Jared Leto 2016-03-25 Billboard, 'Suicide Squad' Director Says 'The Crew Stops Working' When Jared Leto Does The Joker

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7280199/suicide-squad-jared-leto-joker-crew-stops-working

'Suicide Squad' Director Says 'The Crew Stops Working' When Jared Leto Does The Joker

3/25/2016 by Jessie Katz

Jared Leto as the Joker in the official trailer for "Suicide Squad."

Courtesy Photo

Suicide Squad director David Ayer has set the DC Comics fan world a-buzzing after an interview with Total Film [via DC Vertigo Daily] in which he speaks of Jared Leto's performance as the Joker in almost messianic terms.

Leto, the Oscar-winning actor and frontman of 30 Seconds to Mars, was tapped back in 2014 to play the iconic role in Warner Bros.' film featuring iconic DC Comics supervillains. Of the opportunity to play such a legendary character already immortalized by the likes of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, Leto told Billboard last year, "to take on this nearly Shakespearean character -- that's what graphic novels and comic books are becoming, right? [He's] this beautiful disaster of a character -- what a big challenge."

Ayer describes the experience of watching Leto-as-Joker as one in which "the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

"What Jared has done is absolutely incredible," he gushes. "When he steps onto the set the world stops. Everything stops. What he’s done is so powerful, so menacing, so palpable, you can feel him. The crew stops working and just watches him. I have to get everybody going again because he’s so fascinating."

Fans will have to wait until the film's official release date of Aug. 5 to see it for themselves.

Madonna, 2015-09-17 - billboard, Madonna Gets Surprisingly Nostalgic at First NYC Tour Stop, Then Kicks Amy Schumer's Ass

http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6699797/madonna-rebel-heart-nyc-tour-amy-schumer-madison-square-garden

Madonna Gets Surprisingly Nostalgic at First NYC Tour Stop, Then Kicks Amy Schumer's Ass

By Joe Lynch, New York | September 17, 2015 2:49 AM EDT

For an artist who rarely looks back creatively, Madonna was in a particularly wistful mood during her Madison Square Garden concert on Wednesday (Sept. 16) night, the first of three NYC dates on her Rebel Heart Tour.

"I'm feeling very nostalgic tonight," Madonna said (twice, actually). "I played Madison Square Garden 30 years ago. That's crazy." When she trailed off for a moment, you almost thought she was lost in sentimental reverie. But as always, Madonna was laser-focused on the present, even while reminiscing. "You were there?" she asked a fan in the front row who had been talking to her. "Then I gotta give you a kiss." For the record, a Madonna-on-fan kiss is a controlled affair: She kissed her fingers and touched the fan's forehead, like a messiah gracing her faithful follower with one touch.

Nostalgia aside, Madonna's restless creative spirit is on full display on the Rebel Heart Tour. Refusing to coast by playing faithful, familiar live renditions of her hits, Madge recast a number of her classics in different musical molds, with mostly positive results.

Strapping on a guitar, she skuzzed up "Burning Up" to hard rock heights and turned "True Blue" into a ukulele sing-along. For "Like a Virgin," she lost the original instrumentation, her backup dancers and most of her clothes while turning her breakthrough hit into a sparse, Pharrell-esque jam.

In a lengthy nod to her Spanish-speaking audience, Madonna delivered a Latin-tinged medley of "Dress You Up," "Into the Groove" and "Lucky Star." The maracas might have been a little much, but the crisp Spanish guitar successfully made the songs sound newly organic. And while there weren't as many French speakers in attendance at MSG, Madonna nodded to her Gallic fans with a surprisingly full-voiced version of Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose." (Was it as good as Lady Gaga's recent live "La Vie en Rose" cover? That's a topic for opposing fan groups to viciously discuss in the comments section.)

Later in the show, Madonna began "Music" as a Jazz Age ballad before kicking the No. 1 hit into banger mode. The presence of "Music" was an effective reminder that while some compulsive naysayers tsk the Queen of Pop for trend chasing with Diplo, she brought techno to the pop mainstream years before EDM was a ubiquitous term.

As always, Madonna will never be everything to everyone. Some were undoubtedly let down to see her make it through the "Vogue" spoken word section during "Holy Water" without segueing into the full song -- and to see the lights come up without any "Like a Prayer."

