News

Warner Music Group has agreed to buy Madonna out of Maverick Records, the label she co-founded 12 years ago, to end the legal battle that pitted the music conglomerate against their biggest star.

Madonna’s Maverick Records debuted with a flourish and included the multiplatinum debut of Alanis Morissette ‘s Jagged Little Pill in 1995. More recently, the company has scored hits with Michelle Branch .

Madonna and partners Guy Oseary and Ronnie Dashev together have owned 60 percent of the company; Warner Music owned 40 percent.

In March, Maverick filed suit against Warner Music and its former parent, Time Warner Inc., claiming breach of contract and alleging that they had misstated Maverick’s profits and mismanaged the company, costing Madonna and her partners millions of dollars. (An investment group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. purchased Warner Music Group last year.)

Warner Music filed a lawsuit of its own against Maverick, claiming the company had lost tens of millions of dollars.

Source launch.com.

Bjork is eyeing a late August release date for her next Elektra album, Medulla. The set is tipped to feature contributions from experimental electronic duo Matmos and Japanese beatboxer Dokaka. A handful of cryptic audio samples from the album can be heard on Bjork’s official Web site.

Medulla will be the follow-up to 2001’s “Vespertine,” which debuted at No. 19 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 368,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Source Billboard.com.

A pair of Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble appearances at Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival previously released on CD will have their visual component issued this summer on DVD. Fans will be able to see footage of Vaughan playing the annual event for the first time in 1982, a legendary performance that led to the late blues guitar legend’s mainstream breakthrough, and his triumphant return to headline at the festival three years later.

The two-disc DVD Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985, due Aug. 10 from Epic/Legacy, boasts additional songs not included on the 2001 single-disc audio release of the same title. The DVD will also boast a new documentary about the festival performances, with on-camera interviews with Jackson Browne, John Mayer and Double Trouble’ Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton.

Disc one-July 17, 1982:

“Hide Away”
“Rude Mood”
“Pride and Joy”
“Texas Flood”
“Love Struck Baby”
“Dirty Pool”
“Give Me Back My Wig”
“Collins’ Shuffle”

Disc two-July 15, 1985:

“Scuttle Buttin'”
“Say What!”
“Ain’t Gone N’ Give Up On Love”
“Pride and Joy”
“Mary Had a Little Lamb”
“Cold Shot” (w/ Johnny Copeland)
“Tin Pan Alley” (aka “Roughest Place In Town”; w/Johnny Copeland)
“Little Sister” (w/Johnny Copeland)
“Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”
“Texas Flood”
“Life Without You”
“Gone Home”
“Couldn’t Stand the Weather”

Source Billboard.com.

Drummer Jeremiah Green has rejoined indie superstars Modest Mouse and will tour with the band in Europe and the U.S. this summer.

The drummer had played with the band since its inception before abruptly leaving last spring in the midst of troubled recording sessions. Benjamin Weikel of Helio Sequence filled in for Green during his absence, performing live and on the band’s newest album, Good News For People Who Love Bad News.

Modest Mouse will appear at the KROQ Weenie Roast June 12 before heading to Europe for several weeks of shows. They’ll spend much of July and August on the Lollapalooza main stage, squeezing in a July 30 Milwaukee show on one of their off-days. Two September shows are on the books, both in Texas, during the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

In addition to its new studio album, the band recently “unofficially” issued Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again, a live bootleg recording available only through modestmouse.com.

Source pollstar.com.

Ray Charles died today (June 10) at his Beverly Hills, Calif., home from complications relating to liver disease. He was 73. The R&B legend was surrounded by family and friends at the time of his death, according to a spokesperson for the artist.

Charles, who made his last public appearance April 30, when his recording studio was designated a historic landmark by the city of Los Angeles, had been sidelined from performing by a hip ailment since August 2003.

At the time, Charles canceled all of his scheduled 2003 tour dates to undergo aggressive treatment for acute hip discomfort. It marked the first tour cancellation in the artist’s 53 years of live performance. “It breaks my heart to withdraw from these shows,” Charles said at the time. “All my life, I’ve been touring and performing. It’s what I do.”

Twice it was thought he was on the mend and would return to the road. When shows scheduled in March were canceled in late February, Charles’ representative at the William Morris Agency told Billboard.com he was expected to kick off a big band tour this month.

Source Billboard.com.

Organizers have confirmed the initial list of artists who will perform during the 2004 Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival. Set for Sept. 17-19 in the Texas capital’s Zilker Park, the event will showcase more than 130 acts representing many genres on eight stages.

The third annual event will feature sets by Sheryl Crow, Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, Dashboard Confessional, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Modest Mouse, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Solomon Burke, Franz Ferdinand, the Beta Band and reunited modern rock act the Pixies.

Among the newly announced acts is hip-hop collective the Roots and modern rock acts Wilco, Cake, Gomez, Broken Social Scene, My Morning Jacket, the Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Calexico, the Killers, Cat Power, Sloan and Spoon. Along with scene godfather Anastasio, such artists as Medeski Martin & Wood, the North Mississippi Allstars and Particle will represent the jam band contingent, while reggae acts the Wailers and Toots & the Maytals are also on board.

