Watch for Continued Losses in Shares of Live Nation (LYV)

Shares of Live Nation (NYSE:LYV) traded at a new 52-week low today of $7.66. This new low was reached on approximately average trading volume as 1.4 million shares traded hands, while the average 30-day volume is approximately 1.4 million shares.

Live Nation has overhead space with shares priced $8.04, or 40.9% below the average consensus analyst price target of $13.60. The stock should run into initial resistance at its 50-day moving average (MA) of $9.58 and subsequent resistance at its 200-day MA of $10.55.

Live Nation Inc. produces, operates, and promotes live events including music concerts, theatrical shows, specialized motor sports, and other events.

In the past 52 weeks, Live Nation share prices have been bracketed by a current low of $7.66 and a high of $12.44 and are now at $8.20. Over the last five market days, the 200-day moving average (MA) has gone down 0.5% while the 50-day MA has declined 2.2%.

‘The Sing-Off’ season premiere recap: Music To My Ears

The Sing-Off premiered its third season last night, and despite all my worrying that the show would lose its charm in the transition from quaint December surprise to fall season anchor, everything felt just right.

Nick Lachey brought the puns, Ben Folds showed off his stupendous musical vocabulary, and Shawn Stockman donned a bright purple sweater. All was well in the world. New judge and former a cappella performer Sara Bareilles fit right into the mix as well. Though she maybe focused a bit too much on the “story” and “journey” of some groups for my taste, she provided clear, helpful insight, and was refreshingly sincere compared to the consistently inauthentic-sounding Nicole Scherzinger. Bareilles was a bit nervous in her first episode (Who else loved when she told Cat’s Pajamas they are a “super huge package,” and then clammed up and tried to recover with a dignified queen wave?), but as she loosens up, I think she’ll become a major asset on the show.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the music — that’s the whole reason we’re here! Eight remarkably talented a cappella groups performed last night, proving that The Sing-Off really has some of the best singing on national TV. There were times when I was watching the performances, and I’d completely forget that there were no instruments on stage. Every single sound was being made by someone’s mouth. I say this as a former college a cappella singer — these groups are incredible.

The show kicked off with a rainbow-colored performance of Pink’s “Perfect,” which was just that. Sure, I’d seen the clip on NBC.com about, I dunno, 47 times before the premiere, but I still loved watching it again. With so many people onstage, it was definitely a lot to take in, but I did have a few general impressions. To the Kinfolk 9 singer who belted, “They don’t like my hair,” you’re right! To the phalanx of yellow up front, you’re looking sharp! To the slightly mullet-y girl who sang, “To MEEEEE!” at the end, your tone is amazing. Basically, it was a gigantic group singing a big ballad in tune. I was chuckling with giddiness.

Nick announced that the winner of this season of The Sing-Off would receive $200,000 and a Sony recording contract. (WHAT?! No Sing-Off trophy?!) He also explained that this year, because there are 16 groups, the show will be divided into two brackets for the first four episodes. The first bracket would be whittled down from eight to six groups this week, and then the other bracket would do the same next week. In week three, the first bracket would eliminate one group, and in week four the second bracket would do the same. All 10 remaining groups will unite for episode five. Got it? Good.

Because we’ve got some performances (and eliminations) to get to! Here they are in order:

NEXT: Grading the first four performances…

Fillmore Silver Spring makes splashy entrance on DC’s concert scene

But what happens to Washington’s greater nightlife ecosystem when the largest music hall of its kind opens shop in a rebounding suburb outside the city? Will the fans come out to fill it? And who are they?

“We want everybody,” says Stephanie Steele, the Fillmore Silver Spring’s general manager. “We’re doing as much as we can to make sure that there’s something going on here that appeals to everybody in this region.”

But for starters, the target audience appears to be older fans and their kids. With more than three dozen performances booked at the Fillmore through December, many are baby boomer-drawing acts (Cheap Trick, Levon Helm) and teen-friendly artists (Joe Jonas, Mac Miller), with some comedians sprinkled throughout (Adam Carolla, Lewis Black). Sandwiched between the venue’s grand opening with Blige and a Sept. 17 gig by Grammy winner John Legend, the venue will host a Bruce Springsteen tribute band.

