Arctic Monkeys may have been flush with the British success of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not — which became the fastest-selling debut album in U.K. history after moving more than 360,000 copies in a single week back in

January — but while the album notched the Arctics a very respectable U.S. opening at #24, the band couldn't match the success of two tween-targeting pop collections: the soundtrack to the Disney Channel original movie "High School Musical" and the ninth installment in the successful "Kidz Bop" series.

According to the latest SoundScan figures, "High School Musical" sold close to 101,000 copies to reach Billboard albums chart's coveted apex, the culmination of a steady rise through the top 200 since its release seven weeks ago. The soundtrack debuted at #143 back in mid-January, selling about 6,500 copies. The following week, the album climbed to #58 with 16,000 in sales. Next came the #10 spot, followed by two back-to-back weeks spent at #13. On last week's chart, "High School Musical" came in at #6 with more than 97,000 units scanned. To date, the album has sold nearly 404,000 copies.

Following at #2 this week is Kidz Bop 9, the newest collection of covers supplied by the Kidz Bop Kids. The album, which sold 98,000 copies during its opening week in stores, features children's renditions of Weezer's "Beverly Hills," Gwen Stefani's "Cool," Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends," Nickelback's "Photograph," Gorillaz's "Feel Good Inc.," Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" and Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together."Falling one spot to #3 this week is Sing-a-Longs & Lullabies for the Film "Curious George" from Jack Johnson & Friends. The disc moved more than 89,000 units during its third week in stores. Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough hangs tough at #4, with sales topping 76,000, followed by James Blunt's Back to Bedlam, which climbs three spots to #5 with over 70,000 scans. Barry Manilow's The Greatest Songs of the Fifties falls three spots to #6, selling more than 66,000 units while Andrea Bocelli's Amore slips two chart positions to #7, with just over 65,000 sales.

Eminem's Curtain Call: The Hits retrospective finishes at #8 this week with 64,000 copies sold; the disc rises two spots this week, and also passes the 2-million-sold mark. Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts tumbles two spots to #9, with more than 61,000 units scanned, bagged, and carried out of record stores. Last week's #1, Jaheim's Ghetto Classics, suffered the common second-week sales slump, selling 59,000 copies — a 61 percent dip — to finish at #10. And for the first time since its release 10 weeks ago, Jamie Foxx's Unpredictable slips from the Top 10, coming in at #12 with sales of 46,000 and change.

The Kidz Bop Kids and the Arctic Monkeys earned the week's two biggest debuts, (the latter landed at #24 with first-week sales of nearly 34,000), leading a number of noteworthy releases that managed to penetrate Billboard's top 200. Coming in at #26 is the soundtrack to the film "Madea's Family Reunion," which features contributions from Brian McKnight, LL Cool J, Chaka Khan and Al Green, among others. Dance queen Cascada's Everytime We Touch bows at #67 with sales of more than 17,000, and Scarface Presents the Product: One Hunid from Scarface's Underground Railroad Movement opens at #78 with 15,000 scans.

The third installment in the Fired Up series, featuring cuts from Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, claims the #84 spot with more than 14,000 discs sold. F.T.F.O., the latest from Insane Clown Posse member Shaggy 2 Dope, debuts at #88 with nearly 14,000 scans. The Dilated Peoples' 20/20 claims the #97 slot with 12,000 copies sold, and rockers Evans Blue check in at #106 with sales of 11,000 for their debut, The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume. Kinks frontman Ray Davies' Other People's Lives comes in at #121 with 9,000 copies sold, and the Derek Trucks Band's Songlines opens at #163 with 7,000-plus scans.

Sugababes are about to head out on a UK tour, which will see the girls performing a single Scottish date at Glasgow's Clyde Auditorium on March 20, before guesting on Take That's reunion tour.

It's bound to be an exciting year, but Keisha admits she was gutted that her group failed to win a single Brit award - despite selling more than 700,000 copies of their recent album Taller In More Ways.

"The girls will turn around and say they didn't mind but I was disappointed," she confessed. "I wanted to be nominated for Best Pop and not winning Best Single was disappointing. But Coldplay are a great band and deserved their Best Single win [speed Of Sound - pictured]. We have had such a great year and this would have been a bonus. I wanted to walk away with that award, with that little gold man."

The Sugababes return with the release of a new song, Red Dress, on March 6.

Source: dailyrecord.co.uk

Though rumors of their breakup were greatly exaggerated, Coldplay are in fact already writing new songs for their fourth album. Speaking to the NME, the band revealed they have been working on new material during soundchecks on their current world tour.

Drummer Will Champion [pictured] said that the band is considering building their own studio for future recording. "We'll have a month here and a month there - we'll think about writing and where we want to go to next," Champion said. "We're trying to find somewhere where we can set up and work. In all these years we haven't got an HQ, our own studio or anything like that. We want somewhere where we can sort of hole up and see what happens."

