The late ’70s, when punk exploded and disco imploded, were tumultuous years for the music industry. A time bomb embedded in legislation from that era, the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, could bring another round of tumult to the business, due to provisions that allow authors or their heirs to terminate copyright grants.
Chris Brown was formally sentenced today in Los Angeles after pleading guilty June 22 to assault charges stemming from his Feb. 8 altercation with Rihanna. As expected, Brown was sentenced to five years of formal felony probation, 180 days of community labor and the completion of a 52-week domestic violence counseling program. The sentencing was originally scheduled for August 5, but the judge presiding over the case wanted a clearer picture of Brown’s hard labor schedule before handing down the official penalty. Brown will fulfill his sentence in his native Virginia. Brown was also fined a total of $2,960. The… Read more »
In early 1984, when Epic Records executives presented their slate of upcoming releases at the convention in Hawaii of parent company CBS Records they couldn’t resist playing up the success they were experiencing. So between the pitches for new albums, Epic inserted stock footage of semi trucks and a voice-over that thunderously announced, “There goes another load of Michael Jackson’s Thriller albums!” Trucks weren’t really leaving the warehouse every few minutes, but Thriller was still shattering expectations more than a year after its November 30, 1982, release. Epic was selling more than 1 million copies per month in the United… Read more »
Linkin Park co-frontman Mike Shinoda said the band’s fourth studio album is going to be so unique, “they’re going to have to come up with a new genre name for what this record is.” Shinoda wants to shake things up in the rock world with the follow-up to 2007’s Minutes To Midnight. Linkin Park is about halfway through the writing process and hopes to have the album ready for an early 2010 release. But chief among Shinoda’s concerns is the quality of the tunes, something that could impact the release date. “If we need to take a step back and… Read more »
NEW YORK — YouTube and Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, said on Thursday they will launch a premium music video Web site as they bid to increase revenue from YouTube ‘s huge usage. The new site will be called Vevo and is expected to launch in coming months, the companies said. Plans for Vevo come in addition to the renewal and extension of YouTube’s rights deal to feature video content from Universal artists such as U2, 50 Cent and Kanye West Universal Music is owned by French media group Vivendi. Vevo will be a premium online music… Read more »
Sony posted a whopping 95% decrease in profits last quarter compared to the same quarter last year. Gaming was was the biggest disappointment down 97%, but music did its part to contribute to the downward spiral. Even when factoring out the expensive purchase of BMG’s half of the former Sony BMG, music profits declined 41% driven by a 22% decrease in sales. Sony has avoided the recent wholesale staff cuts made by other labels favoring more targeted layoffs. But as losses mount and the world economy worsens, sources hint that Sony’s layoff scalpel could become a hatchet. Sony Financial… Read more »
Last month the music industry and Apple, long uneasy partners, seemed a picture of harmony when they agreed on new terms for pricing on iTunes, Apple’s online music store. Behind the scenes, however, the relationship remains as tense and antagonistic as ever. The announcement on Jan. 6 seemed to signal a rapprochement between the music industry and its biggest distributor: record companies gave up their demand for copyright protection (called digital rights management) and Apple allowed flexible pricing, so the labels could charge more for new or popular tracks. But according to one music industry executive involved in the negotiations,… Read more »
Three years ago, Cobra Starship weren’t even a band. Two years ago, they weren’t one either, but at least things were beginning to happen. Gabe Saporta – tired of watching his band Midtown being mired in the major-label quagmire – began writing songs on his own, under the name of Cobra Starship (apparently borrowed from a brand of vintage jackets). Somewhere along the way, he got tapped to write the theme song for the Samuel L. Jackson flick “Snakes on a Plane,” which became the first official Cobra release. Since then, they’ve released two full-lengths, kicked out a keytar player… Read more »
Kylie Minogue, who went from soap actress to become one of the world’s most famous female recording artists, wowed fans on Monday at her first performance in Chinese capital Beijing with an electric show. A beaming Minogue, who recently overcame breast cancer , belted out a series of her biggest hits, including “Can’t get you out of my head,” “Better the devil you know” and “I should be so lucky.” “It’s my first time ever here in Beijing and you’ve made me feel so welcome,” she told the crowd of some 6,000 who had gathered to see her at the… Read more »
These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort… Read more »
