for trickier ones. There is even a genre called "closing music": raucous sounds to suture by.

Many operating rooms come equipped with music equipment, although iPods now appear to be the system of choice. Some patients are given headphones. (Surgeons generally do not use them, so they can hear what is going on.) Sophisticated teleconferencing equipment in some operating theaters is occasionally drafted to play music.

Given the large number of doctors who are amateur musicians, the presence of music at a surgeon's job site seems natural.

"The whole issue of performing in a finite period of time is very analogous between the two," said Dr. Eric Rose, chairman of the department of surgery at the Columbia University Medical Center, which is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the operating room is called a theater, he said.

But there is no way to generalize about content. "As wide as musical tastes are, that's as broad as the listening habits of surgeons in the operating room," said Dr. Rose, whose tastes range from Vivaldi to Simon and Garfunkel. He said that Dr. Norman E. Shumway, the father of the heart transplant, who died in February, had often played Édith Piaf during surgery.

Dr. Paul Ruggieri, a general surgeon who practices in Fall River, Mass., said he was in a Sinatra and Diana Krall phase. Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" is another favorite. "That's a nice song if you're in a hyped mood," Dr. Ruggieri said.

Dr. Inabnet's first love is jazz: John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday. When he has difficult operations, he prefers lively bands: the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for example. "That's good pancreas music," he said. "It's an organ I respect tremendously."

At St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, Dr. Alan Benvenisty, a vascular and transplant surgeon, meticulously creates playlists for his two iPods, which he sets up with speakers. "I have the whole thing programmed ahead of time," he said. "If you spend many, many hours in the O.R. listening to music, you learn a lot about music. I'm pretty much an expert on classic rock." His nickname is Hyper Al.

Generally, the attending surgeon, the honcho in the hierarchical operating room, decides the playlist. Next in line is often the anesthesiologist. If no doctor brings music, it may come down to the CD collection of the head surgical nurse. Any member of the team has veto power if the music becomes distracting or interferes with dialogue. Music that requires concentration, like Mahler, is rare. When tensions rise, the music is often turned off.

Anesthesiologists have an important say because they must hear the beeps of their equipment. "There's a bunch of them who are always saying, 'Can you turn it down?' " said Dr. Bessler, the director of laparoscopic surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian. (He has 760 tunes on his iPod Mini. "For me, Abba is the thing," he said. "There's no gangsta rap in my O.R.")

In a survey of 200 anesthesiologists published in 1997 in the British journal Anaesthesia, 72 percent of respondents said music was played regularly in their operating rooms. About 26 percent felt that music "reduced their vigilance" and interfered with communication. Half felt that music was distracting when they encountered a problem.

In nonemergency situations, junior members of a surgical team are often at the mercy of the attending surgeons.

"I was brutalized for a number of years as a resident listening to Mantovani," Dr. Rose said. "The surgeon will go nameless. It was atrocious."

Another nameless surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian would regularly play the same live concert recording of Vladimir Horowitz during a particular procedure, said Dr. Jonathan M. Chen, a pediatric heart surgeon. "He would always turn to the head nurse and say, 'Prof. Horowitz, please,' " said Dr. Chen, who works at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, part of NewYork-Presbyterian. "That got very old very quickly."

Other offenders are surgeons who like to sing along. "They get upset sometimes when I sing," an unabashed Dr. Benvenisty said. "I know all these songs by heart."

Surgeons often ask patients what they want to hear. Dr. Inabnet has to be especially sensitive, he said, because in most of his cases the patients receive local anesthesia and are awake. In Thursday's operation, to remove a pea-size parathyroid gland, the patient asked for opera. Dr. Inabnet's iPod happened to have a classic 1960 recording of "La Traviata," which played through a desktop computer with speakers surgically taped to the computer stand.

Sometimes patients come in with requests. Dr. Marc Dickstein, a NewYork-Presbyterian anesthesiologist, said a teenage girl facing a lung transplant had brought a CD of Seal, her favorite artist. "It was just kind of a powerful scene there," he said. "This was what she wanted to hear before what could have been her final moments." The girl made it. "She was unbelievably brave," Dr. Dickstein said.

Surgeons have adopted music into their practice.

Dr. Nas Eftekhar, a retired pioneer of hip and knee replacements, used Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" to mark the exact moments to apply cement to the femur and insert the artificial joint. "The timing is extremely critical," he said.

Dr. Chen, a blues lover, used to employ tracks to time the wait for bleeding to stop before closing up. "Everybody is impatient at that part of the operation," he said. But now there is no music in his operating room. He operates on the hearts of babies and children. Blood-oxygen monitors are crucial in such operations, and they emit beeps that change pitch with the slightest change in oxygen levels. So music is out.

Some physicians warn of excesses.

In a letter to the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr. Richard H. Riley of Perth raised two examples: a surgeon who had an opera videocassette playing during an operation, and a second who listened to music through earbuds despite having to be questioned by the anesthesiologist. While extreme, Dr. Riley said, the examples "do remind us that we should remain vigilant and not allow developments in entertainment technology to interfere with patient care."

But at least five studies published in the last dozen years show benefits to surgeons and patients from music, or at least no harm.

One showed that it made no difference in the results of psychomotor tests on anesthesiologist trainees. Another found that surgeons could block out music during complex tasks. Music made surgeons calmer, more accurate and speedier, according to a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 1994. Music through headphones reduced the amount of sedation needed for urological patients and lowered the blood pressure of elderly eye-surgery patients, other studies found.

Dr. Brian Jacob, a general surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York who specializes in laparoscopic and stomach stapling surgery, said music helped everyone in the operating room.

"You're basically sending a message to the people around you that it's a cool place to be," he said. "I found I get a lot done when I have U2 in the background," he said. He does take care to lower the volume when the patient enters the room, and he sometimes asks for requests.

But the patient usually says that whatever is on is fine. "They want me happy," he said.

Source: http://nytimes.com

Jimi Hendrix died soon after playing the Isle of Wight in 1970, The Doors hardly played again, and the event itself disappeared for 31 years. Now it's different, says James McNair

However confused its imagery, Sandi Thom's "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (with Flowers in My Hair)" taps into the nostalgia many feel for the halcyon days of rock. Symbolically, so too does the Isle of Wight Festival.