Read the full article here

If the members of Coldplay really were sick of themselves, they certainly got better fast.

While rumors circulated that the band would break up after Chris Martin told the crowd at last week's BRIT Awards that "it's going to be a few years before you see us again," Coldplay has apparently decided to hang around for a bit.

The band told NME.com that they have an entire album's worth of new material and are making plans to enter the studio to begin recording.

Read the full article here

As more and more consumers have become aware of digital rights management, they’ve taken to spitting out the technology’s acronym, rather than merely speaking it. “Oh, it’s that darn DRM again!” a consumer will screech, flecks of saliva spewing from his mouth. “Stupid DRM won’t let me do this!” It’s a level of venom usually reserved for overzealous traffic cops, or really annoying telemarketers.

DRM has been around a long time in the form of copy protection for software and games, so why such animosity now? The answer lies in the audience. Copy protection has expanded to content your average consumer cares about: movies and music. But DRM doesn’t have to be a swear word. By implementing some clever design choics, content owners can actually turn DRM into an asset, one that gives consumers greater access to digital media.

Music labels and movie studios currently view DRM as the silver bullet to prevent illegal copying of their products on peer-to-peer file sharing networks. As such, DRM in its current forms is so highly restrictive that it prevents even fair use. Fair use includes right to so-called first sale—that is, the ability to resell content you have purchased. Since DRM schemes are most often tied to the device on which they are used, there is no way to resell that Coldplay album you purchased on the iTunes music store unless you sell your computer along with it (save for giving the buyer access to your iTunes account). It’s problematic at best. In the latest blow to fair use, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) recently decided that ripping your CDs for backup, or even to digitize music for your iPod, infringes on copyright laws.Content owners fail to realize that trying to fight P2P file sharing is like trying to fight the rising tide: utterly pointless. They are desperately trying to hang on to outdated business models when the overwhelming popularity of P2P file sharing and the success of MySpace point to new business opportunities.

Consumers want the abundance of content and convenience that P2P networks offer. They are interested in discovering new, smaller artists that appeal to niche markets. Instead of hindering consumers’ needs, DRM could help content owners cater to them. This is already happening with subscription services like Yahoo! Music or Napster, which use DRM to lease consumers all the music they want for a monthly fee. The Apple iTunes Music Store offers the twin conveniences of an easy purchase process and of FairPlay, the least restrictive DRM scheme on the market. But there is room for improvement. The subscription services require a shift in how consumers think about their music libraries. And FairPlay, with its limits (you can only burn a playlist to CD up to 7 times, you can’t use your music on any portable player other than the iPod, etc.), still feels arbitrary and intransigent.

Consumers are accustomed to being able to take the CD they bought and play it in their car, in their home stereo, at work, or at a friend’s house. And that’s what they expect from digital content, too. Why not give them what they want? Promote new TV shows by giving away the pilot unprotected. Make different DRM schemes play nice with each other: if consumers could play the episodes of Lost they purchased on iTunes on their PSP, they would buy more TV shows. Give consumers streaming access to all the music in a catalog without the monthly fee; they will discover more artists and purchase more songs.

Perhaps most importantly of all—and here’s where the design aspect starts to come in—content owners need to rethink the the interactions between DRM technology and users. When you run out of allotted minutes on your cellphone, Verizon doesn’t just cut you off in the middle of a conversation with a message stating, “You have exceeded your minute-usage limit, please wait until next month.” So why are DRM systems being designed to do exactly that, to treat users like either infants or borderline criminals? If DRM let consumers exceed limits when they needed to, the technology would feel more flexible, more like it’s on the Average Joe’s side. And, as a result, there’d be a lot less rage directed against it.

The bottom line is that consumers will consume more if DRM is done the right way, and everyone will come out a winner. So, how can content owners design better DRM schemes? And who’s leading the way? Stay tuned for the next frog Design Mind to find out.

Source: http://www.gizmodo.com

Gwyneth Paltrow is taking her critically acclaimed stage performance to the big screen in Proof, just released nationwide. She talks about her excitement at her second pregnancy - and tells Eileen Condon why she and Chris Martin are not as dull as people think

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is blossoming, not least because of her little girl Apple, the two-year old who has completely transformed her life.

The reason the willowy star has never looked better is that she's pregnant with her second child. What's more, the normally reticent Gwyneth simply can't wait to tell you that motherhood is her favourite role of all. "I feel my main responsibility is being a parent now," says the Oscar-winning star. "Having Apple changed everything for me. It's completely changed the way I see the world. I cannot believe the way my life has turned around. I have a great husband, a beautiful daughter and another baby on the way. I feel very, very fortunate."

In fact the actress, who is married to Chris Martin, lead singer of Brit band Coldplay, says she's never been happier."I am truly happy," she says flicking back a lock of her glossy blond hair. "I feel very lucky that I've been blessed with the members of my family that I have. It's just a great feeling that you have cracked the mystery of life and that it's about love and the love of a child."

