Billboard Bits: KCRW, Steve Earle, Raven-Symone
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Coldplay&#39;s Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland, Nellie McKay and Rilo Kiley have signed on for influential California radio station KCRW&#39;s fourth annual benefit concert, A Sounds Eclectic Evening. Additional artists will be added to the bill for the event, ...
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There's been a mostly fantastic discussion about fair use in this neighborhood for the last few days.  It started when a photograph of Lane Hartwell's was used in a video spoof of the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire."  The first I heard of this was in a Twitter post of hers where she said she was turning off access to her entire Flickr collection because this picture was used without permission. A series of communications with the people who did the video resulted in the video being taken down. Later Mike Arrington, who is a lawyer, wrote a piece saying she didn't have right on her side, and that the video's use of her picture was probably fair use. I found Mike's piece compelling. Others took offense. It thought it was a useful part of the discussion. I understand Ms Hartwell's point of view. I hate it when people copy a whole post of mine and paste it into theirs. But then I grab bits of images and put them on my blog and people rarely complain. The blogosphere is built on being loose about copyright and fair use.  I'm doing a deal with a content company and all these issues are coming up. We haven't been able to write a contract that covers all the things they want covered and make it possible for me to do what I need to do, and they want my product to work. It's a real mess we're in. Bloggers are supposed to be radicals when it comes to fair use and copyright, but that generalization doesn't work with many creative people. Hartwell's position in some ways is like the RIAA or MPAA, who bloggers often dismiss as clueless. How can we have it both ways? How can some defend her position yet not defend the entertainment industry? There's a lot to discuss here, and a lot of the discussion on the blogs has been informative and respectful. Not all of it, but to an unusually high degree.  So, I am interested in doing an in person "flash conference" on the subject of fair use in a few weeks. I'd say next week if it weren't Christmas. Most conferences are so boring. I want to do a conf on a hot subject when it's still hot in the blogosphere. This may be a good subject for such a quickly organized conference. What do you think of the flash conference idea for this??
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New releases from Sia, Marah, Frank Kimbrough and Rivers Cuomo.
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So far 2008 has not been a good year for music sales. This week Alicia Keys, below, stays atop the Billboard chart with âAs I Amâ (J), but the number of copies that CD sold is barely above the historic low for a No. 1 album. Nielsen SoundScan reported that 61,000 copies of the album sold last week; the least number of weekly sales for No. 1 is 60,000, set by the âDreamgirlsâ soundtrack a year ago. (The numbers are rounded.) This week the âJunoâ soundtrack (Rhino) is at No. 2 with 58,000, Mary J. Bligeâs âGrowing Painsâ (Geffen) is No. 3 with 52,000, and Radioheadâs âIn Rainbowsâ (ATO) is next with 46,000. The R&B singer Raheem DeVaughn opens at No. 5 with 45,000 sales of âLove Behind the Melodyâ (J) and John Legendâs new âLive From Philadelphia,â available only through Target, reached No. 7 with 33,000.
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Readers remark on lunar landings, the future of Apple music and journalistic integrity. Plus: Links to our most popular blog posts.
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Plus, CarMax hits the skids, Kimberly-Clark's cash plans, and got RFID?
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In a slow week for the Billboard chart, Alicia Keys reached No. 2 with 112,000 sales of âAs I Amâ (J); Mary J. Blige moved 89,000 of âGrowing Painsâ (Geffen) to reach No. 3; âNow Thatâs What I Call Music!â Vol. 26 is at No. 4 with 54,000; and the 18-year-old country singer Taylor Swift rose three spots to No. 5, though sales of her self-titled album, on the Big Machine label, dropped 39 percent last week to 47,000, Nielsen SoundScan reported. Radiohead reached No. 1 with the conventional release of âIn Rainbows,â through the ATO label, on CD and other formats. The indie-rock âJunoâ soundtrack (Rhino), popular online, opened at No. 8 with 38,000.
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In yet another big week for new releases on the U.S. albums chart, the
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LONDON - Virgin Radio is to broadcast weekly chart rundowns using Napster online sales figures from August 29, beating BBC Radio One to the punch.
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roundup Plus: Newspaper sites take up paid search ads...Microsoft IPTV to woo Swiss test group...Sony speeds up Memory Stick cards...Real touts one week, 1 million songs.
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After painfully slow sales last month, the music industry finally has a hit: âSleep Through the Staticâ (Brushfire), by Jack Johnson, above, sold 375,000 copies last week â more than six times the sales of the top album the week before â to reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart. It set a record for the most digital sales in a single week, with 139,000 copies, or 37 percent of its total, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In a week busy with high-profile releases, Sheryl Crowâs âDetoursâ (A&M) opened at No. 2 with 92,000 sales; Lenny Kravitz moved 73,000 copies of âIt Is Time for a Love Revolutionâ (Virgin) to bow at No. 4; and K. D. Lang is No. 8 with her new âWatershedâ (Nonesuch), selling 41,000. Last weekâs No. 1, Alicia Keysâs âAs I Amâ (J), dropped two spots with 80,000. Any sales bumps after last Sundayâs Grammy Awards would be reflected in next weekâs chart.
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This week: "virgin" komodo birth, groundbreaking rhino, firearm bonfire, new species of lizards, a new nocturnal rodent, and more.
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roundup Plus: More colleges get cheap online music...Glitches hit some EarthLink-hosted sites...More money for fuel cells...Linux release features Windows support.
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Having a No. 1 album just isnât what it used to be. This week Alicia Keys is back atop the Billboard chart with âAs I Amâ (J), but the 61,000 copies it has sold is barely above the historic low for a No. 1 album, Nielsen SoundScan reported. The âJunoâ soundtrack, on Rhino, fell to No. 2, with 55,000 sold. New releases dot the chart this week. The Mars Volta, which revels in head-spinningly complex progressive rock, opened in the third spot with 54,000 sales of âFrances the Muteâ (Universal); the Welsh heavy metal band Bullet for My Valentine reached fourth place with âScream Aim Fireâ (Jive), selling 53,000; and the â2008 Grammy Nomineesâ compilation (Hip-O/Universal) moved 50,000, opening at No. 5. The remix album âHannah Montana 2: Non-Stop Dance Partyâ (Disney) bowed at No. 7, and Vampire Weekend, the acclaimed New York indie band, reached No. 17 with its self-titled debut on the XL label.
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NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Country is still king when it comes to radio, but news/talk is closing the gap.
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New releases from Justin Timberlake, TV on the Radio, John Mayer and Alan Broadbent.
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Between her touring schedule and the newborn son she adopted, musician Sheryl Crow still manages to fit in a good deal of reading, if her product endorsements are to be believed.