GNR Leaker Will Spend A Year In Prison: Kevin Cogill confessed to uploading nine songs that came off Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy to his site. “Cogill became the first Californian charged under a 3-year-old federal antipiracy law that makes it a felony to distribute unreleased copyright works online.” Cogill will spend a year in prison.

The Timeless Power Ballad: Journey’s classic power ballad “Don’t Stop Believin’ has become the first catalog track in history to garner online digital sales of more than 2 million units, according to SoundScan. Are their new songs written today that can transcend culture and time?

Circuit City has officially filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. Will Circuit City will go out of business altogether? If so, this will be another blow for CD sales.

New Music: These Green Eyes are set to release their sophomore album, Relapse To Recovery, on March 24, 2009 on Blackledge Music (with distribution by Atlantic/ADA).

The End of The Firm: Jeff Kwatinetz resigned from The Firm the management/production company he founded in 1997. Kwatinetz will split off and form his own entertainment company. Michael Papale also left the Firm after 10 Years. He will start a new management consultant agency.

American Radio is a band that should, well, be on American Radio. On the heels of a signing like Adelitas Way, and with One Less Reason beginning to make noise with their new EP, and after the success of power ballad superstars Daughtry and Hinder, it would make sense for this Bay Area band to garner some attention. Check out the radio friendly tracks, “Just Can’t Do This” and “Broken” as well as the upbeat, “Don’t Want To Lose”. Expect to hear more from this band in 2009.

Emo pioneers Far have reformed and jumped onto the, “let’s a cover a sexy, R&B hit” bandwagon with their cover of Ginuwine’s hit, “Pony”. With Framing Hanley’s, polarizing rendition of “Lollipop” already making waves at radio, do we really have room for another hip-hop cover?

#1 Update: Christian singer/songwriter Brandon Heath has just spent his 10th week on top of the Christian pop chart with his single, “Give Me Your Eyes” . I think it’s about time to take this one to the mainstream.

Not revolutionary, but solid enough to make waves, Canada’s Age of Daze is busy rising up the Canadian rock chart with their second single, “Overrated”.

Quick Picks:

The Midway State – “Never Again” – catchy, strong chorus, catch them on tour with Thriving Ivory in November.

Nathan Anderson – “All My Life” & “Room For Me” – An excellent voice and good melodies should make for some strong buzz in the coming months.

Girls Like Cigarettes – “Combustible You”

Benton Paul – “Where Are You”

Dallas Osborn currently attends San Francisco State University and works on the Live 105 (KITS) Action Team.

Sources told Kings of A&R several weeks ago that an act known as
Hyper Crush were buzzing among industry execs in the west coast. Those sources attended a Hyper Crush performance and thought it was a cruel joke, in fact, one source said, “This was the most horrible act I ever saw, I cannot believe I was sent here.” Regardless, we at KOAR forgot about this story until we woke up today and read in the Los Angeles Times that the hip hop/elecronic act Hyper Crush inked a deal with Motown/Universal.

What caught the attention of the act was their myspace according to the Times. Hyper Crush has two tracks at nearly a million ‘plays’ and just over 71,000 ‘friends.’ You can decide for yourself if Hyper Crush will be the breakthrough act of the decade, regardless, is the record business still using myspace friends and the number of plays as a sole indicator to sign artists? If the music business approaches 2009 as the same as 2008, serious trouble will linger around the corner.

Read the article ‘Election Puts Tech and Movies On Opposite Paths‘. The big content companies are at crossroads as The election of Barak Obama puts into play an ambitious and progressive technology policy agenda that starts off with “protect the openness of the Internet.”

This Week Sales: Snow Patrol sold 49,000 copies of their new album titled Hundred Million Suns, and Pink only sold 180,000 copies of her new album FunHouse while having a #1 song in the country.

SXSW: The deadline for applying to SXSW is tomorrow. SXSW will take place March 18-22.

Hailing from San Diego, California comes Alternative/indie rock band
War Stories a band driven by the unique, rich, and soulful vocals of Evan Robinson. Previously signed to Columbia, the band was dropped two months before their record was released. That set back which could have ended the band only helped them find a new beginning & they released their debut, self-titled album in August. Check out, “Lion” and see if they’re worthy of a second chance at stardom.

Dallas Osborn currently attends San Francisco State University and works on the Live 105 (KITS) Action Team.