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 commodity music service like others in the space, nor do we want to be,” said David Pakman, CEO of eMusic and managing director of Dimensional Associates, the private equity arm of JDS Capital that owns eMusic, The Orchard and Dimensional Music Publishing. “We are the largest and most prominent independent music brand at a time when the independent music market is exploding -- our only challenge has been getting the word out and this campaign changes that. From our exhaustive library and in-depth content, to the fervor with which we pursue great music, eMusic champions of the soul of independent music and everything it represents."

The new campaign is set to pay homage to independent music through a montage of concert footage, music videos and still frames of bands and fans. Among the songs featured in the TV spots are Bloc Party’s “So Here We Are” and The New Pornographers’ “Bleeding Heart Show." The campaign also will include print ads targeted to avid music fans and non-traditional elements including interactive/online, transit posters, street team promotions and postings in several major markets.

Source: http://www.fmqb.com

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 single 'Postcard From a Dark Star' is single of the week in The Guardian and has been championed by Merz's biggest fan, Coldplay's Chris Martin.Rich in distinctive instrumentation (Wurlitzer piano, ukelele, mandolin, electronic accordian, harpsichord, choirs and Native American bass drum as well as drum machines, synths and numerous electric and acoustic guitars), Merz's work draws from experiences of intense emotions with a deft and tender touch. Displaying a breathtaking way with melody, Merz's music is warm, infused with rising hope, as even at bleak times there are moments of pure joy.

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

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 bosses have hired a lackey who's sole job is to steer her towards all the rock 'n' roll stars attending the biggest night in the musicbiz calendar.

"It goes without saying that Paris won't know who everyone is, but there'll be someone next to her with a clipboard pointing out big names," reveals our TV insider. "Our biggest fear is that she'll have a Sam Fox moment when she meets the likes of The Kaiser Chiefs or James Blunt and asks them, 'So what do you do?' But Paris covered the MTV Awards in LA where she did a fantastic job and we're hoping she'll work her magic over here. We've teamed her up with Holly Willoughby and Dave Berry for a pre-awards show on ITV2 which will go out before the main programme on ITV1. She'll be there to gossip with celebs, talk to them about what they're wearing and how much they're looking forward to the night. "It'll be a bit like the way Tara Palmer-Tomkinson does all the extra coverage for I'm A Celebrity."

But although ITV bosses are happy to let Paris run riot outside the bash - which will feature sets by Coldplay, Gorillaz and Kanye West - they are not so sure about having her on stage.

Our spy adds: "They can't make up their minds whether they want her to present a gong. Many artists can be quite precious and won't want their big moment overshadowed by Paris. At the moment she's off the bill, but that could change. One thing's for sure, even though she's trying to launch a pop career she won't be performing on the night."

Thank goodness for that.

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

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 early days."

Later, Sir Paul told guests how proud he was of LIPA, which he founded along with principal Mark Featherstone-Witty, but said it was unlikely to ever produce a band like the Beatles or Coldplay.Sir Paul was in Liverpool with his wife Heather for a joint event celebrating the 10th anniversary of his fame school, the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) and the official launch of the Capital of Culture themed year for 2006, Liverpool Performs.

The couple, joined by the superstar's younger brother, Mike, watched a gala performance by students from the institute before joining them and city dignitaries including council chief executive Sir David Henshaw for drinks.

Sir Paul arrived at the celebration in the back of a Ford Fiesta. Apart from the driver, he was accompanied by two bodyguards. Heather drove ahead in a silver Mercedes CDI.

He said: "We decided not to make that our aim. We have to give up on that, if it happens, great. If your going to be a member of Coldplay, or the Stones or U2 then that's a different ball game. When we started the school I was working with the Liverpool band The Christians on a charity record and they said to me that you couldn't teach what we did. I agree with that, a great band probably just comes about naturally. You look at how things are these days, you look at every programme on the television and it takes someone three weeks to train a person and they become stars.