Steele says the Fillmore — which is operated by national concert promotion behemoth Live Nation — isn’t focused on the 20-to-30-somethings who heavily populate the rest of Washington’s nightclub circuit. “It’s definitely an all ages venue,” she says.

It’s other things, too. It’s a brand with a trippy, hippie history and a 21st-century family focus. It’s a self-dubbed “economic engine,” aiming to draw patrons out to neighboring restaurants, but will offer an appetizer and entree menu of its own. Even the room is a paradox, simultaneously cavernous and cozy.

And it’s quite handsome. The sight lines to the stage are excellent, with a five-tiered horseshoe balcony that hovers high over the dance floor — not unlike the layout of Washington’s 9:30 Club.

But I.M.P., the Bethesda-based owner of the 9:30, was a vocal opponent of the Fillmore long before the new venue settled on a floor plan.

In 2007, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett abruptly killed a five-year negotiation with owners of the Alexandria-based Birchmere to open a second music hall at the former J.C. Penney site, saying that the talks were taking too long. (Representatives at the Birchmere declined to be interviewed for this story.)

Soon after, Leggett sealed a deal with Live Nation to develop the Fillmore with $4 million in state funds and another $4 million in county funds. With the county using tax dollars to subsidize a for-profit enterprise, criticism came from all directions. After requests to place its competing bid were ignored, I.M.P. filed suit against the state of Maryland in 2010 to try to block the Fillmore’s funding. It didn’t work, but the suit did surface the fact that the project actually cost taxpayers at least $11.2 million.

Foster The People: Tiny Desk Concert

Set List

“Houdini”

“Helena Beat”

“Pumped Up Kicks”

There was a scene at this year’s Sasquatch music festival that truly caught me off guard. I went to see Foster the People — I’d heard a few of the band’s songs, and we’d posted “Pumped Up Kicks” on the All Songs Considered blog last summer — but I’d missed how many people had fallen in love with the group. The greeting Foster the People received felt like a homecoming.

Ann Powers, in a recent piece on The Record, was on the mark: This was the summer song of 2011, with dark lyrics and a hooks that can kill. The band is from L.A., and Mark Foster is its leader — it was called “Foster and the People” until someone misheard the name. It stuck.

There’s plenty more to Foster the People, and in some of the darkness, there’s also music filled with great joy. It’s music that comes from a friendship between Mark Foster and Mark Pontius, and here at the NPR Music office, they shared the love.

Conrad Murray prosecutors urge judge to ban Jackson files being handed over to …

Prosecutors in the upcoming Conrad Murray trial have asked the judge hearing the case to stop the release of documents from the LA emergency services and coroner’s office, which relate to the death of Michael Jackson, to the insurers of the late king of pop’s doomed O2 London residency.

As previously reported, insurer Lloyds Of London is locked in civil litigation with the O2 residency’s promoters AEG Live. Lloyds insured some of the planned Michael Jackson live shows, but is refusing to pay out since their cancellation, arguing Jackson and AEG failed to tell the company about all the prescription drugs the singer was taking on a regular basis, and as such the insurance policy is void. The insurance firm requested various papers relating to Jackson’s health and death to aid its legal case against the live music giant.

But prosecutors leading the case against Dr Conrad Murray, the medic accused of causing Michael Jackson’s death by negligently administering the drug Propofol, fear that if confidential papers are handed over they may be leaked to the media, and if published could jeopardise the trial.

According to the Associated Press, a filing from the District Attorney’s office says: “The pending criminal case against Conrad Murray regarding the death of Michael Jackson has received significant, unrelenting media attention. Because of the heightened media interest surrounding this case, it is more likely that a leak to the media or a similar compromise in the confidentiality of these documents would occur”.

The judge is yet to respond. Jury selection for the much delayed Murray trial is due to kick off next Thursday.

