Facebook Close To Myspace: Facebook has grown increasingly popular as it approaches Myspace numbers. MySpace claims to have about 110m active users, Facebook about 80m. Also, Facebook obtained more than 123m unique visitors in May compared with 114.6m unique visitors at MySpace. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has come under scrutiny as of late as he is facing allegations that his creation was based on ideas he stole from others.

Internet Shake-up: Hundreds of new domain names could be created by the end of the year, rising to thousands in the future according to BBC. Top level domains such as .com or .uk may be a thing of the past.

Signings: American idol winner Taylor Hicks will sign to jazz label Vanguard Records after being dropped from Sony. Oasis signed a three album deal with SonyBMG. The band will create music under their own label Big Brother Records while Sony will handle the marketing and distribution.

Recommended Listening: Everything I Ask For by The Maine. The band will release their new album titled ‘Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop’ through Fearless Records on 7/8/08.

Chairman of Live Nation Resigns: Michael Cohl has resigned as chairman of the board of Live Nation, instead Cohl will serve as a consultant to the company. Cohls exit came after a dispute with Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino who were battling the long term stratey of Live Nation’s future.

British ISPs and Music Companies Enter Talks: British ISPs and music rights holders are now engaged in serious negotiations according to Digital Music News. The British government is finally stepping in and legislators are putting pressure on ISP’s and music right holders to find a solution for the massive piracy that has victimized artists and music companies. An annual industry conference that features labels, publishers, rights societies, artists, managers were finally greeted by participating ISPs that included Tiscali, Carphone Warehouse, Virgin, and BT.

France sets date for anti-piracy law: More good news for artists and the anti-piracy front. France’s ‘three strikes and you’re out’ antipiracy law, which will knock off offenders off the Internet for up to a year, will hit the statute books early next year. P2P sites and feed Internet addresses will be monitored for thieves looking to steal movies and music. They hope this law will cut piracy by 70% to 80%.

The Orchard Aquires TVT Assets: Bankrupt indie label TVT Records has entered in an agreement with The Orchard to sell its recorded music arm according to the NY Post. ‘The Orchard will acquire the TVT catalog, its artists contacts and TVT’s physical distribution business’. The companies are hoping to seal the deal on July 3rd.

Many reading KOAR are fans of bands that they think should make it big more often than not, these bands don’t achieve the level of success that we expected. Whether they just don’t get picked up by a major and end up disbanding after years of not being offered a record deal, or, among other situations, signed to an indie label and never reached the audience you thought they deserved. In this version of Soundcheck, I’m going to talk about a few bands that I felt had the talent and the songs to make it big, but for some reason didn’t. Check out the songs in Soundcheck Myspace player at http://www.myspace.com/soundcheckkoar

First off, Orson from Los Angeles, CA. After Maroon 5 had big hits in 2003 and 2004, I thought that this funky pop/rock band had a sure hit in the states with their single “No Tomorrow”. After a few years in Los Angeles and a minor amount of buzz, these guys went over to the UK and quickly got a deal from Mercury. “No Tomorrow” reached #1 on the UK singles chart in 2006 and the debut album “Bright Idea” debuted at #1 on the UK album chart in the spring of that year. In my opinion, American pop stations missed out on this one.

Boston-based pop/rock band Averi released two full-length albums before parting ways with lead singer Chad Perrone in 2006. “The Bones Underneath” is a track that defines what this band is about with a good mix of saxophone and radio friendly melodies. They opened for bands like Matchbox Twenty, Eve 6, and Gavin Degraw, but were never offered a record deal.

Florida rockers Waking Season seemed poised to take rock radio by storm a few years ago with tracks like “I’m Sorry” and “Cold Day in Hell”. The success never came and the band has seemingly disappeared in recent years.

Adelayda signed w/ indie label Superkala Records in 2004 and saw minor radio success with their single “Not Tonight”. They had the vocals and the power ballad, but they disbanded a few years ago and haven’t been heard from since.

CONTINUE READING

Chaos of the music business has become more interesting than music: Sasha Frere-Jones is a critic of The New Yorker and disappointed that the New York Times laid off the famed music reporter Jeff Leeds.

‘Music reporters may be more relevant than critics now. It is only a mild exaggeration to say that the chaos of the music business has become more interesting than the music.We need reporters who value critical thought as much as an early lead. Critics live on big ideas and dine out on punch lines. Bloggers shoot first, ask blunt questions, and aggregate the paid folks’ writing when it works. Leeds is as fast as the bloggers, a better reporter than most critics, and a good critic even when limited by house style to implication and artful association.’

