McCain Lifts Off With Van Halen: John McCain introduced Sarah Palin as his running mate with Van Halen’s song “Right Now“. Sammy Hagar has no objection to the Republican Party using the group’s song and said “When I wrote the lyrics to ‘Right Now’, I intended them to inspire people to not sit around and wait for something they believed in but to go out and get it, to make a change however they needed to”

New Video Stream: It’s been the month of Metallica. Metallica has posted the war centered video for the track ‘The Day That Never Comes‘ which can be found on their myspace.

Signings: Post Hardcore band Funeral For A Friend who was signed to Ferret Music and later Atlantic Records have now signed with Victory Records and will release their new album ” Memory and Humanity” on October 28th.

This Week Sales: Slipknot, the metal act from Iowa is expected to sell at least 200k. The band aimed for world domination early in their career and it seems like they accomplished their goal.

The Last Days of Bandwidth Hogs: Comcast recently announced that starting Oct. 1 it would set a threshold for monthly Internet usage. Users will be allowed 250 gigabytes of monthly usage. Comcast said its average residential customer uses approximately 2 to 3 GB while bandwidth hogs could typically use 250 gigabytes. Consuming 250 gigabytes would be comparable to sending 50 million e-mails, 62,500 songs, download 125 standard-definition movies or upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos. Frontier and Time Warner Cable are now moving toward imposing internet usage caps.

Universal Music Dodges The Bullet: The Rolling Stones jumping ship and joining Universal Music may have helped Vivendi meet its financial goals, profits for the quarter were up 12%. The rise of digital music is also contributing to the increase of Universal’s market share.

Man Arrested For Leaking Guns N’ Roses Tracks: A Los Angeles man who posted nine pirated tracks from “Chinese Democracy,” from Guns N’ Roses, was arrested by FBI agents and charged with violating federal copyright laws. He uploaded the songs from a computer at the online ad sales company where he works and if convicted of the felony count, he faces up to five years in prison. It’s about time the government is enforcing copyright laws. Here is the affidavit.

New Music: Listen to Walking Alone and Finding Your Way by
Daniel Ghattas. Ghattas hails from Montreal and draws influences from Bryan Adams, Daniel Powter, and Jack’s Mannequin. When I started writing and recording songs I vowed that I would make sure every track on my album was not just good but great. “No filler tracks” was my motto says Ghattas.

Music Biz Questions iTunes After Kid Rock’s Platinum Record:
The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “More Artists Steer Clear of iTunes“. Although iTunes have sold 5 billion downloads a growing number of record companies are trying to steer clear of Apple’s iTunes because they think that in some cases it’s crimping overall music sales.

Atlantic Records recently pulled the album by R&B singer Estelle from the iTunes Store, the same week that one of its songs entered the top-10-selling tracks on iTunes.

Many artists do not want their work dismantled and to be sold in individual tracks, instead iTunes requires that songs be made available separately. Artists, managers, and labels believe they can make more by selling complete albums for $10 to $15 than by selling individual songs. “In so many ways it’s turned our business back into a singles business,” says Ken Levitan, Kid Rock’s manager.

We think this solution is easy. iTunes requires that songs be made available separately because consumers prefer that, but, do artists prefer this? If artists want to sell their album as a complete package then iTunes should have this option. I can’t completely agree with Kid Rock’s manager that iTunes turned the music business into a singles business, because the music biz has always been a singles business since the 1970’s. Although it’s not far fetched and unreasonable to believe that iTunes can cripple album sales in some cases.

Neil Diamond’s Offer Called ‘Unprecedented’: Neil Diamond who is suffering from acute laryngitis apologized to his fans and offered refunds to 11,000 people who attended his concert. Diamond is a true rock n’ roller because he went on stage and gave it his all yet still offered refunds because of a subpar performance. Some industry veterans said they’d never heard of a performer offering refunds because of the quality of the show.

Recommended Listening: Listen to Proud To Be and Its Just Business by Hand Me Down Buick. The band hails from Atlantic City, NJ and they don’t stray to far away from the multitude of bands on purevolume. Although musically they may be on top of the heap it still won’t propel them to national status. We are hoping that some of the talented bands will let go of ‘Emo’ and renew their spirit of experimentation and musical innovation that will hopefully result into a new exciting scene.

New Video Stream: Glam band Hinder has posted the video for their current rock single ‘Use Me’. Seems to be a big budget video with a cast full of girls, but they definitely pulled it off.

LimeWire Moving Towards A Paid Platform: File sharing site LimeWire is moving towards a paid platform. According to Digital Music News Lime Wire finalized a content agreement with The Orchard, a deal that adds approximately 1.2 million songs to the LimeWire Store. Pricing options would include:

25 monthly downloads for $9.99
50 downloads for $14.99
and 75 songs for $19.99.

Songwriting Competition: ISC (International Songwriting Competition) has announced its line-up of judges. This year’s judges include Rob Thomas (Matchbox 20), Tom Waits, Ray Davies (The Kinks), Ricky Martin, McCoy Tyner, T-Pain, Loretta Lynn, Chaka Khan, Robert Smith (The Cure), and many more. To enter, go to www.songwritingcompetition.com

It’s A Long Way To The Top If You Want To Rock N’ Roll: Mark Stoermer, The Killers bassist says new bands breaking into the music industry will have a tough time. “It’s a really hard time for new bands,” says Stoermer. “It’s not that there’s a lack of good music, it’s just that labels are struggling financially.” “Some people say that record labels are bad but people forget they are the ones who break the bands and get them on their way.” Although Mark says that people are more excited to see live bands today, “In the Eighties no-one was really going to see live music. Now it’s big business.”

Although we love The Killers we disagree with Mark’s statement that there isn’t a lack of good music. Mark may not realize that he is a member in a band with a killer rock star frontman that happened to write some mega songs. The threat isn’t bankrupt labels, the true threat is the lack of creativity and inspiration.

Yes my friend, there is a lack of good music which is why some labels are primarily bankrupt. It’s called the chicken and the egg scenario. What came first, the chicken or the egg? Now, does the band break themselves or does the label break the band? KOAR is betting on the chicken.

Lastly, nothing can stop or block an artist from writing great songs except for inspiration. When inspiration is non-existent then creativity and originality ceases to exist. This is what we are experiencing today known as the creative drought. An artist will ‘Make It’ If he or she writes great songs and presents an entire exciting package that excites an audience. At that point it will become undeniable and you will make many important friends who will assist in broadening your market.

Send new music along with your myspace to tips@kingsofar.com

New Stream: Metallica has now posted a uptempo song titled My Apocalypse that will come off Death Magnetic.

Revolver Mag recently interviewed guitarist Kirk Hammmett.

I’m really psyched about that and just curious as to what people are gonna say about how my style changed says Kirk. It’ll probably run the gamut from “Ah, it’s really fucking great,” to “Ah, he fucking sucks.” So, I’m ready for it all. That’s just the way it is. Especially with the Internet now. I mean, everyone’s a critic nowadays whether they’re qualified or not.

My brother-in-law came up to me and was like, “Are there any bands who are in their 20s that you guys are intimidated by?” And I thought about it long and hard and I’m like, “No.” I wish there was because it would give us a nice challenge and motivate us to maybe step up to their plate, whatever their plate might be.