"Liverpool to me is the city I was born in so obviously everything up to this point refers back to Liverpool. Whenever I come up here to LIPA I get a feeling of great pride. I am very proud of this school and what it did for me, it gave me a free education. Since we have been able to do LIPA we have managed to educate a lot of kids in performing arts who have then gone forward into the world. I get stopped on the street all around the world by people saying we have a LIPA student in our show and they are great. So for me Liverpool is a feeling of pride."

Among LIPA's graduates are MTV star Liam Lynch who had a Top Ten hit with United States of Whatever in 2002 and sound engineers Mike Crossey and James Lewis who worked with The Arctic Monkeys on their hit single I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.

Sir Paul told how he first heard Liverpool had won the bid while he was in London but although he was thrilled, his wife Heather was not.

He added: "I heard it on the radio when I was driving through London and I was well-chuffed, it was something we had been looking for and hoping for. It was a race and quite tight. My wife comes from Newcastle and they were up there a bit, it was a family barney really."

LIPA started out with just 200 students and now has more than 1,200 a year. Mr Featherstone-Witty said: "For Paul McCartney and myself this is a moment we could only but imagine ten years ago."

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

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 Galloway would be ashamed of me.

The list is full of tiny injustices: Blur ahead of the Beatles (with Modern Life Is Rubbish, not the best of them either); Coldplay ahead of anyone (!). Roxy Music and For Your Pleasure at a lowly No 69 when without them there would be no Pulp (Different Class, No7) or Franz Ferdinand (Franz Ferdinand, 18) or ABC (The Lexicon Of Love, 85). Worst of all, the Fall only scrape in at No91, and with This Nation's Saving Grace, which isn't even in their own Top Ten.The poll is still running, it's in the latest edition of the mag. No musical categories any more, just the stuff that matters now: Best Dressed, Sexiest Woman, etc. Still, mustn't grumble, I said to myself, at least the Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not hasn't miraculously found its way onto the shortlist for Best Album in the very week it's released.

Imagine my Galloway-style sulking, then, when I turned to the same issue's list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever: The Stone Roses is at the top of the heap, The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead the runner-up, but sitting at No 5 behind Oasis' Definitely Maybe and the Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks are those selfsame cheeky Monkeys.

Lists, shmists, you might say. They're there to provoke debate. And if you were being uncharitable to the last surviving rock weekly, you could argue that the NME is low-selling, less influential and therefore ever more desperate - "Yes, you've got the front cover, have my office, too" - in its slavering adoration of the Sheffield skiffle sensations.

But here's a chilling thought: what if the mag means it? What if the editor - how old is he, eight? - and his staff thought long and hard over the list, applying a foolproof formula and utterly ruthless logic?

Well, in that event, I really do feel like George Galloway. The Respect MP was booted out of Celebrity Big Brother following a clash with the younger members of the House, including Preston and Chantelle, and no matter his stated intentions of bringing politics to the first-time voters who don't utilise their democratic right (apart from in BB), he ultimately came across as overbearing, pompous and, above all, old.

In challenging the NME's 100, I can't help but show my age and snort: "Ride at No39 with Nowhere? Who remembers them now or the early 1990s scene they inhabited? (Was it Brogue-gazers?)."

But I'm not too "Get-with-it-daddy-oh!" to spot the omission of My Bloody Valentine from roughly the same era, and though I didn't much care for them, I acknowledge the importance of Loveless.

Then there's Pink Floyd. There would be no Radiohead (The Bends and Kid A, 11 and 65) and Muse (Absolution, 21) without them. Presumably, the NME's attitude to the Floyd was "Out, demons, out!" - and, no, the Edgar Broughton Band don't make the list either - but the mag would have been more provocative if it had included Dark Side Of The Moon.

By finding room for Elastica, Supergrass and Adam and the Ants but excluding The Kinks' Face To Face, David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and PiL's Metal Box, the NME has committed a gaffe of Chantelle proportions ("Is Dundee in Wales?"). But I guess that concerns them less than their official stance on Preston, singer with the Ordinary Boys, who wouldn't exist without the Specials and the Jam, far less The Who, all of whom are on the list.

How does Preston's BB performance affect his cool quotient? This is a question of some urgency, and never mind Arctic Monkeys, maybe the mag will be regretting not slipping an Ordinary Boys album into the 100, to appeal to the five chavettes out there who fancy the whinnying scooterboy.