At its peak, Britain's oldest rock gathering could boast slots from The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell in the course of one weekend. Glastonbury has its Tor and Creamfields its superstar DJs, but only the Isle of Wight Festival can claim to have been Britain's Woodstock.Bizarrely, the event that would draw more than half a million people in 1970 had begun, two years earlier, as a fundraiser for the Isle of Wight Swimming Association. A member of the said body, Ron Smith, set aside £750 to develop a rock festival, and preparations got under way on 100-acres of stubble corn.

The inaugural Isle of Wight festival began at 8pm on August 31, 1968, and ended at 8.30am the following morning. Some 10,000 music fans had paid £1 5s (£1.25) for tickets, the late John Peel among those enjoying sets from acts including Tyrannosaurus Rex and Fairport Convention. "One fragile [girl] was crying because her feet were so cold," the DJ recalled. "Overcome with lust, I gave her my socks. She skippety-skipped away and that was that."

The 1969 event was a much bigger affair, the festival relocating to Godshill village, expanding to three days, and attracting a crowd of around 250,000 people. News of Bob Dylan's first UK performance since his 1966 motorcycle accident had swelled ticket demand, and there were also sets from the Who and The Band. Despite its quantum leap forward, the festival retained something of the Aquarian hippy innocence documented by Peel. A local Scout troop supplied tents for the temporarily homeless, while a provincial newspaper report from the period reports communal pots of baked beans passing amongst docile folks dressed in "tattered jeans and headbands."

It was the mixed blessings of the further-expanded 1970 festival that saw it become the stuff of legend. Described in a Melody Maker headline as "Five Days That Shook The World", the gathering drew a crowd that The Guinness Book Of Records later verified as being in excess of 600,000.

The musical riches on offer were all but unprecedented: Sly and the Family Stone singing "Dance To The Music"; Joni Mitchell singing "Woodstock"; The Who premiering Tommy; and loads more class acts besides. Free, then riding high with "All Right Now", aired their hit single as a massive hot-air balloon ascended into the blue.

It was the deeply troubled Jimi Hendrix's intermittently brilliant set, however, that caught the edgy, fractured mood of an event that turned ugly. "Hendrix was a psychological mess of a man", Pete Townshend said, remembering Jimi's closing set. "Nobody cared. People thought, 'he can play such great guitar, so he's obviously okay'."

Some trouble stemmed from militants in a testy crowd incensed at a new double-walled security system, and the increased appearance-fees some artists were demanding. Fights broke out, fires were started, missiles were thrown, and the local community struggled to cope with the invasion of their small island. With many fans enjoying the festival for free from the vantage point of a nearby hill, the gathering was a commercial and organisational disaster. "It was a memorable event, and most of the islanders were tolerant towards it", said medical officer Douglas Quantrill at the time, "but a vociferous minority were determined that there would never be another." Deeming the Isle of Wight Festival unsafe, the local authorities put it on ice for the next 30 years.

But time heals all wounds, and The Isle of Wight Festival eventually returned in 2002. In the interim, much had been learned about marketing, crowd safety, and community relations. The event's musical palette, meanwhile, had expanded to include hip-hop and avant-garde jazz. In recent years, Iggy Pop, David Bowie and REM have all played the Isle of Wight, and this year's star turns will include Goldfrapp, Primal Scream, The Prodigy and Coldplay.

Tickets for 2006's sold-out event went for £85 (or £105 with camping pass), while audience capacity is set at a comparatively cosy 35,000. Fittingly, a specially commissioned life-size statue of Jimi Hendrix is to be displayed at Dimbola Lodge in Freshwater, looking out towards the 1970 festival site. We Brits are suckers for continuity. That said, though, those of us over a certain age would do well to remember that every generation needs its own rock stars, not just posthumous totems of legends whose achievements, they are regularly reminded, can never be surpassed. There are teenagers out there who will be just as thrilled by Coldplay's 2006 Isle Of Wight set as the baby-boomers were by Dylan's in 1969.

Source: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk

Did you know that Tim Rice-Oxley, Keane's keyboard player and songwriter, is a college friend of Chris Martin, and was once asked to join Coldplay? Rice-Oxley said no.

Normally, this would lead to years of bitter regret and swearing at the radio every time Yellow came on. Instead, Keane are now in the same position as Coldplay were when they released their second album, A Rush of Blood To The Head, the one that took Martin and co from headline tours to stadium tours.

Maybe Keane were taking notes, because Under The Iron Sea does exactly what that album did - it recognises all the things people liked about the band the first time and does them again, but with extra flourish.

Read the full review here

Death Cab For Cutie just finished making a new video, and it's premiering now at Yahoo! Music.

The video is for the song "I Will Follow You Into The Dark," off Death Cab For Cutie's latest album, "Plans." The clip was directed by Jamie Thraves, who also directed Radiohead's "Just" and Coldplay's "The Scientist" videos.

To check out Death Cab For Cutie's new video for "I Will Follow You Into The Dark," click here

The Indie rock group Snow Patrol has another hit with their new album “Eyes Open,” featuring the songs “Hands Open,” “Chasing Cars” and “You’re All I Have.” The group uses creative and unique lyrics with hypnotic music to create a successfully poignant album.

This is one of the reasons why Snow Patrol has been dubbed as the darker version of Coldplay. The lyrics are honest and open, which allow the songs to be powerful and emotional. Though Snow Patrol has just become successful, the group has been around for more than a decade.

Snow Patrol started in Northern Ireland in 1994 under the name Shrug, but soon changed the name of the group to Polar Bear. The band had a rough time in the beginning and even considered quitting the music business. That all changed in 2004 with the release of their third album, “Final Straw.” Their single “Run” ranked No. 5 on U.K. charts, while “Final Straw” reached No. 3. Snow Patrol went from playing for crowds of 20 to playing for crowds exceeding 2,000.

In August 2005, the group placed themselves in an isolated house in Glasgow, Scotland. The house was located on the edge of a cliff with waves crashing beneath it.

“It’s a very dramatic place,” said Gary Lightbody, singer and chief songwriter.

Snow Patrol decided that this would be the perfect setting to write their new album “Eyes Open,” which was released May 9. The band is currently touring in the United States and canceled some of its shows because Lightbody was ill with laryngitis.

