Ryan Book

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  • The Physical Network: Word of Mouth Moving Tickets to Bestival, Electric Zoo, More

    So you've just started a music festival and you haven't figured out how to inspire fans to come to your event and not the hundreds like it. Enter The Physical Network, a marketing team bent on using your fans to sell tickets to their pals in return for a free pass. Big-name events such as Bestival, Electric Zoo and the Electric Daisy Carnival are turning to brothers Liam and Callum Negus-Fancey to do the hard part for them.

  • Music Times Talks to Peter Wolf about New Solo Work, the J. Geils Band and More

    Peter Wolf made a name for himself as the vocalist of the J. Geils Band but he'll be releasing a new solo album in 2016. We caught up with him prior to his more famous band's tour stop at New York's Beacon Theatre, He talked about his music, his art work, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the beauty of a good harmonica player.

  • Longest Gaps Between Albums: Dr. Dre, Kraftwerk, Jeff Lynne and More

    Dr. Dre finally did away with all the conjecture last week when he released Compton, a follow-up to 2001 that 16 years in the making (his last album, despite its title, was dropped in 1999). That span marks two years longer than the time it took Axl Rose and company to release the Guns N' Roses notorious Chinese Democracy. Unlike that album however, Dre's has found a fan base that was expecting it all along and isn't disappointed with the results. Although it may not top the Billboard 200, facing stiff competition from Luke Bryan's Kill The Lights, the release of Compton will serve as one of the bigger drops of 2015 when all's told. Still, 16 years is hardly anything when compared with the longest gaps between releases.

  • 6 Lopsided Hip-Hop Beefs: Eminem, Cassidy, El-P Eviscerate Foes

    Meek Mill is trying to put this whole Drake beef behind him, as the latter emcee has won on every front—from diss tracks to social media—since the former decided it would be wise to accuse him of ghostwriting. We always here about the great rap rivalries—Biggie vs. Tupac, Jay vs. Nas—but we tend to forget about the emcees who get rolled over, just like what happened to Mill. We'll take the attention off of him for a while with this collection of one-sided bar-fights.

  • Austin City Limits Curfew for Euphoria, Levitate, Other Area Festivals

    The legal battle between a popular Austin-area music festival hotspot and neighboring community is over, with a noise curfew in place. Carson Creek Ranch—the host of events including Levitation (previously known as the Austin Psych Fest), EDM festival Euphoria, as well as the Texas Bandits and Outlaws Country Music Festival—drew the ire of a nearby farm and will now be forced to shut down earlier in the evening.

  • Okilly Dokilly Rocks "Nedal," Ned Flanders-Themed Metal Music

    Metal bands don't tend to be the most Christian of entities, but that doesn't mean that a Ned Flanders-themed group won't be awesome. And that's exactly what we've got in the form of Phoenix's Okilly Dokilly, which describes itself as the world's only "Nedal" band.

  • Barack Obama Won't Force Kanye West to Release 'Swish,' Despite Petition

    The government has once ignored the demands of its constituency as Barack Obama has refused to force Kanye West to release his new album, believed to be titled 'Swish.' In all seriousness, a petition at the We The People site, which allows citizens to gather attention to causes via digital petitions, raised 100,000 signatures in support of forcing of forcing the rapper/producer to release his new album.

  • Family Guy's Peterpalooza Packs Snoop Dogg, Deadmau5, Weird Al, More

    Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane is bringing the biggest music event to Rhode Island since the Newport Folk Festival, including performances from Deadmau5, Snoop Dogg, Weird Al Yankovic and more. Unfortunately, this revelry won't take place in real life but you can certainly check it out via the Family Guy: Quest For Stuff app.

  • 5 Songs You Didn't Know Violated Copyright: Johnny Cash, Radiohead and More

    Music samples and their legality has been a hot-button issue in music news this year: First, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were forced to pay the estate of Marvin Gaye over similarities between their smash hit "Blurred Lines" and his "Got To Give It Up," and now Jay Z and Timbaland will head to court to establish whether they properly licensed an Egyptian music sample found on "Big Pimpin'." Although courts have seen more action from those whose copyrights have been infringed recently, it's hardly a new phenomenon. Here are five hits from years past that were busted for being a little too close to another song for comfort. It's important to note just little listeners today remember the lawsuits.

  • Best Digital Sellers by Genre: Rihanna, Carrie Underwood and More

    Carrie Underwood received official word this week that she was the bestselling country music performer of the digital era, having moved for than 29.6 million tracks in her career. That places her ahead of Jason Aldean and his 23.5 million digital sales, at least for the time being. Despite moving more than 5 million copies of hits such as "Before He Cheats," Underwood is still far, FAR behind some of the best sellers in the digital history of other genres (country musicians benefit from having a fan base still very dedicated to buying albums, as Luke Bryan will note when he tops Dr. Dre on the album charts at the end of this week). It got us thinking: What performers are at the top of their respective genres?

  • Big Pimpin' Finally Gets Trial Date

    Jay Z, Timbaland and other representatives of various music agencies will finally come to court to comment on one of the longest-running lawsuits in the United States, questioning the use of a sample in the single "Big Pimpin'." The emcee and the producer will comment at a trial scheduled to begin in October after more than 16 years of legal wrangling.

  • Bill Anderson's Acoustic Guitar Found at Pawn Shop 50 Years Later

    Toyota released a commercial last year that featured a young woman buying a storage unit, where she discovers on of B.B. King's iconic Gibson "Lucille" model guitars, which she promptly returns to the blues legend (in her Camry), and he rewards her with an autographed axe of her own. Sounds like a far-fetched story, but a similar incident occurred recently when a man found an acoustic guitar belonging to country icon Bill Anderson at a pawn shop, and opted to return it.

  • Led Zeppelin Dominates Albums Chart with 'Out Door,' 'Coda.' 'Presence' Rereleases

    A slow week in album releases means that one performer dominated record sales this week, and it's not Taylor Swift: Led Zeppelin landed three different albums in spots nos. 2-4 on the charts. The last three titles in the band's discography—'In Through The Out Door,' 'Coda' and 'Presence,' respectively—were given remastered rereleases, featuring new content, which was enough to bring classic rock fans out to record stores to pick up the new entries. 'Out Door' sold 24,000 copies, and 'Coda' came in at just less than that total. 'Presence,' perhaps the band's least popular album, sold 23,500 copies.

  • Billboard Hot 100 v. Official Charts Company: Mariah Carey, Madonna and 40 Years of No. 1s

    Few people realize just how different the music across the pond is from that we listen to in America, that the Hot 100 doesn't exist in the UK, and that its equivalent to our singles chart doesn't just feature a whole bunch of American artists with even more One Direction and Ellie Goulding tracks. Music Times is looking back at the last four decades of music, and at the no. 1 hits on August 10 every ten years on the spot, going back to 1975. The ultimate contest, of course, is which country has better taste. Last month the win went to the UK in the best-of-five showdown. This month features Mariah Carey, One Direction, TLC and more in the field.
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