Singer/songwriters will also have a substantial presence, with the likes of Pat Green, Mindy Smith, Josh Rouse, Patty Griffin, Ben Kweller, Howie Day, Neko Case, Joe Ely, Jack Ingram, Donavon Frankenreiter, Shelby Lynne, Kelly Willis, Bruce Robison and Butch Hancock all due to appear.

Among a host of veteran artists confirmed for this year’s festival are Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Solomon Burke, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Holmes Brothers and noted blues belter Marcia Ball.

The full list of confirmed acts can be found at the ACL Music Festival Web site.

A federal judge found The Source magazine in contempt for violating a court order not to publish alleged “racist lyrics” from a tape made by Eminem in his teen days.

U.S. District Judge Gerard Lynch issued a temporary restraining order in December 2003 barring The Source from publishing any lyrics from the recording. However, in violation of this order, the magazine’s website, thesource.com, published the full lyrics in a flashy homepage presentation.

In a pair of rulings made public Wednesday, Lynch ordered The Source to pay legal fees to Shady Records Inc., Eminem’s label. However, the judge denied Shady Record’s request to fine the magazine thousands of dollars because the magazine responded quickly to a cease and desist order from Em’s lawyers to remove the lyrics in January.

A lawyer for The Source spoke to the New York Times and defended the magazine’s publication of the lyrics saying, “The Source had every right to publish the material it did release to inform the public about who Eminem is.”

Source SOHH.com.

Clear Channel Communications is expected to hand over nearly $2 million to the Federal Communications Commission, as the government continues to crack down on allegedly indecent material, including broadcasts by Howard Stern.

Clear Channel, the biggest owner of U.S. radio stations, plans to admit it aired indecent material and pay the FCC $1.75 million to settle several complaints, according to Reuters. The company also plans to make changes to prevent further incidents, including implementing a zero-tolerance policy against alleged on-air indecency.

In April the FCC slapped Clear Channel with 18 citations totaling $495,000 in proposed forfeitures for broadcasting “indecent” material from Howard Stern’s morning show in six cities (see “Howard Stern Broadcast Costs Clear Channel Nearly $500,000”).

Source mtv.com.

Columbia/Legacy will on Sept. 28 release Seven Steps to Heaven: The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis 1963-64, the seventh boxed set devoted to the late jazz trumpeter’s work for the label.

The seven-disc package will consider an important transitional period in Davis’ career. By 1963, his long-running rhythm section of pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb had dissolved; saxophonist John Coltrane, the star of Davis’ late-’50s quintet, had exited the band in April 1960 to lead his own group.

Source Billboard.com.

Representatives of the Beatles are in discussions with various online music services about licensing their songs for distribution on the Internet, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The Beatles have been one of the biggest holdouts in releasing their catalog for sale online, and the lack of such mega-hits as “Let it Be” and “Yesterday” has been cited as a major weakness for fledgling, Web-based music stores.

Negotiators for the Beatles have talked with several companies, with a particular emphasis on Microsoft Corp’s MSN, which is expected to open an Internet music store late this summer.

“MSN is working very closely with the music industry to build a top-quality music service for consumers, which includes providing a wide selection of music, but has nothing specific to announce at this time,” said a Microsoft spokesman.

The discussions by the legendary group were first reported yesterday (June 8) by CNET.

Sources familiar with the matter said the current round of talks is being steered by the Beatles’ representatives rather than their record label, EMI Group Plc. Representatives of the band’s two surviving members, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, could not be immediately reached for comment.

EMI owns the Beatles’ master recordings and would be involved in any final agreement, the sources said. The label has been trying to urge the Beatles for years to grant permission to distribute their songs online. “We think it would be great if the Beatles decided to make their music available on legitimate music services,” said an EMI spokesperson.

One person familiar with the discussions said he was optimistic that some deal could be reached by September.

“This would be a big deal because they have been one of the pre-eminent major holdouts in terms of licensing their digital rights,” said veteran entertainment lawyer Jay Cooper. “In the past year, various major artists are starting to put their toe in the water.”

Various services from RealNetworks’ Rhapsody to Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes to Roxio Inc.’s Napster would all jump at the chance to distribute the Beatles, who broke up over 30 years ago, analysts said.

“We’ve always been confident that artists would see digital music as a must-have platform. We’re at the infancy stage of what will certainly be a booming business,” said Evan Harrison, VP and GM of Time Warner Inc.’s AOL Music.

Apple Computer, which launched its popular iTunes music store over a year ago, has been embroiled in a legal dispute with the management for the Beatles since September.

The Beatles, who formed similarly named London-based Apple Corps. in 1968 to manage its business interests and act as its music label, have accused the computer maker of violating a 1991 agreement specifying it could use the Apple trademark for computer products only.

The Beatles management have said Apple Computer broke the agreement when it used the logo and trademark to promote its iTunes online music store, the most popular Internet download service in the world.

A London High Court judge in April struck down Apple’s request to have the case heard by California courts. The computer maker argued the United States was the proper place for the hearing as this was where the original agreement between the two companies was struck.

Source billboard.com.