Also from CMU…

1. Murray prosecutors want to bring in his lady friendsProsecutors in the Conrad Murray manslaughter trial have asked that they be able to provide details of the medic’s relationships with three separate women when the case goes to court…
2. Conrad Murray lawyers call for Joe Jackson lawsuit to be dismissedAccording to TMZ, lawyers for Dr Conrad Murray have filed a motion to dismiss Joe Jackson’s wrongful death lawsuit in relation to the doc’s alleged involvement in the demise of…
3. Conrad Murray to face full trial over Jacko deathSomewhat faster than expected, US judge Michael Pastor has ordered that Dr Conrad Murray stand trial for involuntary manslaughter over the death of Michael Jackson. The doc is accused of…

Tags: AEG Live, Conrad Murray, Lloyds of London, Michael Jackson

Sections: In The Pop Courts |
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Alan Jackson to sing ‘Where Were You’ at Washington 9/11 concert

 
Country singer Alan Jackson has been tapped to perform his post-9/11 song “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” at the Concert for Hope at the Washington National Cathedral on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

President Obama also will speak at the event, which will culminate a week of observances to commemorate the anniversary.

Jackson’s song became perhaps the most widely played of the responses from musicians to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and it will be highlighted on Monday, Sept. 5, on an A&E Biography special “When Pop Culture Saved America.”

Jackson had introduced the song about two months after the attacks, during the Country Music Assn. Awards telecast from Nashville, singing what amounted to a string of questions without easy answers.

Did you weep for the children who lost their dear loved ones
And pray for the ones who don’t know?
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
And sob for the ones left below?

The vast majority of Jackson’s repertoire up to that point, and pretty much since, had consisted of songs about love, the joys and sorrows of small-town life, the hopes, dreams and struggles of working people.

The closest he’s gotten to a political statement is some of those songs detailing the hard times blue-collar workers have faced in recent years.

“I find I generally don’t like songs where people express their political views,” the soft-spoken Georgia native told me not long after he’d written it and started singing it in public. “And this one isn’t political. It’s still pretty simple.”

I’m just a singer of simple songs
I’m not a real political man
I watch CNN but I’m not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran

He told me he’d had a sleepless night shortly after the attacks, woke up with a head full of questions, and then fashioned them into the song.

“I felt like I was just reporting,” he said, “asking the kinds of questions anybody might ask.”

Did you feel guilty ’cause you’re a survivor
In a crowded room did you feel alone?
Did you call up your mother and tell her you loved her?
Did you dust off that Bible at home?

In fact, he said he was initially hesitant about the song in a couple of ways. First, he was reluctant to take on such a loaded issue. But he said the fact that the song came to him relatively quickly convinced him it was worth doing.

Did you open your eyes, hope it never happened
Close your eyes and not go to sleep?
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages
Or speak to some stranger on the street?

After writing it, he wasn’t sure he ought to play it in public. “I didn’t want it to look like I was trying to sell my career with this” tragedy, he said. But family members and friends persuaded him otherwise.

He also didn’t release as a single, again because he didn’t want it to be viewed as something he was trying to sell.

Last year, when Jackson had his star added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, I asked him whether he still plays “Where Were You.” He told me he’s been surprised by how many people continue to request it in concert, long after the original shock of the events of that day subsided. He said he’d expected fans to be interested for a few weeks or months after the song first surfaced but a show hasn’t gone by when someone doesn’t ask for it. So he’s kept it in his set list.

Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers
Did you stand in line and give your own blood?
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family
Thank God you had somebody to love?

“I don’t know where it came from,” Jackson said. “It’s like one of my favorite things Hank Williams said when he was asked about where he got his songs. He said, ‘I just hold the pen — God writes the song.’ That’s how I feel about this one.”

RELATED:

Pop Music Responds to Tragedy of Sept. 11

Back in familiar territory, subtly scoffing at modern country cliches

Country superstar Alan Jackson gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

– Randy Lewis

Photo: Alan Jackson performing in Anaheim in 2002, shortly after writing his post-9/11 song “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).” Credit: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

MTV Video Music Awards 2011: 5 Captivating Moments VIDEOS

You can find 48 high-quality videos of performances, acceptance speeches and tributes from Sunday’s Video Music Awards at MTV.com’s “On Demand” video carousel.

The VMAs — which ramped up its digital offerings this year with a “second-screen experience” on desktop, iOS and Android — had numerous memorable highlights, including tributes to Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears, onstage confirmation of Beyonce’s pregnancy, and a no frills performance from Adele.

Hardly to be outdone, Lady Gaga opened the show as her male alter ego, and Katy Perry closed the night with a Video of the Year win for her song “Firework.”

What was your favorite moment of MTV’s award show?