But Gwyneth's present joy is a far cry from life just a few years ago.

Though she seemed to have the world at her feet after winning an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love and starring in a succession of box office hits such as The Talented Mr Ripley, Emma and Sliding Doors, the 33-year-old admits she was desperately unhappy.

"I worked the whole of my 20s, incessantly, and by the time I got to 29, the shine had really worn off.

"I was really kind of disenchanted with the whole acting process. I think that I had done too many things. And I had been talked into doing some things that I didn't want to do and talked out of doing things that I wanted to do.

"I made some mistakes and worked with some directors that I just didn't feel totally inspired by, and it was like, 'Why am I doing this?'

"I got to a place where I just thought, 'Oh I've just had it with this,' and that's when I took a little time off."

Ironically, it was during that downtime that the actress agreed to do a small role in the West End play Proof. It turned out to be the catalyst she needed to fall back in love with her work.

"The challenge of appearing nightly before a sophisticated London audience was the jolt I needed," she recalls. "I did the play and then thought, 'Oh, wait a minute, I remember why I do this. I remember I'm in love with the process and I'm in love with being able to create something and be an actor'."

And that's why, four years on, the talented actress jumped at the chance to recreate her stage role in the big screen version of Proof.

"It was something I definitely wanted to do because I enjoyed doing the play tremendously. It was such a special experience for me, and I was so attached to the material and had such an amazing experience that I was determined to try to make it work as a film," she says.

In the film, Gwyneth stars alongside Jake Gyllenhaal as young mathematical genius, Catherine, who is terrified she may have inherited the mental illness suffered by her late father, (Anthony Hopkins).

The role was especially poignant for the actress, as her own beloved father, Bruce, died just before filming began.

"When I did the play my father was still alive but he had been very ill with cancer and we thought he was in remission.

"In the play, Catherine has the fear of, 'is her father's schizophrenia going to come back' and with me it was the fear of 'is my father's cancer going to come back?'

"So it was a kind of parallel and then when I went to do the movie, he had died and so I was in the reality of the grief of it. But it was kind of comforting in a way because you feel like you are with someone who is going through the same things that you are and it's kind of cathartic."

But though Gwyneth says Proof, both the play and the movie, have renewed her zest for acting, she'll never be a workaholic again.

"Now I have a child I'm much choosier because I think it's really got to be the right thing. To leave your baby for that many hours every day, it's too heartbreaking," she explains.

"These days I don't make money from acting because I only do the things I want to do. Besides, I never made Julia Roberts' kind of money."

The star says she's content with a simple and more relaxed lifestyle which she has discovered since settling in London after her marriage in 2004.

"In America there is an in incessant drive to be number one and in London it's just different," she says. "None of my friends here are in showbusiness and nobody really cares what I do, it's such a nice, civilised place to spend time in."

And as for the constant accusations that she and Chris are the most boring couple in showbusiness?

"We're not looking for other things in life. We like our house, we like our kid, we like our friends," she says. "I've achieved everything I want to and at this point in life I feel as if I have a real life. It's like I won the lottery."

Source: Various

Riaan Wolmarans reviews former Verve vocalist, Richard Ashcroft's latest offering Keys to the World

Tall and gangly, with shaggy hair topping his scrawny frame, erstwhile Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft sounds more solid, gritty and weary of life than one might expect. He’s been quiet for some time, probably licking his wounds after the failure of his second solo album, Human Conditions (though he did appear on stage with Coldplay at last year’s Live 8 concert in London to perform The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony, where Chris Martin introduced him as “the best singer in the world”).

Now Ashcroft returns with Keys to the World (EMI), which is simply not a happy album. His unassuming performance is more morose than that of the Gallagher brothers, but also more sincere than David Gray, which is no mean feat. Opening track Why Not Nothing? is glib British rock and one hopes for more of the same but, from track two, the lackadaisical Music is Power, the mood darkens with each song.The slowest tracks -- such as the soul-baring Words Just Get in the Way; Cry Til the Morning, on which Ashcroft appears simply distraught; and the countryish Sweet Brother Malcolm (who is under house arrest and the talk of the town, not to mention sweet cousin Mary) -- lay it on too thick. Here and there Ashcroft even sounds (unintentionally, one must hope) a little bit like Jon Bon Jovi on weepy hits of the past like Bed of Roses.

Nevertheless, the songs are well constructed, although Ashcroft could do with less anguish and more verve. The beautiful string melody on Why Do Lovers?, the likeable World Keeps Turning, the sensitive textures of the single Break the Night with Colour ... all these elements and more make Keys to the World a reasonably appealing album. It’s ultimately not that much different in tone from Human Conditions, but it is certainly more captivating and should fare better.

Source: chico.mweb.co.za

We all know that Kaiser Chiefs picked up three awards at the Brits and U2 won five Grammys.