Snow Patrol is trying to reschedule all of the canceled shows and is placing them at the end of the U.S. tour. The band says that it is giving Lightbody’s voice a week to heal and then they will be back on schedule. For concert locations and dates, visit http://www.snowpatrol.com/tour/.

Source: http://www.ocolly.com

Having lit up the performances of some of the biggest names in music, Radical Lighting is now aiming to illuminate itself on the world stage.

To do that the Bradford-based company, which provided stage lighting for the Live 8 concerts in London and Paris, needs a cash injection. Radical provides lighting and video equipment to the live entertainment, leisure and architectural industries as well as the computer software needed to control the effects.

The company, which also provided the lighting for Coldplay's recent world tour and the Glastonbury Festival, will be hoping to win the required £175,000 of funding when its representatives pitch to an audience of international investors at Connect Yorkshire's summer Investment Forum tomorrow.Connect Yorkshire primes technology companies for investment through events such as the forum, which is sponsored by Partnership Investment Finance and is taking place at the Hilton Hotel in Leeds.

Twelve Yorkshire firms will pitch their business propositions to an audience of around 100 investors and advisers from organisations including Advent Ventures, Bank of Scotland Equity, Delta Partners, Doughty Hanson & Co, Herald Ventures and MMC Ventures.

Connect's executive director, Nick Butler, said: "The Investment Forum is a fantastic event that speeds up the investment process. It brings together Yorkshire's technology entrepreneurs and key national players in the investment community."

Other companies attending the event include IT security software firm Smoothwall; drug development software company Digital Chemistry; alternative energy generators Pulse Tidal; and York-based Medical Interactives, which has developed technology to improve the resolution of images produced from MRI and CT scans. Companies that have used Connect's services, including the Investment Forums, have received more than £13m in international backing.

Source: yorkshiretoday.co.uk

The world was at the feet of Bradford band Embrace yesterday as their new football anthem went on sale with record shop bosses predicting it would fly off the shelves.

The official England World Cup song, World at Your Feet, made it into this week's top 40 through downloads alone, coming in at number 38,outselling its rivals on day one by two to one. The song has been put out on the Independiente label, which also has hit bands Travis and Gomez on its books, and it is one of the tracks on the band's new album This New Day.

Embrace, whose members originally come from Wyke and Brighouse, were chosen by the Football Association in March to record England's official World Cup record. Brothers Danny [pictured] and Richard McNamara, of Wyke, Mike Heaton, Steve Firth and Mick Dale made a triumphant comeback when Out of Nothing shot to Number 1 and the single Gravity, written by Coldplay's Chris Martin, was a huge hit.Ed Paynter, manager at Bradford's Virgin record store, said: "I am sure it will do really well because it is a local band and the album is doing really well. It is too early to tell what the sales figures will be but we expect them to fly off the shelves at the weekend."

Colin Harrison, assistant manager at HMV Bradford, said: "The single is selling really well. It did very well in the download chart and it has charted. With Embrace being a local band, that has helped."

Mr Harrison who has worked in the record industry for more than 15 years added: "If the band comes from the local area it makes a real difference. "With the Kaiser Chiefs, people were asking about the album and single even before they were released."

It marked the end of a three-year wilderness period after diminishing sales had led to them being dropped by their record company and it was back to the day jobs. Another Bradford band has released an alternative World Cup song to the Embrace anthem.

Punk band the Negatives have released We Are England, a rousing punk anthem "set to rattle the teeth of England fans everywhere," according to frontman Tino Palmer. "It brings together the past and the present, evoking memories of Bobby Moore along with today's team members," he said. "And it looks to the future when the team lift the World Cup on the day of the final."

The single was released by notfromlondon records at a launch party at The Rosse pub in Saltaire. We Are England is available at the Negatives' gigs and via their website www. myspace. com/ negatives.

Source: thisisbradford.co.uk

Scissor Sisters are putting the final touches to second album Ta-Dah — but can it beat their self-titled debut, which shifted 2.4million copies in the UK?

That put them in an elite group of UK-signed acts selling more than 2million of their first album. Others are Keane with Hopes And Fears, Dido and No Angel, James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam and Coldplay’s Parachutes. A source at Modest Management said: “Record companies squeeze every last sale out of a big CD. That makes it difficult for the second album.”

Ta-Dah is released on September 18. First single I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ is out on September 4.

Source: thesun.co.uk

EMI Group said on Monday it would make its music catalogue available to the first advertising supported peer-to-peer service as the entertainment industry embraces the same technology that once nearly crippled it.

The new service called Qtrax, developed by New York-based LTDnetwork and slated for launch later this year, will give consumers the ability to download music for free after watching ads, or the option of paying for a premium subscription version.

Financial terms of the deal with London-based EMI , home to Coldplay and Robbie Williams, were not disclosed, although EMI, which is the first of the music majors to sign up, will share in both the advertising and song sales revenue.Peer-to-peer services, which allow users to download music, films and TV programmes from other users who have the desired files instead of a central server, stunned record companies in 1998 as teenagers started building massive music collections by swapping songs for free online with services such as Napster and Grokster, rather than paying for CDs.

Music companies and film studios have been slowly warming to P2P services, however, as they overcome their bitterness and fears, in a bid to harness file-sharing networks so users pay for copyrighted songs.

Warner Bros. earlier this year, for example, began selling movies and TV shows in Germany, Austria and Switzerland using a peer-to-peer network.

Qtrax is betting that its model, which seeks to capitalise on the Internet advertising boom, will provide a fresh impetus to lure the music industry.

"There's a lot of pent-up demand for advertisers to get onto peer-to-peer services, but up until now it's been illegal, and highly dangerous territory for them to wade into," Allan Klepfisz, CEO of LTDnetwork's parent company Brilliant Technologies Corp. , said in a telephone interview.

He said there have been conversations with advertisers, but no one has signed up just yet, adding that the priority has been to nail down the four major music companies.

"We have advertisers tentatively on board, but until you launch it's a bit of theoretical thing," Klepfisz said.

Qtrax's free version will allow consumers to download songs in the .mpq format and play them for five times while offering them a click-to-buy option. Other music companies may allow more or fewer uses, Klepfisz said.

User song searches also will return click-through options to buy related CDs, DVDs and books on Shopping.com.