5 Highlights from This Year’s Show

“I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside me,” Beyonce said at the beginning performance of “Love on Top,” confirming she and her husband, Jay-Z, will soon have a baby. At the end of the song, she dropped her mic, unbuttoned her top and rubbed her baby bump.

SanDisk reveals Sansa Clip Zip

The Sansa Clip will no doubt go down in MP3 player history as one of the biggest successes the market has seen, and it has just gotten better and better over the years as firmware updates, Rockbox and the Clip+ hardware update has improved on the original player in all sorts of ways. SanDisk knows this, so it’s not surprising that they’re giving the player yet another hardware overhaul, this time called the Clip Zip.

The basics from the Clip+ are still there in terms of features and basic design, but there are a few new features both on the surface and under the hood. The most noticeable of which is probably the new 1.1? full color screen, which is a nice upgrade both in size and colors from the old OLED screen. One of our forum members got his hands on the new player and has written a comparison of the new Zip and the old Clip+ which shows that the new Zip is size wise pretty much the same as the Clip+, but with a rectangular control pad to make room for the bigger screen.

As for features under the hood, alphabet browsing has now been added when browsing files as well as the ability to deactivate unused menu items. The former is something I’ve loved on other players (like the Sony players) for years and seeing it on a SanDisk player is great. The menu “clean up” feature is also a nice addition, and lets more hard core music users hide features such as the radio (which now has a recording feature) and the new stopwatch. The new color screen also means a new UI, naturally, and from the pictures in the beforementioned forum thread it seems to be a lot like the interface of the Fuze+.

Overall it seems like a great update to the existing Clip+, and as Marvin points out in his comparison review it’s a lot more traditional of an update than the touch controlled Fuze+ of last year was.

Sansa Clip Zip Review

Justin Press Got His First Music Industry Gig By Simply Writing A Fawning …

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we meet the people in the local music scene that you don’t see on stages.

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Justin Press was, for many years, one of the key people running what is now known as Verizon Theatre. Back then, it was simply known as NextStage.

See, when Press was a youngster, he wrote a letter to Nextstage expressing his opinions of the theatre’s quality, and it ended up getting him a job there. Pretty amazing, stuff. They  started him out as a production runner and eventually elevated to the bigger responsibilities, such as booking and managing.

But, when Press started out, he was the guy who went to “get ginger root for Jane’s Addiction,” and “dealt with the Osbourne clan” when Ozzfest would roll in. It was a job he tackled with a lot of enthusiasm considering who regarded himself to be — just a kid who liked bands and collected records.

Specifically, though, he was a kid who grew up pretty far from it all — on a Royal Air Force base in Scotland in the ’70s. In his down-time, he was, and still is, a passionate music consumer; heading to shows molded to his tastes in prog, punk and hard rock, for the most part.

Eventually, his work experience started to factor into that as well — especially after eventual colleague in Lance Yocom came along. Yocom (who is currently hospitalized in Arizona) was a promoter for the same venue shortly before formally birthing Spune Productions, his own outfit. Under Yocom’s lead at NextStage, Press began working in the marketing, media and sales realms. Press stayed with the venue for quite a period following and as the space underwent several sponsor-driven name changes.

These days, though, he’s partnered with local musician Kell Curtis of the band The Bright to helm his own company, Wheelhouse PR. After the jump, we let Press tell his story in his own words.

You’ve been a significant consumer, critic and supporter of local music in DFW for a while. And, from a fan standpoint, you were finding your way into shows since you were very young — back in the early ’9′s, right?
Being a part of some incredible scenes over the years in DFW was part of my training ground. The hardcore days of Clown Ramp and Liberty Hall/Circle A Ranch to Theater Gallery and the cavernous Club Clearview, Dallas and Deep Ellum were a scary place to a 16-year-old at the time. Especially one from the backwoods of Fort Worth. There were a lot of nights at the Arcadia. Or at Joe’s Garage seeing a spandex-clad Pantera. And let’s not forget Mad Hatters/Axis Club, and those riotous gigs at The Engine Room. And that small window when Deep Ellum and Trees seemed like the flashpoint from 1990 to 1994.

