new york city MUSIC

A music industry law that has been overlooked by many in the NYC scene is that a venue cannot play a copy written song without having the secured licenses from the performance rights group (ie: ASCAP, BMI,) who represent the songwriter. BMI is now focusing their attention of Lower East Side music venue Pianos, who have according to BMI "caused great and incalculable damage" after illegally playing hit songs like Europe's "Final Countdown" The Rolling Stone's "Paint It Black", and Weezer's "Say It Ain't So". Check out the lawsuit documents below courtesy of Cityfile 070109_pianos

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...

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...

So as of Wednesday night, Kris Allen now holds the title of "American Idol" after winning by a large margin according to a source at FOX.  Many expected Adam Lambert to win but in the end, it was Kris who came out on top. When asked why he thought he grabbed the win over Lambert, Allen explained,  "There's not a whole lot of people that approve of the whole guy-liner thing and the nail polish and all that. But for me, I love Adam and I think he's one of the greatest people that I've ever met so far. For me, I'm just a regular guy and I think a lot of people just related to me." Kris owes his success to the support from his wife saying,  "She's been my biggest supporter and since we got together seven years ago, she's always tried to make me work harder at music. She believed in me a lot because there were times when I wanted to give up and she was like. 'No, dont stop, you're really great and you need to keep doing this ...