Dr. Dre Is Second Artist To Charge Napster With Piracy

Rap artist Dr. Dre, aka Andre Young, and his label, Aftermath Entertainment, have filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against music file-swapping company Napster. Dre is the second artist this month to file a lawsuit against Napster. On April 13, Metallica filed its own action against the company. According to the Dre suit, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Napster has "built a business based on large-scale piracy," enabling visitors to its Web site "to unlawfully exchange with each other MP3 files containing records created by and belonging to artists such as Young." Attached to the lawsuit were copies of Napster directories listing more than 250 Dre tracks. The suit follows a letter from Dr. Dre's attorney to Napster CEO Eileen Richardson, asking the company to remove Dre's recordings from the site by April 21 to avoid legal action. The suit--which alleges copyright infringement and unlawful use of a digital audio interface device--seeks at least $100,000 in damages per infringing work, a preliminary and permanent injunction barring the unlawful distribution of Dre's recordings, and a court order authorizing the seizure of all computer discs, drives, servers, hardware or software containing the infringing material. Representatives of Napster had no comment. --Eileen Fitzpatrick, L.A.


EMusic Buys World-Music Label, Eyes Other Catalogs

EMusic.com has acquired the catalog of Music of the World Ltd. (MOTW), which operates a world-music label of the same name and the Latitudes and Nomad imprints. The purchase, from founder and president Bob Haddad, was for just under $1 million in cash and stock. In addition, EMusic VP of content acquisition Brian Brinkerhoff tells Bulletin, the company has acquired three other catalogs, to be announced in coming weeks. More than 850 tracks by MOTW artists--including BeauSoleil, Hassan Hakmoun, Shankar, and Glen Velez--will now be available for purchase as MP3 downloads at EMusic.com. Brinkerhoff says EMusic will seek third-party labels on a project-by-project basis to distribute MOTW content through traditional channels. Chapel Hill, N.C.-based MOTW, founded in 1984, will cease to operate as a traditional label; Haddad, meanwhile, has joined EMusic as a creative consultant. Brinkerhoff says EMusic is "actively" eyeing other labels for acquisitions and is "typically looking for assets in under-represented genres." The company last year bought the 8,000-track catalog of the Jewel-Paula-Ronn blues/R&B label family for an undisclosed price (Bulletin, June 30, 1999). An EMusic spokesman adds that such purchases are more beneficial than licensing deals because they allow the company to "pursue relationships with both the online and offline world and allow us more flexibility to make the music available to our online distribution partners like America Online and Yahoo!" Stock in Redwood City, Calif.-based EMusic closed yesterday up 6.94% to $2.41. --Carolyn Horwitz, N.Y.


K-tel To Offer Tracks In Windows Media

Oldies label K-tel International will begin selling digital downloads in the Microsoft Windows Media format in mid-May. The label will relaunch its site featuring several hundred tracks for download. Previously, the K-tel site contained only a few songs for download. Barry Zelickson, head of business affairs for online distribution, says the site will contain more than 1,000 tracks by June, with more tracks added periodically. Tracks will cost 99 cents each, and K-tel will also offer 10 tracks for $7.99. The downloads will also be posted on Microsoft's windowsmedia.com site. --Eileen Fitzpatrick, L.A.


ARTISTdirect Buys MP3 Search Engine

Bulletin has learned that ARTISTdirect has acquired MusicGrab.com, a U.K.-based Internet search engine of MP3 and other digital media files. Financial terms were not disclosed. --Brian Garrity, N.Y.