So I could say with no doubt that I supported the DFW music industry with blood, sweat and a steel liver. Over time, and it’s like anything, you just burn out and become jaded about it. I felt that when KDGE and mainstream media started rearing their heads, it took something dear and poisoned the well. Of course, that’s just my punk mentality speaking — you know, the need to hold onto something so closely that you strangle it. Deep Ellum didn’t grow up, it just over-ate. And, as you watch an engineering firm move into the Circle A space, or linen-tableclothed restaurants sandwiching themselves in between old battlegrounds, you realize that some parts of it are over. So you go through this turnabout where for about 10 years you just run from it and take more of an interest in, I dunno, Swedish metal or whatever.

But, today, I can honestly say that the DFW scene, though getting awfully crowded, is vital and bursting with great energy. You’ve got “the pillars” in folks like Mike Schoder and the Granada, Clint Barlow and Trees, Tami Thomsen and Kirkland, Scott Beggs and Sierra Bravo, Chelsea Callahan and Double Wide, Jeff Liles and The Kessler, Lance Yocom and Spune — all old-schoolers doing new things in order to keep creativity and the sounds alive! I feel somewhat out of touch with local band scene right now. But the local music scene and culture? It’s upward and onward.

Care to name a few local bands that actually earned the Justin seal of approval?
Shit, local bands don’t need my approval. I’m just another asshole with an unpolished opinion. But I can tell you from what I witness, DFW bands work their asses off and that goes underappreciated by a large segment of the populace. You know how fucking hard it is to load up, load in, set up, play, break it down, load out, and for maybe 30 people on a Tuesday evening? It’s emotional suicide. And I realize that it happens in every city. But to be doing it in Dallas, which seems somewhat cursed, that takes passion. And local bands here are definitely filled to the brim with that. Hell, I see it weekly with my two best friends and their band. It’s always a leap of faith off a cliff with no safe landings. As soon as these clowns get out of the “bottle-service clubs” business and start investing their time in real music, then maybe some will get their due because the audiences will expand.

But, from what I recall, there are a few that I had hoped would have gotten to the next level. Baboon and Rubber Bullet, in particular, come to mind. Who I wish could break out today is Blood Of The Sun, just an incredibly tight band that makes me wish I still had my old Taste records.

Were you able to help many local acts when you worked at the theater?
Local bands didn’t really seem to fall into the AEG Live agenda unless it was The Toadies, who really are a global band that just happen to be local. Though, I’d be remiss not to mention the fact that from ’91 to ’95, they saved the scene and brought it accolades. Sure, for metal and hard rock shows at The Palladium, which is also an AEG live property that I did sales for, you’d get local rock band as openers and for these bands to play for 500-plus people, basically for beer money. It was always a great chance for exposure.

When you’re at a theater level as an act, are you really deemed local anymore? At some point, “local” just means breeding ground. I can tell you, though, that several of the people who I worked with were big into promoting and helping advance local music, including Robin Phillips, who used to be with Daughter Entertainment prior to AEG. It’s interesting to see now, too, that AEG Live is working with local hotspots to put shows into those rooms — including Lola’s and, of course, the Granada, with whom they’ve had a lengthy relationship with. All this synergy is great for creating a sense of community.

It’s sort of Goliath turning to David from time to time.

In high school, did your musical tastes lean in one particular direction, or was it more of an all-encompassing enthusiasm?
In high school, I was music-fluent enough to hang with the heshers in the parking lot talking about the merits of Motorhead, while at lunch breaking down the latest Gang of Four album with my Honor Society friends. For me, it was The Stray Cats at the Bronco Bowl one night, Ozzy at Reunion Arena the following. And I wasn’t a poseur trying to straddle both sides because I knew the language better than anyone else. The real crime, though, is that, through all of this, I never bothered to pick up an instrument. I just didn’t have that “thing,” so I knew the non-performing side was my way in. But school never led me to music or entertainment other than sharing mutual love for this band or film with classmates. Nowadays, I’m too old to be hip, yet too seasoned to buy into trends. So I stick with what works for me.

