• Pandora Cries First Amendment in Copyright Lawsuit 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.

  • Happy 25th Birthday Jordin Sparks: Music Times Lists Its Favorite Tracks from The 'American Idol' Winner

    We're approach one of the year's biggest birthdays but we figured we'd throw a shout-out to Jordin Sparks for her 25th birthday. The pop star got out to a hot start at the beginning of her career, becoming the first American Idol winner to land her first four singles in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. Things have slowed down a little since then but hopefully she'll be back on top soon enough. Here are five of our favorite tracks from the performer.

  • Garth Brooks Calls Himself 'Badass' Thanks to New 'Man Against Machine' Cover

    We previously reported that Garth Brooks still gets nervous before shows, a factoid he admitted to Indiana radio station WKDQ. But there were plenty of other nuggets from the same interview, including Brooks's assertion that his most recent album cover — for "Man Against Machine" — makes him look like a badass.This surfaced when the DJ asked him to name his favorite cover."That's tough. Tough, tough, tough, tough," he said, via The Boot. "I'm going to have to go with ... Well, I'm going to pick the one that's out right now, "Man Against Machine," because if you know me, I'm the farthest thing from a badass you've ever met, but I got to look like a badass on this cover."Brooks has never had one of his album titles share a name with one of its tracks until now. But as usual, he did things in a unique manner and came up with the album title before bringing the "Man Against Machine" track alive.

  • Madonna Talks 'Rebel Heart' Leak, Grammy Award Performance, "Living For Love," Working With Diplo, And More

    Following the leak of more than 10 unreleased demo recordings, Madonna and her team have been working day-in and day-out to try to recover the stolen songs. The songs were from sessions for her upcoming 13th studio album, which at the time had yet to be announced and is still unfinished. To combat the damage of the stolen work, Madonna sped up the official release of new music. She announced that her new album, Rebel Heart, would drop March 10 through Interscope Records and made six of its tracks immediately available for purchase. Among them was the Diplo-produced "Living For Love," the album's lead single, which according to Billboard wasn't supposed to premiere until Valentines Day.

  • Taylor Swift Tweets Out Favorite Cover Version of 'Shake It Off' by Jesse Will: It's a Slow Burner [LISTEN]

    Cover songs are tricky animals. Some are done better than the original; others are the same. The best are complete reinventions. Jesse Will pulled off a superb cover of Taylor Swift's pop smash "Shake It Off," turning the upbeat number into a slow-burning epic complete with violin. Even T. Swift loved it."My favorite covers are the ones where the artist has made it their own, changing the way the song makes you feel," she tweeted to her nearly 50 million followers along with a video of the performance.

  • Adele Wrote Elton John a Handwritten Apology After Missing His Wedding

    Adele could not attend the wedding of Elton John and David Furnish this past weekend, so she decided to send a nice, handwritten letter to the happy couple."Biggest congratulations my loves," it read, according to "The Daily Mail." "Have a wonderful day. I'm sorry we are not there. See you in 2015. Love Adele, Simon and Angelo. x."John then posted the letter on Instagram as part of a post-celebration pic that showed off all the nuptial swag he piled up."The perfect end to the perfect day," his post read. "So many kind thoughts and wishes. #ShareTheLove"

  • Wiz Khalifa Drops "You And Your Friends" Video Featuring Ty Dollar $ign, Snoop Dogg [WATCH]

    A few days ago, Wiz Khalifa teased the video for his DJ Mustard-produced club banger "You And Your Friends" off his latest album Blacc Hollywood, which was nominated by the Grammys for Best Rap Album. The intro clip he teased featured Khalifa smoking a blunt inside a marijuana grow house while talking on the phone to Ty Dolla $ign who is in his car, trying to flirt his way out of a ticket with two female cops. The full video, however, has a different theme.

  • New Live DVD/Album Being Released for Bob Marley's 70th Birthday; Expect More Deluxe Rereleases of Classic Albums during 2015

    Next year marks what would have been the 70th birthday of Bob Marley, the biggest figure in "world music" history, and as you would expect, there will be a boatload of special releases on the way. The Marley family has allowed the Universal Music Group access to his back catalogue to gather up unreleased material for deluxe rereleases of classic albums, probably including Exodus, Natty Dread and more.

  • Adam Lambert or Freddie Mercury? Queen's Brian May Says 'American Idol' Alum Has Better Range

    You know those people who say they were "born in the wrong era" and wish they could have been a teenager in the 1960s or '70s? That is basically Adam Lambert, who rose to pop fame with "American Idol" at the turn of the decade. He was as close to late Queen singer Freddie Mercury as a new star could get, but he could not nail down a perfect fit in the music world.Until Queen came calling in 2011, that is. Then the pieces fell into place immediately. One of the world's most storied rock bands got a third wind — after a forgettable era with Paul Rodgers — and Lambert got his chance to eschew pop for the coolest cover gig ever.Now — get this — Brian May is throwing out some serious compliments."They're difficult songs to sing, Queen songs," he told Japan's Universal Music, via "Billboard." "There's too much range. So many people can't sing them in the original key — even if they are good singers, Adam comes along, [and] he can do it easy. He can do it in his sleep! He can sing higher than even Freddie could in a live situation. So I think Freddie would look at this guy and think, 'Hmm ... Yeah. OK.' There would be a kind of, 'Hmm ... You bastard. You can do this.'"
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