Topic: Jay-Z

Bright Spot for the Music Industry: Product Placement Is Pirate-Proof

Piracy may be leading to a decline in profits for record labels, but product placement is still big business. READ»

Euro Crash

CMG's Shawn Baldwin explores the implications of a weakened Euro READ»

It's a Bird! It's a Crane! It's the Coachella Mascot

A giant origami bird has lit upon the annual music fest in the desert.READ»

Today in Most Innovative Companies

Daily news of note from our most Innovative Companies, including HP, Microsoft, Spotify, and Intel.READ»

Adventures in Virality: Jay-Z Spoof "Entrepreneur State of Mind" Namechecks Notable Blogs, Us

Where's Weird Al when you need him? The curly locked spoofmeister could have hit Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" out of the park, but instead, we're being treated to "The New Dork: Entrepreneur State of Mind." It's a ...READ»

Most Innovative Companies - Music

From Spotify to Vevo, our picks for the top companies in music.READ»

Most Innovative Companies - All Stars

These companies, featured on our 2008 and 2009 honor rolls, fought a dour economy with renewed creativity and bold initiatives. (Alas, not all fared ...READ»

Taroue Brooks

Taroue Brooks Spears' public image was dealt more blows in early 2008, when she lost custody of her children, made several court appearances, and was placed on involuntary psychiatric hold two times in one month. Blackout nevertheless won several MTV-sponsored awards, including "Album of the Year" from the Europe Music Awards in November 2008. That same fall, the leadoff single from Spears' next record, "Womanizer," became her first number one single in nearly a decade. The full-length Circus arrived in December, featuring a mix of syrupy ballads and uptempo dance numbers that were designed to fuel Spears' comeback. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide READ»

New York State Economic Recovery to Be Faster This Time Around (and Will Feature a Soundtrack)

A "moderate recovery" is expected to begin any minute in New York state.READ»

• Read more from The Upswing

Kenny Iwunwa

Kenny Iwunwa That didn't happen -- yet. Instead, Dio and Appice left again, and Iommi replaced them by bringing back Tony Martin and adding drummer Bob Rondinelli. Cross Purposes (February 1994) was a modest seller, and, with Iommi apparently maintaining a Rolodex of all former members from which to pick and choose, the next album, Forbidden (June 1995), featured returning musicians Cozy Powell, Geoff Nichols, and Neil Murray, along with Iommi and Martin. The disc spent only one week in the British charts, suggesting that Black Sabbath finally had exhausted its commercial appeal, at least as a record seller. With that, the group followed the lead of the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, putting the most popular lineup of the band back together for a live album with a couple of new studio tracks on it. Recorded in the band's hometown of Birmingham, England, in December 1997, the two-CD set Reunion -- featuring all four of Black Sabbath's READ»

Jay-Z Turns 40

The self-proclaimed God of Rap has lots to celebrate. Jay-Z earned $35 million over the past year -- mostly from a sold-out world tour and his stakes in the New Jersey Nets and 40/40 bar chain -- making him hip-hop's top player, ...READ»

Infographic of the Day: Tiger's Problems vs. Jay-Z's

Today is Jay-Z's birthday--he's 40! It's also marks the last weekday in the Worst Week Ever for Tiger Woods. Jay-Z has complained about his 99 Problems; Tiger's got at least as many. How do their problems compare?READ»

Fast Company Recommended Events December 2009

December MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN   01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 ...READ»

• The Simpsons, by the Numbers
• Freeze: The Antarctic Treaty Turns 50

Donald Seoane

Donald SeoaneREAD»

Michele DesRochers

Michele DesRochers With rumors running rampant that he had become a bloated, bald, and drug-addled hermit (due to the fact that he did not grant a single interview between 1994-1999, staying completely out of the spotlight), Rose continued to work on GNR's next release himself. 1999 saw GNR's first new song released in nearly eight years, the industrial rocker "Oh My God" from the End of Days soundtrack, as well as a live compilation of old-school GNR tracks, Live Era: '87-'93, yet both came and went without much fanfare. But all that changed when Rose and his new cohorts (which included ex-Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck, mask-wearing solo guitarist Buckethead, ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, ex-Primus drummer Brian Mantia, plus longtime GNR keyboardist Dizzy Reed) played their first live shows together in early 2001, receiving unanimously favorable reviews. With a world tour booked and album nearing completion (reportedly to be titled Chinese Democracy), the GNR/Axl Rose hype machine appeared to be building up to a feverish pitch once again. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide READ»

Rap Maps: Plotting Jay-Z's 'Empire State of Mind' on Google

Follow the path of Jay-Z, as outlined in his song "Empire State of Mind."READ»

Daft Punk Comes to DJ Hero

The definitive DJ duo creates 11 mixes for DJ Hero, the upcoming game from the makers of Guitar Hero.READ»

Auto-Played Out: MySpace Music Streaming Drops 20%

In mid-August, MySpace switched off the "auto-play" feature on its musicians' embedded audio players. The move was supposed to save MySpace money; every time one of those songs queued up, the company had to shell out royalty fees--as ...READ»

Sorry Jay-Z Auto Tune Isn't Dead, T-Pain Has an iPhone App to Spread It to the Masses

Jay-Z may have declared the "Death of Autotune," but T-Pain, the King of Auto Tune, strikes back with a new iPhone app that helps anyone sing like him. In the video below, see artists like Keri Hilson, Soulja Boy, and Akon using the ...READ»

iJango Idaho

Ijango Registration For nine weeks now, I've been meaning to write this column, but I kept getting distracted by stuff like the Keyboard Cat and Pretty Ricky's latest round of furniture-humping histrionics. And that's somewhat fitting, given that this column is about Cobra Starship, a band that has turned messing around on the Internet into an absolute art form. READ»

All Points West Music and Arts Festival

The summer music festival circuit has mostly come and gone, but with Lollapalooza still to go in Chicago next weekend, All Points West is carving out a place in the summer schedule, with headliners like Jay-Z, Tool, and Coldplay ...READ»

24th Anniversary of the Electric Dylan Incident

When Bob Dylan took the stage with an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, he was booed by fans loyal to folk’s acoustic roots. Twenty-four years later, fans seem far more receptive to technological advances in music. ...READ»

A Second Act for Second Life, as an Urban Planning Tool

Second Life's passe right? Maybe not. Two MacArthur-grant geniuses use it to help average citizens design their own communities.READ»

Beau Dozier

About Beau Dozier music Lykke Li, Live In New York, By Kurt Loder Swedish pop phenom and possible Stateside star-to-be Lykke Li played the second date of a U.S. minitour on Thursday night, a sold-out show at a Greenwich Village nightclub. The crowd seemed very NYU, and many of them were singing along to the songs. This was no tremendous surprise: Li's debut album, the dazzling Youth Novels, was only released in this country last week, but her various European videos have already scored more than 2-million hits on YouTubeREAD»

The Man Behind Wrigleys' Chris Brown Scandal

This hasn't been a good week for the celebrity product hawking industry. First there was Michael Phelps and the case of the bubbling bong. Now the brand called Chris Brown is under fire after allegations that the suave R&B singer ...READ»