2003

After spending a year travelling the globe, Paul McCartney will wrap up his tour behind 2001

Observers are calling the launch of Apple Computer’s digital music service the iTunes Music Store an overwhelming success, Billboard Bulletin reports. The service, which went live Monday, sold an estimated 275,000 tracks at 99 cents apiece in its first 18 hours, according to major-label sources.
All songs — including exclusive material and videos from U2, Eminem, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, Sting, and others — can be previewed for free as 30-second samples. All can be burned to a CD and are automatically synched to an iPod.
The feat is especially remarkable when considering that the offering is available only to the limited universe of users of Apple computers. The launch thereby sets the stage for a race between a host of media and technology companies to create and effectively promote similar services for the much bigger Microsoft-equipped PC market.
“There is going to be a race to see who can get to the Windows market and start to replicate this,” says the head of new media at one major label. “The question is [whether] someone else wants to put up the kind of money that Apple is to let people know they’re there.”
Apple says it plans to make iTunes compatible with the PC by the end of the year. Sources tell Bulletin that two major labels have already cut wholesale agreements with Apple for the Windows version of the service.
Source Billboard.com.

John Medeski has contributed an original, jazz flavored score to Dr. Sax and the Great World Snake, a double-disc reading of a lost screenplay by legendary American writer Jack Kerouac. Graham Parker, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jim Carroll, Robert Hunter, Kate Pierson and Robert Creely are the musicians and poets who have lent their voices to the project. The screenplay is based on Kerouac

Even before before the tragedy in West Warwick, RI, that left ninety-nine dead,-metal band Great White wasn’t everybody’s favorite band of the moment. However, The band has just announced they will jaunt out on a summer outing that will benefit the victim

Modest Mouse, Hot Hot Heat, Sahara Hotnights, !!!, the Kills, Radio 4, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Northern State, and the Pattern have been tapped to perform at the Village Voice’s third annual Siren Music Festival, set for July 19 at Coney Island, N.Y.
As with last year’s edition, which played host to Sleater-Kinney, the Donnas, and the Shins, the free, all-ages festival will feature performers from noon to 9 p.m. on two outdoor stages at the Coney Island amusement park.
More acts are expected to be announced for the festival in the coming weeks, and local bands and DJs will be added to the lineup. Past editions of the festival have also featured art exhibits and multi-media installations as well as late-night burlesque shows and other special events.
For updates and more information, visit the event’s official Web site at Siren.com
Source Billboard.com.

London-based dance-music brand Ministry of Sound (MoS) has begun offering almost 100,000 tracks for legitimate download from its Web site.MoS relaunched the site Monday, declaring its ambition to become the “No. 1 global legal music download and streaming site.”All five majors are offering content to the service. Users can purchase downloads for 99p ($1.57) apiece from http://www.ministryofsound.com. Tracks can be burned to CD or transferred to a portable device. Alternatively, a monthly payment of 4.99 pounds ($7.94) gives the user 500 credits; permanent downloads cost 100 credits, while 30-day timed-out downloads are 10 each.Pay-per-view streaming for the broadband version of MoS radio is priced at 1.50 pounds ($2.38) for 24 hours of access (during which time users can connect up to 10 times); other pay-per-view content, such as videos and DJ mixes, carries the same price.
Source ETonline.com.

The Austin City Limits Music Festival, in its second year will feature more than 100 artists over three days, September 19-21. The festival is a spin off of the 25 year old Austin City Limits music program on public television. The confirmed artists include: R.E.M., Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Beth Orton, String Cheese Incident, Beta Band, Spoon, Patty Griffin, Los Lobos, Nickel Creek, Mavis Staples, Alejandro Escovedo, Ween, Robert Randolph and Gomez.
For more info visit – Aclfestival.com.

Despite ongoing complaints that the world

Pearl Jam is working with the organization Conservation International to make the environment a little safer by offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions caused by their current tour. According to Pearl Jam

More than seventy acts performed across five stages this weekend at the fourth Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Drawing more than 30,000 to the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, Calif., the festival closed last night with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, while a politically charged set by the Beastie Boys finished off Saturday’s bill.
The Chili Peppers’ performance was dominated by their recent string of modern rock radio hits, including opener “By the Way,” “Around the World,” “Californication,” “Otherside,” and “Scar Tissue.” The set closed with the group’s “Give It Away.”
Other Sunday highlights included Iggy Pop’s first performance in more than 25 years with the surviving members of the Stooges. The group, augmented by punk rock icon Mike Watt on bass, sounded sharp as it powered through such staples as “TV Eye” and “Fun House.”
Sets by Sonic Youth, Interpol, and the White Stripes didn’t disappoint. Earlier in the day, the 20-member strong Polyphonic Spree added a healthy dose of the bizarre with its blend of Queen-style pomp rock and salvation-seeking, white-robed choir.
In the Sahara Tent, some of the biggest names in dance and electronic music held court, including Richie Hawtin, Deep Dish, and Felix da Housecat. Last night, Underworld had thousands of dancers on the verge of frenzy with a set that featured dance favorites like “Two Months Off,” “King of Snake,” and “Born Slippy Nuxx.”
On Saturday, the Beastie Boys played just their second U.S. show since fall 2001. The group debuted a new song with the repeated line “That’s it / that’s all / that’s all there is,” as well as its recent anti-war track “In a World Gone Mad,” which the Beasties offered via download from its Web site. Nonetheless, the best responses came for such classics as “So What You Want,” “Root Down,” “Intergalactic,” and even a snippet of the ancient “Brass Monkey.”
Taking a cue from a question-and-answer session held earlier in the day by Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye, the Beasties expressed their dissatisfaction with what they called the Bush administration’s “bullying” foreign policy and urged concertgoers to vote for “anyone but this fool” in the 2004 election.
Earlier in the day, hometown rock outfit Queens Of The Stone Age unleashed an uncommonly powerful set highlighted by the singles “No One Knows” and “Go With the Flow,” as well as older cuts such as “Regular John” and “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret.” Other mainstage performers included Ben Harper, the Donnas, N*E*R*D, Blur, and in what is expected to be their only U.S. show of the year, Swedish rock upstarts the Hives.
Source Billboard.com.