Guns N’ Roses are going to “vigorously contest” claims that they ripped off German electro-composer Ulrich Schnauss for the ambient intro to their song “Riad N’ The Bedouins,” a dispute that’s currently the source of a million-dollar lawsuit filed last week. (A million dollars may seem like a lot of cash for an album that… More »
Supermanager Irving Azoff and radio megaglomerate Clear Channel have teamed up to launch “a.p.e. radio,” an all-lowercase effort that will allow people who just can’t seem to find a space on the dial that’s playing “Hotel California” or that Weezer song about Beverly Hills ad nauseam to tune in to artist-specific channels (similar to the… More »
Bill Wyman’s in-depth coverage of the Congressional hearings on the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger continued today, as he live-blogged the House hearings on the merger. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino said that he doesn’t hear complaints about high ticket prices (man, those upper-management bubbles must be pretty thick!), that $50 isn’t a high price for a… More »
There are a lot of famous anecdotes about our 36th president, and a strange number of them involve the bathroom. In one, a female reporter is trying to get Johnson to answer some questions, and Johnson agrees on the condition that she hold his pecker while he pee; in another, he goes to relieve himself… More »
So after a New Jersey Congressman fired off a missive to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division regarding Ticketmaster’s policy of dumping users to its sister reselling site, TicketsNow, once tickets to Bruce Springsteen’s shows in the Northeast sold out, Springsteen and his manager got in on the open-letter act, too, going so far as… More »
One of the strangest narratives surrounding Sunday’s release of Chinese Democracy is that the music itself is something of a non-event, thanks to the circulation of live nu-GNR bootlegs and leaks of in-progress tracks. In fact, enough questions have been answered about how Chinese Democracy sounds that a bigger question looms: Why now? Why, out… More »
The good news: Ticketmaster is experimenting with dropping the “convenience fees” that can potentially mark up the tickets it sells as much as 75%. The bad news: This experiment, right now, is restricted to fans of the freaking Eagles, thanks in part to the deal two weeks ago that brought the ticketing behemoth together with… More »
In a move that’s part and parcel with the continued “verticalization” of the music industry, the Ticketmaster is buying a controlling interest in Irving Azoff’s Frontline Management, which counts Christina Aguilera, The Eagles, Neil Diamond, and, oh yeah, Guns N’ Roses, among its clients. Azoff will continue on as manager of these acts. The move… More »
Billboard group editorial director Tamara Conniff is leaving the magazine to take a position with Front Line Management, which is run by music industry heavyweight Irving Azoff and which counts the Eagles and New Kids On The Block on its roster. More »
Billboard group editorial director Tamara Conniff is leaving the magazine to take a position with Front Line Management, which is run by music industry heavyweight Irving Azoff and which counts the Eagles and New Kids On The Block on its roster. More »
Dr Pepper’s offer to bestow a free can o’pop upon every American (save Slash and Buckethead) should Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy actually come out in 2008 brought GNR frontman Axl Rose out of hiding, prompting him to say that he’d even share his can of carbonated sugar water with Buckethead… More »