The Baftas have only just been handed out and it's the Oscars next. Tonight, the Shockwaves NME Awards will be broadcast live from Hammersmith Palais in London on E4.

Once again Kaiser Chiefs lead nominations with a record six nods, Franz Ferdinand and Oasis both have five and newcomers Arctic Monkeys have four.

But is it getting confusing? Are there too many award ceremonies around today? Vote in our new poll here.There are definitely too many award ceremonies, especially in the month of February. As it happens, I love watching award ceremonies on television and can't get enough of them. And it is obvious that there is clearly an audience out there for them too, otherwise broadcasters wouldn't televise them. But I think the important point to remember is that there is a solid commercial reason behind the glitter of award ceremonies.

If your product, be it a film, book or biscuit gets a gong, then the resulting publicity means more profile, which results in increased sales. It's as simple as that. Awards ceremonies are a PR tool which has become a highly sophisticated one - witness the adverts which the Hollywood studios take out in the trade publications to trumpet their latest offerings, saying "look at our film, make sure you vote for it".

Studios spend millions of dollars each year on this. Why? Because it works. We've all seen the posters heralding "winner of X Globes/Oscars/Grammys/Baftas" and "award-wining act/artist/film always looks good on a press release, after all. A movie star's fees can double overnight once they're perceived to be an Oscar winner. The public takes notice too and consequently go see the movie, buy the book - if it's got a gong, it's got to be good!

The classical record industry, which I've been involved with for many years, is somewhat more subtle about the process of nominating artists for awards. But the cache of winning is no less under-estimated. CDs are stickered with references to the given award, adverts taken out in review magazines alerting readers to the fact that their recording won. The pop world is not nearly as subtle probably because there is so much more money at stake. And, of course, artists love getting awards. Perhaps for them it's a fluffy, "they love me" kind of thing.

Although most artists, in my experience, have an awareness of their commercial worth, or at least the commercial worth of winning awards. So let's not be taken in by the weepy speeches, the schmaltz, the tackiness and all the backslapping that goes on at these events. It's all about money in the end.

But hey, we all like dressing up and getting a bit of recognition now and then, don't we?

Oh, how we all wish we could be there!

Winter can feel like a musical wasteland on terrestrial television when cop dramas and soaps rule the prime time viewing slots. Great movies tend to be scheduled in the day when most people are working, or very early in the morning when it's too late to bother staying up. In the summer we have live coverage of Glastonbury and Reading and the occasional concert from Hyde Park. Later with Jools Holland offers us one of the few chances of livening up our dark nights at home in our living rooms with a blast of rock, rhythm and blues. That's why it's great that the Brits and other award ceremonies including the Baftas are televised. They give us the chance to see our favourite bands and actors given credit for their performances and we can share a tiny bit of their moment of glory.

No two performances are ever the same and fans could hear Coldplay, U2, Razorlight and Franz Ferdinand on stage at several award shows and never tire of them. Award ceremonies can give us the chance to see how the idols from our childhood are getting on now, too - most recently Deborah Harry, Madonna and Paul Weller - and how they are managing to stay cool and survive in the youth-led music industry. We have already seen Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs steal the show at the Brits. They are also leading the way with a record breaking six nominations in tonight's ShockWaves NME Awards at London's Hammersmith Palais. If the event is as good as the Brits were at Earls Court, then I will be happy to see Kaiser Chiefs take the long walk to the stage amid all the cheers and adulation all over again.

Oasis made a welcome comeback in 2005 with their fine Don't Believe The Truth album while last year's five-time nominees Franz Ferdinand impressed with their much-antici-pated second album You Could Have It So Much Better. Razorlight who played with Oasis at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium before Christmas are scheduled to appear tonight too. Sheffield newcomers Arctic Monkeys and the Editors, The Magic Numbers and Maximo Park will all be in the awards frame.

This year's Godlike Genius Award goes to the "Madchester" sound's Ian Brown, the singing prophet from The Stone Roses. With rock music surging back and new talent emerging all the time, awards ceremonies are a great way to bring on the new talent and to celebrate our old favourites - over and over again!

Source: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk

The star of real-time TV drama 24 no longer has the time to unearth new music. Can Paul Mardles help him out and do his leg work?

Sutherland is, by his own admission, still hooked on the music that he soaked up as a child. He loves the Beatles, particularly the White Album, and Elton John's three finest Seventies albums (Madman Across the Water, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Captain Fantastic). Dylan, too, will always have a place in his affections, not least because 'Lay Lady Lay' is indelibly linked with the days when his dad, Donald, would drop him off at school.

What about bands like Franz Ferdinand and the Futureheads who are obviously indebted to their sound? 'I'm not as aware of them as I should be,' he says. 'In all fairness, I don't know those bands. Unfortunately, I work 14 hours a day on set and music, in the middle of that, is almost like comfort food. Something that I know, that I'm safe with.'