But the classic tracks Madonna did pull out were judiciously selected, with attention paid to material rarely performed on her live tours. An acoustic "Who's That Girl?" (not seen on a Madonna tour in nearly 30 years), a pumping "Deeper and Deeper" (absent from her setlist for 11 years) and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" (which segued out of new song "HeartBreak City") were all resurrected to huge applause.

Speaking of resurrection, Catholic themes occupied a sizable portion of her stage show, as you would expect -- but always with the Ciccone wink. There was a bacchanalian Last Supper, nuns gyrating on stripper polls and famous faces from Renaissance religious paintings projected onscreen during the aforementioned "Vogue" roll call.

Aside from the stunning Minotaur-filled "Living for Love," the most effective new song in her Rebel Heart Tour arsenal was "Body Shop." While the song was light to the point of forgettable on the album, its low-key, affable sound worked to the choreography's advantage as Madonna teased and flirted her way through a stage filled with tires, muscle cars and muscle men.

"My grandma always said, 'If it's got tits or tires, it's going to give you trouble,'" Madonna said in a faux Southern accent after the song. "Sorry, I know I'm not as funny as Amy Schumer, but I'm trying."

Schumer, incidentally, killed her opening set (last night was her first of three opening slots for Madonna in NYC). Repeatedly mocking the flowering falsehood that it's a new Golden Era for women in Hollywood while still making jokes about the First Lady taking a hot load, Schumer's ability to pivot between the bawdy and the incisive proved the perfect fit for a Madonna opener.

"I thought I was gonna bomb so hard for months," Schumer said when her set was over. "This is the best feeling ever."

That feeling might've been one-upped (or quashed?) later on in the evening when Madonna brought Amy out during "Unapologetic Bitch," bent her over and literally kicked her ass (in addition to pretending to penetrate it). Schumer was ecstatic and surprisingly rhythmic while dancing with Madonna onstage, but the Queen couldn't let her go without some hazing.

Before Schumer left the stage, Madonna put a sock puppet on Amy's hand and made it tell her, "Hi Amy -- I'm a sock, bitch!" Waiting a few beats for an actual joke to follow, Schumer exploded into confused laughter when it became clear that was pretty much all Madge had to offer with the skit. Madonna might be good at changing creative lanes, but her attempt at improv was like switching lanes by means of rolling out of a moving car.

When the show came to a triumphant close with "Holiday," New York's favorite adopted daughter marched around in an American flag cape while her dancers -- dressed for a Gatsby-style rager at this point -- paraded about with jubilant relief. It was clear they felt the rush of owning Madison Square Garden and relished it. Madonna, on the other hand, kept her composure. Clearly, failure to dominate MSG on Wednesday night was never an option for her -- just like failure to dominate New York City was never an option for Madonna more than 30 years ago.

U2, 2014-10-09 - Billboard, The Download Heard 'Round the World: iTunes Numbers Show 81 Million 'Experienced' U2 Album

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6274359/itunes-numbers-u2-songs-innocence-album

The Download Heard 'Round the World: iTunes Numbers Show 81 Million 'Experienced' U2 Album

By Shirley Halperin and Andrew Hampp | October 09, 2014 3:43 PM EDT

 

Apple CEO Tim Cook greets the crowd with U2 singer Bono (2nd R) as The Edge (2nd L) and Larry Mullen Jr look on during an Apple special event at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts on September 9, 2014 in Cupertino, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

'Songs of Innocence,' the band's latest release delivered for free, is firmly entrenched with 26 million customers downloading the set in its entirety.

U2 has gone from setting records to breaking them and, with the band's game-changing Apple partnership, simply defying all imaginable expectations.

So how did the album Songs of Innocence fare after being made available to 500 million people around the world as a free download on iTunes? No surprise here, scale pays off.

Eddy Cue, Apple's senior VP of internet software and services, tells Billboard that U2's Songs of Innocence has racked up a staggering 26 million complete downloads since its Sept. 9 release as a free download exclusively to Apple's 500 million global iTunes customers. In total, Cue adds, over 81 million Apple customers experienced songs from Innocence, a global figure that includes plays and streams through iTunes, iTunes Radio and Beats Music. "To help put this into perspective," he says, "prior to this, 14 million customers had purchased music from U2 since the opening of the iTunes Store in 2003."