You wouldn't catch me tarting myself around for extra readers, as that Cliff Richard confession demonstrates.

Source: http://feed.insnews.org

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 Coldplay, still matters. Yet this concert proved the opposite. Its best moments were his old hits with The Verve, songs such as "Bittersweet Symphony", which are now almost a decade old. It's sobering to reflect that the new champions of British rock, The Arctic Monkeys, weren't even teenagers back then; compared with their spiky, witty tales of teenage provincial life, Ashcroft's songwriting seems remote and pompous.At least he still possesses star power. A frontman in the Jim Morrison mould, he views music as an almost mystical form of communion. On record, this translates into sonorous clichés, pseudo-profundities and plodding melodies. Performed live, however, these songs were greatly improved by the passion and commitment the singer brought to them.

Taken alongside the truly stirring nature of The Verve songs he played, it meant the concert wasn't a failure. Yet it couldn't camouflage the hubristic gap between the grandeur of Ashcroft's world view and the pedestrian quality of his solo work.

Source: http://news.ft.com

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 Abbey Road studios in London, where his recording history reads like a Who's Who of pop. From helping on the Beatles' final album, he worked with names like the Rolling Stones, Mud, Kate Bush, Cliff Richard, Steve Harley, Sting, Phil Collins, Travis, Radiohead and Coldplay, right up to the chart-topping Arctic Monkeys. Queen even dragged him off a sick bed to cut their Bohemian Rhapsody due to his reputation.

Read the full article here

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 franchise bands. Rockers favor albums over singles (famously, Led Zeppelin never released Stairway to Heaven as a single), and albums reap bigger profits for their labels. While rock helped build the big labels' superstructure in the 1960s and 1970s, now chunks are falling off that facade.

Some newish rock bands have established themselves as franchises reminiscent of another era. (Coldplay leaves the cognoscenti, ah, cold, but its sales make Capitol Records happy, with X&Y.) Still, the big business plays for today's bands are complex revenue-sharing deals that monetize everything down to T-shirt sales, as Korn did in pacts with EMI Group PLC and concert promoter Live Nation Inc. (LYV ) Once it was much easier. And so somewhere the thinning bangs of a music exec hang limp as he quietly sobs at his desk, overwhelmed by a sudden nostalgia. Who'd have thunk he'd miss Grand Funk this much?

Read the full article here

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 Frenkel's music on his Web site myspace.com/ alexfrenkel, and liked what it heard. The firm then had Alex sign a contract, which allows it to send his album to record labels in the United States and Europe and to movie companies. The teen plays guitar and sings and has written songs that are recorded on his first album, "heartful of gray cells," produced in winter 2004. He also plays bass guitar, piano and drums, which all are heard on the album.

Alex describes his generally acoustic music like this: "John Mayer and Ben Kweller playing a game of tug of war with musician Mike Einziger from the band Incubus" with a pop-punk band refereed by Coldplay.

Read the full article here

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 show Thursday at Van Andel Arena. "It's a real fresh approach in the harmonies and the whole bit -- people love these guys."

In 2005, in addition to cheering up their fans, the Flatts had lots to be happy about themselves. The band kept its crowns for "Vocal Group of the Year" from ACM, ASCAP, CMA and CMT and was named Billboard's Artist of the Year and Breakthrough Touring Act when the "Here's To You Tour" bested pop-rock contenders Coldplay for fans serviced (750,000).

Read the full article here

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 in New York, on his soundtrack. Rock band Coldplay, the late English folk singer Nick Drake and former Men at Work singer Colin Hay also appear on the collection. But most of the 13 tracks are performed by artists with smaller followings: Thievery Corporation, Bonnie Somerville, Iron & Wine and Brothers.

"This was a case where the soundtrack came together really for a love of music," Brothers says. "The songs were not in there because some label said, `Oh this is our next release and were going to push this.' It was very organic. It was like a mix tape your best friend made for you. I think that's what people responded to, that mix-tape feel."