Still, Sutherland has heard some great new music recently. 'The Rocco DeLuca album is very good,' he says. 'And I like the Coldplay album a lot. Does that make me sound dated?'

More on this here

There is a highly addictive drug out on the market that leaves no prisoners. It leeches on to men, women, and children. Once sucked in one needs it from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. It is in every home and every office and it could get to you too. That drug is MySpace.com.

MySpace has swept the nation and could take over the world. Started in January, 2004 in Los Angeles by Tom Anderson, the man with over 56 million friends. The Web site that opened as a forum to promote bands has now spread like a disease, becoming the third most visited site on the web. Now, it is the most convenient way to get in touch with old and new friends. It is also an excellent tool for networking. Just make sure you do not post any pictures that could ruin your chances of employment.

MySpace has recently become a good marketing tool for bands, movies, and television shows. The site allows video clips and music to be placed on individual sites. So bands such as the Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay, and Sigur Ros have tested out new albums on MySpace before their official release to get fan reaction.Employers have gotten smart and use our beloved networks to spy on employees. The Facebook, a similar social networking site, is the seventh most highly trafficked Web site, right after the college student lifeline— Google.

But MySpace has a bit more pizzazz than Facebook. MySpace allows you to be friends with anyone and everyone. Facebook limits its friendspan to college campuses. Let’s face it, not everyone we know is in college. There are a lot more things you can do with MySpace than with Facebook. Facebook also only has one layout, so everyone sports the same uniform. MySpace targets individuality.

Unfortunately, MySpace is a haven for stalkers and sexual predators to target promiscuous teens. So to protect yourself, use discretion when writing about yourself. But just as dangerous is Facebook’s option to provide your phone number and dorm room residence. If you fill that out, you are just asking for a stalker.

Both Web sites can lead to a necessary restraining order or two, if not used carefully.

Facebook is only limited to college students and those with official university based e-mail addresses, so bands can not make an account. Also, you can not place any media on your site.

Though both sites offer similar service, MySpace provides more entertainment for our dwindling attention spans. So whether you are looking to make some connections, scout a potential mate, or find old friends while making new ones, MySpace is the way to go.

Source: torchonline.com

Liam Gallagher joined brother Noel Gallagher of Oasis at a press conference in Seoul on Tuesday. Andy Bell, sick with a cold, was absent from the photo session but performed at the concert.

When asked of his take on newer groups from the U.K. like Coldplay, Noel flat out denied feeling threatened in any way.

"Oasis is not Coldplay as is Coldplay not Oasis. The music we make are completely different," said Gallagher but didn’t hesitate to add that Coldplay is one of the most successful bands to come out of the U.K.

"Chris (of Coldplay) is actually a good friend," he said.

Source: radiosonic.it

First is the bass player in a sweater vest. For those of you who haven't received your latest issue of Cargo, argyle is the new black.

Then there is the drummer in his prep school uniform. The irony should scream at you, that is if Angus Young hadn't popularized the boarding school look 30 years ago. The guitarist is in midflight rock ecstasy, but the trampoline is nowhere to be seen. And finally the girl at the mike is looking bored, probably contemplating how fame became so pedestrian.

Such is Morningwood's debut album cover, a manufactured collection of rock and style archetypes that matches the music therein. It's an awful album cover, but it's not the worst. No, you could spend mere minutes scrounging around your local record store and come out with a dozen more offensive. And you needn't look in the used or obscure section.

Here is a collection of some of the worst album covers of the last 10 years. All are from fairly big-name artists whose record companies have loads of money to spend on photo shoots or artwork. It is by no means complete. The only criterion is that all of these can be published in a family newspaper.

Coldplay, "X&Y" (2005) -- Chris Martin overheard at the "X&Y" release party: "A Commodore 64?!? No way a 64 could do this. We had to pull out a 128 to get these blips and bloops."Bjork, "Drawing Restraint 9 (2005) -- A clown with long, filthy hair dressed in a surgeon's garb carrying a gigantic cable wire. There you have it. We report, you decide.

Billy Joel, "My Lives" (2005) -- Unfortunately all the Rorschach ink blots that look like Billy were unavailable at press time, so production came up with this handsome charcoal drawing!

Bon Jovi, "Have a Nice Day" (2005) -- Both lack any value, either nutritional or artistic. Both are syrupy. And both frequently say nonsensical things like: "Oh Yeeeeaaaah!" Bon Jovi and the Kool Aid Man, perfect together.

Madonna, "American Life" (2003) -- Note to la chica material: Che Guevara jumped the shark around 1994.

The Mars Volta, "De-Loused in the Comatorium" (2003) -- There is nothing that can be written to explain this.

Moby, "18" (2002) -- "Greetings! My name is Moby. I was banished to your planet because I was an annoying twit back on Earth."

Michael Jackson, "Invincible" (2001) -- Close enough to realize he asked his surgeons for that hot "elvish look." Muted enough to hide the scars.

