:: Page Six is reporting Bruce Springsteen will be the halftime performer at the next Super Bowl.

:: Rolling Stone magazine will be shrinking in size to better fit newsstands, ending a 30 year run at the overstock size. The publication is at an all-time high of 1.5 million subscriptions, but news rack purchases are down.

:: Stax Records released an official statement saying goodbye to their longtime friend and recording artist Issac Hayes.

:: You can stream the entire new album, The ‘59 Sound from THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM on their myspace page.

:: Pitchfork TV is partnering up with IFC Channel to broadcast the web channel over the cable airwaves.

Now that a Sirius/XM Satellite Radio merger is one step closer to reality, you may be asking yourself logical questions about future types of programming packages and usability of older equipment. Thankfully satellite radio blog Orbicast spells it out in plain English.

Both companies have defended the possible merger as a venture that will benefit consumers, promising compatibility with existing radios and more flexible pricing and programming choices, including a delicious a la carte option. We break down the post-merger choices for you after the break. (more…)

Know this before you start the day.

- The merger between Sirius and XM satellite radio has finally been approved by the FCC. This comes months after the Department Of Justice okay’d the move and nearly 19 months after the satellite companies first filed for a merger.

- 5 AGAINST ME! B-Sides have been posted up on Amazon’s digital store. These are the 5 bonus tracks that appear on the French version of their album New Wave.

- There is a new album from THE KILLERS scheduled for a November release.

- It’s a step up from fishing with Dynamite.

- LIZ PHAIR is also eyeing a November release for her new album, Natural.

- Facebook has pulled it’s popular game Scrabulous because of a filed copywrite infringement suit by Hasboro.

- Slow motion face punches!

- Star Wars vs Rush Hour

One of our favorite radio stations, WXPN has announced they will be teaming up with an equally awesome website, Daytrotter.

Daytrotter has worked itself into being a required stop for bands to get into their studios and record live music sessions. Artists ranging from Death Cab For Cutie to Vampire Weekend have all stopped by the site’s studios and recorded tracks for the site to give out to its wide audience.

Like Daytrotter, XPN has built up a solid reputation as one of the best AAA-formated radio stations in the country. The Philly-based station is known for taking risks (see their merger with y-rock a few years back) and “Daytrotter Radio” will probably be no different.

“Daytrotter Radio” will debut on Wednesday, May 7th at 10:30pm on WXPN. The half-hour show will be hosted by the ‘Trotter’s founder Sean Moeller. The show will feature music from the website’s vast recording sessions and be transmitted on XPN’s terrestrial airwaves as well as their three websites - www.xpn.org, www.yrockonxpn.org, and www.xponentialmusic.org. The show will also be available for download at www.daytrotter.com.

You can read the official press release after the jump. (more…)

The Department of Justice has approved a merger between SIRIUS Satellite Radio and rival XM, over one year after it was first announced. The move has been hotly contested, with the companies arguing their merger would benefit consumers and not create a monopoly (the argument being that consumers aren’t choosing between two satellite radio providers, but rather between terrestrial radio, iPod, etc when looking for music and entertainment choices). Both Sirius and XM have promised a number of benefits to their customers should the merger happen - a la carte service, a variety of channels, etc.

But don’t expect to be tuning into a wonderland of XM-Sirius goodness any time soon though, as the FCC still needs to sign off before this is final - and they’ve been the slowest decision makers of all. Hopefully this won’t drag out for another year, but with the National Association of Broadcasters still fighting valiantly against the merger, who knows…

If you’re the type who likes to read big words, here’s what the D to the O to the J had to say:

After a careful and thorough review of the proposed transaction, the Division concluded that the evidence does not demonstrate that the proposed merger of XM and Sirius is likely to substantially lessen competition, and that the transaction therefore is not likely to harm consumers. The Division reached this conclusion because the evidence did not show that the merger would enable the parties to profitably increase prices to satellite radio customers for several reasons, including: a lack of competition between the parties in important segments even without the merger; the competitive alternative services available to consumers; technological change that is expected to make those alternatives increasingly attractive over time; and efficiencies likely to flow from the transaction that could benefit consumers.