"We think that any ad-supported model should be offered in a way that maintains, or even enhances the value of music, and we believe Qtrax does that by offering a good conumser experience and significant up-selling opportunities," said David Munns, chairman and CEO of EMI Music North America.

He added that EMI would be able to use Qtrax to gain insights into consumer behaviour by gauging how many people sample music for free versus how many buy.

The service is expected to start a testing phase later this year and will initially pilot it in the United States after Vivendi's Universal Music, Sony BMG <6758.T> and Warner Music join EMI to be part of Qtrax.

"We will not launch until all the majors have signed on," Klepfisz said.

Music companies are rapidly seeking to replace the revenue lost by diminished CD sales with digital downloads and mobile services. Digital music accounted for about 6 percent, or about $790 million, of total global music sales last year.

Source: Various [Reuters]

With the summer concert season hitting stride this month, a November pact settling a legal battle over noise at the Ford Amphitheatre faces a critical test. Nearby residents will hear just how much the truce muffles noise in the coming months when arena rockers Sammy Hagar, the Black Crowes and Def Leppard take the stage.

These acts will play to a tough crowd - outside the amphitheater. Since the concert venue opened in July 2004 along Interstate 4 at the Florida State Fairgrounds east of Tampa, residents have lodged more than 400 complaints to government agencies about noise. An ensuing lawsuit cost the county more than $600,000 in legal fees and ended in a settlement that residents said gave away the store to the amphitheater.

two residents complained about the Ford Amphitheatre one night, and there wasn't a concert. Two complained during a Coldplay concert, but when Live Nation employees went to their homes, they recorded levels below the county limits. It's not the first time Coldplay have been too noisy for residents.

Read the full article here

It will be music to an athlete’s ears. The makers of the iPod have teamed up with Nike to produce “smart” musical footwear for joggers that will play faster music when they begin to flag.

The first trainer designed to “talk to” an iPod will be in the shops in Britain later this summer. It will use a sensor under the inner sole to detect a runner’s pace and send a signal to a wireless receiver attached to the iPod to put on a “power song” when the speed is flagging.

If a jogger is cruising along to the sound of Simon and Garfunkel and starts to slow, the iPod will sharpen up the pace with a blast of something like Eye of the Tiger, the song by Survivor used in the Rocky films, or Tina Turner’s Simply the Best. Runners can also press a button on the iPod so their chosen power song “kicks in” to give them extra motivation on hill climbs or when a burst of speed is needed near a finishing line.

Nike, which sells 200m pairs of trainers a year, approached Apple 18 months ago about a joint project. This is its first venture into “smart shoes” using computer technology.

Apple has named the system “rock’n’run”. The computer giant estimates that half the 50m people who bought iPods last year use them while working out. One of the songs that it recommends is Everlong by Foo Fighters.

The next advance under development by Apple is an MP3 player that can change the tempo of the music to match the most punishing exercise regime. The sensor will judge a jogger’s speed and choose fast or slow music accordingly.

It can even alter the tempo of each song, using digital technology that allows music to be “squashed” into a shorter time. The MP3 player can adjust the tempo without affecting the pitch of the instruments and vocals. This would prevent a group such as Coldplay sounding like high-pitched chipmunks when their music was speeded up.

“We’re working with Nike to take music and sport to a new level,” said Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple. “The result is like having a coach or training partner motivating you every step of your workout.

“We’ve just scratched the surface because, over time, we can do even more sophisticated things.”

The iPod screen will also display information on run time, distance and the number of calories burnt, and relay updates through the headphones. The data can be downloaded to computers at home so runners can track their progress.

Paula Radcliffe, the women’s marathon world record holder, has been training to the sound of Madonna’s Jump as well as Turner and Whitney Houston. She welcomed the idea of a “jogger’s jukebox” that can match an athlete’s needs.

“I use music both ways,” she said. “I listen to faster music if I am doing a workout to get the best out of myself, but I also use it to help me relax in the build-up to a big race.”

Lance Armstrong, seven-times winner of the Tour de France and whose current power song is the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Dani California, said at a launch in New York: “If you can incorporate time, distance and calories burnt together and make it function for both the jogger and the high-level athlete, it will take working out to a whole other level.”

The rock’n’run system requires a £65 pair of Nike Air Zoom Moire shoes, an iPod Nano and a £25 sensor kit to fit in the shoe. The total cost will be about £200.

Apple plans to offer exclusive “power songs” for download and running mixes from athletes such as Radcliffe.

Source: http://timesonline.co.uk

And so it begins again -- the annual summertime trek to the venue of your choice to have beer spilled on you, get sunburned (or rained upon) and hear people yammering on their cell phones from the front row. Oh yeah, and shell out megabucks to hear the music you love.

But who's complaining? We love this time of year, when the best of every genre, from pop to punk, rock to reggae, hip-hop to heavy metal, country to folk, hits the road.

While the Stones, Coldplay, and the Who are taking it overseas this summer, folks like Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and Radiohead are stepping up to replace them stateside.Festival tours on the circuit include Ozzfest, the Family Values Tour, Sounds of the Underground, the Vans Warped Tour, and the Honda Civic Tour.

The midstate's biggest venue, the Hersheypark Stadium/Star Pavilion/Giant Center megaplex, is welcoming back many of the usual suspects: Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and Toby Keith on the country side (Kenny Chesney was here in May), and a host of rocking double bills including Lynyrd Skynyrd and 3 Doors Down, Def Leppard and Journey, Counting Crows and the Goo Goo Dolls, and Poison and Cinderella.

Superstar Mariah Carey and smooth singer Michael Buble will stop by, as will a reunited Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. And the stalwart Dave Matthews Band will return for its 10th show here since 1996, this time bringing along O.A.R.

The overall quality of this year's touring season is great, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar magazine, which covers the concert industry.

"Tons of acts are out working," Bongiovanni said, adding that there was not the usual confluence of huge artists like U2, Paul McCartney, and the Stones touring at the same time.

"It's a great season with plenty of variety," he said.

Of ticket prices, Bongiovanni said there has been no pressure to lower prices at the big, hot shows. But he said outdoor amphitheaters "are making a concerted effort to lower the price of general-admission lawn tickets."

Source: http://pennlive.com

Ron Sexsmith's old Portuguese landlord is to be forgiven for not having a clue what his tenant does for a living.