In a statement to Billboard, U2 said: "Apple is a tech company fighting to get musicians paid. The idea that they wanted to make a gift to the very people that actually purchase music is both beautiful and poetic, and for that we are very grateful."

Meanwhile, a physical deluxe edition of Songs of Innocence hits all other retailers Oct. 14, featuring 10 additional bonus tracks (unavailable on iTunes) including six acoustic versions of Innocence songs and four all-new cuts. Based on pre-orders alone, sources suggest to Billboard the physical deluxe edition will move an additional 70,000 copies in the U.S.

While U2's one-month iTunes deal is unprecedented in music retail, other recent experiments with "windowing," or exclusive release windows with a single retail partner, have produced surprising results in recent years. Jay Z's Magna Carta...Holy Grail was originally released as a five-day digital exclusive with Samsung's Galaxy phones, but that giveaway didn't cannibalize his first-week sales. Instead, the rapper sold an impressive 528,000 copies in its first full week at retail, besting the opening frames of his previous two studio releases. His wife Beyonce, who released her self-titled set as a one-week exclusive with iTunes on Dec. 13, sold 374,000 copies in its second week of release at all retailers (minus Amazon and Target, who protested Apple's surprise coup).

The U2 deal sets a new milestone in how recorded music is distributed -- and paid for. Not only did the band (and label Interscope, by association) net $100 million in free media exposure from Apple's global marketing campaign, Universal Music Group could have secured a $52 million payment for exclusive rights to the product, based on Billboard's estimates of standard label profit from 26 million album sales; alternately, Billboard estimates an upfront fee, excluding royalties, could be in the $5 million range. Reps for Apple and U2 declined to comment on deal terms.

The value of an ostensibly free album gets even more interesting when you look at eBay, where vinyl copies of the album have been selling for as much as $1,500. That's due to a Grammy-qualifying, white-label vinyl version issued to select stores on Sept. 30, the last day of eligibility for the 2015 Grammy broadcast. Just how limited was the pressing? According to the website for participating seller Looney Tunes in West Babylon, New York, only 300 were made available.

Bon Jovi, 2014-10-09 - Billboard, Bon Jovi Tour Photographer David Bergman Talks Behind-the-Scenes Details of Traveling the World With the Band

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6274256/bon-jovi-tour-photographer-david-bergman-on-bon-jovi-work-book

Bon Jovi Tour Photographer David Bergman Talks Behind-the-Scenes Details of Traveling the World With the Band

By Michele Amabile Angermiller | October 09, 2014 2:40 PM EDT

David Bergman

Over the span of two world tours, photographer David Bergman had the best seat in the house as the tour photographer for one of the world's hardest working rock'n'roll bands -- Bon Jovi.

The collected images -- culled from over 800,000 frames snapped of the band -- are now available in a new coffee-table book, Bon Jovi: Work, chronicling the action on stage, backstage, and even in the hospital after a show when Jon Bon Jovi tore his meniscus during a show in Helsinki.

"I went with the title Work because that is what the band is about with that New Jersey work ethic and the hard work they do every night," Bergman tells Billboard.


Jon Bon Jovi leads the band onstage in Atlanta on April 15, 2010.

One particular image captures everything the singer feels about his fans, his group and his job, explains Bergman. The band was playing a gig in New York when harrowing skies, pouring rain, then finally ominous lightning strikes postponed the show. This did not sit well with Jon.

"He was hating it," Bergman said. "There is really a flow to a show. He didn't like that at all because it really killed the momentum. It's not fun for the fans and it's not fun for anybody."

Backstage, the band milled around as the rain drenched the venue, but Bergman decided to take some shots. "Jon just kind of peered out waiting for the rain to stop, longingly looking and waiting for the show to get going again, and that was just a moment that won't be captured if you don't have a photographer with you on site," he said. "You are never going to see those moments."

Adds Bergman: "The good thing about Jon is he gets it. He understands the value of documenting these things."

Even in his most unglamorous moments following his injury in the hospital in Ireland, acupuncture and rehab, Bon Jovi was willing to be shot. Bergman said he worked through the pain and did not cancel a single show. "The nurses asked him what he was going to do with the pictures and Jon would always laugh and say, 'They'll do a book after I die,'" he said. Those shots, Bergman says, provided the thesis of the story.

