I-POD SALES UP 60% 21/04/06
It seems that the price of iPods is set to tumble after Apple announced a boom in sales. The US computer giant said it had sold 8.1 million iPods in the last three months, 60% up on last year. Apple said it would review prices with a suggestion that the 2GB iPod nano being priced at under £100 (E140). IPods still account for more than 6 out of 10 of all players sold.  

EMI AND UNIVERSAL HOLD STEADY 21/04/06
Vivendi , the French conglomerate that owns the Universal Music Group, announced yesterday a 5.7% rise in Q1 sales. The company attributed some of this growth to strong performances by artist such as Andrea Bocelli, Jack Johnson and Prince. Meanwhile digital now makes up 10% of UMG sales. And the UK's EMI saw digital sales  better than expected, rising 150% coupled with strong performances from key artists such as Coldplay,Gorrilaz, Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams the group is on course to deliver a 12% annual profit. EMI Music Publishing have annouced they will administer the recently announced Primary Wave music publishing rights in Kurt Cobain's songs. 

DOHERTY BEHIND BARS - AGAIN 21/04/06
The protestors were out at the Camden Crawl last night (20th April) with Pete Doherty is Innocent banners but the Babyshambles singer was in custody having been arrested and charged with possession of class A drugs with intent to supply. The singer had only that day escaped custody for previous offences having been handed down a supervision order and drug treatment order (and banned from driving for six months) by Magistrates - three hours later he was arrested along with the driver of a car in East London. The driver ws bailed by Doherty kept in custody.

CAMDEN CRAWL PACKS THEM IN 21/04/06
In Camden 6,000 revellers thronged the streets and pressed into Metropolis Music's promoted night of bands and venues in the London Borough. The venues included Koko, The Electric Ballroom, Barfly and the Dublin Castle. Bands included Wolfmother, The Aliens, Futureheads , Guillemots and the Pipettes.

GREAT ESCAPE LINE UP ANNOUNCED 21/04/06
Brighton's new festival of live music and talk on May 18th, 19th and 20th, the Great Escape, has announced its provisional line up with bands including The Bees, British SeaPower, The Feeling, the Kooks, Martha Wainwright, Tapes n Tapes, Electric Soft Parade and the Cribs. For more details see www.escapegreat.com. Talking heads include Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis and there are conference panels on the digital future of music. 

US LIVE INDUSTRY BOUNCES BACK 19/04/06
Billboard Boxscore reports that the North American live industry saw a 28% revenue increase in the first quarter (Q1). from the same period in 2005. This was due to an increase in ticket prices and a 19% increase in attendance. In Q1 2005, some 2,525 shows took place compared to a slight increase to 2,595 shows in the first quarter of this year but total ticket grosses reached $375M (equal to 7.3M ticket sales) showing the US live sector turning around a two-year slump. Top grossing shows were (1) Elton John at Caesers Palace ($6,642,075) (2) The Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon Theatre New York ($2,913,9630 (3) Billy Joel at the MGM Grand Las Vegas ($1,878,581) (4) Cirque de SoleilDelerium at the Philips Arena Atlanta ($1,866,283) and (5) Coldplay / Ricard Ashcroft at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum ($1,765,638. Live Nation promoted two of the top five and co-promoted Cirque de Soleil. http://www.billboard.biz/bb/biz/newsroom/touring_venues/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002345285 / http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/boxscore.jsp

UTSICK SETTLES WITH SEC 19/04/06
The LA Times reports that The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has  reached a settlement with Jack Utsick and two other music promoters, charging them with a $300M securities fraud involving shows by pop stars:The SEC accused Utsick and partners Robert and Donna Yeager of selling securities to more than 3,300 investors nationwide from 1998 to 2005, promising returns of 15% to 25%. No penalties have been agreed as yet.
http://www.latimes.com/business/custom/cotown/la-fi-briefs18.3apr18,1,7924337.story?coll=la-headlines-business-enter / http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2006/lr19659.htm

RIP 19/04/06
Don Alias , percussionist and bandleader who played with Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Blood Sweat & Tears, Sting and Ertha Kit, aged 66. King Floyd III, New Orleans soul singer who had major success in the 70s with the hit Groove Meand the 2000 CD Old School Funk.  William Davies, virtuoso pianist, imrovisor and master of the theatre organ who wrote a number of film scores, aged 84.

SECOND DEATH IN PROOF INCIDENT 19/04/06
Keith Bender , who police say was shot by Proof before the rapper himself was shot and killed, died early on April 18th in a Detroit hospital. Bender, 35, had been in critical condition after being shot in the head a week ago at the CCC, a nightclub on Eight Mile Road, the border between Detroit and its northern suburbs.

JACKSON COMEBACK? 19/04/06
Michael Jackson has taken a step towards a return to his musical career by signing an exclusive recording agreement with Bahrain-based Two Seas Records according to Billboard.com. . The label is a joint venture between the embattled pop star and AbdullaHamad Al-Khalifa. Jackson has been in Bahrain since being acquitted in June 2005 of child molestation charges.