How could he possibly know that this 42-year-old man, forever clad in pajamas at his piano, drinking coffee, is an icon? Do icons live a full year shut inside their apartments hooked on The Amazing Race and Rock Star: INXS?

They do if they're Sexsmith, who does not have hobbies, and who spent last year getting caught up on things like TV. This year, he's off the couch and promoting his 10th album, Time Being, easily one of his finest works, marking a reunion with producer Mitchell Froom. And after 15 years turning out records of remarkably affecting bittersweet melancholy, Sexsmith is entitled to the icon title. His relevance as a songwriter, never mind a Canadian one, has touched fellow craftsmen like Paul McCartney, who invited him to his home, and Chris Martin, who asked to sing on his Cobblestone Runway album.Bob Dylan, Elton John and most famously, Elvis Costello, have sung his praises. When big names like Rod Stewart cover his songs, it helps pay the bills. He's got fiercely strong followings in Canada, England and the U.S.

Sexsmith is regarded by fans and famously talented songwriters as treasure in the attic, both prized and yet tucked away. That he remains largely commercially ignored is a long-established music world injustice. He's won a couple of Junos, but in a just world, he'd have picked up a couple of Grammys by now, too. (He's just got the one Juno now, actually. His ex-wife formed an attachment to the first Juno and Sexsmith didn't have the heart to take it.)

In a just world, he wouldn't still be playing small private shows, such as the one he gave after our interview that night at the Media Club, for a crowd of retailers who may or may not even know his work.

But Sexsmith hates such talk. Although he knows it's a relatively low figure, he's pleased with his worldwide sales of 100,000 or so for each record.

"I hear these articles about me sometimes that have a kind of 'Poor Ron' slant to them," begins Sexsmith, sitting inside a trendy, clinical-looking tea shop, a couple of weeks ago. "'Why can't he sell more records?'" he goes on about the stories.

"Like in Q magazine they gave my new album a really good review but the first line was, 'Poor Ron. Not even a duet with Chris Martin could pull him into the mainstream,' type of thing. They mean well but that doesn't help me at all.

"It's kind of crazy in a way, because I feel actually I've been quite successful. I've met most of my heroes and I feel like I exist. I don't know what it is about me that people think I should be playing the [Toronto] Skydome or that type of thing. My dream gig was Massey Hall and I finally played there a couple of weeks ago. My music isn't made for anything much bigger than those kinds of venues, anyway."

As well, Sexsmith is the humble sort who's grateful that anybody cares at all. For example, he recently performed at Leonard Cohen's book launch, and he makes it sound like it doesn't get much better than that.

"It's funny, Leonard signed a book for me that said, 'Fraternally yours,' I guess that means he sees me as a peer or something," he says, shyly.

And Sexsmith is an unlikely star, anyway. He's self-conscious and shy. His weight goes up and down, and he can't stand watching himself in his videos (the new one is animated, so he is pleased). Unbelievably, he is the father of a 20-year-old jock with washboard abs who's into hip hop.

"Very different from me," he nods.

Certainly no one would ever accuse Sexsmith of being perky, upbeat, jittery or prone to the giggles. No, Sexsmith is a serious, earnest guy with sleepy eyes and a monotone speaking voice with which he'll openly tell you how a failing marriage hung like a raincloud over earlier albums, how the love for his new girlfriend has informed his more recent albums, and how he worries about things like global warming.

He also happens to be a lot taller and trimmer than his heart-shaped face may project in pictures and video. On stage later that night, at the private performance, he even conveys a Johnny Cash sort of presence with his guitar slung across his body, wearing a dark sports jacket and shirt buttoned all the way to the top.

You'd never know it from the lighter sound, but death plays a central theme on Time Being. Sexsmith lost a couple of high school friends recently, and it's made him consider his own mortality.

"When I looked at these songs, I really liked them but I couldn't hear anything that radio would play," he says.

He may be referring to his inner skeptic. On the new record there is a lovely song called I Think We're Lost. Sexsmith, who "pulls his hair out over the lyrics," puts the song into context:

"I have a lot of anxiety in general about things ... you wonder sometimes how much time we have left here," he says. "In Canada, we've been spared a lot of horrible things in recent years -- They must be saving something really bad for us here."

For Time Being, released on Warner, Sexsmith had monetary concerns as much as creative ones.

"I didn't know what kind of budget we could come up with, and [producer Mitchell Froom] had to come down in price too -- like everyone in the record industry, it's all changing.

"I'm kind of glad I got to experience the decadence of those earlier albums ... You'd be in New York for four weeks recording and it was all catered, then we would fly to L.A. to mix. It seemed surreal looking back on it, the money they used to throw around."

Later that night, while Sexsmith played his heart out, the audience was respectfully still, except for a blonde-haired woman who talked to her friend loudly and continuously throughout the entire set.

Dirty looks would not silence this woman. If Sexsmith could hear her, which was most likely, he appeared oblivious, with his sad eyes prevailing over the stage, plowing through songs about death, love and crass commercialism.

So I pushed the "Poor Ron" thought out of my head for having to endure this woman. He'd want it that way.

Source: http://www.canada.com

Daniel Green, Brian Walters, Daniel Abrahams, Tim Jackson and Rick Pita are Third Floor Story. The London based band are ready to unleash their debut album Lonely City. After drafting in three more band members Third Floor Story have been out touring and have completed recording their debut album.

With websites like myspace, it is always lot easier to find some stuff out about new up and coming bands and Third Floor Story are one of those bands that are on myspace, and have their own website.

Myspace seems to be a great way for up and coming bands to get noticed and heard, cause you can listen tracks by the bands and decide on that if you like them or not. The influences of these guys are quite interesting Crowded House, Police and Stone Roses!!! Interesting in the fact that the Stone Roses are there, very different to the other two influences!

Read the full review here

The survey was put together by the book of British Hit Singles and Albums and NME.com with votes coming in from the around the world, reports the telegraph.co.uk.

David Roberts, British Hit Singles and Albums editor, said the survey showed diversity and longevity. "Usually these polls are full of records that people have only just bought because they are freshest in the mind," Mr Roberts said.

