• Pandora Cries 1st Amendment in Copyright Suit with The Turtles

    Pandora is continuing its fight against The Turtles and all music artists recorded before 1972. Mark Volmer and Howard Kalen, aka Flo & Eddie, filed suit against the streaming music service in September after their successful lawsuit against SiriusXM. Members of The Turtles want compensation, but Pandora in a recent motion said the band is infringing on the service's First Amendment rights to play the group's music, "Billboard" reports. The issue is that the United States did not have a master recordings copyright law until 1972, so everything recorded before that year has been played on Pandora and SiriusXM without compensation for the artists. Volmer and Kalen decided to try the case at the state level, which worked after a judge in California ruled that the satellite radio provider had to pay up. That is the same judge hearing the Pandora case — the service is hoping to receive a change of venue. The pair also secured a win in November in a New York courtroom. Pandora is now crying First Amendment.

  • SiriusXM Pays $3.8 Million Across 46 States as Part of Billing and Advertising Settlement

    The attorneys at SiriusXM have been busy. Not only are they dealing with a series of lawsuits involving The Turtles and pre-1972 music, but now they've completed a $3.8 million deal to be paid across 46 states with regard to shifty billing and advertising practices. According to the suit, contracts didn't make it clear to users that the service could renew itself. Users who wished to cancel their subscriptions didn't realize that they needed to take action to do so, or else the company would assume they wished to renew. More problematic is that frequently the prices had increased as well.

  • AC/DC SiriusXM Channel Goes Live Nov. 26 Before 'Rock or Bust' Release

    AC/DC will be the next act to get its own, temporary SiriusXM channel. AC/DC Radio will air tomorrow, Nov. 26, through Sunday, Dec. 7, on Channel 25. Midway through the exclusive run, the band's new album, "Rock or Bust," will be released Dec. 2, and the station will be playing cuts from it, the band's back catalog and tunes usually heard on the Classic Rewind rock channel, Blabbermouth noted. A conversation with frontman Brian Johnson and legendary axeman Angus Young will air Thursday, Nov. 27, at 12 p.m. The Town Hall installment will have the boys answering questions about their career from a SiriusXM audience of die-hard fans. It will be moderated by producer Brendan O'Brien, who worked on "Rock or Bust" and 2008's "Black Ice." Visit the Town Hall website for more information. AC/DC dropped music videos for "Play Ball" and the title track recently, and fans can stream the new album over at iTunes in advance of its release.

  • Flo & Eddie of The Turtles Win Third Major Case against SiriusXM; Cost of Using Pre-1972 Music May Soon Skyrocket

    Sirius Radio has taken a shellacking in courts so far this year but other music formats shouldn't assume they're safe. A third case involving Flo & Eddie of The Turtles (best known for tracks such as "Happy Together") has ended in New York with a similar ruling to the previous two cases: A judge has ruled that despite the band's catalogue existing before 1972, SiriusXM had no right to use it without compensating the performers.

  • SiriusXM to Broadcast Final Allman Brothers Show on Wednesday

    If you were not able to get a ticket to The Allman Brothers Band's final show at New York's Beacon Theatre tonight, Oct. 28, SiriusXM has you covered. The satellite radio's Classic Vinyl station will broadcast the performance starting tomorrow, Oct. 29, at 12 p.m., Jambase reports.
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