MTV’s “Total Request Live” is no longer totally live. It’s another sign of how both the audience and cultural juice have faded for “TRL,” once the most influential program on television for music superstars from the Backstreet Boys to Beyonce. Two weeks ago, MTV began taping “Total Request Live” two days a week in an effort to save money. After live shows air Monday and Wednesday afternoons, shows are then taped for the following day.

At its peak in 1999, “TRL” had 757,000 viewers a day, with 346,000 of them aged 12 to 17, according to Nielsen Media Research. So far this year, the show — now seen at 3:30 p.m. ET — averages 351,000 viewers a day, Nielsen said. The 12-to-17-year-old audience is only 113,000, half what it was only two years ago.

New Found Glory have split with their label Geffen Records.

Fiction Plane, the British alternative-rock band featuring Sting’s son Joe Sumner, has signed with hard rock indy label Bieler Bros Records. They will be releasing their new album, “The Left Side Of The Brain” on May 22, 2007. They are also tapped as the direct opening on The Police world tour.

One Less Reason is almost cracking the TOP 50 Album Chart in Jackson, MS.

 Tila Tequila who is best known for her appearances in Stuff, Maxim, and as a host of the FUSE TV show Pants-Off Dance-Off has failed to move digital sales. She also was the most popular person on Myspace with close to 2 million friends. So why are her virtual friends leaving this singing sensation behind? Possibly because the song “I Love U” aint a HIT and her virtual friends would rather see her in leather lingerie rather than holding a mic getting jiggy with it. This isn’t brain surgery, and coming out to the PUBLIC with a G- string riding up your ass won’t strike a 40 million dollar deal with Vegas. If you really want to convince yourself that it is a business model problem rather than an artistic issue then read a further breakdown of the sales here.

The Used is streaming new music here. I don’t mind the band, but this won’t take them to the next level.

You may want to pick up the UK’s Kaiser Chiefs new record Yours Truly, Angry Mob which was released on Feb. 27th. The first single Ruby is a great track. Actually, just download the single from I Tunes, after streaming the whole record it was kind of ehh.

Warner Music Group stock continues to plummet ………..

And…….

Southern California based rock pop band Ozma have signed with About A Girl Records (distributed by Sony) to release their next record in North America. Legal is Ben Mclane and management is Gary Spivak.

KOAR will be posting a bunch of “NEW” artists soon.

Lastly…..

Senate Chief is skeptical of Sirius deal….The proposed merger between Sirius and XM may be great for ‘shareholders’ but the fabulous monopoly could be a bad deal for the consumers.

Alternative rock act Rides Again who hails from Canada just signed a publishing deal with Last Gang Publishing and are currently in the studio with producer Gavin Brown (Three Days Grace) .

YouTube to Sponsor Video Awards Show
Lonelygirl15, OK Go and other YouTube sensations will get an opportunity to walk down a virtual red carpet. YouTube has announced its Video Awards Show which will recognize the best-user created videos of 2006. The awards will be handed out in seven categories: most creative, most inspirational, best series, best comedy, musician of the year, best commentary and “most adorable video ever.”

Check out the LA Times for a good recap of SXSW 2007. YOU couldn’t turn your head during last week’s South by Southwest Music Conference without seeing the logo of some company trying to cash in on the event’s hip cachet……..

Lastly…..Who is Bigger than Bruce Springsteen? Simon Cowell is…..

American Idol personality Simon Cowell says he is bigger than Bruce Springsteen. “I sell more records than Bruce Springsteen, sure,” Cowell says of the 57-year-old rocker, who signed a contract that was reported to be in the neighborhood of $100 million. I mean, in the last five years, I’ve probably sold over 100 million records. If (Springsteen) got one hundred (million dollars), I should have got five hundred (million dollars),” he says. “Every single `Idol’ winner is now signed through Sony BMG,” says Cowell. “And this applies to … all the countries … we sell `Idol’ to, which is over 30 countries.”

Former American Idol Star Daughtry’s self titled release is selling like hotcakes (#3 on Billboard). Its not suprising since his songs and voice resemble Scott Stapp of Creed. Creed sold millions in their HEYDAY. Daughtry isn’t GREAT, but its not BAD either. Considering the lack of HITS these numbers shouldn’t suprise you. It also shows you that the general public are salivating for good radio songs and that they still will pay 10 bucks for one song.

The new Nelly Furtado single ‘Say it Right’ is good.

Norah Jones is now platinum.

KORN’s MTV Unplugged sold 51,000K in its first week. This group knows how to stay alive.

Lastly…

Viacom is getting support from media rivals including Time Warner in Google-YouTube Battle.

New York-based News Corp. said companies are justified in asserting copyright claims, while Time Warner called on YouTube to clean up the site.

YouTube has become even more popular since we took down Viacom’s material,” Google General Counsel Kent Walker said yesterday in a statement. “We think that’s a testament to the draw of the user-generated content on YouTube.”

Big News……

Viacom Sues Google For A Billion…

Media conglomerate Viacom said it filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google and video sharing site YouTube over unauthorized use of its copyrighted entertainment.
The suit accuses Google and YouTube of “massive intentional copyright infringement” of Viacom’s entertainment assets and seeks an injunction against further violations.
Viacom contends that almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of its programming have been uploaded onto YouTube’s site and viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

Label news…………

According to sources a list of Australian bands have been let go from Capitol Records including Airbourne and the Vines who failed to deliver records that resonated with the public.

Unless you sold half a million copies of your last record for Capitol, you’re probably gone,” one source said

Other artists that are rumored to have been released are Dandy Warhols, Ima Robot, and Melissa Auf Der Maur.

Some good news for Indie Artists on Indie Labels…

Radio broadcasters are going to give indie bands some play time. I can’t say indie music is better than mainstream pop but at least it breaks up the playlist a bit. In my opinion, hearing the same songs over and over is closer to hell than hearing a really bad indie song. Four major radio broadcast companies have tentatively agreed to pay the government $12.5 million and provide 8,400 half-hour segments of free airtime for independent record labels and local artists in separate agreements in attempt to curb “PAYOLA”.

In other Myspace news……

MySpace is set to launch its own news service that will allow users to comment on and rate stories that they post on their personal pages

Last bit of Miscellaneous news…..

Paris Hilton  talking about her CD.
People go crazy (when they hear it). They love it. Everyone’s like ‘Who’s this?’”
Paris adds, “I, like, cry, when I listen to it, it’s so good.”

KOAR is crying too..

The singing sensation Paris Hilton is to be dropped by her record label Warner Brothers within the next few weeks. Her record sold a mere 185,000 copies in the United States.