Are we insterested in the music Radioplay has to offer or how they release the music? sames goes for NIN…

A Taste of Democracy: Nine finished” tracks from Guns N’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy” were leaked online yesterday by the Web site Antiquiet.com. The links were removed following a cease-and-desist order from the band’s management.

Coldplay accused of Plagiarism: A less than stellar band from the US called Creaky Boards is trying to win their ticket to fame by accusing Coldplay of plagiarism. The band blamed Chris Martin for the alleged artistic theft, saying that Coldplay’s frontman attended a Creaky Boards concert in New York last year. Chris Martin says it’s a proven fact that he was in the studio in London, not attending a Creaky Boards show in NYC. We don’t like to give this lame band press, but here is the video from Creaky Boards. Also, if you listen to both tracks, only 4 notes in the song show a slight similarity.

iTunes: Apple has announced that consumers have purchased and downloaded over five billion songs on iTunes.

Radiohead Ticket Giveaway Fails: Radiohead were left with a raft of empty seats at a recent French gig after a ticket giveaway proved a utter failure. Singer Thom Yorke and his gang announced that 50 passes were available, but the fans would have to collect them by bicycle from record label XL’s Paris office. Their were 35 unclaimed tickets out of the 50 – stop with press stunts and just act like a band again…

Amazon Dabbles With Discount Prices: Amazon is now deep-discounting select MP3 albums, part of an effort to generate more excitement among music fans according to Digital Music News. Coldplay’s X&Y dropped to $1.99, along with the rest Coldplay catalog titles. Other albums will be dropped as low as 99-cents. ‘According to one executive, Amazon is now dabbling with “Russian prices,” a reference to the now-defunct AllofMP3 and other deep-discount sites, though lower-priced experimentation could raise broader sales volumes.’

The Rapper Bucks The System: Lil Wayne debut at No. 1 with a million units sold. “There’s no logical answer,” said Universal Motown President Sylvia Rhone of why consumers are snapping up Lil Wayne albums, but few others. “This is one of the most anticipated hip-hop records of all time. He’s more of a household name than people give him credit for.” Just think about it, every club goer is grinding to ‘Lick Me Like A Lollipop‘.

WWE Spikes Music Sales: ‘It broadcasts television shows in 130 countries and in 20 languages. It averages a weekly global audience of 47 million viewers.’ Impact on music sales from a WWE placement can be immediate. For instance, WWE featured the song “Leave the Memories Alone” by veteran hard rock band Fuel and spiked downloads to 8,000 during the next two weeks, according to SoundScan. WWE music director Jim Johnston wants to get the word about just how much music is used in WWE and said “The labels will stumble over themselves to get on MTV, but no one’s watching MTV.”

New Music Stream: Thriving Ivory’s album is now streaming on Vh1.

The Decline: Read the article ‘A brief history of the album’s recent decline in value‘ that appears in the Los Angeles Times. ‘Less than 10 years ago, it was common for albums to cost $15 and above. Apple helped redefine what the price of an album could be in the minds of consumers, but Steve Jobs’ company is far from the only reason that albums are costing less and less.’

Last.fm Adds Videos: Last.fm just added 12,000 music videos to its site today following a deal with Universal Music. The deal is funded through advertising. Warner just pulled its catalog off of Last.fm finding it not profitable.

New Study/ Thieves Pay For Music? Eighty percent of illegal file-swappers would be interested in a paying for a legal file-sharing service that gave them universal access to digital music, according to a new study. We think the study is full of it. I think someone just wants buffet of music for a monthly cost..

Court Allows Transfer of Promotional CDs: Troy Augusto who regularly sells promo CD’s on ebay was sued by Universal Music for copyright infringement. The court ruled against Universal.

Climbing: Carolina Liar is climbing up fast on the alternative rock charts. Check out the track I’m Not Over.

Recommended Listening: Take Me by Kingsley

Orphans Works Update: Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Congressman John Hall (D-NY) (formerly of Orleans and the only professional musician in Congress) will host a town hall meeting on the controversial “orphan works” legislation on Saturday, June 21, at 2pm at the Sunset Grill in Nashville. The event is free and open to the public.

ISP’s Embracing Music Biz: Read the article ‘Cash, not idealism, behind ISP embrace of music biz‘ that talks about ISPs wanting a piece of the fat ad/content pie.

Breakout Artists: Who are the breakout artists this year? can you name them?