Best Buy To Stock Unsigned Bands: Best Buy is teaming up with Regionalcd.net to stock their shelves and online store with regional and local artists. Local artists who are chosen for the program will have their album sold in selected Best Buy locations and BestBuy.com. Artists who are considered for the program must have activity that will be measured by their local performances, Myspace/Facebook pages, and fan base. Of course your local indie record store (if you have any) is probably a better destination for your CD’s .

Study – Radio Wins: Another study conducted by Jupiter Research says “word of mouth and radio are the most common means of music discovery among” music influencers.” According to Jupiter’s data, radio is far and away the most popular method of music discovery for all four of its categories: “music aficionados,” “paying downloaders,” “CD purists” and “overall online users.”

Ageing Rockers Risk Copyright Protection: Artists currently lose the rights to their recordings after 50 years but the EU wants to extend the copyright to last 95 years.

EMI – Office Move: After eliminating thousands of jobs, EMI is looking for smaller office space in NYC for its recorded music division. Also, Sony BMG’s RCA/J Records is moving to 550 Madison Ave.

Striking a Nerve: Rolling Stone mag will publish the best ‘ all time ‘ singers in November. Regardless if they are dead or alive, voters will be asked to select the top 20 singers. The criteria is based on originality, stage presence, influence and, most important, vocal ability. Fox’s Roger Friedman asks, “Why is Justin Timberlake, Aaliyah and Perry Ferrell are on the same ballot as Whitney Houston, Paul Rodgers and James Taylor”? Of course we agree with his commentary that these lists are simply marketing tools designed to infuriate readers and stimulate sales. This celebrity sickened culture sucks….

New Artist Updates: One Less Reason is currently recording an EP with producer Rick Beato.

Lovers and Liars who hail from Nashville are beginning to make inroads in their scene. Creative influences are drawn from musical pioneers such as Nine Inch Nails, Leonard Cohen, and Mike Patton, as well as Blue October and Angie Aparo. The band won “Best Alternative Band” and “Song of the Year” (for Buried Alive) at the Local Buzz Awards. The Buzz (102.9 FM) is Nashville’s largest modern rock station. The band struck deal with Bunim/Murray for placement of L+L music in B/M shows including “The Real World: Hollywood” (MTV) and “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” (E!). The band Will be releasing a dual EP selling it on their own using PayPal.

Bassist Adam Nagel tells KOAR that Lovers and Liars vows to change the landscape of modern rock, it’s already starting to happen on the local scene and they want to take it to the national level. Listen to the track
Nothing Left Here To Burn.

Recommended Show: Negative Space is performing in NYC at Crash Mansion Thursday July 17th. For fans of mainstream rock bands including Breaking Benjamin, Saliva, and Seether. Listen to the track Right Now.

Amazon MP3 Store: Sources claim that Amazon may have 4% to 5% of the U.S. digital music market which would result in 27 million tracks being sold so far this year. Apple would have sold 1 billion tracks in the same period.

Buzzing: Rock band Settings, a KOAR favorite, has posted a video for the track Creatures on their myspace. The band recently appeared on MTV’s TRL, lead singer Donny Evans is a legitimate frontman and the band is moving closer to a breakout song.

Idol News: Daughtry is in the studio writing recording his sophomore album and once again he will be writing with the same songwriters that worked on his debut. He will be working with Dave Basset (Shinedown) and Tommy Heriksen (Revis), Mitch Allan (All These Lives), David Hodges and Ben Moody (What About Now), Brian Howes (What I Want, Over You), Ryan Tedder (One Republic),and Emerson Hart (Tonic).

EMI – Corporate Accounting: An internal e-mail from Guy Hands that was sent to his staff described a rosier path for EMI. “Mr Hands said revenue from the recorded music division rose 61 per cent to £288.1m ($574.8m) in the three months to the end of June.” Basically, firing employees spiked short term revenue, but what about next year?

Radio: Dead or Alive?

Now, with more ways than ever to listen to only the music you want, anywhere you want, has terrestrial radio become nostalgic? Is internet radio the only radio of the future? Can satellite radio, local, and college stations maintain their listeners in the coming years?

Basically, is the radio still important?

This is just something I’ve become curious about after seeing a lot of young people around my age (I’m 19, by the way) reject radio because, “They always play the same songs over and over.” “There’s too many commercials”, or they just plug in their iPod.
With this seemingly mass movement of anti-radio young people, why does it remain so essential to the breaking of new bands and record sales?

Radio of any kind remains somewhat important because it still is a status symbol. Regardless of whether or not you have an issue with KROQ playing too much Chili Peppers or Foo Fighters, if your band gets on that station you could see a record deal overnight.
Radio can still set trends, Denver’s KTCL has seen local acts The Fray, Meese, Flobots, & Tickle Me Pink all receive sizable deals (and success) so far, and Boulder, CO hip-hop act 3oh!3 is probably on the same path (“Don’t Trust Me” is either lyrically genius, or lyrically awful, you decide.)

What Radio can still be, is a sign that a band has “Made it”.
Though it seems that today, you need a video on MTV or any other channel and any further TV/movie placement to legitimately “make it” and sell some records.

Radio can be still the be the key to new listeners and one of the biggest perks of being signed to a major label.

What I want to know is, where do you see radio headed in the future? Is it already dead? Will you ever go an hour without hearing a song from Sublime or Nirvana? Is the internet to radio what “Dip-N-Dots” is to Ice cream (Calling itself the future of the industry, but never seemingly getting there)? Does anyone not have an issue with Clear Channel? And most importantly, will it remain important?

Now, check out some international up & comers:

Before The Worst by The Script (UK based Phonogenic Records)

Dust by Royworld (Virgin Records)

I Don’t Wanna Love Her by Brinck (Copenhagen Records)

‘Radio: Dead or Alive’ is written by Dallas who currently attends San Francisco State University and works on the Live 105 (KITS) Action Team.

New Artist Happenings: Val Emmich who will be releasing his forthcoming album ‘Little Daggers’ on indie label Bluhammock Music, will be appearing in a few episodes of the upcoming season of Ugly Betty on ABC and will be playing the lead role in Annette Apitz’s debut independent film Fighting Fish. Listen to the track Get On With It.

Crisis In Hollywood? Yes, The credit crunch has hit home in Hollywood after Paramount Pictures was forced to suspend plans for a $450m film financing. The truth is Paramount has lost investor confidence. Read the column Crisis or Not?

Signings: New Jersey metal act Mutiny has signed a deal with RoadRunner Records and North Carolina screamo metal band A Hero A Fake has signed to Victory Records.