Sinead O'Connor, "Sean-Nos Nua" (2000) -- 4 p.m.: afternoon tea.

4:45 p.m.: Our heroine bemoans the lack of rest stops on Ireland's highways.

Bjork, "Homogenic" (1997) -- aka "Memoirs of a Narcissist."

Ramones, "Adios Amigos!" (1996) -- Some might say choosing two pink dinosaurs in sombreros to mark your swan song is as punk as it gets. Others would say it's stupid. Others win.

Source: bergen.com

MegaStar says: ‘The grass is always greener, Chris.’

When Chris Martin gave everyone a scare at last week’s Brit Awards by saying we wouldn’t see Coldplay for a ‘long time’, what he really meant is that he wants to team-up with other artists.

Sorry about that, Will and er, the other Coldplay lads.

According to reports, mop-haired Martin is rumoured to be moonlighting with rapper Kanye West, and has guested on a track for Nelly Furtado’s third album Loose.Canadian crooner Nelly, who had a one-hit wonder with I’m Like A Bird and was hailed by Elton John to be the next big thang, promptly disappeared off our music radar.

But clearly she’s ‘still got it’ because top producer Timbaland is involved in the album project, and it was him who Martin really wanted to work with, so don’t get too big-headed, Nell.

“I was telling (Martin) what I was up to, and he’s like ‘I love Timbaland. Can I come by?’ But (Timbaland’s) like a big dude and Chris was scared to sit down at the keyboard. I’m like, ‘Chris, sit down. Let’s make some music.’ I’m always the instigator,” she droned to Rolling Stone.

Meanwhile, in other music news, we hear that Scottish music festival T In The Park has sold out. So that’s nice.

As previously reported, the line-up on July 8-9 includes, The Who, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, The Ordinary Boys, Sigur Ros, Felix Da Housecat and Slam.

Source: megastar.co.uk

How EMI and the music industry learned to stop worrying and love the digital download

When Seagram bought Polygram in 1998 for $10.6 billion, the French-born ceo Alain Levy found himself out of a job. Not for bad performance: Levy had turned PolyGram into the world's largest music company by a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions at a time when CD sales were booming. After the company was sold, Levy, then aged 51, spent several years consulting and pondering the state of a changing industry, and quickly concluded that old models for growth were gone. CD sales peaked in 2000, damaging companies bedeviled by piracy and the online trading of free music. Levy realized that the industry had to figure out how to make money from digital music. If he could run another company, he told colleagues, he'd do things differently.

That opportunity came in the autumn of 2001, when Eric Nicoli, chairman of EMI Group — the iconic British company whose superstars have ranged from the Beatles to Coldplay — offered him the top job at EMI Music. EMI was then a listing ship that had jettisoned more than 40% of its market value in one year, and had just issued an entirely unexpected warning, admitting that profits would slide 20%. One of Levy's first hires was a McKinsey & Co. consultant, John Rose, in January 2002, whose remit was to figure out how to make digital pay. "He knew digital wasn't going to go away," Rose recalls. "That was a large part of his hiring me." But Levy's decision to embrace digital bucked industry notions. "The prevailing feeling was, 'This isn't going to work because people are going to steal and not buy.'"

Read the full article here

It seems to have taken a lifetime for this album to come out. After all, legend has it that it was hearing this record playing in Parlophone HQ that inspired Chris Martin to rewrite Coldplay's X&Y album, and that's been out for ages!

Worth the wait? Well, it's more instantly grabbing and a lot less namby pamby than the Coldplay record, but at the same time there are obvious signs of this being the debut record of a band still to truly find their forte. It seems for a lot of the time that Matthew Greener's vocals are carrying weak songs, and that loud guitar is trying to hide poorly thought out - maybe even unfinished - tracks.

There seems to be a beautiful idea in every song, but most seem like they've not been used to their full potential. In some ways it seems like Morning Runner are trying to maintain credibility by making their songs just a little too scrappy for your mum and dad to pinch your copy of the album to listen to in the car on the way to a James Blunt concert. It's as though they're afraid of being too likeable.

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As Coldplay veered into "Yellow" territory at its sold-out Pepsi Center show Sunday night, celebrating the song that started it all for the English quartet, the band seemed revitalized and strong and, most unexpectedly, understatedly simple.

Previously, the band has played this single awash in obnoxious yellow floodlights, but here they simply rocked it with a straightforward curl of the lip. No gimmicky yellow, no over- the-top trickery, no redundant eye-poking ... until the giant, canary-colored balloons dropped from the arena rafters.

Of course Coldplay, one of the most influential (and safe) rock bands today, has to play into the song's titular glum- rock color. First used as a marketing brand by the then-yellow-themed ABC network, it is an anthem for the band. And the 16,000-plus fans ate up the balloon drop - and everything else the band dished out.