"But this poll shows that the truly great albums always have longevity. Only two albums in the Top 20 were released in the last five years, so the voters have clearly thought long and hard about their decision."Greatest 100 Albums of All Time

(Filed: 01/06/2006)

Definitely Maybe named greatest album of all time

Here are the full results of the British Hit Singles and Albums and NME.com survey to find the greatest 100 albums of all time:

01. Definitely Maybe, Oasis

02. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, The Beatles

03. Revolver, The Beatles

04. OK Computer, Radiohead

05. (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis

06. Nevermind, Nirvana

07. The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses

08. Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd

09. The Queen Is Dead, Smiths

10. The Bends, Radiohead

11. The Joshua Tree, U2

12. London Calling, The Clash

13. The Beatles (The White Album), The Beatles

14. Abbey Road, The Beatles

15. Up The Bracket, The Libertines

16. Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols

17. Four Symbols (Led Zeppelin IV), Led Zeppelin

18. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, David Bowie

19. A Night At The Opera, Queen

20. Is This It, The Strokes

21. Hot Fuss, The Killers

22. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys

23. Grace, Jeff Buckley

24. The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers

25. Bat Out Of Hell, MeatLoaf

26. Appetite For Destruction, Guns N' Roses

27. Employment, Kaiser Chiefs

28. Rubber Soul, The Beatles

29. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

30. The Libertines, The Libertines

31. Urban Hymns, The Verve

32. American Idiot, Green Day

33. A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Coldplay

34. Parklife, Blur

35. Thriller, Michael Jackson

36. The Wall, Pink Floyd

37. Automatic For The People, R.E.M.

38. Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand

39. Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield

40. Achtung Baby, U2

41. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd

42. Exile On Main Street, The Rolling Stones

43. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel

44. Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin

45. Parallel Lines, Blondie

46. Brothers In Arms, Dire Straits

47. Blood On The Tracks, Bob Dylan

48. Hunky Dory, David Bowie

49. X&Y, Coldplay

50. Who's Next, The Who

51. Hopes And Fears, Keane

52. Parachutes, Coldplay

53. Arrival, Abba

54. Different Class, Pulp

55. The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground

56. Forever Changes, Love

57. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye

58. Let It Bleed, The Rolling Stones

59. Elephant, The White Stripes

60. Doolittle, Pixies

61. Absolution, Muse

62. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John

63. Sheer Heart Attack, Queen

64. Come On Over, Shania Twain

65. Sign 'o' The Times, Prince

66. Ten, Pearl Jam

67. Kasabian, Kasabian

68. Dookie, Green Day

69. Origin Of Symmetry, Muse

70. Hounds Of Love, Kate Bush

71. Blonde On Blonde, Bob Dylan

72. All Mod Cons, The Jam

73. Blue, Joni Mitchell

74. White Blood Cells, The White Stripes

75. Dog Man Star, Suede

76. Metallica (the Black Album), Metallica

77. Dare!, Human League

78. Closer, Joy Division

79. In Utero, Nirvana

80. Back In Black, AC/DC

81. Funeral, Arcade Fire

82. Up All Night, Razorlight

83. Ray Of Light, Madonna

84. Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen

85. Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin

86. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, Arctic Monkeys

87. A Day At The Races, Queen

88. The Lexicon Of Love, ABC

89. Spice, Spice Girls

90. Violator, Depeche Mode

91. Final Straw, Snow Patrol

92. Electric Warrior, T. Rex

93. Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette

94. Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division

95. Kid A, Radiohead

96. Out Of The Blue, Electric Light Orchestra

97. The Smiths, The Smiths

98. Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hendrix

99. Rage Against The Machine, Rage Against The Machine

100. Hotel California, Eagles

Source: http://blogcritics.org

From blogcritics:

I don't take these lists too seriously, but they are fun in that they shed light on some albums that are sometimes overlooked, that do deserve a listen. I do credit the list with not being 100% predictable. The list in not limited to UK artists.

There are some surprises on the list, such as Jeff Buckley's Grace. I have the album and I've tried to turn friends onto it, but they just couldn't get into it. Neither could I. I'm also surprised to see The Killers' Hot Fuss in the list, as well as Coldplay's X&Y, The Artic Monkey's album, The Kaiser Chief's Employment and Razorlight's Up All Night, among others.

Missing from this list, as far as I am concerned, would be albums by The Kinks, Alice Cooper, Yes, Genesis, The Guess Who, Neil Young, Aerosmith, Bob Marley, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, The Doors, Van Halen, Eric Clapton/Cream, The Cure and XTC. There are many others missing, of course, including heavier bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. I'm ecstatic that The Arcade Fire's Funeral made the list. That is quite simply one of the best albums that I've heard in years. I also would have inlcuded Sufjan Stevens' Illinois.

Madonna will be queen of the road this summer.

With last year's top touring acts — the Rolling Stones, U2 and Paul McCartney — touring Europe or taking a break, Madonna's 15-week disco-themed Confessions Tour is likely to be the season's biggest-grossing and most heavily attended concert. It will also be among the priciest, with regular tickets going for as much as $375.

Several other headliners are expected to do blockbuster business, including Bruce Springsteen; Tim McGraw and Faith Hill; Red Hot Chili Peppers; Jimmy Buffett; Dave Matthews Band; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; and Paul Simon. Mariah Carey just announced her 31-city Adventures of Mimi: The Voice, the Hits, the Tour. Billboard's Ray Waddell says that while Carey has never been a huge draw, that could change on the heels of her triple-Grammy-winning album, "The Emancipation of Mimi."

Another act that promoters will be closely watching is the Dixie Chicks, who are hitting the road for the first time since lead singer Natalie Maines' criticism of President Bush three years ago sparked a backlash. Other country stars such as Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban and Brad Paisley are surefire winners.

There will be plenty to satisfy fans of hard rock (Ozzfest, Slayer's Unholy Alliance Tour) and jam bands (Matthews, Phil Lesh & Friends).

Urban-music fans, on the other hand, will have a hard time finding live music. R&B sensation Chris Brown will headline an amphitheater package. Not much else is scheduled so far. "There really aren't too many strong-enough headliners in hip-hop to carry a major tour," says Jeremiah "Ice" Younossi of A-List Talent Agency.

