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eMusic, the digital music download service that sells more than 4.5 million tracks monthly, has unveiled a multi-million dollar advertising and branding campaign that will appear on channels like Comedy Central, The History Channel, Spike, FX and Fuse, among others.   The integrated campaign will brand eMusic as the “soul of independent music” as well as the haven for groundbreaking artists like Ray Charles, Tom Waits, Coldplay, Johnny Cash, the Pixies, Jerry Garcia and others."We are not a comm

The next live music event in The Junction's intimate seated venue, The Shed, is the acclaimed singer-songwriter-instrumentalist Merz, on Friday 3rd February. The gifted and passionate performer ploughs a rich seam of delicate instrumentation that touches on English folk, electronica and the fringes of dance.   His new album 'Loveheart' features an astonishing range of delicate instrumentation and is the work of an inimitable and extraordinary songwriter with a rare musical talent. His new singl

She didn't know that London was in the UK and thinks everyone in Europe speaks French. So God knows how Paris Hilton will fare when she's a roving reporter at this year's Brits.   The dippy blonde heir-head is to present ITV2's The Red Carpet, in which she will chat to stars as they go into London's Earl's Court Arena for the Brit Awards on February 15.   For her services, 24-year-old Paris (below) will pocket £100,000. But there's just one snag - she won't know who anyone is.Undeterred, ITV bos

Sir Paul McCartney last night admitted he had not decided if he would be performing in the city during the 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations.   The former Beatle, who was tipped to open the Kings Dock arena, said he had been approached by the Culture Company. But he confirmed no deal had so far been struck. He said: "I haven't got any plans yet. I have just finished a tour in America and I normally lay low for a while afterwards. I have not got any plans. We will see, it is obviously very ea

CONFESSION time: I voted for 'Congratulations' when Cliff Richard sought the nation's help in choosing his entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. But I've never voted in the NME Awards.   Many times I filled out the form... Best Guitarist ("Uh, Jimmy Page? No, Ritchie Blackmore's got better hair"), Best Bassist ("..."), Best Keyboardist ("Blimey, does Clifford T Ward count?")... but it never got sent, probably because in the grand scheme of things I didn't think my vote would matter. George Gal

In contrast to his taste for wild self-aggrandisement (he compared himself to Jesus in a recent interview), Richard Ashcroft's solo career has been under-whelming. The former Verve frontman looks the same as he did in the group's late-Britpop heyday - angular, intense, charismatic - but his songs have congealed into sludgy anthems and clumsy philosophising.   His new album Keys to the World is being sold as a return to form, confirmation that Ashcroft, following his appearance at Live8 with Cold

They called him 'Vinyl' Blair and he cut records for some of the biggest names in the music world across four decades.   But the man who worked with bands from the Beatles to Coldplay is helping another high-flying act after his death. For £3500 collected from mourners, including stars, is helping the East Anglian Air Ambulance as its fund-raising soars to £3m a year with the doubling of its helicopter fleet.   Chris Blair spent more than 36 years as a respected sound engineer at EMI's famous Ab

To quote the sages of AC/DC, rock 'n' roll ain't noise pollution. And now it ain't that good a business, either.   In 2006 the mainstream rock act that reliably sells platinum, or 1 million copies, is an endangered species. Subtract those established in eras just past, such as U2 and Green Day, and the population shrinks further. This is a relief to savvy listeners -- thousands of independent-label flowers now bloom -- but it's hell on major record labels, which still need massive sales from fra

At the age of 11, Alex Frenkel's first gig was at a Texas youth camp, and about two years ago, he began playing and singing locally.   Then last week, 16-year-old Alex got a phone call from A&R Select, a company in Hollywood, Calif., that discovers new music artists and connects them with the music industry. The company offered Alex an opportunity to possibly be heard by thousands and maybe by millions. "It was really amazing," said Alex, a Danbury High School junior.   The company found Fre

Rascal Flatts certainly does not sing cryin'-in-your-beer country.   The country rock trio, known for its uplifting love songs and honey harmonizing, is described by fans on All Music Guide entirely by adjectives that pertain to the happiness incited by listening to it: Carefree, theatrical, amiable, fun, exuberant and playful.   "These guys are certainly not your grandparents' country," said Doug Montgomery, program director for WBCT-FM (93.7), the radio station sponsoring their tour-opening

Garden State compilation attracts an audience far beyond the movie   Back when actor Zach Braff of the medical sitcom Scrubs was shopping around a movie project, he sent out a screenplay that he'd written and, with it, a mix CD of songs he wanted to use in certain scenes. The story, as told in show-business circles, is that several studio executives tossed the script and kept the CD.   As if tipping his hat, Braff wound up using a typically wistful Simon & Garfunkel song, The Only Living Boy

They’re easy to spot. They’re the ones with the slightly too clean trainers and the “Account All Areas” VIP necktags. This summer you may well see them at T in the Park, V Music and the Isle of Wight festivals, watching Coldplay, Oasis and Gorillaz perform in front of hundreds of thousands of fans, not to mention million-strong TV audiences. But there will be something new about them this year. They’ll look like they’re having fun, instead of just putting on a brave face.   Yes, music industry e

