Once the most popular vehicle for music promotion, MTV has just lost its access to the world’s largest record label.
Amid ongoing competitive pressure from Facebook, MySpace is taking its latest shot at entering the music business as other social networking peers, such as Last.fm and imeem, are making big audience gains with ad-supported music offerings. According to sources, MySpace is planning a service that would combine free ad-supported music listening with paid MP3 downloads and music subscriptions. MySpace parent company News Corp. has approached the major labels about forming a joint-venture music site, similar to its partnership with the major Hollywood studios for video site hulu.com. The new service would be operated by MySpace and seemingly be positioned to… Read more »
According to a report in the venerable entertainment industry trade rag Variety, Zucker, president and CEO of NBC Universal, asked Apple for a cut of iPod revenue as part of the failed negotiations between the two companies over a contract extension for the right to sell NBC’s shows on iTunes. (Thanks, Valleywag.) If that’s true, wow. A source familiar with NBC Universal’s negotiations confirmed that the company asked for a slice of iPod revenue but only after Apple refused to budge on variable pricing. “Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made… Read more »
What do you get when you put a couple of pop-punk guys together with a few near-legendary dudes from New York’s underground hardcore scene? You get Hazen Street, a hard-edged but catchy, two-singer-fronted band that has become the first act to be signed to Benji and Joel Madden’s D.C. Flag imprint. The signing of Hazen Street is neither a leg up to a buddy band nor an attempt to cash in on a current trend. For the brothers who call Good Charlotte their day job, putting out the new supergroup’s debut is a chance to show some love to the… Read more »
A tiny Brooklyn, New York, record label is redefining the age-old battle of the punks vs. the suits. Go-Kart Records founder Greg Ross has a problem with the RIAA’s use of lawsuits to fight online piracy, so he began giving away music for free on Friday. First he wrote an open letter to the recording industry trade group, lambasting its take on the problem of illegal downloading. Then he posted six full albums from his latest signings on the Go-Kart Web site. The response has been overwhelming. “Our tech guy just told me we had 80,000 hits in one second… Read more »
GO-KART RECORDS announce the release of the GO-KART MP300 RACEWAY on November 4th. Not only is this an awesome compilation CD with 300 songs (yes, 300 songs!) from 150 bands, it’s also the FIRST EVER commercially sold MP3 CD. That’s 300 songs from 150 bands (all CD quality MP3s) on two CDs for only $9.99! The story behind the MP300: As reported by IDG (International Data Group), “MP3” has replaced the term “sex” as the most popular search category on the Internet. This reinforces the importance MP3 technology has acquired in recent years, especially since file sharing and p2p (peer… Read more »
