Live Nation To Rely On Major Music Labels? Live Nation is considering relying on record labels to promote their newly signed artists after paying mega-millions to Madonna, Jay-Z, Shakira and Nickelback. According to the New York Post, ‘Warner Music Group could end up handling the marketing, promotion and distribution of albums by the very acts that defected from it to join Live Nation: Nickelback and Madonna.’ Industry music veterans including Bob Ezrin, Bob Cahill and Bill Hein who were hired by Live Nation to work with the newly signed acts were all recently fired.

Bleeding To Death: Read the article published in Bloomberg titled ‘Guy Hands May Get No Satisfaction as Web Pirates Let EMI Bleed‘. The challenge is to overhaul the unit responsible for finding and hiring new talent and releasing their albums, because too many EMI artists never earn back their advances, says Guy Hands.

New Music: Briana Taylor recently landed on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. She appeared on the Real World and released her self-titled EP on Chamberlain Records. Check out the track Summertime and Tragic.

Sales: Kid Rock sold 92,000 copies this week of ‘Rock n Roll Jesus’ thanks to his megahit ‘All Summer Long’. This is the story of the year.

Although The Dark Knight movie is set to break records, no one seems to care about the soundtrack. The soundtrack sold 20k copies this week with a tally of 45k.

Clear Channel Unveils Radio Network: Clear Channel will launch 900 online radio stations. The network will have the widest marketing reach in online radio which reaches an audience of 4.7 million.

Recommended Listening: Dear Child by Anthony Green. The record titled ‘Avalon’ will be released August 5th via Photo Finish Records.

New Music: Wherever I Stand by Taproot. This four-piece alternative metal group released 3 records via Atlantic Records. The new record titled ‘Our Long Road Home’ which was produced by Tim Patalan will be released independently through their management firm Velvet Hammer Music in a partnership with Sony -owned RED Distribution.

Best Buy to open in-store music centers: Best Buy will begin to sell musical instruments hoping to offset the lackluster sales of CDs and DVDs. Each site will use about 2,500 square feet of retail space and include roughly 1,000 different products with well-known brand names such as Fender, Gibson, Drum Workshop and Roland.

Warped Review: Check out the review of Vans Warped Tour published by The New York Times

The days are limited for the megastars/heritage acts including Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, and Jimmy Buffett. Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar says “Year in and year out, those acts are good for 18,000 seats, but that part of the business is going to come to an end.”

We have seen new artists like Coldplay, Dave Matthews, and Radiohead develop into arena artists, but we don’t know if they will have same longevity as the classic rockers. Bongiovanni says, “Is John Mayer still going to be selling tickets 30 years from now, like James Taylor is 30 years past his prime? Pick a band. Is Green Day going to be replacing the Who?”

“We’re seeing more artists develop up to arena-level or amphitheater-headlining status for a couple of tours, then fade back down,” Bongiovanni says.

The truth is arena acts will be threatened because todays artists cannot make a genuine connection with the audience. Also, the audience today has more entertainment options. “The general industry view is there are going to be fewer arena-level tours and more business in the middle of the market, playing venues with anywhere from 4,000 seats to 12,000 seats,” Bongiovanni says.

XM-Siruis, Done Deal: The FCC formally approved the merger of XM-Sirius satellite radio. This means millions subscribers will be able to receive programming from both services.

New Music: The Ropes, a new wave NYC female fronted act just released their album ‘What They Do For Fun’ on iTunes. Listen to ‘What They Do For Fun‘ and ‘I Don’t Like to Get Dirty‘.

Recommended Listening: No Room To Breathe by There For Tomorrow. Our next favorite track is Pages. The new EP will be released August 5th via Hopeless Records. The lead singer Maika looks like Gerard Way from My Chem, but at least they have some good songs.

Signings: Wind-Up has signed the South African rock band Civil Twilight. Their track “Human” appeared on CBS’ Without a Trace and ‘Letters From The Sky’ was featured for the season finale promo of Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles on FOX. The band’s debut is expected to be released in late 2008.

Breakout: Miley Cyrus is expected to sell near the 400k range with her new release. Some compare the growth of her franchise to Elvis’s in his heyday.

New Myspace Partner? MySpace is about to launch a new music service and is said to be partnering with Amazon to handle all music ecommerce transactions. Sources also say Apple and Rhapsody are also bidding for the business but a Finale decision hasn’t been made.

Buzzing: Kasper The K an unknown and unsigned Kentucky rapper is buzzing in the hip hop community. The track Whatchagondo which samples Obsession by the 80’s new wave act Animotion is finding its way on several top 40 radio stations. Kasper from the K was also chosen for the soundtrack on the newly released “MX vs. ATV Untamed” for the XBOX360, alongside Nickelback, The Used, and My Chemical Romance. He also has “fan-made” dance videos on YouTube totaling 500,000+ views.

New Music: Copper an unsigned Knoxville band have put up two new tracks on their myspace titled Overrated and Call To Action. Their track Broken Sky can be heard on multiple active rock stations.

Rolling Stones Signs With Universal: Rolling Stones left to EMI to sign a deal with Universal. The band has signed a long term global deal and the new recordings will be released under UMG’s Polydor label. The Rolling Stones were the top-earning music act last year, according to a list compiled by Forbes.com. There is no question that the Rolling Stones are one of the most important bands in music history,” Universal Music Chief Executive Officer Doug Morris said in the statement.

Yahoo! Music Store is Dead: As of September 30th the Yahoo Music Store will be officially closed. Read this about backing up your music files.

Recommended Show: This World Fair at The Viper Room @ 9PM (7/25/08)

The Vinyl Boom: The Oregonian has an article titled ‘Will oil prices sink the vinyl record boom?‘ that discusses the possible price increase of vinyl due to higher petroleum prices.