You can read the Department’s official release and analysis here.

It’s pretty hypocritical that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was all up in arms about radio stations accepting money from labels when he was the Attorney General, but allegedly has no problem accepting sex from prostitutes, according to the New York Times. In 2005, Spitzer, who’s married with three children, went after all four of the major label groups (Warner, Sony, Universal, and EMI) for alleged payola practices. All four settled separately with the state of New York for millions of dollars, and some of the programmers that had accepted money and/or trips for airplay lost their jobs.

Now I’m not saying that it was a good thing that J-Lo had more unnecessary hits than she deserved. And I’m not defending the pay-for-play practice that had gone on for years and was essentially an accepted part of radio. I’m just wondering where that money that Spitzer took in the settlement went. If Mr. anti-trust/pro-ho spent any of it on women that charge by the hour, he’s got a lot of explaining to do, and isn’t any less of a douche than a programmer that took a trip to Tahiti in exchange for spiking Franz Ferdinand a few extra times during the overnight. And we hope he filled out the forms for the prostitutes in duplicate.

NINE INCH NAILS‘ Trent Reznor self-released a new instrumental album, Ghosts I-IV, in a blitz last night through ghosts.nin.com. He’s taken yet another angle on the donation-ish digital distribution model. He’s giving away Ghosts I, asking $5 for the all four parts in MP3 or FLAC lossless format, and offering a variety of physical editions ranging in price from $10 to $300.

As you might expect, word of the release exploded and the site has slowed to a crawl, temporarily making downloads nearly impossible - but fret not. Taking it yet another step further than Radiohead, Trent proved himself forward-thinking and is outsourcing the bandwidth load to popular BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay. You can pick up Ghosts I for free through the indestructible official NIN torrent here. That’s the beauty of BitTorrent technology - it doesn’t slow down as more people try to download the file, it gets faster.

As for the album itself, we just finished a first listen of Ghosts I and it’s quite nice. Soft, dreamy soundscapes reminiscent of Clint Mansell, Thomas Newman or Jon Brion compositions. But you don’t have to take our word for it - find out yourself for free!

Anyone who reads this blog with any consistency knows it’s no secret we’re big fans of THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM. Their popularity seems to have swelled a lot in 2007. Mostly because of an amazing debut record, Sink Or Swim and some high profile tours.

2008 is shaping up to be an even better year for the band. They have a new EP due out in just days in addition to a tour with the Loved Ones. Well it looks like we can add new record label to that list. (more…)

Last night TVT RECORDS, the country’s biggest independent record label, fired off the bulk of its staff. The label is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection before the end of the week.

Since forming in 1985, TVT has hosted a wide roster of acts. Ranging from Nine Inch Nails early on, to current acts like The Polyphonic Spree and Lil’ Jon.

At this time there are no reports of what will happen to the current roster artists, what will happen to label’s upcoming release schedule, or why this decision has been made. But lately there’s been more than a few reports of the label’s artists publicly airing problems with label founder and current President, Steve Gottleib. Like this recent one by Pitbull.

In fact, even though he’s not been on the label for many years, Nine Inch Nails frontmant Trent Reznor posted this single sentence statement about the label on hiswebsite then linking to this story on allhiphop.com.

18 February 2008: you’re gonna get yours

Not ALL news about the music industry is bad these days.

Damn Trent! That’s cold!

But maybe all those record breaking “Crunk Ain’t Dead” bling chains weren’t a good idea after all.

We wanted to send a huge congrats out to the guys in PROTEST THE HERO, who have a #1 record in Canada. Big props go out to the band for a huge first week.

Fortress, the sophomore Vagrant release from PROTEST THE HERO, has debuted at #95 on The Billboard 200 chart with over 7600 units sold. Fortress also debuted at #10 on the Billboard Top Independent chart and delivered a stunning #1 debut in the band’s home country of Canada.

The band has also just been confirmed to play this year’s Bamboozle Left, in Irvine, CA on April 6th.

You can also see them on the road, they just kicked off a US And Canada tour with Silverstein in support of Fortress. Dates can be seen after the jump. (more…)