Read the full article here

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 executives are raising a glass of beer - it’s too early to crack open the Champagne - to celebrate a revival of the British music business. After three years of declining sales and a dearth of quality new acts, industry execs says recovery is a few hit albums away.

Read the full article here

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 have paid £105,000 to buy the carbon rights to 50,000 trees.

Coldplay are one of many rock bands that have bought up forestry rights around the world. Their cloud forest in Chiapas is intended to pay for the CO2 from their X&Y album and tour. They already have 10,000 mango trees in their name in India from a previous album and tour.It was the Rolling Stones who introduced the idea of replenishing a whole tour’s CO2 emissions with tree power when they staged their 40th anniversary 40 Licks tour.

Ronnie Wood, their guitarist, even has a wood of his own in Scotland and more trees, along with Dido, in Mozambique.

Mexico’s other tree people include Pink Floyd, Atomic Kitten and the singer Beth Orton as well as the film star Leonardo DiCaprio and Formula One motor racing.

Tipper, a director of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM), which monitors the rock star plantations, said: “When we started this, we would go to hill farmers and explain what we wanted to do and they would ask, ‘Are you mad?’ “But if Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow were to land here by helicopter tomorrow I could point out the trees that Coldplay have paid for. They are not marked as such but the contract with each farmer shows who has paid for them.”

The latest tree people in Britain include K T Tunstall, the singer songwriter who has bought the rights to 3,500 trees near Peebles in her native Scotland, and David Gray, who has 10,000 trees in his name in the Midlands.

Even the Sex Pistols have a Filth and Fury forest of 500 trees in Essex named after a documentary about the punk rock group.

However, there has been a falling out among the tree huggers. Conservationists say that the good intentions of the rock stars may be in vain because the CO2 is absorbed only for the life of the tree. When it dies, the gas is released back into the atmosphere.

Future Forests, the marketing company that persuaded the rock stars to jump on its bandwagon, has changed its name to The CarbonNeutral Company. It has also parted company with its founder Dan Morrell, a former music industry publicist, citing “energy differences”. The new company says it has largely forsaken trees in favour of schemes involving renewable sources of energy from sun, wind or water.

Most rock stars assumed they would be buying trees, but critics of the scheme say all they were doing was purchasing the carbon rights to trees that were being planted anyway. Mike Mason, director of Climate Care which last week launched a transportable machine to turn timber into cheap fuel pellets in Bulgaria, said: “When Mick Jagger’s trees die in 50 years’ time, they will release the CO2 they have been storing at a time when the situation is likely to be more critical.”

Graham Simmonds, chief executive of Trees for Cities which has projects to plant trees in Leeds and Bristol, said: “Pop stars think they are paying to get trees planted. Really what they are doing is paying for a marketing company to go out and buy carbon rights on trees that other people are planting.

“The firm seemed to be offering a magical solution but they are a private company and their purpose is to make money.”

Trees for Cities has used freedom of information laws to discover how much Future Forests was paying for the carbon rights to Forestry Commission land in England and to Highlands and Islands Enterprise plantations in Scotland. It says the firm paid between £300 and £350 per hectare but the true cost of planting and maintaining the trees was between £7,000 and £10,000.

ECCM said that at £10.50 a ton Coldplay had paid over the odds for their tree rights. Other schemes were priced as low as £3 a ton.

A spokesman for the Rolling Stones said the group had now moved on from such schemes: “I thought the music industry had got wise to this.”

Jim Peacock of the CarbonNeutral Company said: “Buying carbon rights helps our planting partners to add additional trees. We have helped to secure the planting of 2.5m saplings worldwide.”

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

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 to play the awards ceremony.

The UK rockers will be joined by Canadian rockers Nickelback and Vancouver crooner Michael Bublé as performers at the night’s show. Though huge here in Canada, both Nickelback and Bublé have huge audiences internationally as well.

While the musical acts are already being made known, nominations for the awards won’t be announced until February. Aside from the big awards show, live shows in venues across the city will showcase Canadian musicians, and the Juno Cup hockey game, featuring musicians and NHL greats, will be held to support MusiCan.

