Search Results for: plan b entertainment

Webnoize, a Cambridge, Mass.-based media and entertainment research firm that rose to prominence as a sage of the booming Net economy, has fallen victim to that industry’s bust. The firm announced on its Web site Monday that it plans to cease temporarily its regular online publication of news and research reports. Webnoize also said it will begin an immediate restructuring of its business, in the hope of opening its doors again as early as the first quarter of next year. Sources familiar with the company said the eight-year-old firm employed about 25 people at its peak but that the number… Read more »

Britney Spears, a former Mousketeer, is at the center of an aggressive drive into the movie business by a handful of young pop stars molded by the music industry and MTV. Not since the 1960s, when singers like Elvis Presley, Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Johnny Cash crooned their way onto movie screens, have studios produced as many star vehicles to showcase the hip-shimmying musical talents of the day’s teen idols. Their holy grail is “The Bodyguard,” starring Whitney Houston, which grossed $122 million and relaunched a pop song that became a perennial hit. The soundtrack is one of the best… Read more »

BMG Entertainment has formed BMG Heritage, a label to maximize the music group’s catalog repertoire from BMG-owned Arista Records, Buddha Records, RCA, RGL, Windham Hill and Private Music. BMG Heritage will launch Jan. 1. Alex Miller will head BMG Heritage as senior vp. He will report to Pete Jones, president and CEO of BMG Distribution and BMG Associated Labels. Miller most recently was senior vp worldwide marketing at RCA Victor Group. He joined BMG in 1998 to helm its catalog reissues label, Buddha Records, which will become an imprint of BMG Heritage. BMG Heritage will focus on previously unreleased works… Read more »

The back-to-back debut of new video game consoles from Microsoft and Nintendo is expected to fuel strong sales of home entertainment goods as jittery Americans opt to spend more time at home after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, analysts said. They said the launch of Microsoft Corp’s Xbox on Thursday and that of Nintendo Co. Ltd’s GameCube – three days later – could even help lift third and fourth-quarter profits for some of the nation’s top consumer electronics stores. The big boost, the analysts said, will also come on a jump in customer traffic to stores… Read more »

Top showbiz execs pledged Sunday to step up their contribution to the war effort after a meeting with White House senior advisor Karl Rove. Details of Hollywood’s multifront initiative will be forged over the next few weeks, but industry moguls made clear their desire to pitch in. The campaign will include helping the Bush Administration spread its message regarding the war on terrorism both at home and abroad, support for U.S. troops and buttressing resolve among the American public. “All of us in the industry have an incredible urge to do something,” said Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing. One concrete… Read more »

Madonna may be the bitchiest and bossiest woman in pop music or the most beloved. She may be an emotionally insecure manipulator – who (shock! horror!) uses men and throws them away. Or she may be just an old-fashioned girl looking for the traditional twosome: love and marriage. But one thing she doesn’t do is kiss and tell – that’s left for the biographer. Two unauthorized biographies published this month both tout supposed fresh new insights into the life and love life of the pop and cultural phenomenon who has reinvented herself with almost every one of her 14 hit… Read more »

Napster, the Web service the music industry sued for copyright infringement, Monday said it was delaying the launch of its new secure service due to difficulties in getting major record label content – a complaint raised by other online start-ups and the focus of a U.S. government anti-trust probe. “The biggest hurdle Napster faces is obtaining content,” said Konrad Hilbers, Napster’s chief executive officer, adding that the company’s new service would now launch in the first quarter of 2002 – months later than originally planned. Hilbers gave the keynote speech at Webnoize, a digital media industry gathering, which kicked off… Read more »

Britney Spears’s first live, full-length HBO concert special, Britney Spears Live From Las Vegas at the MGM Grand on November 18, promises to be full of surprises. However, those surprises will not include her highly-anticipated duet with Cher on “The Beat Goes On,” which Spears covered on her 1999 debut album,…Baby One More Time. Cher was forced to cancel the planned duet because of a conflict with the European promotional schedule for her upcoming studio album, Living Proof. “When they asked me, ‘Who would you like to do a duet with?’ I was, like, ‘Please lets do it with Cher… Read more »

Virgin Records vice chairman Nancy Berry, the estranged wife of ousted music executive Ken Berry, Tuesday became the latest casualty of a restructuring at ailing British music company EMI Group Plc, where the couple reigned over rock ‘n’ roll for several years. Alain Levy, who abruptly replaced Ken Berry as chief executive officer of EMI’s recorded music division last week, announced Tuesday that Nancy Berry will leave Virgin immediately after more than two decades at the EMI unit. The news, which was not a surprise to many industry insiders, broke as Virgin prepares to release key albums in coming weeks… Read more »

Sony Corp is expected to report weak results for the July-September quarter after a profit warninglate last month, with analysts looking for more aggressive restructuring moves to confront the slowing global economy. The world’s largest maker of audio and video equipment cut its consolidated operating profit forecast for the full year to next March by more than half to 120 billion yen ($980 million) and announced a handful of restructuring steps, including procurement cost cuts. “That’s not enough,” said Merrill Lynch analyst Hiroshi Kuriyama. “Of course it has made efforts in the past, but current business conditions are far worse… Read more »