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O-Town

Briefly News and Comment: Napster's licensing deal, Newsted's new band

plus: Linkin Park and Family Values. O-Town and Lou Pearlman. A Yankee and the Jammys. Styx and its "corporate rock" tag.

O-Town returns to television and the road

The boy band O-Town, whose career has been chronicled on ABC-TV's "Making the Band," is set to kick off a massive summer tour on July 6 in Los Angeles in support of its platinum-selling, self-titled debut.

O-town plots tour, promotional work

As its debut album hits stores, the publicity machine is revving at full speed for O-town, the boy group that stars in the ABC-TV series “Making the Band.” The quintet is focusing on promotional appearances in January, but will open a U.S. tour in February with several dates in its home state of Florida.

Briefly: Backstreet, Tom Petty, O-Town, Tim McGraw, Aerosmith, Smash Mouth, Scour, LL Cool J, Elvis.com

Backstreet Boys will perform the national anthem during the Super Bowl XXXV pre-game ceremonies on Jan. 28 in Tampa, Fla., according to the group’s publicist. R&B legend Ray Charles will precede the group with his rendition of “America the Beautiful.”