The Money Shot: 3.23.07

Today's headlines...

Music publishers sue XM over copyrighted songs use (Yahoo News)
The Money Shot: The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) filed a lawsuit against XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc on Thursday for providing radios that allegedly let users reproduce and distribute copyrighted music without paying appropriate royalties.

The publishers said the suit alleges that XM engages in massive copyright infringement with devices that provide its service known as "XM + MP3," which lets listeners store songs they hear on XM's service and arrange them into playlists.

Kings Of Leon Growing Up, But New LP Still Goes 'Below The Waist' (MTV)
MS:"We've grown up a little bit because we realize that this band is something that's very important to us, and we want to do it for as long as we can. And if you're staying up all night doing drugs and trying to make a scene, you can't really do this forever," Caleb laughed. "It got to a point where we all knew we had to slow down. But we still like a cocktail, and we still like pretty girls and stuff like that, but we're not trying to be the most 'rock star' band. We hate that stuff. Now we just try to wear black and wear it really tight."

Flaming Lips Hit Broadway (Yahoo)
MS: The Flaming Lips are set to be immortalised in a Broadway production based on the landmark album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The space-pop heroes are understood to be in discussions with a series of renowned TV producers about putting the album on the stage.

White Stripes Album Details (CMJ)
MS: Jack and Meg have emerged with their sixth album, their first for Warner Bros. (which has also taken on the band’s Third Man imprint) and, most importantly, their first with bagpipes. Those are a couple of the surprises on the ultimately straightforward Icky Thump, which will see daylight in June. CMJ was treated to a special advance listen of the 13-track record, which was recorded in a super-long (at least for the Stripes) three-week session in a super-modern studio (for the first time) and clocks in at a super-sized (relatively speaking) 48 minutes.

Music Sales Up/CD Sales Down (Pollstar)
MS: The year is barely three months old and physical CD sales continue 2006's downward spiral while online digital purchases have yet to make up the difference, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures.

While overall music sales are up 19 percent compared to last year at this time, translating into 46 million additional music purchases, sales of physical CDs have dropped 20 percent compared to 2006.

Modest Mouse returns post-breakthrough (AP)
MS: When Gallucci later left the band, Brock thought of the guitarists he'd most like to play with — and Marr topped the list. So he sent a message to Marr's manager. "It was like sending a ... letter to Santa Claus," says Brock.

Neil Young scores with journey to the past (Reuters)
MS: It's a chart of gold for Neil Young, who scored his highest-debuting album on The Billboard 200 in almost 12 years with "Live at Massey Hall 1971." The Reprise Records release, culled from an acoustic show in Young's Toronto hometown, entered the tally at No. 6 this week. That's the best first-week position for Young since "Mirror Ball" -- his collaboration with members of Pearl Jam -- entered at No. 5 in July 1995.