Wearing cowboy boots and riding in a jeep, Richard Tipper, 42, an environmental scientist from Edinburgh, braved Zapatista bandits and tropical rainstorms last week to check how Coldplay’s latest releases are doing in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.   Trees, not CDs. The rock band, led by the singer Chris Martin [pictured], are the latest pop stars to “carbon neutralise” their music by paying for enough saplings to absorb the carbon dioxide produced by their latest album and tour. They ha

The Junos aren’t just for Canadians anymore.   UK rockers Coldplay, dubbed one of the biggest rock bands in the world by many, will be performing at this year’s Juno awards, Canadian music’s 35th annual celebration of itself.   Coldplay is in the midst of the second leg of its North American tour promoting its newest album, X&Y, which was released in June 2005. Between the March 30th show in Chicago and the April 4th show in New Hampshire, the band will be stopping in Halifax on April 2nd

England's Mystery Jets, the latest on the NME's cute band alert list, has just secured a North American release on StartTime International for their US debut EP Flotsam And Jetsam (679/StarTime), as well as a few select tour dates to introduce the band to America. Flotsam And Jetam will be out on April 11.   The band is currently on an NME Awards tour, opening for We Are Scientists, Artic Monkeys, and Maximo Park. Considering that Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, and Kaiser Chiefs once opened for same

If ever a show was a perfect fit for KeyArena, it was Coldplay's huge extravaganza there Wednesday night.   Opening a world tour, the British band went all out with busy lights, a massive curved video screen with impressive visuals, and an enormous, semicircular stage that matched the curves of the Key's interior.   Lead singer Chris Martin, rock's master of mellow, used everything in his bag of tricks to excite and involve the adoring crowd, which filled every seat in the house. He could barely

Of note is a blog covering one man's quest to meet 500 celebrities. It's a simple goal, with all the quirkiness of a Dave Gorman project and has to date proved rather successful. Greeting the 500's Julian has already had Coldplay's Chris Martin pop round for a brew, and caught up with Jonathan Ross and Neil Kinnock to name a few.   Chris was an absolute star. I congratulated him on the recent announcement made by him and Gwynneth and we chatted about the bet and how I needed 100 handshakes to wi

The M in MTV has gone missing. Where did all the music go? It has relocated to Relevant.TV. Relevant.TV is a web site that is hosted by Relevant Magazine. They play a constant stream of music videos.   Music videos. You know those things they used to play on MTV back in the day when the video killed the radio star.   These days, reality TV stars are being made on MTV and the video star is a dying breed. Today television, specifically reality TV, is at an all-time high on the trash-o-meter and is

There is no denying Coldplay's hugeness.   The band's footprint on pop culture already rivals that of U2's and, while Chris Martin hasn't yet shown the leggy pop-songwriting-prowess of super-frontman Bono, his band is arguably beating down the path to dethroning the Irish rockers as The Biggest Band In The World.   So just how big is Coldplay? Consider 2005, when the release of their hugely-anticipated third album, X&Y, was pushed back two months. In response, shares in their record label,

Chart toppers Coldplay summed up the music industry's struggle to cross into the 21st century in the lyrics of their hit song "The Scientist": "Nobody said it was easy".   But the music and digital worlds are starting to sing the same tune, industry watchers said at the influential MIDEM music trade fair that closes doors here Thursday. Huge numbers of new ways of enjoying music are opening up on a plethora of devices and the hottest new mobile music genre to look out for could be the music vide

Coldplay has mastered a winning formula that has made the Brit band one of the most heralded rock acts of the day, with quality hit after hit.   The third single from 2005's 'X&Y' maintains the trend, as 'Talk' is already making noise at modern rock and triple-A. Now it is primed for top 40 success. With introspective lyrics, beautiful melodic orchestration and the band's signature sprinkle of melancholy, 'Talk' is everything Coldplay fans have come to love. Borrowed bits from Kraftwerk's '

British pop group Coldplay started mesmerizing U.K. music critics since before their Mercury Prize nominated debut 'Parachutes,' but the band exploded worldwide when the ambitious and bittersweet anthems written by principle tunesmith Chris Martin on the follow up 'A Rush of Blood to the Head' crossed over to MTV and alt-rock radio dominance in 2002.   Though Martin has gotten more unwelcome press about his relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow and the birth of their first child over the last year t

Messageboard regular I.Am.Will.Obsessed was lucky enough to win 107.7 The End’s competition to see Coldplay when they visited the station and played some songs. EndSessions is their exclusive series of live performances by national touring acts, recorded in front of an intimate audience of contest winners, which began in 1997. Below is her report.   It wasn’t everything I expected it to be. We got to talk to the band in groups of 8 and there was this guy rushing us through it all. On top of all

KARACHI: Almost every young person in Karachi laments one thing: we don't host proper music concerts. Madonna will never come here to gyrate her hips at the National Stadium, Coldplay will not sign copies of their biography at Liberty Books and System of a Down would rather go Down Under than make a pit stop at the PACC.   This is precisely why the Bryan Adams concert on Jan 29 is such a big deal. "The only thing that sucks is that Shehzad Roy is going to open the show," said an ungrateful A'Le

Liveplasma.com, an online site for music and, more recently, movies, graphically 'maps' shoppers' potential interests. A search for music by Coldplay, for example, brings up a graphical representation of what previous customers of Coldplay music have purchased, presented in clusters of circles of various sizes.   The bigger the circle, the greater the popularity of that band. The circles are clustered into orbits representing groups of customers with similar preferences.   "This is a way of show