Sound Recording Industries

2013: First Year of the Post-CD Era?

Things haven't been looking good for CDs for years now. Ever since the introduction of Napster and the first portable MP3 players, the format has pretty much felt doomed. Since the turn of the century, the CD has hung on valiantly, but its disappearance has remained a question of when, not if. 20 ... More >>

Pink Slipped: The 7 Best Artists To Be Dropped From Their Label

Once upon a time, record labels were the most important thing to an artist who chose to work within the music industry. They could make or break anyone and even world renowned artists knelt at the feet of their masters. Getting dropped from a label was, at one time, a death sentence. Even today man ... More >>

Friday Night: Bomb The Music Industry! At Walter's

Bomb the Music Industry!, Laura Stevenson and The Cans, LIMB, Lisa's Sons Walter's March 30, 2012 New York natives Bomb the Music Industry! is a project spawned from Jeff Rosenstock of Arrogant Sons of Bitches after they broke up. Bomb the Music Industry! provides anthems for taking life with a gra ... More >>

Bill & Ted's Alex Winter Examines Napster's Fall In SXSW Doc Downloaded

Alex Winter (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Idiot Box) has spent the last decade trying to make a movie about Napster, the revolutionary peer-to-peer filesharing site that changed the music industry forever. Winter met Napster founder Shawn Fanning in 2002 and was instantly energized by the p ... More >>

8 Things We Learned from the IFPI's 2012 Report

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) released its 2012 report this week, confirming that the music industry may finally have a reason to be cautiously optimistic about its future. The industry saw its first year-over-year growth since 2004, piracy notwithstanding. The IF ... More >>

Swizz Beatz is the CEO of Shuttered Megaupload...Wait, What?

We've all failed as music journalists. Swizz Beatz is the CEO of Megaupload.com and no one seemed to notice? No one, except Wikipedia (yes, that bastion of factual information on the web), which lists Swizzy's government handle, Kaseem Dean, as the head honcho of Megaupload. Megaupload's "About Us" ... More >>

A Roundup of the 2011 Music Industry Based Strictly on Band Names

XL/Columbia​Theologians love saying things like "Man is created superior to animals" and "Animals can't be equal with humans." And then we go scouring philosophy books to see if animals have immortal spirits and if this means we'll someday meet our pets in heaven. That's a bunch of horse dung. ... More >>

Spinning the Black Circle

Is the music industry stabilizing?

Do Hit Singles Still Help Sell An Album?

J: Cole: Zero hit singles, 218K first-week sales.​​The music industry has been reeling from a host of ailments, none more severe than crippling record sales. Fortunately, 2011 has been a strong year so far, with CD sales on the rise. Spearheaded by the likes of Adele, Lady Gaga and Lil Wayn ... More >>

Rice Researchers: Lack of Copy Protection Decreases Music Piracy

A joint study between marketing professors from Rice University and Duke University has revealed that music industry efforts to reduce piracy through placing copy restrictions -- referred to as Digital Rights Management or DRM -- may actually serve to increase the very theft they wish to prevent. S ... More >>

What's The Leading Cause Of Poor Record Sales?

​Last week, the music world laughed up a hiccup as Lil Wayne pranced around the VMA stage in nut-suffocating, Le Tigre-inspired jeggings. While that performance affirmed that Wayne is no fashion guru, his chart performance a week later reminded us that he's very good at something else-selling ... More >>

Eminem's Victory Over Label Could Have Far-Reaching Effects

Now a Recovery in more ways than one.​Eminem quietly scored a major victory in a case involving download royalties this week. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out an appeal filed by Universal Music Group, the world's largest music empire, against Eminem's former production company F.B.T. Productio ... More >>

The Pomplamoose Revolution

How a band with no CDs or record deal is changing the music industry

Top Six Artist Vs. Record Label Feuds

​Pink Floyd has finally settled its lengthy dispute with their longtime record label EMI. The band, which signed to the label over 40 years ago, first took EMI to court last spring in an effort to clarify their existing contract. Floyd sought to prevent EMI from "unbundling" their albums by se ... More >>

Music Sales Down 2.5 Percent In 2010

​Nielsen SoundScan released its annual report on music sales Monday, and the results were less than surprising. Physical sales continued to decline, digital sales continued to rise, and crap pop continues to reign supreme both at the cash register and on the airwaves. During the period of Jan ... More >>

Whitney Harper: Song Downloader's Appeal Slapped Down By U.S. Supreme Court

Faith Hill shall not be denied​Five record labels that sued a 16-year-old San Antonio girl six years ago for illegally downloading a bunch of shitty music the labels vomited upon the listening public can finally exhale: the U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear the girl's ... More >>

Cheech and Chong: Get It Legal Tour

Scarface Endorses Music Rights Now's Anti-Piracy Campaign

One thing Rocks Off learned from working in Washington, D.C. is that if you constantly get in Congress' face, and bring a big enough crew with you, legislators - believe it or not - listen and sometimes even act on your concerns. When it comes to the music industry, there's never been more of a ... More >>

Houston 2020: The Future Is Unwritten

But hey, that's not stopping Noise.

Copyright Infringement

Get your hands off my sound

Byte This

Consumers try hawking "old" digital music files through new Web sites.

Fight for Your Right

Does the U.S. belong with the Axis of Evil?

Grammy Day at U of H Until 5

Paul Wall: Also available for oral-hygeine advice. Today at the UH Main Campus on Cullen, The Recording Academy and the Grammys are putting on a Career Day for students in the college's music department. The Grammys hold these workshops around the country for students looking to take the leap into ... More >>

Raiding the Houston Press's Photo Archives

Sayonara , Matt Sonzala

Talking SXSW and rap's current malaise with a soon-to-be ex-Houstonian

Pro Athlete Musicians

Athletes step off the field and into the studio

One Small Step for Billboard, One Giant Debut for the Eagles

Vinyl Heads

They're turning to needles, looking for purity

SoundExchange Wants to Kill Internet Radio

On "lost" artists, found money and the murder of free enterprise

DISConnect

Sales of CDs are falling faster than you can say iPod

True Aim, Blue Flame

How Elvis Costello turned his eclectic nature into career gold

From Houston with Love

The city sends a special something to Africa

The Anton Newcombe Massacre

An underground band self-destructs in the hands of its damaged leader

Drastic Unilateral Action

Universal hopes to JumpSTART flagging CD sales with aggressive price cuts. Who benefits the most?

Do the Math

The music industry says online piracy's killing the biz. A UTD prof says it ain't.

Damming the Streams

The major labels want the Internet to be as arid as the airwaves

When Online Got Off Base

Or: How Mark Cuban would have--and could have?--saved the music biz

Napster's Spawn

File-sharing copycats keep free music alive on the Net. The Big Five labels still call it theft.

Streamlining the Hit-Making Process

Clear Channel wants to cut the indies out of the deal

The Art of Getting Broken

Mary Cutrufello wanted to be a rock star. For a moment she was.

Ransom Notes

Can one man convince millions of people to pay for their "free" music?

Paperless Record Deals

Local Music News

Kamikaze Rap

Public Enemy's Chuck D. speaks

MPFree.com

New way to hear music is music to consumers' ears

It Takes One

Lonestar returns to the Lone Star State in a blaze of glory

Changing the Music Industry Bit by Bit

More options mean more choices mean more meetings

Jazzed Up

Talk About Speedy Delivery

Rock & Roller Coaster

Funland's learned the art of getting up after falling down

Heavenly Fire

Jason and the Scorchers reunite, and get hot in the process