Search Results for: GERMANY

Music fans in Britain, France and Germany downloaded more than 800,000 tracks from Apple Computer Inc’s iTunes online music store in its first week of operations in Europe, the company said on Wednesday. The strong start makes the much-heralded download service already a top player in Europe’s brutally competitive music download market. “In the UK alone, iTunes sold more than 450,000 songs in the last week – 16 times as many as OD2, its closest competitor,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement issued on Wednesday. Apple launched iTunes in France, Germany and the UK on June 15 to… Read more »

Apple Computer Inc. launched its highly anticipated iTunes Music Store in Europe on Tuesday, expanding the popular digital music service to users in Britain, France and Germany. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said iTunes would be available without subscription. The charge for downloading a single track would be 79 pence ($1.43) in the United Kingdom and 99 euro cents ($1.20) in Germany and France. Jobs boasted that more than 85 million songs have been downloaded from iTunes in the United States. Along with the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom account for 60 percent of global music sales.… Read more »

Apple and Napster, two of the world’s leading online music providers, are this week announcing separate initiatives to expand their distribution services internationally. Apple, the US computer maker, is expected to launch its popular internet music store in Europe tomorrow, in an attempt to build on the company’s considerable success in the US online music market. Napster, a subsidiary of US media company Roxio, will today unveil a partnership with NTL to offer music subscriptions to the UK cable group’s 1m broadband customers. The two initiatives follow agreement with music publishers over complex distribution rights in Europe. Apple, whose iTunes… Read more »

Avril Lavigne joins music’s most exclusive club with her May 25th Arista/RCA release UNDER MY SKIN debuting at #1 on Billboard’s US album chart. UNDER MY SKIN also debuted at #1 in Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada, Spain, Ireland, Thailand, Korea and Hong Kong! UNDER MY SKIN is the follow-up to Avril’s 2002 debut album “Let Go,” which sold 15 million copies worldwide. The album has generated tremendous media excitement starting with Avril’s appearance as musical guest on the May 8th broadcast of Saturday Night Live. She went on to perform on “The Today Show” outdoor summer concert… Read more »

As Britney Spears readies for her tour, she’s making sure there’s plenty of her to go around while fans wait for her to come around. The singer’s about to release a DVD that’ll include pre-tour concert footage as well as bonus tracks. Two new songs are found on the CD portion of Spears’ “In the Zone” DVD, due March 23. The first is called “Don’t Hang Up,” and it finds the singer pleading on the phone for her lover to keep her satisfied long-distance. The second song is the P. Diddy-produced “The Answer,” which both artists had talked up before… Read more »

Apple, the US computer company behind the iTunes music service, has become the latest group to oppose the proposed deal between Sony Music and BMG, the recorded music arm of Germany’s Bertelsmann media group. The development comes as the European Commission begins an intensive second-stage investigation of the merger, a probe it is due to close by June 22. In an announcement on Thursday, the Commission said it had “decided to investigate whether the deal might create or strengthen a collective dominant position between the remaining four major record companies”. It said it would examine “the extent to which the… Read more »

R.E.M.’s July 19, 2003, concert at Bowling Green in Weisbaden, Germany, is captured in its entirety on the DVD “Perfect Square,” due March 16 from Warner Bros. The 23-song set sports such performance rarities as “Maps and Legends” from the 1985 album “Fables of the Reconstruction” and the ancient non-album track “Permanent Vacation.” Prior to the 2003 tour, the former had not been played live since 1989, while the latter hadn’t been unearthed since 1984. Also featured are “Bad Day” and “Animal,” the two new songs included on the recent best-of “In Time,” plus such R.E.M. favorites as “The One… Read more »

Justin Timberlake has signed on for two projects that’ll find him taking a good look at his roots – a memoir and a television special celebrating the music of Motown. Timberlake had been shopping his autobiography since October, when he entertained offers from international publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. Bidding was said to have reached seven figures, but the singer played coy when asked about it at the time. “Possibly, sure,” he said. “I have no idea. I have no clue.” He might have a better idea now that he’s sold the book’s U.K. rights. London’s Transworld… Read more »

Sony Music, home to such artists as Beyonce Knowles and Bruce Springsteen, on Monday said it plans to introduce new CD technology in Germany that prevents users from copying songs to file-sharing sites, but allows them to make copies for their personal use. The record industry blames its recent sales slump on file-sharing services like KaZaa, which it says are havens for piracy. Last year, major labels issued “copy-protected” CDs that prevent them from being played on computers. The copy-protected discs faced a backlash from customers and music fans, and several lawsuits emerged from some customers that complained these CDs… Read more »

R.E.M. made unique chart history today with “In Time: The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003” debuting at #8 and #16 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, the first time the same album debuts twice in the Top 20 in the same week. Released on October 28th, “In Time” is for sale as both a single compact disc and double CD featuring the same initial piece and a second disc with rarities and b-sides compiled by the band. The albums scanned 75,560 units and 51,163 units respectively with a cumulative total of 126,723 units according to Nielsen Soundscan which would put the… Read more »