Music History

Federální odvolací soud zrušil rozhodnutí, podle něhož původní členové Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers Jimmy Merchant a Herman Santiago spoluautorsky napsali hit „Why Do Fools Fall in Love?“. Soud rozhodl, že nároky na autorská práva musí být podány do tří let od zveřejnění skladby.

Geri Halliwell announced that she would sell some of the Spice Girls’ clothing in a charity auction. Her PVC jumpsuit was offered for £5,000, knee-high boots for £1,200, and the Union Jack dress she wore at the Brit Awards for £8,000.

David Bowie launched his own internet service, Bowienet. The service offered basic internet services as well as exclusive news and releases related to Bowie.

Liverpool music retailer Rushworth and Dreaper closed after approximately 150 years in business. The store became renowned for supplying musical instruments to The Beatles and other Liverpool bands.

Attorneys general from 28 U.S. states filed a class-action lawsuit against major record companies over alleged efforts to keep CD prices high and penalize retailers that sold them below the minimum price set by the labels. The case was later settled for $143 million, and millions of customers who purchased CDs between 1995 and 2000 received compensation.

The Spice Girls held five places on a list of the twenty highest-earning British celebrities serving as company directors. The companies Monsta Productions, Moody Productions, Red Girl Productions, Moneyspider Productions and Geri Productions each earned £6 million.

Whitney Houston signed a new recording contract with Arista Records worth more than $100 million — reported at the time as the largest recording deal for a female artist.

British funeral service Co-op reported that bereaved families preferred pop songs to hymns at funerals. Among the most frequently chosen songs were "Wind Beneath My Wings", "Angels" and "My Heart Will Go On", as well as "Another One Bites The Dust" and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go".

Eric Clapton purchased a 50% stake in the London menswear store Cordings to help save the historic business from closure.

The iTunes Music Store became the first store with a catalog containing more than one million songs.

Queen became the first rock group to receive official permission to operate in Iran, where Western music was strictly prohibited. Freddie Mercury was of Iranian heritage, and Queen albums had been available in the country for years through unofficial copies.

The iTunes Music Store reached 125 million songs sold.

Apple launched the iTunes Music Store in Japan with a catalog of one million songs.

Toby Keith announced that he was founding his own record company, Show Dog Nashville Records.

Elvis Presley Enterprises announced plans for a major redevelopment of the Graceland complex, including a new visitor center, hotel, and modern multimedia exhibits.

Procter & Gamble secured a license to use The Beatles' song “All You Need Is Love” in a television advertisement for Luvs diapers.

The American National Music Publishers' Association joined legal action against YouTube over claims that songwriters were not properly compensated for the use of their music on the platform.

Jon Foreman, frontman of Switchfoot, announced that the band had left Columbia Records. Switchfoot subsequently founded their own label, lowercase people records.

Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders opened Mark Lindsay's Rock And Roll Cafe in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. The restaurant closed the following year.

The Veronicas' fashion collection for the Target retail chain was launched in Australia.

Apple launched the iTunes Store in Mexico with an extensive catalog of music from major and independent record labels.

Original Woodstock promoter Michael Lang canceled the planned free concert marking the festival's 40th anniversary in Prospect Park due to high costs and a lack of sponsors.

Madonna launched her “Material Girl” fashion brand through Macy’s, targeting teenage girls. Her daughter Lourdes also helped with the project.

Plans were announced for an auction of a toilet from John Lennon's luxury estate, Tittenhurst Park, in Berkshire. Lennon used the floral-patterned porcelain toilet while living at the estate from 1969 to 1971. When it was replaced, he reportedly told builder John Hancock to keep it and “use it as a flower pot”. Instead, Hancock stored it in his shed for 40 years, and after his death, his family offered it for sale. It was expected to sell for $1,500. However, the August 28, 2010 auction far exceeded expectations, with the item acquired by a private overseas bidder for £9,500, approximately $14,740, nearly ten times the original estimate.

Apple launched the social network Ping, which was integrated into iTunes. The service was discontinued two years later.