OK, so if school didn’t lead you towards the industry, what did you do to get your foot in the door?
Foot in the door? Fuck. I had to kick the damned thing in to even get a chance. I worked in record stores, sold unknown records for small cult bands for labels to Japan, worked in music publishing and finally started writing about music. In college, you never knew about music industry careers. To me, it was just always some down-trodden-looking soul coming in the shop to hang posters and give the managers a stack of cut-out promos. Who would want that gig? Two years later, we all did. And I did it for a pauper’s salary. “Welcome to the rest of your life, dumbass! You should have studied chemistry!”  How I got into the concert business was by, believe it or not, writing a letter about my experience to the NextStage management after seeing, gulp, an REO/Styx gig. I was blown away by the venue. Little did I know at the time that this was the new era of the concert experience — the “creature-comfort theater.” Anyway, the HR person called me and told me she read my note and asked if I wanted to come out and try to be a production runner. “What the hell is that?” I wondered. But I came out, interviewed, got the gig and here we are today — in a different career.

Tell us about the business you’re involved in now.
Currently, I co-own Wheelhouse PR and Marketing with Kell Curtis from the band The Bright. I met him through his wife, Julie Lange, also in The Bright, who was my last mentor at AEG Live. She thought he and I would make a good partnership. It’s very incestuous. It’s a double-edged sword for us because we look alike and think alike. So, having that shared wavelength can be sometimes tough to battle. If we’re working on something, one of us can go off on a tangent about the guitar sound on an old Frank Marino song and then it becomes a two-hour discussion. But, to our advantage, we are both professional enough to realize that the work comes first. We do public relations for various national companies and clients focusing in on entertainment driven brands. Our current clients include Monster Energy, Guvera (an Aussie based music download site), Shiprocked, Right Arm Entertainment (they book Rock on the Range) and are in discussions with a major guitar company, and a couple gaming companies. But we also handle project work as well. And, as our name says, we do anything related to publicity, public relations, marketing, creative and activation for our clients. So I still work in music and live events, just in a different discipline these days. As you can imagine, we like to have a good time with it.

Apple Kills Another One

After eight years of quietly selling music downloads, Wal-Mart (NYS: WMT) is calling it quits. The world’s largest retailer has advised distribution and licensing partners that it will close its MP3 store on Aug. 28, according to Digital Music News.

This is a surprising move on many different levels.

• Wal-Mart recently integrated its Vudu video-streaming service with walmart.com, so it would seem odd that it’s throwing more promotional muscle behind one form of a la carte streaming while nixing another.
• Amazon.com (NAS: AMZN) has been successfully creative with its music streams. Whether it’s selling Lady Gaga’s new CD as a download for just $0.99 or using digital purchases to expand its fledgling cloud-based streaming platform, Amazon is proving that you can stand out in a world where Apple‘s (NAS: AAPL) iTunes rules.
• Best Buy (NYS: BBY) has had a few rough quarters, yet it continues to sell online tracks. Does Wal-Mart really want to let Best Buy be the only bricks-and-mortar chain directly selling digital downloads?
• Amazon is now selling movies, music, books, and software online. If Wal-Mart truly wants to compete with Amazon, it can’t afford to fall behind.
• Digital music is apparently popular, judging by the initial excitement over Pandora Media‘s (NYS: P) IPO and Spotify’s stateside launch.

Wal-Mart’s MP3 page is still not advising shoppers of its pending closure, so there may be time for the discounter to change its mind.

Wal-Mart tried to set itself apart from Apple and Amazon by selling music at a slight discount to the larger e-tailers. Offering songs at $0.64, $0.94, and $1.24 price points should have been a draw to young penny-pinching listeners. However, whether it’s that the Wal-Mart brand just wasn’t cool enough for music tracks or that folks are just more glued to the iTunes interface than they would care to admit, the department-store chain just wasn’t able to compete on price alone.

Music fans are finicky. No surprise there. Wal-Mart hangs it up just as the digital-music scene is getting good? Now that is a big surprise.

Where do you buy your digital music — if you even buy digital music? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.

At the time this article was published The Motley Fool owns shares of Best Buy, Wal-Mart Stores, and Apple. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Best Buy, Apple, Wal-Mart Stores, and Amazon.com, creating a bull call spread position in Apple, and creating a diagonal call position in Wal-Mart Stores. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has purchased more tunes through Amazon than iTunes over the past year, given Amazon’s healthy promotions. He owns no shares in any of the companies in this story and is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow’s ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2011 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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The Band Perry Tops CMA Music Festival In Nashville, The Music City

The Band Perry Tops CMA Music Festival In Nashville, The Music City

The CMA (or Country Music Association) Music Festival aired today on ABC, and managed to take both Google and Twitter by storm, with groups like Lady Antebellum hitting the Twitter Top Trends list. But the one group that garnered the most attention was The Band Perry.