The industry hopes to rebound after two years of decline. The first quarter saw North American grosses of $375 million, a 28 percent jump from last year, according to Billboard. Those numbers were boosted by Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Coldplay and Aerosmith. But with high prices and heavy traffic, not every summer tour can win. "Ticket prices eliminate the casual concertgoer," says Waddell. "Somebody who wants to experiment isn't going to do it for $50."

Average ticket prices jumped from about $25 in 1995 to $57 in 2005, according to Pollstar.

Some tours offer a lot of bang for the buck. The Korn-led Family Values Tour gives concertgoers dozens of acts with lawn seats for $9.99. The Vans Warped Tour offers nearly 60 acts.

High gas prices are a concern, but they could wind up helping the concert business. "People will be taking fewer trips and staying closer to home," Waddell says. "They may rather spend $100 going to a concert than spend $300 going to the beach."

Source: http://greenbaypressgazette.com

The corporate juggernaut that is U2 takes over Chicago this week with four sold-out shows at the United Center in-between singer Bono's latest efforts to save the world.

These efforts would have been enhanced Saturday by a concert that relied less on U2's past and more on songs that haven't overstayed their welcome.

On opening night, Bono lamented that a decade ago he would place calls to the White House in the midst of the band's "Zoo TV" tour, but they went unanswered."They take my call now," he said, and the audience cheered. He went on to urge the audience to text-message his Unite Against Poverty organization which is designed to pressure politicians to follow through on the United Nations' goal of cutting world poverty in half by 2015. It was yet another example of the rock concert as political advertisement, following closely on the heels of last year's Bruce Springsteen-led Vote for Change tour that aimed to oust George Bush from the White House.

U2's gambit will no doubt engender a lot of eye-rolling from those who have grown tired of Bono's increasingly high celebrity-activist profile. But the singer's social activism also had musical relevance, as it provided the thematic backbone to U2's current tour. During a sequence of songs including "New Year's Day" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" that addressed how religion continues to become an excuse for violence, he donned a scarf adorned with religious symbols and declared, "Jesus, Jew, Mohammed is true."

The scarf became a blindfold on "Bullet the Blue Sky," which segued into the Civil War anthem "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." It was a bit of Bono-esque theater, part hokum but all heart.

For anyone who has felt anything for the band since it made its Chicago debut more than two decades ago at the Park West, the do-gooder self-righteousness is part of the package. It's driven as much by ambition and ego as it is social and artistic reasons, and sometimes it works spectacularly: "Zoo TV," unanswered White House phone calls and all, remains a landmark of multimedia arena rock.

My quibble is not with the motive so much as with the execution. Things got off to a rocky start a few months ago, with a bungled ticket sale that brought a public apology from drummer Larry Mullen Jr. at the Grammy Awards, and again from Bono during Saturday's encore.

The tour follows the release of the band's latest studio album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," but doesn't really make a case for it. Though the album is strictly U2-by-the-numbers, a retreat back to its early '80s sound, the stage is the true measure of the quartet's songs.

The band was in fine form: Bono brought a new sense of nuance and phrasing to his singing, the Edge delved into blues by way of Jimi Hendrix during his guitar solo on "Bullet," and Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton remained implacable guardians of the Big Beat. Little wonder the "Atomic Bomb" tracks came on strong at the United Center, with a tambourine-inflected "All Because of You," a luminous "City of Blinding Lights" bathed in confetti, and especially a hymnlike "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," with Bono paying tribute to his late father while pacing the walkway that ringed the elliptical stage. Here was U2 at its best, shrinking a stadium to a living-roomlike level of intimacy.

But at least half the show was consumed with a run through U2 warhorses that were already starting to sound exhausted on previous tours: "Pride (In the Name of Love)," "Where the Streets Have No Name," "One." Save for the belly dancer missing in action from "Mysterious Ways," this was tired nostalgia, apparently to sate customers who shelled out hundreds of dollars for tickets.

It appears U2 is falling into the same trap as the Rolling Stones: Charging big money for a stadium show obligates the band to turn into a hits jukebox. But especially in a city such as Chicago, where U2 has been embraced like few other bands, the quartet can afford to take more chances. The promise of U2 has always been big music tied in with conviction, imagination and innovation. Now the band sounds like it believes less in its ability to surprise and dazzle with its new music, and more in the necessity to recycle its past. If that trend continues, U2's avid concern for social justice won't be enough to keep it relevant.

COLDPLAY VS. U2

Members of Coldplay have made no secret of their ambitions to become U2, the self-proclaimed world's biggest band. " With both in town over the weekend, Tribune Music Critic Greg Kot compares the challenger with the champ.

CHARISMA

Singer Chris Martin is the quiet, shy type but it works for Gwyneth, so who are we to criticize?

Bono: Even a pope might be hard-pressed to rival Bono when it comes to world-wide fame.

CREATIVITY

Forthcoming album "X&Y" sounds like Coldplay's answer to U2's "Joshua Tree."

"How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" sounds like U2 trying to revisit past glories.

SALES POWER

Promoters say Coldplay is worth 35,000 to 50,000 tickets here -- a budding stadium act.

(U2) Will sell out United Center six times this year, the biggest post-Rolling Stones draw in rock.

FUTURE

Young, hungry and with the songs to back it up, Coldplay's coronation appears imminent.

Peerless on stage, U2 is in retro mode -- another "Achtung Baby!"-style reinvention is in order.

Source: http://chicagotribune.com

After re-locating to Liverpool a couple of years ago (and evolving from the band Waikiki), Howling Bells return to their homeland with a handful of east coast winter dates.

The band have developed their nocturnal pop sound with Coldplay producer Ken Nelson, and have had UK critics gushing.

Drowned In Sound claimed “The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have nothing on this grace”, whilst the Guardian declared that the band are “on the verge of unequivocal magnificence”.Whilst the homecoming will undoubtedly be a celebratory affair, Australian audiences are famously suspicious of UK hype, and the tour will likely see the band viewed with more of a critical gaze.

Howling Bells Tour Dates:

June 30 at the Rev, Brisbane

July 6 at the Annandale, Sydney

July 7 at the ANU, Canberra

July 8 at the East Brunswick Club, Melbourne

Source: http://undercover.com.au

Coldplay put tickets to shows in Vancouver and Toronto earlier this year up for online auction through Ticketmaster as an attempt to cut out scalpers, and the British superstars also donated a portion of the premium proceeds to charity.