Elton John filed a lawsuit against the British newspaper The Times over an article published on June 21 that linked him to a tax avoidance scheme. The case was settled in October when the British High Court ruled in favor of The Times.

Members of Mötley Crüe and KISS announced a $100,000 donation to support victims of the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Ringo Starr was the world’s richest drummer in 2012, with an estimated fortune of $300 million. He was followed by Phil Collins with $250 million, Dave Grohl with $225 million, Don Henley with $200 million, and Lars Ulrich with $175 million. The top ten also included Larry Mullen of U2 and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones.

Nielsen SoundScan reported that U.S. album sales for the week ending July 28 totaled 4.68 million units, the lowest figure since the tracking system was introduced in 1991.

The historic 15,000-square-foot Las Vegas mansion once owned by flamboyant pianist Liberace was sold for $500,000 in cash to a British businessman. Built in 1962, the property had faced foreclosure and was sold for roughly $3 million less than its peak price seven years prior.

Madonna was named by Forbes as the highest-earning celebrity of the previous year. It estimated that she earned $125 million from the MDNA Tour and her clothing and beauty projects.

Kimberley Rew sold the rights to “Walking on Sunshine” and his remaining catalog to BMG for $16 million.

Columbia House, the mail-order music club that originally offered customers eight albums for one dollar, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after nearly two decades of declining sales. The company was founded in 1955 by CBS’s Columbia Records division, and its sales gradually declined first because of Napster and later because of iTunes, Amazon and Netflix. BMG, a longtime competitor, bought the company in 2005, and it ended its mail-order business in 2009.

Judge R. Gary Klausner denied Led Zeppelin and its publishing company nearly $800,000 in legal fees related to the lawsuit over whether the band had plagiarized the chord progression in “Stairway to Heaven”.

Paul McCartney signed a worldwide recording agreement with Capitol Records and returned his solo catalog of original master recordings to the label associated with the US releases of the Beatles' recordings.

Trumpeter Herb Alpert donated $10.1 million to Los Angeles City College, enabling the school to provide students in music programmes with free tuition and individual lessons for several years.

The REDD.37 mixing console used at EMI Abbey Road Studios to record the first Beatles tracks was offered for sale by Vintage King Audio. No price was given. In January 1964, the console had been replaced by the newer REDD.51 model.

The mobile home once owned by Elvis and Priscilla Presley was auctioned together with Michael Jackson's glove at the GWS Auctions “Legends: Iconic Film and Music Memorabilia Auction”.

During his concert in Hannover on August 2, 2019, Ed Sheeran broke U2’s record for the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. His Divide Tour surpassed the $735.3 million gross generated by U2’s 360° Tour.

A guitar played by Jimi Hendrix in the early 1960s was sold at auction for $216,000. Hendrix used it, among other things, as a backing guitarist for Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, Ike & Tina Turner, Jackie Wilson and The Isley Brothers.

Forbes named Rihanna the world's wealthiest female musician, with an estimated fortune of $1.7 billion, with the majority of her wealth coming from Fenty Beauty.

Gene Simmons of KISS confirmed that the band had dropped former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth as the opening act for their current tour. Approximately one week later, Simmons publicly apologized for his remarks.

Aukční dům Christie's v Anglii prodal acetátovou nahrávku skladby „Blowin' In The Wind“ od Boba Dylana za 1 769 508 dolarů. Nahrávka vznikla v roce 2021 a byla vyrobena na acetátovém disku Ionic Recording.

The auction house Gotta Have Rock & Roll offered for sale the BTR2 recording console used at EMI Abbey Road Studios to record The Beatles, Pink Floyd and other artists.

Taylor Swift gave her truck drivers on the Eras Tour an extraordinary $100,000 bonus each in recognition of their work. Total bonuses reportedly exceeded $55 million for performers and crew members.

Sean “Diddy” Combs donated $1 million to the Earn Your Leisure fund to support financial literacy and subsequently donated another $1 million to the football team of Jackson State University in support of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Diddy is an alumnus of the HBCU Howard University.