Punknews.org had an interesting report a few days ago on accusations against last.fm, regarding the site reporting specific users who had accessed an illegal early copy of the upcoming U2 record to the RIAA.

Now, regardless on where you stand on the issue of whether or not people with musical taste should be listening to U2, this is an interesting tidbit of news. Last.fm responded with this;

“Of course we work with the major labels and provide them with broad statistics, as we would with any other label, but we’d never personally identify our users to a third party – that goes against everything we stand for.”

Read more after the jump.

Continue Reading

Five years ago, the RIAA began what’s been seen as one of the major 21st-century witchhunts.  That being, of course, their rash of personal lawsuits against individuals involved in peer-to-peer music sharing. Wired.com has an interesting look at the arguably infamous monumental crusade, and exactly where it stands right now. Wired argues that despite the power and influence that the organization has and uses to essentially extort settlement fees out of people who would rather avoid legal fees and court, the campaign itself is an utter an expensive failure.

Is it? Consider the continued existence of peer-to-peer music sharing despite the lawsuits, only one of which, against Jammie Thomas of Minnesota, has been successful. And even then a retrial is in consideration, so you have to wonder just how long the RIAA are going to consider keeping this up before either a radical new model for music sharing and distribution comes up, or end up suing everyone in America.

Last.fm has announced they will begin to pay bands/artists that are on their site percentages of the revenue they earn from the advertising. They will start doing this on Wednesday, July 16th. It’s a groundbreaking announcement, essentially taking the model that Myspace has made popular, utilizing a social networking site as a homebase/website for a band, and taking it to the next level by paying the artist.

Last.fm is a music-oriented social networking site based out of the U.K. They are best known for being able to interact with your computer’s music library and compose databases of your playlists and favorite artists for you to display in a widget format.

Billboard is reporting that DC post-punk titans Shudder To Think are reuniting for a tour this fall. They had previously played two, unannounced reunion shows this past February in NYC.

The band released several records in late 80s/90s and were one of only two bands to jump from Dischord Records to a major label (the other being Jawbox).

Check out the confirmed dates after the jump.

Continue Reading

According to our friends at Punknews.org, None More Black, who reunited for a few shows this past weekend, have decided to end their hiatus. The band will be hitting the studio to write and record soon. They have been inactive since January of 2007.