Source: http://www.soulshine.ca

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 tour, you'll probably also see the Jets on a blog near you.Track List For Flotsam and Jetsam:

01. You Cant Fool Me Dennis

02. Zootime

03. Lizzie's Lion

04. The Tale

05. Electric Fire

Tour Dates:

March 16 - Austin, TX - SXSW Showcase

March 17 - Austin, TX - Filter Party

March 20 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland

March 21 - San Francisco, CA - Café Du Nord

March 24 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge

March 25 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge

March 27 - Toronto, ONT - Mod Club Theatre

Source:

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 keep himself on his stool as he banged on his upright piano, and was all over the stage when he sang or played guitar. At one point, he jumped from the stage, ran to the back — slapping hands along the way — and got up into the stands, where he was embraced by a pack of female fans, and he kept singing the whole time.

Read all reviews for this show here

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 win it and how I only had about 50 with 3 weeks to go and how I am therefore destined to lose. He said that he was happy to help someone from his neighbourhood and he even wrote a message with some drawings on it that some lucky so and so will win in the charity auction, and Paul very kindly said that he would pass something else on for the auction.

Read the full article here

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 lacking substance.

Young adults are feeling the need for quality television. When you need your fix of music videos dialup and tune in to Relevant.TV. There you will be able to watch videos by: Coldplay, As I Lay Dying, Bright Eyes, Kayne West, Switchfoot, Yellowcard, The Beastie Boys, Underoath, Death Cab for Cutie, and tons of fresh brand new bands you have never heard.Relevant.TV is a place to discover new music and watch videos by bands you already like. You can view new commercial-free music videos 24 hours a day, which are updated daily and have live VJ spots. They play five new videos each week on Wednesday including a featured video each week and guest appearances by Copeland, Pigeon John and others.

Also, you can request your favorite videos to be played. The Viewers Top Ten for December were:

1. Coldplay “Fix You”

2. Maylene and the Sons of Disaster “Touch as John Jacobs”

3. L.A. Symphony “Timeless”

4. Switchfoot “Stars”

5. Anberlin “A Day Late”

6. Sigur Ros “Glosoli”

7. Forever Changed “Encounter”

8. Relient K “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been”

9. Common “Testify”

10. Last Tuesday “Have You Seen Me?”.

Tyler Clark singing hit songs on his keyboard is just another tasty treat Relevant.TV offers up for your viewing pleasure. He covers songs like: “No Scrubs” by TLC, “Jump” by Van Halen, and “Sorry Mrs. Jackson” by OutKast.

Another feature Relevant.TV offers are blogs where you can discuss music-related topics is another feature. They even have the ever-growing and popular phenomenon known as a Podcast. Their Podcast show can be downloaded on iTunes.

To checkout Relevant.TV for yourself visit www.relevantmagazine.com and simply click the red Relevant.TV link.

Source: http://www.easttennessean.com

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, EMI, dropped 16 per cent. If that's not Bono-big, what is?

Read the full article here

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 video.

"There was a feeling of great activity and business" at this year's MIDEM, Dominique Leguern, the event's director, said at a press conference Wednesday."We've seen so many things happen but there is still a lot of progress to be made yet," Leguern told AFP. What's happened in the music business around the globe has been a revolution not an evolution, Leguern said. "Everything has changed" in the past three years but the way forward is clear now, she emphasised.

The music world was cautious to start out and didn't want a repeat of the "dot.com" bubble, Leguern said. But it was starting to throw off caution as digital proves itself to be the only way to go, she added.

Mobile and digital were the buzzwords at this year's MIDEM music extravaganza as industry insiders were joined by the largest turnout ever of the movers and shakers from the digital world.

Leguern said the sense of urgency to move increasingly into the digital arena was demonstrated by the huge success of the two-day MidemNet high-tech conferences that took place on the eve of the five-day MIDEM, which opened Sunday.

The MidemNet event was a sell-out and the organisers even had to turn people away. The enormous demand to participate in the new technology conferences, which Reed MIDEM expanded from one to two days to reflect the new trends, was also due to high quality of the speakers, Leguern said.

With 200 top-flight speakers from 35 countries, including digital and mobile leaders Japan and Korea, and the huge-potential Chinese and Indian markets, people were clamouring to get in on the act.