Now a number of other big names have jumped on the ticket auction bandwagon in conjunction with Ticketmaster, but no charities will be benefiting through ticket sales for upcoming shows by Madonna, Roger Waters or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Any mark-up on the face value of their tickets that arise through bidding will be split between the artists and Ticketmaster."The folks who are putting all of the blood, sweat and tears into creating such great products and experiences are the ones who are compensated for their efforts," Ticketmaster president Sean Moriarty told CBC Radio, while emphasizing that auctions are a way of trying to reduce the millions of dollars that are earned through black market ticket sales that exploit fans who may have no other way of seeing their favourite acts after a hot show sells out within minutes.

"We felt that it was very important for us to build out an industry solution to an industry problem."

Ticketmaster auctions are open from seven to 10 days and allow fans to bid online for either two or four seats in blocks set aside for that purpose.

The top face-value ticket price for Madonna's June 21 and 22 shows at Montreal's Bell Centre was $350, but many auctioned ducats were going for almost double that. The highest bid for a single ticket was $3,200.

Source:

Longtime broker between the music industry and digital music firms will launch his own consultancy in July, with EMI and music info provider Muze lined up as clients.

The music industry's most high-profile digital emissary is flying the coup. Ted Cohen, who was one of the first music industry execs to support digital distribution and who has served as the industry's digital ambassador of sorts, has left his post at label giant EMI to start his own consultancy.

Cohen, 56, had served as senior vice president of digital distribution for the UK music company and was largely credited for pushing the label to embrace digital music services as new avenues for distribution, promotion, and marketing of the label's artists like Coldplay and Gorillaz.EMI was the first major label to allow listeners to download and keep songs from its catalog, as well as allow users to transfer music to portable players.

Cohen has also been a tireless spokesman for the industry's efforts to move towards digital distribution, even in the face of widespread skepticism from digital execs who watched the labels plod towards the digital age before the arrival of Apple's iTunes/iPod juggernaut. Cohen was a featured speaker at almost every major digital music industry conference and event.

Cohen said he missed the startup mature of the digital group he formed when he joined in EMI in 2000, having left a solo consulting gig with clients like Liquid Audio and the original Napster at that time. He equated EMI's embrace of his digital group of the feeling of a startup company being acquired.

But Cohen stressed that he is leaving on good terms, noting that EMI will be one his LA-based firm's first clients. The firm, which launches July 5, will be called TAG Strategic and is a partnership with Gary Price, a former AT&T exec and streaming media guru, and an as-yet-unnamed film industry exec who will represent the "A" in TAG.

"This time I wanted it to be a real company and wanted it to be broader than just music," Cohen said, saying the firm's focus will be helping companies find new business models and form alliances between technology and media companies.

He pointed to the emergence of high-capacity Blu-Ray and HD-DVD technology as a further sign of convergence between the movie and music industries.

"Within two years, the idea of a separate soundtrack for a film is going to go out the window," he said. "It will just go right on the DVD."

In addition to EMI, the firm's initial client roster will include music information provider Muze, guitar maker Gibson, content delivery experts SyncCast, MeSoft, and PureVideo.

"The business has matured, and deliverables are more critical now," Cohen said. "I'm a good schmoozer, I know that--but we're in a more results-driven era of the business now."

But for most of the next month, Cohen will be doing something he rarely does: be a homebody. The longtime technophile is a gadget junkie, and says those gadgets have taken over his home, something he hopes to remedy in the next few weeks.

"I realize that I haven't been home for more than two weeks in 25 years," he said. "Right now my home is a cross between one of those computer fairs and the backroom at Fry's [Electronics]. Do I really need all the boxes from 75 cell phones?"

Source: mp3.com

The Tube Music Network will make its Big Apple debut Thursday as a digital-multicast channel on WPIX-TV, the flagship of The WB, with a larger rollout expected by midsummer on cable systems throughout the New York metro area, officials said Wednesday.

WPIX -- known as WB11 and owned by Tribune Broadcasting -- will carry The Tube on channel 11.2.

MTV veteran Les Garland, The Tube’s CEO, called the launch on WPIX in New York a milestone for the three-year-old multicast network.“We’ve been amassing momentum since we launched in Los Angeles earlier this month, and we’ll continue to fuel it as we roll out the network in Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas and other markets this summer, eventually broadcasting The Tube Music Network in nine of the top-10-DMA markets on Tribune stations and 71 of the nation’s top 100 markets counting the stations owned by Tribune, Raycom Media [inc.] and Sinclair Broadcast Group [inc.],” Garland said in a prepared statement.

Initially, viewers will need digital tuners to pick up The Tube’s free over-the-air multicast signal in New York. But WPIX is in negotiations with cable operators in the metro area to secure carriage for The Tube, getting the digital network channel slots on local cable systems, a spokeswoman for the TV station said. The Tube expects to be on cable lineups in New York by midsummer.

Tribune’s KTLA is carrying The Tube in Los Angeles, while the broadcaster’s WGN station in Chicago will soon start multicasting it.

The Tube’s play list includes major- and independent-label videos, as well as exclusive performance clips. In a departure from the way music has traditionally been presented on television, classic performances from legendary artists are featured alongside just-released videos by current artists. Live and conceptual clips from Led Zeppelin, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, U2 and The Eagles are mixed with videos from today’s best-selling acts like James Blunt, Sheryl Crow and Coldplay.

Garland served as a cofounder and originator of both MTV and VH1. In the 1990s, he played an essential role in the domestic and international launch of interactive music channel The Box, acting as senior executive vice president.

Source: multichannel.com

Glastonbury, The Movie, will be available on release on 2-disc Region 2 DVD on July 17, 2006. The features:

- Shuffle track feature enables viewers to substitute in alternative performances/bands throughout the duration of the film

- 12 extra live performances including: Foo Fighters, Kaiser Chiefs, White Stripes, Beck, The Killers, Goldfrapp, Oasis, Paul McCartney, REM, Nick Cave and Radiohead

- 20 minutes of celebrity interviews from the likes of Coldplay, Noel Gallagher

John Peel, James Brown and The Dandy Warhols

- 35 minutes of deleted/extended scenes

- Michael Eavis

More on this here [thanks Jenjie]