"When we started putting the book together, I told him the knee story is an inspiring story and goes with the theme of the book and the hard work that he has done and the whole band," Bergman explains.

"Jon looked at me and said, 'You know what, if it inspires one kid to work through the pain and push through an injury and come out strong on the other side, it's worth it.' He knows the influence he has over people and the power that he has with his actions and he wanted people to see it. It gets people by surprise to see one of the biggest rock stars in the world in his hotel room, in pain, in agony -- not at his most glamorous -- but I am really glad he agreed to let us put it out because it's a huge part of his story and how he is."

Fireworks at MeLife Stadium on May 26, 2010.

Bergman began his career as a photographer at the Miami Herald, covering news features and sports, until one day he pitched to paper to allow him to photograph singer Gloria Estefan, who was coming off a back injury and embarking on a comeback tour. He became passionate about tour photography after that.

Though Bergman covered many bands, Bon Jovi remained number one on his list. By the time he pitched the group, he was surprised to hear that Jon already knew who he was because of his most famous photo: a GigaPan image of President Barack Obama at his inauguration.

"When I finally did get a meeting and got to talk to them, Jon absolutely knew that photo. He was at the inauguration with his kids," Bergman says. "That photo went crazy. It got 20 million views. They interviewed me on CNN and it went insane, so he knew who I was and he had seen a lot of my sports stuff. He's a big sports fan. He's a football guy and I have a lot of pictures over the years from Sports Illustrated and I have a lot of covers. He knew my work."

After shooting a few shows, Bergman was surprised to be invited into the band's inner circle, joining the group on its private plane and going along for the ride.

Bon Jovi: Work also captures other members of the band in the same light. Drummer Tico Torres is an artist, and Bergman took shots of the musician at home painting in his garage in Florida, as well as on the golf course. Keyboardist David Bryan invited Bergman to his New Jersey home, allowing some up-close shots of the composer working on music for a new play, Chasing The Song.

There are plenty of pictures of guitarist Richie Sambora in the book, but Bergman never made it to his home.

"I did photograph him quite a bit," he said. "Whenever those guys were awake, I was there with a camera to take pictures of the two of them practicing, rehearsing, on the plane -- whatever it was -- day in and day out."

The band in Zurich, Switzerland on July 14, 2011.

One section sure to please fans are the ones taken by Bon Jovi himself. Bergman and the singer spent so much time together that one day, he decided to try photography himself snapping photos of flowers and trees in a park in Vienna.

"Jon is a creative person. He has a good eye and he has always liked taking pictures, but he never really knew the technical side of it," Bergman says.

In a few lessons, Jon proved a quick study. He tried out his skills on family vacations, a safari in Africa, and at the 12/12/12 concert for Hurricane Sandy relief. One photo of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger taken by Jon is featured in the book.

"He was standing there in the photo pit taking pictures of the Stones just like a photographer and a fan, alternating between taking pictures and putting the camera down and watching the show," Bergman said. "The other photographers were taking pictures of Jon."

Other shots in the book -- particularly Jon walking a female fan down the aisle in Las Vegas, a shot of Jon doing a famed concert jump on a boat in Australia, and a spontaneous onstage group hug symbolizing what was the end of a tough touring year -- frame the collection.

Through it all, Jon remained true to his work ethos, overseeing every aspect of the book.

"He is the CEO of this corporation and everything goes through him. I thought when I first came in I would deal with a publicist or a manager that will approve the photos but from the very beginning Jon saw personally every photo that went out,” he said. “I was blown away by him."

See a gallery of photos from 'Bon Jovi: Work,' including an image that's exclusive to Billboard.

Bon Jovi: Work is avaiable exclusively on Bon Jovi's official website.

U2, 2014-09-12 - Billboard, Exclusive: Guy Oseary on U2's $100 Million Deal With Apple, And What's Next for the Group

http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6251220/guy-oseary-interview-u2-apple-deal-songs-of-innocence

Exclusive: Guy Oseary on U2's $100 Million Deal With Apple, And What's Next for the Group

By Andrew Hampp | September 12, 2014 10:30 AM EDT

Guy Oseary and Bono during The 45th GRAMMY Awards - MusiCares 2003 Person of the Year - Bono - After-Party at Hudson Hotel in New York City.KMazur/WireImage

It has been a whirlwind nine months for Guy Oseary since he took the reins of U2’s management after longtime manager Paul McGuinness announced his retirement last fall. That includes a Golden Globe, an Oscar nomination, a big Super Bowl campaign and the premiere of The Tonight Show in support of two songs that ultimately didn't make the final cut on Songs of Innocence, the history-making album that debuted to 500 million iTunes customers on Sept. 9.

With lead single "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" set to be featured in a massive media campaign from Apple, valued at $100 million by multiple sources, U2 has already scored arguably the biggest launch in music history. And it's one that's already fraught with a little controversy, from angry retailers to Grammy and SoundScan guidelines. Oseary, 41, rang Billboard on Sept. 11 to address the many questions about the launch, and what’s next (another album?) from this landmark deal with Apple.

Songs of Innocence has already been touted as the biggest album launch of all time. How did you get to this point?
U2 worked five years on this album, they poured blood, sweat, tears into project, and we were really confident with it. The goal was: how do we reach as many as possible? U2 first worked with Apple nearly 10 years to the day when they were sharing a stage with Steve Jobs and launching their iPod with many fewer accounts, and here we are 10 years later with Apple gifting this album to 7 percent of the planet.

Many people are already calling the announcement “disruptive” in the same way that Jay Z’s deal with Samsung and Beyonce’s surprise album drop were also disruptive to traditional industry rollouts. While this news was significant for U2, how could other artists potentially benefit?
Well first of all, when music becomes a piece of the conversation at an Apple event, that’s always a good thing. Two is, the power of music and the fact that it can actually be shared with 7 percent of the planet in one push of a button. That’s a pretty big concept. Any sort of innovation may inspire other people to do things that are innovative. We may see someone sitting with another manager, or another band going, "Hey, what can we do that's interesting maybe with our lyrics or our videos or something interactive with the ticketing to our shows?"

That’s all, I don’t know where it’s headed, I just know that I’m always looking for the answers, for new ways to do things. That’s my job, my job is to try to not follow the lead. And there’s a lot of other people that have a lot of peers and bands that are in the community wanting to lead, and they’ll lead in other ways. And that’s what’s exciting to me. It’s not gonna be the same thing. But who knows where it goes? There’s endless possibilities to do things today with music and performance.

Jimmy Iovine is a figure we didn’t see onstage Tuesday, but someone who has been closely linked to U2 for many years from his days at Interscope and now happens to be an Apple employee. What was his role in making this deal happen?
Jimmy is part of whatever this band does, even in their personal lives. It’s a family. We look to Jimmy for guidance and support no matter what we end up doing, whether its this project or talking about the next single, or whether we’re talking about doing other things down the road. Talk about family, trips, things that we wanted to to do in our personal lives -- we’re really connected, we’re really supportive. Jimmy is near and dear to this band, he’s definitely a source of support and guidance. He’s a big part of the U2 family, and to myself personally -- whether I’m working with U2 or someone else, he’s always been a very supportive and dear friend. We consider him family and there’s been a lot of hand-holding together through this process.

On Tuesday, Bono emphasized the fact that the band was paid by Apple for the album, and there's a reported $100 million ad campaign in the works, which may have ruffled some feathers of longtime fans who admire Bono’s humanitarian work. So, is there an altruistic component to this new Apple partnership?
Apple's very private about their philanthropic work, but they've done a lot for (RED.) They've given $70 to $90 million to saving lives, and while I was at the event I counted two times where two (RED) products were actually promoted at the event.

Bono also mentioned on Facebook that there’s a second album already in the can. What else can we expect from U2 and Apple?
We're working on other things as well with Apple that have to do with how music is heard and innovation, with [iTunes VP of content] Robert Kondrk leading that charge. There’s a lot of things still to come that are really interesting. The band really wants people to engage with albums, they want them to support the art form of artwork and lyrics and video content and just get into their music in a much different way than an MP3 file. This is a long relationship.

Some retailers are already up in arms about a five-week exclusive with iTunes. How will you make sure there’s still value to the commercial release when it arrives Oct. 14?
There’s four brand-new songs, and Gary Kelly [Interscope’s head of retail sales] can tell you there’s a bunch of acoustic versions of songs from the album, too. So it’s probably gonna be anywhere between nine or 11 songs that were not on the standard. Retail is important, too, we’re not trying to alienate anyone. We're just trying to reach our potential, and it happens to be with a company that is very forward-thinking. U2 is part of the Apple story, and Apple has played a big part in U2's life.

