new york city MUSIC

The Virgin Mobile Festival of 2009 is indeed happening but this time...it's free! Virgin Mobile USA announced yesterday that they will host their year's festival at Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia, Maryland on August 30th for FREE. Previous Virgin Mobile Festival ticket buyers will be given first dibs on the 35,000 free tickets and then the rest will be released to the public to snatch up. FreeFest is a generous move made by Virgin Mobile USA to give back during the touch economy and promote donations to homeless youth agencies from coast to coast as part as the RE*Generation charity by the company. Dan Schulman, CEO of Virgil Mobile USA stated, " Instead of focusing on layoffs or the state of the economy, we want to focus on concrete ways to provide assistance to those in need. People need outlets to both lend a helping hand and to escape and relax, for free, even if just for one day. We want to throw some good news in the mix" This year's acts include

A Minnesota court has ordered Jammie Thomas-Rasset to pay the music industry , including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment [an excessive] $1.92 million after posting 24 copyrighted songs on Kazaa for other users to download. The award amounts to $80,000 for each song she uploaded to website In 2007 Ms.Thomas-Rasset was originally ordered to pay $222,000 ($9,250 per song) in damages. A retrial was decided after Judge Michael J. Davis of the U.S. District Court withdrew the verdict after providing the jury with false information. Following the $1.92 million verdict, Thomas-Rasset expressed her disappointment saying , "The only thing I can say is good luck trying to get it, because you can’t get blood out of a turnip.” She is a natural resources coordinator for the Mille Lacs Band of the Ojibw. Kiwi Camara of Camara & Sibley (her lawyer) claims that Thomas-Rasset may try to negotiate a settlement or appeal the verdict. Other lawyers of T

Universal Music Group and Virgin Media in partnership announced Monday that they would now offer unlimited downloads to enforce anti-piracy. With this new business model, Universal will be offering its entire music catalog (free of copy protection) to Virgin Media customers as monthly subscriptions but did not yet announce the cost of this service. Virgin Media will then work to reduce piracy on its network in return. In reaction (positive) to the new deal, Stephen Carter, British communications, broadcast, and technology minister said: " Government has a role in creating the right legal and regulatory framework for rights and copyright. However, the market will flourish through innovative commercial agreements between companies, and agreements such as this will help significantly in reducing any demand for piracy." Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research said, " This is a really high-stakes game, Universal and Virgin have come to the table with all they ca

Weezer wearing Snuggies while on tour^ Nerdy alternative rock band Weezer will be releasing their own branded Snuggie blanket (the infomercial sensation: a blanket with sleeves) and will rename it a "Wuggie" as confirmed by their publicist. The company (Allstar Marketing Group) behind the blanket will promote the "Wuggie" with the band. Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo said explained to Rolling Stone, “A Wuggie is basically exactly like a Snuggie, except it says Weezer on it. The people at Snuggie are doing it with us and promoting it with us. It’s a totally legit Snuggie." Weezer has announced their tour dates with Blink-182 which includes a show on August 25th at Nikon Theater at Jones Beach so bring your wuggies to the beach and get ready to rock.

American Idol runner up Adam Lambert is (to no surprise) on the cover of Rolling Stone this month. His obsessed fans have been waiting impatiently for today to arrive, when they can buy a ridiculous amount of copies of Lambert's Rolling Stone issue. So ok, we know how his fans reacted to what they've seen online..(they loved it!)...but, how did Lambert react to his first RS cover shot? Speaking with RS contributor Vanessa Grigoriadis Lambert said, "Right after the finale, I almost started talking about it to the reporters, but I thought, 'I'm going to wait for Rolling Stone, that will be cooler,'" Check out the video here of Adam seeing the cover for the first time. Rolling Stone sent him a Flip MinoHD so he could record the moment! Below is a behind the scenes video of Adam Lambert's Rolling Stone cover shoot. After recently signing deals with 19 Entertainment and RCA Recordings, Lambert is currently working on new music for his debut album r

Last.fm founders have been highly successful since their start in 2002. Seven years later,the founding trio Felix Miller, Richard Jones, Martin Stiksel are handing over the company to their successors in order to pursue new ventures. However, they will be staying on as consultants to ensure the transition goes smoothly. Best of luck to these guys and thanks for all of the great music ! Below is their goodbye post on the Last.fm blog: . by Felix Miller filed under Announcements Comments: 78 After two years running Last.fm within CBS we feel the time is right to begin the process of handing over the reins. This is the latest stage in a long journey for us founders, which began in a living room in East London in 2002, and took us to the headquarters of one of the biggest media companies in the world. It’s been a privilege working with the incredible team here in our London office, and we’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved together. Last.fm’s users have more than doubled in the last

Now unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you must have heard about the phenomenon that is Susan Boyle. With a quick international rise to fame, the 47 year-old shocked everyone when she belted out her first notes on Britain's Got Talent. She has gained quite an international following of supporters, all of whom hoped the "underdog" would prevail last week on the show's finale. However, Boyle was beat out by Diversity dance troupe, who according to bbc.co.uk truly didn't think they would win. Boyle's transformation from an unemployed charity worker living alone with her cat to an international superstar in such a short period of time has definitely taken a toll and Sunday night checked into a clinic due to exhaustion. The folks over at E! Online recently blogged on what they think the next steps for Susan Boyle should be and, as a PR junkie at a music pr firm , I have to agree with them. Though exhausted from the amount of pressu