Although he is not a young artist anymore, John Mellencamp proves that he is not a conservative musician and acknowledges the advancement in music technology these days. Proving it, the veteran singer is set to use a new technology for his upcoming album "Life, Death, Love and Freedom" audio format. The new hardware is called CODE, and it was developed by John's producer T-Bone Burnett along with a team of engineers.

The new LP due to out on July 15, will be packaged in a different fashion to avoid a possible compatibility issues. For that, the album's package will include 2 disc-set, one is the standard audio edition in the form of CD, while the CODE version is being made on DVD. Although, it will be a two-disc set, the price won't be counted as two CD price.

Controversial rapper Snoop Dogg never stops exploring his creativity in making new projects. This time the rapper is set to go country on his new single. This fact was revealed by Snoop himself to MTV news in an interview with the music channel.

Speaking about his new single which will be called "My Medicine", Snoop said, "Next is 'My Medicine'. It has a country music feel about it. I shoot the video in Amsterdam and Nashville during the Country Music Awards." The rapper added that although it would be different from any of his previous songs, he is certain that fans will still dig it. "It's not a typical hip-hop song, but once people listen to it and see the visual effect to it, they're gonna enjoy it," Snoop said.

Indie rock band The Academy Is... don't wait long to release a new album. Following the release of their latest set "Santi" in 2007, the band have already started the working of their upcoming album.

The Academy have headed back to the studio earlier this week to begin the album's production. The yet to be titled LP, is set to be the band's third studio album so far. It is also said that the next album would be consisting about 20 tracks.

Following the release plan for her new album "Flavors of Entanglement", due to out on June 10, Alanis Morissette is now set to go on tour as well. The singer said that she will be back on the road soon and stated that the North American tour would start in September. "I would believe a North American tour would start mid-September," Alanis said.

Moreover, speaking to Billboard.com Alanis also stated that beside the North American tour she will also take the trip to Europe and start her tour there. "We'll be going back and forth from Europe to America probably three times throughout the summer, doing our own shows and probably some festivals as well," Alanis said. The singer will stage her first concert in Lisbon, Portugal performing at the Rock in Rio festival.

Madonna never stops taking the headlines this year. After holding the record as the artist with the most number one hits in the world, the pop singer is making another history. This time she becomes the first artist that is directly involved in the selling of her own ticket packages for her upcoming "Sticky & Sweet" tour.

The new project happens after Madonna conclude a deal with ticket reseller Viagogo to sell the VIP packages and premium seats for the tour. On her behalf, the company will be the one that controls the selling of the European leg for her "Sticky & Sweet" tour. It is the first time that an artist is directly involved in the selling of her own ticket packages. Usually the packages are issued through companies not directly with the artists.

It seems that this year's Christmas will be headlined by the battle between two pop divas Britney Spears and Whitney Houston. The speculation occurs due to Britney's plan to follow Whitney's footsteps in releasing her new album sometime before the Holy day arrives.

Previously, Whitney has already planned to released her comeback album which will be assisted by John Legend, Akon and will.i.am this December after some delays on the working that was actually started from 2003. Now, Britney is set to join the "I Will Always Love You" singer's release plan after the "Toxic"' singer's boss label was impressed with her demo tracks and decided to rush her album's release schedule.

Gnarls Barkley's new music video has just been premiered on May 9. The clip was for the group's latest single "Going On" taken from their sophomore set "The Odd Couple". The video itself was shot by director Wendy Morgan.

The new song is the second single that has been released from "The Odd Couple" after Gnarls previously dropped "Run" on February 5, as the first single. Meanwhile, the album was released digitally on March 18 and hit the stores on March 25.

"Trading Places", a new song from Usher's upcoming album "Here I Stand" has been leaked on the net. It could be the next single to be released from the new album after the first single "Love In The Club" and second single "Moving Mountains".

His first single which also features Young Jeezy was a hit as it managed to peak at #1 on the Billboard 100 chart. A remix version of that song has also been released on April 28 through radio stations. Unlike the original version which features Jeezy on the remix he taps Beyonce Knowles and Lil Wayne. In other news, Usher has shot the music video for his second single "Moving Mountains" earlier this month.

The new music video for Yung Berg's new single has just been premiered today (May 9). The clip was made to accompany the song titled "Show Off & That's Right".

The song itself, which also features K Smith, is set to be one of the songs to be included on his upcoming album "Look What You Made Me" which will be released this summer. Other tracks that Yung has already confirmed to be featured on the new album are "Sexy Can I" and "Do That There".

Shortly after promoting their upcoming album "Viva la Vida or Death and all His Friends" by giving free download of their new song "Violet Hill" to fans, Coldplay are set to go on a tour for further promo. The English band have confirmed some of the tour dates which plan to kick off on June 29 in Philadelphia and go on until 2009.

Until now it is only the North American dates that have been revealed, while the schedule for the Europe tour hasn't been confirmed yet. The band planned to do at least 50 shows in North America before stopping by in Europe and U.K. Beside that the band are also set to headline the Summer Sonic festival in Japan on August 9-10.

Super group Metallica has been named as of the performers to play at the 2008 "Winnie Roast y Fiesta" on May 17. The heavy metal band will be joined by the likes of The Offspring, Bad Religion, Pennywise and Rise Against to headline the event.

The gig which is staged and sponsored by Los Angeles local radio station KROQ will be held at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, Calif. The event has been started since 1993 and from then until now famous musicians have always headlined the show. Last year Linkin Park, Korn, Incubus, Queens of the Stone Age were among the performers.

British singer still manages to invade the U.S. music chart as Leona Lewis with her single "Bleeding Love" holds her throne on the Billboard 100 chart top spot this week. The pop singer keeps the #1 position for fourth non-consecutive weeks and the second week in a row.

Following Leona on second place is Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" that holds its last week's position. Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown's "No Air" also keeps its spot on #3, while Usher's "Love In This Club" feat. Young Jeezy climbed one step to #4 from its previous 5th position. Behind it is Ray J featuring Yung Berg's "Sexy Can I" which also rises up from its 6th position to #5 this week.

A new exciting news comes from Trace Adkins stating that he will be involved on the upcoming TV series titled "Black Gold". The country singer will not be acting on the series but he will have his song as the opener track for the series.

The song which has the same tittle with the series, has been finished in its writing and recording process and is just waiting to be released. The song will be aired for the first time on June 18 the same time as the series' premiere.

Pop diva Mariah Carey's fans in the middle east region have to hold their obsession in watching her performance there because her scheduled appearance in Dubai has been postponed. Mariah who is supposed to perform on May 15-16 has had the date re-scheduled to a later date this fall as announced by the promoters.

One of the event's producers said that Mariah is disappointed with the postponing of the concert. "Mariah is disappointed that she won't be able to perform. She had scheduled this one special event in her calendar and was looking forward to performing for the Dubai fans," the producer said.

Having a movie role as a musician has made a new career choice for actor Joaquin Phoenix as he now plans to make an album. Billboard.com said that the actor could release an album working with one of the members of Charlatans Tim Burgess.

Burgess revealed that after playing the role of legendary musician Johnny Cash in the 2005 movie "Walk The Line", Joaquin, who got himself to learn how to play guitar on the movie, found a passion to make music. "Once he learnt guitar he found that he had quite a lot of demons inside himself that he wanted to expel through music," Burgess said.