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Few pop stars - saints Bob and Bono aside - have the power to shake the corporate world, but British group Coldplay have achieved the feat not once but twice within 12 months.

Last March, when EMI announced the band were delaying the release of their new album, the company’s shares fell steeply. And when the news broke on Thursday that singer Chris Martin had announced the band’s break-up, anxious selling forced several points off the company’s share price within minutes of the markets opening. For a great many others, though, the news - later contradicted - that Britain’s biggest pop group were to split was music to their ears. Few bands in recent times can have represented such a paradox: selling eight million copies of their most recent album, X & Y, while simultaneously being regarded as - in the words of one New York Times rock writer - “the most insufferable band of the past decade”.

Martin was picking up the Brit award for the best album of 2005 when he said: “People are fed up with us - and so are we. You won’t see us at one of these for many, many years.”

Shares in EMI fell 3 per cent, wiping 8p off the share price, before recovering once an EMI spokesman insisted the band was merely planning to take two years out from the public eye.

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Coldplay took the opportunity of the Brit Awards to announce that they were going to split up. Well, not exactly, nothing so reliably final. They're going to go into hiding. "People are fed up with us," said the front man whose colourless name I've already forgotten, "and so are we."

Now, celebrities of all types, and this celebrity in particular, are notoriously chary of using the media to take the public's temperature. We media mislead and often lie - we do it on purpose, because we're bitter, because we always wanted to be pop stars. Broadly speaking, they're right - I, for one, would have loved to be a pop star, and I lie all the time, not only for money.

But pending an internet poll, or some new technology altogether, the public can't have its temperature taken any other way. There is no metaphorical thermometer you can shove up its metaphorical, sorry, down its metaphorical throat.

If there were, Chris Martin (I can remember it really - I was lying before) would know that the public divides into five central bodies. One fifth of it has never heard of Coldplay. My mum is in that fifth, though she has heard of the Arctic Monkeys. One fifth genuinely are jealous, and could never have liked you, even if you wrought the radical changes to the landscape of pop.

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Brit Awards this year slumped to their worst-ever TV ratings.

Just 4.5million viewers tuned into ITV1's coverage of the annual music bash - less than half the audience from 10 years ago. Then, 11.1million watched as Take That and Oasis picked up gongs - even though Jarvis Cocker's infamous protest against Michael Jackson was cut from the show. A music industry insider said: "This is a hammer blow. Everyone is scratching their heads and asking what went wrong."

Ricky Wilson's Kaiser Chiefs won three awards with James Blunt and Coldplay collecting two each. Ratings began promisingly at 8pm with 5.3million but dipped to a poor 4.5million. They dramatically dropped to 2.9million in the last 15 minutes a t 10.15 pm when Paul Weller collected his lifetime achievement award.

An ITV spokeswoman said: "In the multi-channel environment of today's market, we are delighted the Brit Awards got a third of the 16-to-34 audience."

The Brit Awards was beaten by all of BBC1's output. Its 8pm rival Seaside Rescue attracted 5.9million, although BBC1's audience dipped to 5.4million for Super Vets at 8.30pm. Hotel Babylon at 9pm got five million and the Ten O'Clock News had four million. A BBC insider said: "It just shows you what happens if you don't put variety in your schedule. Viewers simply turn over if they don't like a beached whale of a show."

The lowest TV audience for the Brit Awards was previously six million in 2004.

Source: dailyrecord.co.uk

Will there be another U2, Led Zeppelin, or Beatles? Some observers point to Coldplay - the sensitive British band fronted by Gwyneth Paltrow's hubby, currently on tour across the US - as a band with the potential to attain Pink Floydian proportions.

But to do so, Coldplay and other would-be heirs to the throne will have to build a base audience, grow in clubs, thrive in theaters, then move on to arenas and stadiums. They will have to capture a young audience that stays with them as both band and audience age. And they'll have to stay relevant so that new generations of listeners become fans along with their older siblings - and parents.

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Singer James Blunt and rock band Kaiser Chiefs are hours away from hearing if they have triumphed at the Brit Awards.

Blunt - who shot to fame in 2005 with his chart-topper You're Beautiful - and Kaiser Chiefs are shortlisted for a total of five awards each. The Brit Award winners will be revealed at a ceremony at Earls Court in London, presented by DJ Chris Evans.

Coldplay, Kanye West, KT Tunstall and Hawaiian surfer-turned-singer Jack Johnson will perform during the show. Coldplay have been shortlisted in four categories, including the best group, album and single.

Pop veteran Madonna has picked up three nominations, along with Canadian band Arcade Fire.

Cartoon band Gorillaz, who will also be performing, have been shortlisted in the best British album and group categories.

Singer-songwriter Kate Bush will do battle with Charlotte Church, Katie Melua, KT Tunstall and Natasha Bedingfield in the best British female category.

And Robbie Williams could walk away with an unprecedented 16th Brit Award after being nominated for best British male.

Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys are nominated in the British breakthrough act category but are unable to attend the ceremony as they are on tour in Portsmouth.

Blunt, the Sugababes, crooner Tony Christie and X Factor winner Shayne Ward will go head-to-head in the best British single category, chosen by UK commercial radio listeners.

US singer Prince has flown into London for the show but has reportedly not decided whether to perform.

Figures released by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) ahead of the Brits showed artists like Blunt, Kaiser Chiefs and Coldplay had helped boost sales of albums by UK-based acts.

British artists sold a record 62.4m albums in 2005 - half of all albums bought in the UK last year.

But the popularity of US artists declined from 41.7% of the album market in 2004 to 37.7% in 2005.

BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said: "We are privileged to be living through an exciting time for UK music.

"It all means the Brit Awards show is shaping up to be one of the best yet."

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

In January, Broadway smash Wicked was the top overall performer with 6.5% of all tickets sold and 30.9% of theater tickets sold. Billy Joel was the top concert attraction with 10.4% of the musical performance tickets and 2.7% of the overall tickets.

Following are the category leaders for January:

Top January Events Overall

1 Wicked

2 THQ Supercross

3 Billy Joel

4 Monty Python Spamalot

5 Denver Broncos

6 Houston Rodeo

7 New York Yankees

8 Boston Red Sox

9 The Odd Couple

10 Coldplay

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com

Last year was the best for British music since 1998, according to figures released today.

Half of all the albums bought in the UK in 2005 were by homegrown acts - a total of 57 million records and the highest share for seven years. The most successful British acts last year were James Blunt, Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and Robbie Williams.

In 1998 the UK album charts were dominated by Robbie, George Michael and The Verve, alongside Irish acts The Corrs and Boyzone. The figures were released by the British Phonographic Industry ahead of tomorrow night’s Brit Awards. Chairman Peter Jamieson said: “We are privileged to be living through an exciting time for UK music. From Kaiser Chiefs to KT Tunstall, from Gorillaz to James Blunt, British music is succeeding across the board and UK music fans are responding in their droves.”

Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk

Austin, Texas – 23 May 2005 – Coldplay’s video for its newest single, “Speed of Sound” debuted today—backed up by Versa™ TUBE units from Element Labs. In an unprecedented application, nearly the entire video shoot was done with LED lights from a total of 700 Versa TUBEs.

Filmed on a massive sound stage, the video features a delicate, half crescent back wall composed of 640 Versa TUBEs placed on approximately 6” centers. Since the TUBEs were used without diffusion sleeves and the surrounding structure is quite minimal, the lights appear to be suspended in midair.

Production designer Mike Keeling of Project X and director Mark Romanek put together this singular look. “The idea here is having the band on this raw stage and everything is done in silhouette with lighting and key lighting,” Keeling explains. “Once we embarked on it, Mark and I just decided to do the entire video in LED lighting. That was the criterion. I got chills just thinking about it.”

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The Brit Awards 2006 look set to recognise the emergence of a new wave of artists at the annual ceremony on Wednesday.

Stars like James Blunt, KT Tunstall and Kaiser Chiefs could grab the headlines from more established acts like Oasis and Robbie Williams, while the chart-topping Arctic Monkeys, champions of internet marketing, are in the breakthrough category.

The stars of tomorrow helped ensure some success in 2005 for the British music industry, with seven of the country's top 10 albums made by local artists. "There is such depth of talent across the board," said Gennaro Castaldo of music and books retailer HMV. "Coldplay was the catalyst for that. They created this sense of a new British wave of music and others followed in their slipstream."

He compared Britain to the United States, where veteran Irish rockers U2 swept the board with five Grammys at the recent awards. "America is like an ocean liner that takes a little bit longer to turn around," Castaldo said."The Grammys focussed on the big names of the industry like U2, Kanye West and Mariah Carey. They are happy to celebrate the music establishment whereas in this country we look to celebrate new talent."

In Britain, album sales fell 2.7 per cent last year, but the success of homegrown artists like Blunt, a singer songwriter who once served with the British army in Kosovo, ensured the drop was not as sharp as the 7.2 per cent fall in the United States. "We certainly have had a good year for debut acts with a lot of talent coming through," said Matt Phillips, spokesman for the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade group. British companies are keeping up their investment in new music. Today's success is the upshot of yesterday's investment."

But the industry – Britain is the world's third-largest market after the United States and Japan – is not out of the woods yet. "The global market since the turn of the century has declined by about a quarter largely because of internet piracy. It has been tough but I think we are turning the corner," Phillips said.

The Brits shortlist was dominated by Blunt and the Kaiser Chiefs, with both boasting five nominations apiece. Next in line with four nominations come stadium stars Coldplay. An outstanding achievement award goes to Paul Weller, the Modfather, celebrating three decades with The Jam, The Style Council and as a solo performer.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz