Search Results for: rivals

Sony Corp.’s earnings plunged 26 percent for the latest quarter as expenses for job cuts and other restructuring costs and lower profits from its electronics, moviemaking and video games business offset profit improvement in its music business. But the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant said Wednesday its sales rose for the October-December quarter and it boosted its profit forecast for the year due to a gain on a currency investment. Sony said it earned 92.6 billion yen ($875 million) in the October-December period, down from 125 billion yen a year earlier. Sales inched up 0.7 percent to 2.32 trillion yen… Read more »

On Jan. 6, San Francisco’s Moscone convention center pulses with all the energy of a rock concert. A crowd sprinkled with hip-hop teenagers, digerati, and aging hippies streams in to hear the annual state-of-the-Mac keynote from Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steven P. Jobs. Every facet of the event bears the fingerprints of the obsessive Jobs – right down to the music that fills the air. This year, it’s the King himself, Elvis Presley. Later, Jobs rolls the tape of Apple’s famous “1984” ad that ran on Super Bowl Sunday that year – and hasn’t been broadcast since. Only this… Read more »

Rick Van Santen, a co-president of Goldenvoice, a Los Angeles concert promotion company that ushered punk rock from the fringes of the music scene to a wide audience, died last Sunday at his home in Ventura County of flu-related complications, his Goldenvoice partner Paul Tollett said. He was 41. In the 1980s, a time when major promoters shunned punk because of its reputation as a violent subculture, Goldenvoice presented acts in large, established rooms with quality sound, such as the Hollywood Palladium and the Palace (now the Avalon). “There cannot be any L.A. band since the early ’80s that was… Read more »

Apple Computer Inc. said on Monday that consumers had bought and downloaded more than 25 million songs from the iconic computer maker’s iTunes online music store. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, also said that more than $1 million worth of iTunes online gift certificates – sold in denominations of $20 to $200 – and allowances have been bought since those features were added in October. “The fact that we’ve done over $1 million in allowances and gift certificates shows a lot of interest on both Mac and Windows,” said Chris Bell, director of iTunes product marketing, in a telephone interview.… Read more »

Lots of pop stars who are huge in Europe never succeed in the United States, but judging by Thursday’s MTV Europe Music Awards, Europeans can’t seem to get enough of American idols. Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé Knowles and Christina Aguilera were the big winners at this year’s racy, profanity-laden EMAs, held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Eight of the 12 awards were presented to U.S. residents. Timberlake won three trophies: Best Album for Justified, Best Pop and Best Male. The Neptunes, who produced much of Justified,presented him with the latter, and after they gave him the statue of an “M” on a spring,… Read more »

It was a strange sight Thursday – Steve Jobs touting a Windows product. But the chief executive of Apple Computer Inc. had a perfectly sensible motive. In a move to reach the masses who use computers based on Microsoft Corp. software, Jobs unveiled a Windows-compatible Apple iTunes Music Store, an Internet song-downloading service that has proven successful among Macintosh users. But Mac users comprise only about 3 percent of the computer-buying public, and now Apple is entering a market crowded with rival music services for the Windows world. For its Windows launch, Apple managed to pull some exclusive deals that… Read more »

British rock band The Darkness struck a blow for the big hair, skin-tight catsuits and wailing guitar solos of the 1980s Thursday, outshining rivals at Britain’s biggest heavy metal awards. The much-hyped quartet won two awards, for best album and best live act, at music magazine Kerrang!’s 10th annual ceremony in London. It was a far cry from the band’s humble roots in rural Suffolk, eastern England, where lead singer Justin Hawkins and the band used to perform before tiny audiences in bars. “We’ve always behaved like stadium rockers, even at the beginning when we were playing in pubs,” Hawkins… Read more »

Ashton Kutcher was the big winner at Saturday’s taping of the Teen Choice Awards, but even his five surfboard trophies couldn’t steal the spotlight from the plethora of unusual appearances at the show. There was Kobe Bryant, accepting the Choice Male Athlete award for the fourth time just four days before his first hearing on sexual assault charges. “I’m going through some dark clouds right now,” he said, thanking his wife and fans for support. There was 5 Cent, and no, that’s not a typo. It was Verne “Mini-Me” Troyer performing his own version of “In Da Club,” adding lines… Read more »

Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Corp. reported a 98 percent decline in profit for the April-June quarter as sales faltered in key businesses such as electronics, video games, movies and music. Sony said Thursday it earned 1.1 billion yen ($9 million) in the first quarter of its fiscal year, down from 57.2 billion yen for the same period last year. Sales for the Tokyo-based company fell 6.9 percent to 1.6 trillion yen ($13.5 billion) from 1.7 trillion yen. Sony set off a plunge in Tokyo share prices in April after it reported a loss in the final quarter of… Read more »

A month after Apple opened the doors to its digital music store, at least seven media and technology powerhouses have taken the starting blocks in the race to capture the PC market. Meanwhile, Apple is looking to widen its offerings through deals with independent labels. Microsoft, AOL, MTV, amazon.com, Yahoo, Roxio, and MusicMatch are among the companies exploring pay-per-download services, according to sources. Each company has long expressed a desire to tap into the 99-cent digital singles business. But with Apple planning to bow a PC version of iTunes – perhaps by the end of the year – rivals of… Read more »