2006

Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza are the festival finalists for the 2006 Billboard Touring Awards. Based on actual box-office data reported to Billboard Boxscore (as opposed to a popular vote) the finalists represent the top grossing music events held between December of 2005 through September of this year.

Madonna’s run at London’s Wembley Arena makes her a finalist in the hotly contested top boxscore category, which goes to the top-grossing single engagement. Also a finalist in that category are Luis Miguel at Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City and Billy Joel’s record-setting stand at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Notable finalists include:

TOP TOUR
Bon Jovi, Have A Nice DayMadonna, ConfessionsThe Rolling Stones, A Bigger Bang

TOP SMALL VENUE (Under 10,000 seats, Non-Resident)
Auditorio Nacional, Mexico CityFox Theatre, AtlantaGibson Amphitheatre, Universal City, Calif.

TOP CLUB
House Of Blues, Anaheim, Calif.House Of Blues, Atlantic City, N.J.House Of Blues, Chicago

TOP AMPHITHEATER
Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre, Wantagh, N.Y.PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, N.J.Tweeter Center at the Waterfront, Camden, N.J.

TOP FESTIVAL
Austin City Limits Music Festival, Austin, TexasBonnaroo Music Festival, Manchester, Tenn.Lollapalooza, Chicago

See Billboard.biz for a full list of finalists

The New York Dolls will kick off their first extended headlining tour in more than 30 years on Nov. 6 in San Diego. The Supersuckers will support on the outing, which runs through Dec. 2 in St. Louis.

Here are the New York Dolls’ tour dates:

Nov. 6: San Diego (Belly Up)
Nov. 7: Los Angeles (Avalon)
Nov. 8: San Francisco (the Independent)
Nov. 10: Portland, Ore. (Berbati’s Pan)
Nov. 11: Seattle (El Corazon)
Nov. 14: Minneapolis (Fine Line)
Nov. 15: Chicago (Vic Theatre)
Nov. 16: Detroit (St. Andrews)
Nov. 17: Cleveland (Beachland Ballroom)
Nov. 18: Buffalo, N.Y. (Town Ballroom)
Nov. 20: Boston (Axis)
Nov. 21: Providence, R.I. (Lupo’s)
Nov. 22: New York (Irving Plaza)
Nov. 24: Atlantic City, N.J. (Borgata)
Nov. 25: Philadelphia (TLA)
Nov. 26: Washington, D.C. (Black Cat)
Nov. 28: Charleston, S.C. (Music Farm)
Nov. 29: Atlanta (Variety Playhouse)
Dec. 1: Nashville (City Hall)
Dec. 2: St. Louis (TBA)

Source billboard.com.

MySpace.com is getting involved with 20 concerts and is promoting them on its site as part of a campaign to raise awareness and money for humanitarian relief in Sudan.

The site, which grew in popularity thanks to its early adoption by emerging bands and their fans, has in recent months taken a more active role in promoting social causes, such as environmental awareness and voter registration.

“The crisis in Darfur is a global concern and as a global community we have a responsibility to take action,” Chris DeWolfe, MySpace’s chief executive, said in a statement. “MySpace’s reach gives us an extraordinary opportunity to spread the word and empower individuals to help address the horrors in Darfur.”

The concerts will take place October 21. Artists include TV on the Radio in Philadelphia, Alice in Chains in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Ziggy Marley in Medford, Oregon, Citizen Cope in Seattle, Gov’t Mule in Spokane, Washington, and Insane Clown Posse in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Other concerts will take place in Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco, California; Melbourne, Florida; Atlanta; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Paul, Minnesota; Reno, Nevada; Baltimore; Asheville, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Milwaukee; and Washington, D.C. A Canadian show will take place in Toronto.

