2004

Apple Computer Inc. Wednesday said it has sold 3.3 million songs on its iTunes online music store since that platform’s relaunch one week ago, with nearly as many downloads of the new version of its music player software.

Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of applications marketing, said Apple had seen 3 million downloads of iTunes 4.5, its music player software that includes the music store, since its release last week.

Source CNN.com.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters is planning to debut his opera Ca Ira in St Petersburg, Russia.

Plans to premiere the opera in Paris have been scrapped according to fansite rogerwatersonline.com with the proposed new venue looking like The Winter Palace in St Petersburg.

A date is yet to be set for the premiere but fans in Malta heard three songs ‘Ca Ira Overture,’ ‘Taking of Bastille,’ and ‘Sugar Indigo’ during the European Union celebrations last weekend. The three songs were used as the soundtrack to the fireworks as 10 new countries became part of the EU.

Waters has been working on the opera for over 20 years. He had initially hoped to finish it by 1989 for the bi-centennial of the French Revolution.

The work is planned for release as a CD and possibly DVD. When it is released it will be available in both English and a French version.

Source undercover.com.au.

John Lennon memorabilia, including a leather collar he wore during the 1960s, was auctioned by Christie’s for a total of $400,500.

The auction house called it the “most significant collection of Beatles’ memorabilia to come on the market in over 10 years.”

The items included a colored felt-pen drawing by Lennon ($17,800), a letter with his signature ($9,800) and “Happy Fish,” a pen-and-ink drawing ($17,000).

The two items that drew the highest bids Wednesday were the leather collar that Lennon wore in 1967 and 1968, which sold for $178,000, and a custom-made Vox Kensington guitar used by Lennon and fellow Beatle George Harrison in 1967, also for $178,000.

Source Launch.com.

Club D’Elf has announced the release of three live shows from the band’s archives, and hopes to continue the offering as an ongoing project. Unlike As Above, the band’s only commercially available release culled from 6 different nights, these are all complete shows from single nights.

Vassar 2/26/01
With John Medeski, Mat Maneri, Brahim Fribgane, Randy Roos, Mike Rivard & Erik Kerr – performing in Poughkeepsie, NY on the band’s first tour.

New York 4/20/00
With John Medeski, Joe Maneri, Mat Maneri, Brahim Fribgane, Mike Rivard & Erik Kerr, and Eric Hipp & Richard Zukowski helping out, too – on the band’s first out-of-cambridge gig.

Athens 3/28/02
With John Medeski, Reeves Gabrels, Mat Maneri, Brahim Fribgane, Mister Rourke, Mike Rivard & Eric Kalb – from the band’s first southern tour.

Releases will be sold through kufala.com and at upcoming Club D’elf shows.

To celebrate, D’Elf has announced a run of CD release gigs.

Thurs May 6, Lizard Lounge, Cambridge MA with Duke Levine, Tom Hall, Jerry Leake, Mike Rivard and Erik Kerr

Tues May 18, AS220, Providence RI with Dave Tronzo, Mat Maneri, Mike Rivard and Erik Kerr

Thurs May 20, Lizard Lounge, Cambridge MA with Dave “fuze” Fiuczynski, Alain Mallet, Jerry Leake, Mister Rourke, Mike Rivard and Erik Kerr

Wed May 26, Tonic, NYC, NY with John Medeski, Marc Ribot, Eric Hipp, Curtis Hasselbring, Mister Rourke, Mike Rivard and Adam Deitch. This marks the the first time Ribot has ever joined D’Elf.

For more info, see kufala.com

Jam Cruise 1 and 2 were crowning achievements within the changing face of music festivals and cruise travel. Now, the original Jam Cruise announces Jam Cruise 3, leaving port in Jacksonville, Florida on January 6, 2005 for 4 days aboard Carnival Cruiselines’ Celebration.

Jam Cruise 3 will stop in Freeport, Bahamas and, fulfilling a popular request on a questionnaire filled out by last year’s cruisers, will offer passengers two full days at sea. The Celebration accommodates 1500 passengers (double the size of the Regal Empress cruise liner used for 1 and 2), and boasts such luxury amenities as 3 pools, nine passenger decks, ten lounges, a twenty-four-hour pizza bar and dinnertime sushi bar, a health spa, and large and comfortable lodging facilities. The fans spoke up and Jam Cruise organizers have listened.

Jam Cruise 3 will host over thirty music performances, featuring fifteen bands from one of today’s most thriving music communities – that of improvisational music. The current line up includes Galactic, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9), Col Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit (1st show in 10 years!), Ozomatli, North Mississippi Allstars, Peter Rowan & Tony Rice, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress, Umphrey’s McGee, MOFRO, Benevento/Russo Duo, DJ Logic, with more artists to be announced soon. In addition to incredible performances by many of the genre’s most celebrated musical pioneers, the Jam Cruise experience promises once-in-a-lifetime artist collaborations and opportunities for hang time with the musicians who are so often inaccessible backstage.

On sale begins Wednesday, May 19 at 11:00 am MST. Cabin prices range from $550 to $1125.00 per person, plus port charges, service fees and gratuities. Call 303.544.0191 or visit jamcruise.com for reservations aboard Jam Cruise 3.