Sony Music Japan Spins Off Publishing Company

Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) has spun off its wholly owned music publishing division Global Rights as a separate company. Mamoru Sakuma, previously a Global Rights director, has been named president of the new entity, Sony Music Publishing (Japan). The Tokyo-based firm has a staff of 20 and is capitalized at o400 million ($3.8 million). Global Rights, established in 1996, will continue to deal with trademark and licensing matters. --Steve McClure, Tokyo


Opening Acts Set For Pearl Jam Tour

Pearl Jam has tapped Sonic Youth and Supergrass to open dates on its North American tour. Sonic Youth will open on the tour's first leg, to kick off Aug. 3 in Virginia Beach, Va., and wrap Sept. 5. Supergrass will take over beginning Oct. 4 in Montreal and finishing Nov. 5. Pearl Jam's 1998 tour grossed nearly $18 million, selling out 35 of 38 shows. Supergrass, meanwhile kicks off a U.S. tour Friday in New York in support of its self-titled Island album. Santa Monica, Calif.-based Launch.com is sponsoring after-show parties in six major markets on the tour, which wraps May 27. --Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.; Ray Waddell, Nashville


Artist Developments

Don Henley begins a U.S. tour on May 21 in Houston. The tour is in support of his Warner Bros. album, "Inside Job," due May 23.


MTVi Offers Metallica Tix, Names VP

In Latin America MTV.com, a division of the MTVi Group, is offering tickets for Metallica's "Summer Sanitarium" tour before they are available to the general public. The Web site will sell tickets exclusively starting today through Friday; tickets go on sale Saturday to the general public. MTV is the exclusive national media sponsor for the tour. As first reported in Bulletin, the tour begins June 30 in Foxboro, Mass., and also features Korn, Kid Rock, Powerman 5000, and System Of A Down (Bulletin, April 20). In other MTVi news, Pierluigi Gazzolo has been named VP of the new MTVi Latin America division. He was regional director of affiliate sales for MTV Networks. Based in Miami, Gazzolo, who will develop the MTV Latin America Web site (mtvla..com), reports to MTVi Group president/CEO Nicholas Butterworth.


Neal Matthews Dead At 70

Neal Matthews Jr., a member of Nashville-based quartet the Jordanaires, died Friday at his home near Nashville of an apparent heart attack. He was 70. Matthews was a member of the Jordanaires for nearly 50 years, singing second tenor. The group, in addition to its own recording career, provided much of the trademark background vocals on recordings by Elvis Presley and gave shape to other '50s and '60s country and pop recordings by acts such as Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee. Matthews is also credited with developing the Nashville chord numbering system, which is still in use in recording sessions today. --Wade Jessen, Nashville


MP3.com, Earjam Pair In Software Deal

MP3.com Inc. has entered into a co-marketing and development deal with Earjam.com, a developer of music playback software and services. Earjam users will be able to employ the software's music-browser function to search for and sample MP3.com artists based on genre classifications. In a separate agreement, Earjam entered into a strategic partnership with Listen.com, allowing visitors to its site to link to Listen's site. In other MP3.com news, the company has announced that, in an effort to drive traffic to its site, it is committing $2 million over the months of May and June to its "Payback for Playback" promotion, which pays artists monies directly based on the number of listens they receive. --Brian Garrity, N.Y.


Evidence Inks DNA Distribution Deal

Blues and jazz label Evidence Music has signed an exclusive distribution deal with Distribution North America (DNA) of Woodland, Calif. Evidence had been handled by Ryko Distribution. The first release under the new deal, due in June, is by guitarist Carl Weathersby. --Chris Morris, L.A.


MusicMatch Links With Chinese Site

MusicMatch Inc. has inked a deal to distribute its Jukebox audio software tool to Chinese community Web site Sina.com. Under the deal, Sina.com will host a Chinese-language Web page that allows consumers to download a co-branded version of the Jukebox, which organizes users' digital music collections and streams Internet radio stations. The deal commences in early May. Sina.com operates sites for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, as well as an English-language site.


Free Bad Religion Tix

Bad Religion is offering fans free tickets to its fall tour of the U.S. Those who buy the band's fifth Atlantic album, "The New America," within six days of its May 9 release can mail in a proof-of-purchase for a ticket to the show of their choice. The tour opens Sept. 26 in Pomona, Calif., and runs through Nov. 1. In the meantime, Bad Religion will play shed and arena dates with Blink 182, beginning May 11 at the Coors Amphitheater in Chula Vista, Calif., and running through June 30. --Carolyn Horwitz, N.Y.


What's On

Late-night tonight: Smashing Pumpkins (on Letterman), Aaliyah (Leno).