Remember that time the Verve wrote this huge pop hit “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” and then got sued for looping a short sample from the Rolling Stones, resulting in the Verve losing all the money they made with the song? TOTALLY RAD!
Anyway, the Verve are back with their new album, Forth, and it’s streaming right now on their MySpace page.

THE VERVE STREAM ENTIRE ALBUM
IN STORES AUGUST 26

New York/London - August 19, 2008 — The Verve are now streaming the full album Forth at the following:

www.myspace.com/theverve

The Verve’s long-awaited studio album Forth will be released on the band’s imprint On Your Own Records via Megaforce/RED in the USA on August 26 and internationally via EMI on August 25. It was produced by The Verve at State Of The Ark and Metropolis Studios in London.

Track Listing:

1. Sit & Wonder
2. Love Is Noise
3. Rather Be
4. Judas
5. Numbness
6. I See Houses
7. Noise Epic
8. Valium Skies
9. Columbo
10. Appalachian Springs

Considered one of the most influential, innovative and spellbinding bands from Britain, The Verve recently performed at 2008’s Coachella, sold-out two nights at The Theatre @ Madison Square Garden and headlined Glastonbury and V Festival 2008. The Verve consist of Richard Ashcroft, Nick McCabe, Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury.

As mentioned last Friday, Coldplay has announced a June 17th release date for their fourth album, “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.” While writing that post, something clicked on in the back of my mind: this album has the potential to either keep Coldplay’s label EMI afloat for another year, or make necessary the eventual merger of EMI Music (including its subsidiaries like Capitol, Virgin, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Def Jux, Mute and Tooth & Nail) and Warner Music Group, who currently hold the 3rd and 4th place slots in “The Big Four.” Variety agrees that “Viva…” is shaping up to be something of a high-stakes venture. EMI’s certainly hoping that Coldplay’s X&Y wasn’t this:

I remember a time, not so long ago, when a record label depended on its solid roster to make the business float, not just a handful of high-profile superstar artists. Their top sellers would go quintuple-platinum, allowing for enough extra cash to take chances on smaller artists, grow them and support them until they break through, joining the ranks of the high-sellers (we used to call such a thing “artist development”). Britain-based EMI and its subsidiaries once boasted an amazing roster including the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and The Beach Boys. Now the label seems to be relying on one or two current chart busters, in this case Coldplay, and the repackaged back catalogs of their dusty dinosaurs.

Artist development on major labels is now a ting of the past (that’s what indie labels are for, right?); there’s no new EMI artist who comes close to replacing Radiohead, who left the label in 2007 after deciding that they no longer needed a record label. EMI can release Best of Radiohead (June 3rd), but no one stands a real chance at releasing another OK Computer….save Coldplay. It’s possible that Chris Martin and company can release an album with (almost) as much impact. But if Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends does any worse than 2005’s X&Y, I wouldn’t be surprised to see EMI/Warner Music rear its head in 2009/2010.

Until then, let’s look at what EMI will be releasing to keep its head above water, after the jump: (more…)

Universal Music has signed a deal to make their music available to Imeem users. With the signing of the deal, Imeem now has partnerships with all four major labels, including Warner Brothers, EMI and Sony BMG.

Imeem users can stream songs in full from partner-labels, who get a cut thanks to advertising. As of now, Imeem gains an edge over competitor MySpace because Universal allows only for the streaming of 90-second clips to members of that online social network.

Universal Music Chair and Chief Executive Doug Morris explains the reasons for treating the two sites differently as follows:

“Imeem has developed an innovative way to make our artists’ music a central part of the social-networking experience,” Morris said. “More importantly, they’ve done so the right way–by working with [Universal] to provide an exciting musical experience for consumers, while ensuring that our artists are fairly compensated for the use of their works.”