On June 8th, Stevie Wonder will release A Time 2 Love, his first new studio album since 1995.

On June 10, the artist will be presented with the Johnny Mercer Award by the National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame, for the “high quality and impact” of his body of work.

A Time 2 Love is the follow-up to Conversation Peace, which debuted at No. 16 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 366,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Source Billboard.com.

Kid Rock, Al Green and Ben Harper have joined the cast of performers for the third “Willie Nelson & Friends” television special. As previously reported, performances will be taped May 5th at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theater. The resulting two-hour special will air on the U.S. Memorial Day holiday (May 31) on the USA Network.

Others slated to appear are Jerry Lee Lewis, Toby Keith, Merle Haggard, Al Green, Shelby Lynne, Rickie Lee Jones, Toots Hibbert and the Holmes Brothers. Although originally co-billed for the performance by the venue, Lucinda Williams’ name is not among the list of participants provided by USA. The show’s subtitle has also changed from “One More for the Road” to “Outlaws and Angels.”

As previously reported, Nelson will saddle up another contingent of his “friends” to celebrate the U.S. Independence Day. The 71-year-old artist’s annual 4th of July Picnic will take place at Texas’ Fort Worth Stockyards and feature Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Asleep At The Wheel, Los Lonely Boys, Ray Price and Leon Russell, among others.

Source billboard.com.

David Bowie, the Dave Matthews Band, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Dolly Parton and John Mellencamp are just a few of the thousands of artists who will receive payments from the major labels for unclaimed, unpaid royalties.

The $50 million payout was the result of a deal struck by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who negotiated with Sony Music Entertainment, Sony ATV Music Publishing, the Warner Music Group, UMG Recordings,Universal Music, EMI Music Publishing, EMI Music North America, BMG Songs, Careers-BMG Music Publishing, BMG and the Harry Fox Agency.

The deal caps a two-year investigation sparked by music industry attorney Bob Donnelly, who brought the issue of labels failing to keep contact with performers and making proper royalty payments. More than $25 million has been paid out so far, with another $25 still expected to be distributed.

As part of the deal, the labels and publishers also agreed to list the names of artists and writers who are owed monies, post the procedure to claim outstanding royalties in various music industry publications, share contact information for artists with other labels and work with various industry groups and unions to locate artists. The companies also pledged that their royalty and accounting departments would work towards improving their payment procedures and that they would abide by the state’s Abandoned Property Law. If an artist or his or her family cannot be located for payment, those royalties are to be paid to the state, which holds them until a claim is made.

For some, the payout amounts to a drop in the bucket. The Dave Matthews Band is owed just over $14,000 (its 1996 album, Crash, for instance earned $4,000 that wasn’t properly paid), while the $10,700 that Bowie was owed was just for 1997’s Earthling. And for other artists, the payout comes too late, as deceased artists including Jim Croce, Waylon Jennings, Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Sinatra were all owed sums. But the estates of deceased musicians received some of the larger payouts, including that of songwriter Tommy Edward, which is due almost $230,000.

The investigation also found that outstanding royalties were also due to artists who didn’t necessarily make vast sums of money, and the likes of Texas singer-songwriter Guy Clark or avant garde jazz pianist Cecil Taylor might benefit from the windfall of a few thousand dollars. “[Some] artists struggle,” Spitzer said at a press conference announcing the deal in New York City today. “They depend on the stream of royalties.”

Spitzer praised the record companies for their willingness to reach the agreement and suggested that the unpaid monies were an oversight. “It’s not like there was a grand conspiracy to cheat them out of these big sums of money,” he said. “It was just a failure to do what should have been done. That’s why we have this settlement.”

Spitzer is no stranger to investigating the business practices of the major labels. In August 2000, he led a charge against the five major labels charging them with conspiring to fix the prices of CDs. New York and Florida were at the front of a lawsuit filed by twenty-eight states that resulted in another settlement.

Source rollingstone.com.

Sheryl Crow, Trey Anastasio, the Pixies, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Dashboard Confessional and Modest Mouse are among the first wave of bands confirmed for the third annual Austin City Limits Festival. The event, which will also feature Franz Ferdinand, Robert Randolph and Solomon Burke, is set for September 17-19 in the hometown of the popular Austin City Limits television show, which is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary.

Over the previous two summers, the Austin City Limits Festival offered a diverse lineup of music over three days that reflects the talent that appears on the popular PBS television program of the same name. More than 130 acts will take part in the proceedings, held on eight separate stages in the city’s Zilker Park.

Austin City Limits is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year, and the upcoming season boasts a lineup including festival performers (Crow, Randolph, the Pixies), returning ACL guests (Flaming Lips, Norah Jones, Lyle Lovett, Patty Griffin) and newcomers (Rufus Wainwright, the Strokes). The new season begins airing October 2nd.

A live album from last year’s ACL event will be released this summer. The set includes songs by R.E.M., Ben Harper, the Drive-By Truckers and Bright Eyes.

Source rollingstone.com.