It’s been a decade since U2 has had a true mainstream hit, so there’s a whole generation of music listeners who may just be discovering the band’s music. How do you convert them into fans without oversaturating them?
As you can see from today’s iTunes charts, clearly people are digging back into the catalog to learn more about the band, with 16 albums on the iTunes charts. That’s a statement, that people are going, “Oh, let me learn more about this band.” I’ve seen a lot of tweets from kids who are 14, 15, 16, 18 who are going, “Wow, this is really good.” They didn’t know what to expect. That’s a great feeling, that maybe someone in their collection only has hip-hop, and yet maybe someone only has country artists, or someone in India doesn’t have any Anglo artists, and they discover U2 today. The one thing all these people have in common is U2 now. The one thing everyone on iTunes has in common today is U2 and a U2 album. It’s an amazing opportunity, even at this stage in U2’s career, to make new friends.

You just gave away an album to 500 million people worldwide. How do you turn those free customers into album buyers a month from now?
This is all new territory, but we have four brand-new songs and the deluxe is a killer package. And it’s early days. You can't look at the standard as one piece of this puzzle, you have to look at whether we reached as many as possible. Are people buying the catalog all of a sudden? And the answer is yes.

By releasing a free album this week, you’ve missed some of the requirements for the Billboard as well as Grammy deadlines. So what’s the overall statement you wanted to make?
Look, we just went with organic, genuine feelings of “Let’s share this album with as many people as possible” and then we know that there’s a lot of unknowns. And we accept the ups, we accept the downs, it’ll be what it’ll be, but we’re really happy with this week and historical launch.

A version of this story originally appeared in the Sept. 20 issue of Billboard.

Jared Leto, 2014-04-25 - Billboard, Jared Leto On Leaving Virgin, Thirty Seconds To Mars Doc 'Artifact'

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6070010/jared-leto-on-leaving-virgin-thirty-seconds-to-mars-doc-artifact?mobile_redirection=false

Jared Leto On Leaving Virgin, Thirty Seconds To Mars Doc 'Artifact'

By Andrew Hampp | April 25, 2014 7:19 PM EDT

On the road with 30 Seconds to Mars in London, England
Dan Wilton

Jared Leto is a free agent.

Fresh off his Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor last month, the singer/actor is feeling freshly confident about his day job as frontman of rock band Thirty Seconds To Mars.

30STM has recently parted ways for good with Virgin Records/EMI, Leto confirms to Billboard, a label with whom the group has a tumultuous history -- including a $30 million lawsuit. All the gory details are chronicled in the documentary “Artifact,” airing April 26 on VH1 and Palladia at 11 p.m. eastern.

Though the film is based on the fraught period that led to the making of 30STM's 2010 album, “This Is War,” the band is newly unsigned after fulfilling its contract with 2013’s “Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams” -- and better for it, Leto says.

“We’re free and clear and excited about the future,” he says on the phone from Los Angeles, on a brief break from 30STM’s exhaustive touring schedule. “It’s the most wonderful place to be.”

“Artifact,” which Leto also directed, pulls no punches about the realities of the modern music business, particularly the ill-fated sale of Virgin’s parent company EMI to investor Guy Hands. Leto and bandmates Shannon Leto and Tomo Milicevic appear throughout the film, alongside powerful industry figures like the band’s manager Irving Azoff, Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers, music journalist Bob Lefsetz, producer Flood and fellow frontmen like Incubus’ Brandon Boyd and Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington.

With the band already more than $2 million in debt heading into the making of “This Is War,” 30STM was seeking to exit its 9-year-old contract with EMI under a California Labor Code that permits entertainers to terminate contracts after seven years.

ARTIFACT - OFFICIAL TRAILER (Thirty Seconds To Mars Documentary)

Though plenty of criticism is leveled at major record labels throughout the documentary for their outdated business models, Leto says “Artifact” is “not anti-record label, it’s anti-greed. It’s about artists examining the difficulty between the conflict of art and commerce, how corruption can kill dreams.”

He recently spoke with the frontman of an un-named “huge band,” who was excited to be recording the last album of the group’s current contract. “What a strange business that you’re more excited to leave your label than you are to be working there,” Leto says.

