Last year, Rock Band and Guitar Hero did more than a billion dollars in sales, thanks to millions of wannabe musicians who would rather play games than actually learn an instrument. With each game delivering hugely-anticipated sequels in the fall, the race is on to acquire exclusive rights to some of the biggest names in music history to tip the fan scales in their direction. Deals have already been struck to secure tracks from Jimi Hendrix, Guns n’ Roses and the Who, as well as the all-Aerosmith version of Guitar Hero, which is about as useless and outdated as a Dokken edition of Rock Band.
Jay-Z is teaming up with superproducer Timbaland for his next album. "We want to go to the world. Some of the songs are gonna sound like M.I.A.," said Timberland. "I’m gonna have songs with bagpipes too. The music is gonna be so worldwide, he’ll be able to tour the rest of his life, maybe, off just this one album."
The Federal Communications Commission finally gave a green light to the Sirius/XM Satellite Radio merger Friday, ending a 13-month review process. In typical FCC fashion, before the deal would be approved both companies were required to pay a total of $19.7 million to the government for violations of FCC rules, according to the Associated Press.
The main benefit of the merger for subscribers will be more programming choices and better value. As long as we're still getting our Stern, all is well in radioland.
Death bell rings even louder for EMI - following in the footsteps of Paul McCartney and Radiohead, The Rolling Stones have jumped ship on their longtime label EMI, signing a long-term deal with Universal. EMI lobbied hard to bring the band back after their contract expired, but the fact that the label is hemorrhaging and has done very little to update its 1920's business model made it a doomed effort. The Stones will release their UMG albums through the company’s Polydor label, marking the first time the entire Stones catalog shared the same label. The UMG deal also includes the digital rights to the Stones discography.
Responding to Nas’ accusations that Fox is racist in their news coverage, right-wing screaming lunatic Bill O’Reilly called Nas a hypocrite for “peddling the N-word to his audience of children and young adults.” The host also claimed the controversial rapper, who staged a protest outside the Fox television studios last week, was only protesting the channel for the sake of publicity because his new album Untitled is “a bomb, a disaster, a catastrophe” - and by "catastrophe" O'Reilly meant it debuted atop the Soundscan charts last week and it's the talk of the hip-hop world. O’Reilly went on to claim that any media outlets that covered Nas’ protest was “corrupt.” Conveniently, O’Reilly failed to address the issue of whether or not his channel’s new coverage is racially biased, as Nas claimed both in the protest and in his new song, "Sly Fox."
Two former members of the Smashing Pumpkins sued Virgin Records Friday, saying the label shut them out of profits after signing a deal with the band's frontman and chief songwriter, Billy Corgan. Both guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy Wretzky-Brown accused Virgin Records America Inc. of not paying them for music downloads and other digitally delivered Smashing Pumpkins music. The two were founding members of the Smashing Pumpkins, and claimed that when Virgin entered into a deal with Corgan and began licensing Smashing Pumpkins music through electronic transmissions.
For the first time in 30 years, a Western musician will play on Iranian soil. Singer Chris de Burgh will stage a concert in Tehran with an Iranian band in late November, an Iranian satellite news channel reported on its website. For a few glorious moments we confused de Burgh with Chris Burke, better known as Corky on the 90's retard drama "Life Goes On".
The concert will be the first time since the 1979 revolution that an Iranian pop band played alongside a Western singer inside the Islamic Republic. Western pop songs with lyrics are banned by Iran's authorities although state radio sometimes plays instrumental versions. Iranian pop bands say their lyrics and tunes are vetted before they can be officially sold in Iran.
Nine Inch Nails played a rehearsal show for their upcoming “Lights in the Sky” tour at the Pemberton Festival in British Columbia last weekend, tearing the roof off the joint with a solid lineup that includes returning guitarist Robin Finck. Before the show, Trent Reznor came out in a gray hooded sweatshirt and explained to the crowd that they were trying out various material, so some parts of the show might not ultimately make it on tour, and things might not go as planned. “Lots of things are going to happen that aren’t, let’s say, intentional,” Reznor told the crowd. “I’m going to go backstage and throw up, and then I’ll see you guys.”
The two-hour show was called astonishing, spanning the band's entire 20-year career and including instrumental pieces from Ghosts that Reznor had never planned to play live.
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