Search Results for: french

In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world’s largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said. Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and chief executive, the most powerful player in the record industry. Universal, which reaps about $6 billion in sales annually from artists such as 50 Cent, Shania Twain, U2 and Luciano Pavarotti, would be controlled by a maverick who revolutionized the computer market and coined the mantra… Read more »

New York’s finest new rock acts will be anthologized on “YES New York,” a 15-track collection due June 3 from Wolfgang Morden, the soundtrack imprint of Vice Records. The album kicks off with a previously unreleased live version of the Strokes’ “New York City Cops” recorded in Iceland, and concludes with an acoustic version of “Our Time” performed by Unitard, a side project of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “As transplants to New York, we had spent a decade watching the New York rock scene kinda suck with too many Heartbreaker wannabes and noisy sound-alikes,” executive producers Chris White and Brian… Read more »

Despite concerns that the Grammy Awards would become a forum for anti-war sentiment, most political messages were muted. “NO WAR” was written in silver letters on Sheryl Crow’s guitar strap as she performed, although her hair usually covered up most of the “NO.” Bonnie Raitt slipped in a four-word message, “let’s build some peace,” before handing out an award. And No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani wore a halter top emblazoned with the word, “love,” and combat fatigue hot pants. “I hope we all are in agreeance that this war should go away as soon as possible,” said Limp Bizkit lead singer… Read more »

Ted Perry, whose Hyperion Records label explored a wide range of classical music, has died at age 71. Perry died Sunday in a London hospital of lung cancer, said Mike Spring of Hyperion. Perry, who had worked with several record companies in Britain and Australia, founded Hyperion in 1981 and drove a cab to keep the struggling operation going. While driving, he heard a broadcast performance of the songs of Hildegard von Bingen, the 12th-century German abbess, and contacted the artists. The resulting 1981 recording, “A Feather on the Breath of God,” was a success and put the company on… Read more »

More than 150 guitars belonging to The Who’s John Entwistle, who died last year, will be auctioned May 13 in London. Entwistle’s favorite, a pink Fender Precision Bass named “Frankenstein” because he patched it together from the remains of five smashed basses, is expected to sell for $8,000 to $11,200, Sotheby’s auction house said this week. Two rare electric guitars dating from 1958, which are valued at $48,000 to $80,000 each, are included in the auction. The sale also features photographs, drawings, clothing, rare posters, jewelry, French horns and trumpets. Many of the lots for sale include private notes by… Read more »

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday an appeal by Mattel Inc. over its lawsuit against MCA Records Inc. claiming the 1997 pop hit “Barbie Girl” had infringed on the toy maker’s doll trademark. Without comment, the justices let stand a federal appeals court ruling dismissing the lawsuit on the ground the song by the Danish band “Aqua” was parody and social commentary covered by the U.S. Constitution’s free-speech protections. Mattel, the world’s largest toy maker which has made the doll since 1959, sued MCA Records, its parent and other units of Universal Music, a subsidiary of French media giant… Read more »

Could 2003 be the year that EMI finally finds a mate? Frenzied gossip among executives at this year’s Midem music industry conference on the French Riviera would suggest so. As a new group of suitors eyes the EMI dowry, which includes the Beatles back catalog, bets among the glitterati at Cannes are that the world’s third biggest music company will pair up with one of its old flames: BMG or Warner Music. Yet some still hold out hope for a more dramatic swoop by private equity houses led by an industry guru – cash-rich Clive Calder being one contender after… Read more »

A top music executive said on Saturday that telecommunications companies and Internet service providers (ISPs) will be asked to pay up for giving their customers access to free song-swapping sites. The music industry is in a tailspin with global sales of CDs expected to fall six percent in 2003, its fourth consecutive annual decline. A major culprit, industry watchers say, is online piracy. Now, the industry wants to hit the problem at its source – Internet service providers. “We will hold ISPs more accountable,” said Hillary Rosen, chairman and CEO the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in her keynote… Read more »

In its harshest indictment yet of Internet piracy, a top official of the music industry said Sunday Europe’s 600,000 music professionals risk losing their jobs unless the industry fights back. “They are all potential victims of online music piracy,” Jay Berman, the CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) told music executives in his annual address at the Midem music conference in southern France. “In truth, online music piracy is not about free music. The music creators and rights holders, denied the right to choose how their music is used and enjoyed, are in fact paying the… Read more »

British rock band Oasis is to return to the stage in Wales on Sunday to finish a European tour after a brawl in a Munich bar forced two shows to be canceled. Wildman vocalist Liam Gallagher, 30, lost two teeth in the fight on December 1, leaving him unable to sing in two scheduled German shows. But a band spokesman said on Saturday dentists had repaired the damage and the final, British leg of the two-month tour would go ahead. “The Oasis UK tour will therefore be going ahead as planned, starting this Sunday,” he told the band’s Web site… Read more »