Mobile phone giants Nokia and Sony Ericsson -- which launched its Walkman music phone in last year -- came to MIDEM to show their wares for the first time. They were also joined by some of the biggest names in the online music business, including Apple's iTunes and Sony.

Nokia used the MIDEM opportunity to push its latest all-singing, all-dancing N91 multimedia phone, which will hold up to 3,000 of a music lover's favourite tracks.

And after ring tones, music downloads and the brand-new radio addition, music video downloads could be the next hot addition on mobile phones, Midem director Leguern told AFP.

The latest generation of high-speed 3G mobile phones are starting to take off around the world and changing the way we get content on the mobile, Leguern said.

"Who knows where it will lead?" she added. "Perhaps we will be able to download and watch live concerts next," was her prediction.

Leguern said that a total of 9,766 participants had signed up for the event as of January 24 -- six percent up from the same time last year -- and the final number could be close to 10,000, the organisers said.

More companies around the globe came to the event. In all, 4,635 attended from 93 countries attended -- also a six-percent rise from last year.

There was a particularly big turn out from the United States, which notched up 1,004 participants, whilst 260 flew in from Asia and scores more from other regions. — AFP 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 video.

"There was a feeling of great activity and business" at this year's MIDEM, Dominique Leguern, the event's director, said at a press conference Wednesday.

"We've seen so many things happen but there is still a lot of progress to be made yet," Leguern told AFP. What's happened in the music business around the globe has been a revolution not an evolution, Leguern said. "Everything has changed" in the past three years but the way forward is clear now, she emphasised.

The music world was cautious to start out and didn't want a repeat of the "dot.com" bubble, Leguern said. But it was starting to throw off caution as digital proves itself to be the only way to go, she added.

Mobile and digital were the buzzwords at this year's MIDEM music extravaganza as industry insiders were joined by the largest turnout ever of the movers and shakers from the digital world.

Leguern said the sense of urgency to move increasingly into the digital arena was demonstrated by the huge success of the two-day MidemNet high-tech conferences that took place on the eve of the five-day MIDEM, which opened Sunday.

The MidemNet event was a sell-out and the organisers even had to turn people away. The enormous demand to participate in the new technology conferences, which Reed MIDEM expanded from one to two days to reflect the new trends, was also due to high quality of the speakers, Leguern said.

With 200 top-flight speakers from 35 countries, including digital and mobile leaders Japan and Korea, and the huge-potential Chinese and Indian markets, people were clamouring to get in on the act.

Mobile phone giants Nokia and Sony Ericsson -- which launched its Walkman music phone in last year -- came to MIDEM to show their wares for the first time. They were also joined by some of the biggest names in the online music business, including Apple's iTunes and Sony.

Nokia used the MIDEM opportunity to push its latest all-singing, all-dancing N91 multimedia phone, which will hold up to 3,000 of a music lover's favourite tracks.

And after ring tones, music downloads and the brand-new radio addition, music video downloads could be the next hot addition on mobile phones, Midem director Leguern told AFP.

The latest generation of high-speed 3G mobile phones are starting to take off around the world and changing the way we get content on the mobile, Leguern said.

"Who knows where it will lead?" she added. "Perhaps we will be able to download and watch live concerts next," was her prediction.

Leguern said that a total of 9,766 participants had signed up for the event as of January 24 -- six percent up from the same time last year -- and the final number could be close to 10,000, the organisers said.

More companies around the globe came to the event. In all, 4,635 attended from 93 countries attended -- also a six-percent rise from last year.

There was a particularly big turn out from the United States, which notched up 1,004 participants, whilst 260 flew in from Asia and scores more from other regions.

Source: http://www.todayonline.com

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 'Computer Love' are thrown in for added spice, amid a crescendo of drums and guitar.

Clearly, Coldplay knows what sells and keeps listeners happy, though the day is coming when the quartet will need to venture into more experimental waters.