Source: pollstar

The track list for the Band tribute album first revealed here in July has been finalized. “Endless Highway: The Music of the Band,” is due Jan. 30 via 429 Records, an imprint of the Savoy Label Group. The set is led by My Morning Jacket’s cover of “It Makes No Difference,” recorded at Band drummer Levon Helm’s home studio in Woodstock, N.Y.

Also featured is Jakob Dylan’s “Whispering Pines,” Death Cab For Cutie’s “Rocking Chair,” Jack Johnson’s “I Shall Be Released,” Gov’t Mule’s “The Shape I’m In” and Gomez’s “Up on Cripple Creek.” John Hiatt teams with the North Mississippi Allstars for “Ain’t No More Cane,” while the Allman Brothers Band covers “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

“Picking a song from their catalog was like looking at your group of close friends and deciding which one is ‘the closest,'” My Morning Jacket drummer Patrick Hallahan told Billboard.com. “You find that they’re all ‘the closest’ in their own relative way. We hold that song in the utmost reverence. It’s not only one of the saddest love songs ever written, but more importantly highlights the beauty of Rick Danko. His delivery on that song is one of the first reasons I fell in love with the Band in the first place.”

Here is the track list for “Endless Highway”:

“I Shall Be Released,” Jack Johnson
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” the Allman Brothers Band

“Rocking Chair,” Death Cab For Cutie
“It Makes No Difference,” My Morning Jacket
“The Weight,” Lee Ann Womack
“Whispering Pines,” Jakob Dylan
“Up on Cripple Creek,” Gomez
“King Harvest,” Bruce Hornsby
“Unfaithful Servant,” Rosanne Cash
“Rag Mama Rag,” Blues Traveler
“Bessie Smith,” Joe Henry
“This Wheel’s on Fire,” Guster
“Chest Fever,” Widespread Panic
“Ain’t No More Cane,” John Hiatt & North Mississippi Allstars
“Look Out Cleveland,” Jackie Greene
“Ophelia,” Animal Liberation Orchestra
“Stage Fright,” Steve Reynolds
“When I Paint My Masterpiece,” Josh Turner
“The Shape I’m In,” Gov’t Mule

Source billboard.com.

In agreeing to acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion on Monday, Google is making a big bet that it can harness its considerable advertising expertise to turn YouTube’s vast collection of video content into a media gold mine.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt went further, saying that the deal marked “the next step in the revolution of the Internet.”

Top executives at both Google and YouTube likewise offered few details on what types of advertising they plan to jointly develop. In response to a question about whether YouTube will adopt pre-roll ads, the company’s founder and CEO Chad Hurley said they “will explore a lot of options,” without giving specifics.

In its deal with CBS, Hurley also pointed out that YouTube is introducing a new automated system for protecting intellectual property rights. It will allow media partners to identify and remove copyright-infringing material from the site. The system is also intended to assure marketers that their ads won’t be linked to pirated or otherwise inappropriate content.

See MediaPost for more details

Modest Mouse will play a host of live dates in Los Angeles, New York and London next month. The bad news? The band’s highly anticipated new Epic album, “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank,” has been bumped from its previously announced Dec. 19 release date to early next year.

A pre-sale is underway via the band’s Web site for four shows in Los Angeles, five more in New York and a one-off gig in London. These dates, which also include a previously announced Nov. 11 appearance at the Bang! Festival in Miami, will be Modest Mouse’s first with former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who is now a full-time member of the band.

Marr also appears on “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank,” which is the follow-up to 2004’s breakthrough “Good News for People Who Love Bad News.”

Here are Modest Mouse’s tour dates:

Nov. 5: Los Angeles (Avalon)
Nov. 6: Los Angeles (Wiltern Theatre)

Nov. 7, 9: Anaheim, Calif. (The Grove)
Nov. 11: Miami (Bang! Festival)
Nov. 13: New York (Nokia Theatre)
Nov. 14-15: New York (Webster Hall)
Nov. 17-18: New York (Bowery Ballroom)
Nov. 21: London (Koko)

Source billboard.com.