The Band Perry wowed observers by bringing what one blog TasteofCountry.com described as a “mashup of hits,” including his If I Die Young and You Lie.

And all of this happening in Nashville, as this blogger was in town to attend the giant wedding of his cousin, and see people that, in many cases, I’d not seen since I was 10 years old.

Moreover, I’d not visited Nashville since I was 14 and what’s impressive is that the city actually bleeds music. From the woman carrying a large guitar to a gig from her hotel room near mine, to the CMA Music Festival, to the large shadow cast by Taylor Swift (one man said the lives at a place called “Sunset Penthouse” next to Vanderbilt University and a woman said Swift is “always seen out and about around here”), Nashville is all about music, and particularly country music.

Add to that, groups like The Band Perry are truly local: they call Greeneville, Tennessee – not far from Nashville – home, and reportedly live their with family members.

Here’s The Band Perry performing tonight:

Stay tuned.

Posted By: Zennie62 (Email) | August 14 2011 at 09:04 PM

Listed Under: Entertainment

LiveNation profit music to Wall Street ears

Live Nation Entertainment is back in the black, posting its best quarter since the tumultuous merger with Ticketmaster two years ago.

The concert promoter and ticketing giant surprised Wall Street on a downbeat day by recording an unexpected profit in the second quarter, topping analysts’ expectations.

In another upbeat sign, the company forecast continued growth in its global concerts-to-ticketing business for the full year despite growing fears of a double-dip recession.

“It’s a watershed moment,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of concert trade magazine Pollstar. After a tough concert season last year, Live Nation said its newfound focus on pricing seats to better meet demand and cut down on mass discounting paid off in the latest quarter with overall higher revenue.

“Despite tough economic conditions, if we price it right, people will come,” said Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, adding that “all of our segments will deliver growth in the full year 2011.”

Live Nation, which has been experimenting with different ways of selling tickets, also reported positive results from its Groupon Live venture to offer discounts and promotions to help sell unsold seats. The company said it sold 400,000 offers.

Live Nation reported results after the close of markets. The shares closed down 6.4 percent to $8.78 in regular trading as part of a broad market sell-off.

Net income was $13.3 million, or 7 cents a share, while revenue was up 23 percent to $1.56 billion. Most of the uptick came from concert revenue, ahead 26 percent to $1.08 billion. Analysts had expected a break-even quarter on revenue of $1.31 billion.

Management had no comment about the possibility of going private.

The Zune HD Just Got Some New Apps and Even the Zune Is Confused

It’s a shame that the Zune HD died so young. It had so much potential. But life goes HEY LOOK! Microsoft just released 9 new Zune HD apps. For some reason… Should we stop mourning now?

In truth, the whole Zune environment was effectively pulled into Windows Phone 7 earlier this year, when it seemed clear Microsoft had given up on their little music player that could. The Zune HD itself was put out to pasture. It was pretty sad, but everyone moved on. Zune now does well as the music and video layer for Microsoft’s many devices.

So… isn’t releasing 9 what sound to be ho-hum Zune HD-specific apps kind of beating a dead horse? I mean, Finger Paint? Tug-O-War? What’s your plan, Microsoft? Isn’t it past time to let go? The Next Web

Free Music: jj Collaborate With Ne-Yo for “We Can’t Stop” + MP3

Swedish haze-pop duo jj are back with their latest collaboration with none-other than Ne-Yo. The result is a super smooth, trance-inducing track called “We Can’t Stop,” which is currently available for free download via Adult Swim.

The Cartoon Network’s after-dark programming is currently running a free mp3 promotion where you can download 10 tracks across a 10 week period, sponsored by Kia Soul.

According to Pitchfork, the collaboration came about after Ne-Yo sent Adult Swim a new, original track. The Adult Swim folks then sent the track to jj to work their magic and the rest is history.

Hear jj and Ne-yo’s collaboration on “We Can’t Stop” after the jump and grab a free mp3 download here. While you’re at the Adult Swim site, be sure to grab other free tracks for download.