LOVE AND JACKSON BOTH SELL 25% PUBLISHING STAKES 14/04/06
Courtney Love is planning to sell 25% of her interest in the Nirvana song catalogue to Primary Wave Music Publishing . Love and Primary CEO Larry Mestel plan to work together to create more awareness and value for Nirvana's song catalogue, which includes hits such as Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come as You Are and Heart-Shaped Box. Love, who's the executor of Kurt Cobain's estate, previously battled surviving Nirvana band members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl before allowing the release of the Nirvana greatest-hits LP in 2002. Primary Wave Publishing is estimated to have paid more than $50 million for its percentage of the (Kurt Cobain) Nirvana rights, which is greater than Novoselic and Grohl's shares combined. "I am confident that between the genius of Kurt's music, Courtney's own creativity, and our years of experience in the music business, we can achieve something quite remarkable with these copyrights," Mestel said. So far there are no announced plans to use Nirvana songs in any movies, TV shows or ad campaigns. And rumours abound that Michael Jackson will avoid bankruptcy if he provides Sony - co-owners of the Sony/ATV Music catalogue with him - with an option to buy half his stake, or about 25 percent of the whole catalogue for an undisclosed buyout price. The entire Sony/ATV catalogue is valued at $1 billion. Jackson purchased 251 Beatles songs as part of ATV Music in 1985 for $47.5 million and fell out with Sir Paul McCartney over the deal. Sir Paul is still said to resent having to pay to play his own songs when on tour.  The catalogue includes 4,000 other songs including Sweet Caroline and Blowin In The Wind. It is believed that the new deal will release up to $200 million in cash to Jackson and will allow him to use his Mijac catalogue of his own songs as security/collateral against new loans of up to $300 million. This means  Jackson can avoid bankruptcy and can keep his ranch Neverland open.

INDIAN COURT LIFTS BAN ON BAR DANCING 14/04/06
The High Court of Bombay has recently lifted a ban on dancing in bars which had put 75,000 bar dancers out of work, had hundreds more arrested and lost the bar owners substantial amounts of money after income dropped in the aftermath of the Maharashtra State Government's decision. Over 700 bars in Bombay and 600 in the state were forbidden to have women dancing to Bollywood hits as entertainment for mostly male customers. The Government can appeal the decision to the Supreme Court in India. The High Court ruled the band discriminated against the dancers. 

PROOF SHOT DEAD AND JUNE POINTER DIES TRAGICALLY YOUNG 14/04/06
There is shock at the news from the USA  that D12 rapper Proof has been murdered. The Detroit rap artist died from gunshot wounds following an argument in a nightclub on April 11th. Born deShaun Holton in 1975 Proof was a close friend of Eminen, appeared in 8 Mile and a number of videos and was best man at Eminen's (now failed) wedding earlier this year. He released a solo album, Searching for Gerry Garcia, in 2005, looking at the untimely deaths of rock stars such as John Lennon, Kurt Cobain and the Grateful Dead frontman.  And its a sad farewell to June Pointer of the Pointer Sisters, aged 52, of cancer. The group had a number of big hits including Jump and I'm So Excited.

GOTHS PRONE TO SELF HARM AND SUICIDE 14/04/06
They dress like vampires, look miserable and only come out at night wearing faded black Marilyn Manson and Sisters of Mercy T-shirts under leather trench coats but a real dark side to the goth sub culture has been shown in research by the University of Glasgow. The report, in the British Medical Journal, shows that goth identification was the single strongest predictor for youth self harm and attempted suicide. The Glasgow team analysed 1,258 young people when they were 11, 13, 15 and 19 years old and identified fourteen youth sub-cultures when looking at self harm, depression, attempted suicide and various other psychiatric disorders. Goths were the highest risk group although equally those with a tendency to self harm may be attracted to the goth group.  Research leader Robert Young also pointed out in the Times (14/04/06) that the goth culture could also give social and emotional support to young people to help them cope with difficulties they face.

GONG UPDATE 11/04/06
Juanes, Enrique 'Fato' Guzman and Juan Luis Guerra ALL walk out of the BMI Latin Music awards with 'gongs' in their pockets. A 'bravo bravo' to all three of them. And a 'yeee haah' to Carrie Underwood and Billy Currington who both 'win big' at the Country Music Television Awards. Finally its  'jolly well done' to Bryn Terfel, Karl Jenkins and Nicola Benedetti who 'lead the pack' in the nominations for the UK's Classical Brits:

RED RED WINE 11/04/06
The Rolling Stones may not have made the biggest bang in China with their state censored show to 8000 ex-pats but the The Association of Independent Music (AIM) is making big inroads and has signed a deal with SINA – the biggest ISP in China – to allow streaming of promo audio and video clips of British acts (and linking to the artists' official sites). Stereophonics, Basement Jaxx and The Rakes are among the first acts to participate. SINA has 180M registered users in China and will set up a dedicated UK Music area on its ortal. And sales of music by mobile is expected to be a huge growth area and a key driver: Analysis International reports that the wireless music market in China could be worth Yuan 13.5B (£1.4B) by 2008 when wireless music subscribers could top 114M (equal to 20% of mobile subscribers in the country). The market grew at a compound annual growth rate of 539% from 2003 (when it was worth Yuan 176M) to 2005 (when it was worth Yuan 7.2B). China was the 20th biggest music market in 2004,  despite a piracy rate of over 50%.

GLASTONBURY FILM PREMIERES 11/04/06
The Glastonbury Film, Directed by Julien Temple, debuts in London tonight (11th April) with a premiere in Leicester Square. Guest of honour include the Festival's organiser Michael Eavis and stars such as Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and members of Maximo Park and the Magic Numbers. The film charts the 35 years of the Festival's history and 35 years of social change in the United Kingdom using rare archive material from the Festival's own archive, from the BBC (who co-produced the Film) and from amatuer film makers who have come to the Pilton site over the years. The film is released on April 14th.
www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk  http://www.glastonburythefilm.com/flash_positive.htm