With streaming music services like Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio and Beats Music still on the rise, Leto is cautiously optimistic a new business model is in the works for the industry, even as those services continue to sort out their economics and royalty rates for artists.

“We’re all trying to figure out ways to share our music with the world, in new and exciting ways that don’t force us to have to sign some convoluted record contract that’s designed to keep us terminally in debt for centuries,” he says.

In the meantime, 30STM will continue to be tireless touring musicians, enough to have already set the Guiness World Record for most live shows played in support of one album (more than 300). Though all that roadwork has helped supplement the limited income brought in from recorded music, Leto hopes other bands in similar situations as his in 2010 will take heed from “Artifact.”

“We weren’t the Rolling Stones or some supergroup, otherwise maybe we could afford to battle a corporation for some time," he says. "We were a small band who had a little bit of success who believed in the fight for fairness. Hopefully, the technology industry and the labels will continue to take a look at how they operate and make deals and realize there’s plenty to go around.”

Madonna, 2012-02-05 - Billboard, Madonna Rocks Super Bowl Halftime Show With Old Hits, New Friends

http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/super-bowl/506774/madonna-rocks-super-bowl-halftime-show-with-old-hits-new-friends#/column/super-bowl/madonna-rocks-super-bowl-halftime-show-1006099552.story

Madonna Rocks Super Bowl Halftime Show With Old Hits, New Friends

By Marc Schneider | February 05, 2012 9:30 PM EST

Singer Madonna performs during the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 5, 2012 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

'Like a Prayer,' 'Vogue, 'Music' ... M.I.A. Flips Out During 'Give Me All Your Luvin''

It's Madonna Louise Ciccone's world, we're just living in it. The pop icon took to the world's biggest stage to rock three-and-a-half older tracks and a playful new song during the Super Bowl halftime show.

Entering on a golden throne pushed by an army of dancing Roman gladiators, the 53-year-old singer started things off with her 1990 classic "Vogue." Around ten backup dancers kept the pace as she sauntered the scene in a head piece and black thigh-high boots.

Across the field at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis flashed an impressive digital collage of Vogue magazines, in a nice touch of corporate scenery.

By the time "Music" revved up, she was down to four very acrobatic backup dancers on a bandstand. To the side of the stage -- playing the parts of "Hey Mr. DJ" -- were those party rocking dudes of LMFAO at which point "Music" began getting an infusion of the SoCal duo's biggest hits, "Party Rock Anthem" and "Sexy And I Know It."

Those with sharp eyes may have noticed Madonna slipping a bit while she was atop the bandstand, but she quickly recovered with a smile.

Then came the new song "Give Me All Your Luvin.'" The track's two guest stars -- Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. -- made the trip to Indy and got wrapped up in the Rome/Cleopatra-esque concept. The cheerleader-themed track was a perfect pick for halftime show, no doubt.

M.I.A. caused a bit of controversy when at the end of her rapping bit, she flipped the bird at the camera while saying the lyrics, "I'mma say this once, yeah, I don't give a s--t."

NBC quickly apologized after the game, telling The Hollywood Reporter, "Our system was late to obscure the inappropriate gesture and we apologize to our viewers."

The NFL also chimed in. "The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing and we apologize to our fans," said Brian McCarthy, spokesman for the league.

As her new single wound down, a marching band made its way to center stage for a quick interlude of "Open Your Heart" with the big-voiced Cee-Lo adding soul. Backing tracks seemed to be dispatched of at this point and the two sang live until the end of the show, it appeared.

For the finale, Madonna pulled out all the stops with the perfectly picked "Like a Prayer." Her voice, strong and clear, was aided by Cee-Lo and a massive choir of backup singers in robes for the 1989 gem.

When the spectacle was over, the singer was released down an escape hatch of sorts and the words "World Peace" were blazoned across the field.

According to the AP, around 110 million people were expected to watch the Super Bowl this year.

It was Madonna's first time in the halftime spotlight for the Super Bowl and comes right as she debuts her single, "Give Me All Your Luvin.'" The track is off "M.D.N.A.," Madonna's 12th studio album and first for Interscope, which will be released March 26.

Before kickoff, country couple Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert sang a rousing version of "America the Beautiful" and Kelly Clarkson took on national anthem duties. It was a performance clear of mistakes, unlike last year when Christina Aguilera flubbed her lines.