Read other single reviews here

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 than most bands get in a lifetime, singer and his group recently returned to the States to preview songs from their new album 'X&Y' at the Coachella Valley Music Fest in April of 2005. Some lucky local fans got a chance to hear the fresh material up close when the group played a sold-out show at the Fillmore, but most followers will have to be satisfied with seeing the popular band at larger venues like the Arena in Oakland.The group is joined on this tour by talented alt-rock songwriter Fiona Apple. Since emerging in the '90s, Apple has earned a rabid following with her jazzy exploration of dark and tortured pop, despite only issuing three albums over a nearly decade-long career. She exploded onto the music scene with the ambitious sounds of her debut effort 'Tidal' which featured MTV hits "Criminal" and "Sleep to Dream."

Apple's sophomore album featured a 90-word poem as its title, but 'When the Pawn...' (as the opus is commonly referred to) showed startling maturity and ambition to match its ponderous name. The follow-up release 'Extraordinary Machine' was the center of much speculation and controversy after it was leaked onto the Internet amid rumors that Apple's label Epic had rejected it. Fans went so far as to start online petitions demanding the album's release, but when the final revamped version finally came out in October of 2005 (helmed by hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo instead of original collaborator Jon Brion), word circulated that Apple herself had scrapped the original 'Extraordinary Machine' recordings. The mystique surrounding the album certainly didn't hurt sales as it soared to #7 on the Billboard charts when released, Apple's highest showing yet.

Date(s): 2006 Jan: 31

Location: East Bay

Venue: The Arena In Oakland

Time Info: 8 p.m.

Price Info: $40.50-$76

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 that, we weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the rehearsal so I couldn’t even take pics! But I did get all their autographs and a couple of pics with Will and the group. Will was very nice and SO CUTE in person! We actually had a conversation! Wow wow wow…I also got to talk to Jonny and my god, he’s so cute in person also! I had to chase Chris(not literally) and Guy to get their autographs but I GOT THEM! For their rehearsal, they played:

Politik

The Hardest Part

Acoustic Set:

Walk The Line

Trouble

Finally, Talk…which was a fucking rocking performance of it. Even though Chris forgot some of the words.I completely forgot to bring something for them to sign but this really nice guy there saw how sad I was that I didn’t have anything for Coldplay to sign and I wasn’t allowed to take pics, HE GAVE ME HIS X&Y CD JACKET!!!! I gave him a HUGE hug…Coldplay fans are the best…really…

Even though I didn’t get to take pics…the station’s pro photographer did so there WILL be some pics coming our way. I just have to wait for them to email them to me! So we didn’t totally come away empty handed, right?

Gwyneth and Apple were also there…and Apple was rocking it and shaking her bum, especially to The Hardest Part. Gwyneth was dancing with her! Chris personally came up to us and asked us not to take pics of her. He was very sweet and came to talk to us before the rehearsal started. And his hair is WILD!

And Gwyn…so pregnant and SO tiny…but very beautiful!

It was a really nice time it just sucked to not be able to take pics. And I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to them at all really…

That’s all I can remember at the moment…still in shock…but I met them…touched Will…almost asked him for a hug but I thought that would be a bit forward and the scary security guy was staring me down. But Will and I had a nice conversation…and he’s so nice….

I was trying really hard not to jump on Will…you have no idea…and I had my eyes on him the majority of the time…might’ve freaked him out…

I didn’t get to say ANYTHING I really wanted to say…sucks….grrr….but Will signed my cd jacket first…and we spoke and…I’m starting to hyperventilate again!

I don’t quite remember what I spoke to him about! OH! I mentioned coldplaying…his best fans are on there and I was probably the second biggest Will fan on the site. He asked me who was and what my SN was…I just laughed and said he didn’t want to know our names… laugh4.gif It’d scare him…

And we talked about…er…how much he liked Seattle!

That’s it…I think…

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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'Level student. Aside from that, it promises to be a memorable gig.

Bryan Adams may not be as big as Madonna or Coldplay but he is a respectable name in the business. I am fond of him because he is a crooner from my days at school and while not all high school students today are big fans, they are still pestering their parents to go. It is not every day that international rock stars come to Karachi.

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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 showing recommendations that are vastly more useful than textual links," said Whit Andrews, a research vice president at Gartner Inc., a market research company in Stamford, Conn.

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