News

A technical problem with a giant robot left Take That struggling to continue with their concert at the City of Manchester Stadium at the weekend.

Singers Mark Owen and Howard Donald were due to be lowered onto the stage by the giant hands of a robot known as OM, however a mechanical problem led to this being unable to happen.

Great news for all music fans, Apple's latest music storage service is described simply 'not just a hard drive in the sky'.

Apple boss Steve Jobs has revealed the new Apple iCloud service from the company during the annual conference by the developer.

Industry insiders have been talking about the iCloud service for many weeks but this is the first time that it has been official unveiled by Apple with all of the web based features being shown off at the conference.

Singer Olly Murs has been confirmed as one of the new presenters of the Xtra Factor, the ITV 2 television show that partners the X Factor broadcast on ITV 1.

TV presenter Caroline Flack will be joining Olly Murs as the host with the pair going behind the scenes of the X Fator to do interviews with the contestants and air extra footage of the main parts of the talent show that each year grips the UK public with its up and downs as the X Factor works to find the Uks hottest new singing talent.

Labelled 'too rude' for the USA, popular UK band Arctic Monkeys have had there new album censored.

Suck It And See, the latest album from the Arctic Monkeys, has been censored in America after it was deemed to be “too rude” for music lovers.

Singer Rihanna is once again in hot water surrounding the content of her latest video for her single Man Down.

In the new video Rihanna is shown gunning down a rapist at a train station, however the Parents Television Council have said that the video shows a “cold, calculated execution of murder”.

The latest wave of internet radio is proving a great success. For the first time since its launch in March this year statistics about listener numbers for the new Radioplayer service show that more than five million users are tuning into the Radioplayer each month. This means there is a positive trend towards people listening to the radio on the internet.

According to reports Apple have managed to secure the rights to be able to stream music from all of the four big record labels in the industry.

The news comes as Apple prepares to launch the iCloud service and would effectively mean that users of the iCloud would not have any restrictions on which artists they choose to stream via the iCloud.

British based online music service Last.fm is working to becoming a more user friendly, mainstream service for clients as the site tries to forge its own niche within the highly competitive online music market.

Users of the site are now able to link their likes and dislikes with Facebook and share tracks that they enjoy while there will also be a friend finder service now made available for users.

As music fans need and demand for concert tickets grow, supermarket chains step up to provide the latest tickets. Gone are the days when you had to be in the know to be able to get tickets for the hottest concerts it seems as Tesco have announced that they will be selling concert tickets, without any charges, via their online site.

Despite being dropped from the US version of the X Factor the American dream is far from over for British sweetheart Cheryl Cole according to Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am.

According to Will.i.am there are many more opportunities for Cheryl Cole in the US apart from X Factor.

Teen sensation Justin Bieber will have his merchandise marketed by Prince Williams in laws, the Middletons, through their highly successful website according to The UK's Sun newspaper.

The king of teen pop will be rubbing shoulders with almost royalty as it is alleged that the Middletons have signed a deal to sell Justin Bieber merchandise through their online shop Part Pieces.

With the festival season nearly upon us there is one name in the music industry who is very conspicuously not featured on any of the billings – Adele.

Adele, who has spent 18 non consecutive weeks at number one in the UK album chart, is not appearing at any festivals this year despite her being one of the most popular artists of the moment.

Mid week sales are pointing to Lady Gaga ending Adeles reign at the top of the UK album chart.

Born This Way by Lady Gaga has seen huge sales already this week and if these sales continue it will push the multi award winning 21 album by Adele off the number one spot.

It looks like it could be the end of the American dream for Cheryl Cole as it is being rumoured that the Girls Aloud star has been dropped from the US version of the hit television talent show of the X Factor.

The annual free music festival organised by Radio 1 will be held in Hackney next year in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend has been confirmed as being a two day event to take place at Hackney Marshes over the weekend of June 23 and 24 of 2012.

Microsoft have revealed a new software update for their phones that will allow users the chance to be able access 500 new features, including Internet Explorer 9.

The new software has been given the code name of Mango by Microsoft and new phones available with the software are to be made by Nokia and are set to be available from later this year,

Canadian teen singing star Justin Bieber and US rapper Eminem were the big winners at the Billboard Music Awards.

Each of the stars from the opposite ends of the musical spectrum, won six awards with Eminem taking home the accolade for artist of the year despite not being there himself to pick up the award in person.

In the first televised Billboard Music Awards ceremony since 2006 Justin Bieber thanked everyone for his success saying that he wanted to thank “everybody who helped me get out of my home town.”

Justin Bieber added: “I'm 17. Every day is crazy to me because I see so many people and I get to make so many people smile.”

US pop sensation Lady Gaga paid tribute to the Royal Wedding during her performance at the Radio 1 Big Weekend in Carlisle.

The eccentric singer dedicated a cover of a classic jazz song originally made by Nat King Cole, adding her own new words to the Orange Coloured Sky track.

Winners of the 2011 Eurovision song contest have returned back to their home country of Azerbaijan where they have received praise from the president regarding their victory in Europe.

According to reports an employees from the Phones4U high street phone retail store has revealed that the new iPhone 5 will be ready for sale from the shop in the UK on November 21. Extreemly popular with music fans, iphones are often used to store and play music on a daily basis. In many cases iphones end up being used more as a listening device over internet browsing, after the novelty has worn off.

New figures from Rajar have shown that the number of radio listeners in the UK has reached a new high with the data showing that 47.3 million listeners are tuning in to listen to at least one radio station per week.