Search Results for: GAMES WE PLAY

Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Corp. reported a 98 percent decline in profit for the April-June quarter as sales faltered in key businesses such as electronics, video games, movies and music. Sony said Thursday it earned 1.1 billion yen ($9 million) in the first quarter of its fiscal year, down from 57.2 billion yen for the same period last year. Sales for the Tokyo-based company fell 6.9 percent to 1.6 trillion yen ($13.5 billion) from 1.7 trillion yen. Sony set off a plunge in Tokyo share prices in April after it reported a loss in the final quarter of… Read more »

In years past, Lollapalooza has been dubbed by Spin magazine as “the No. 1 concert to change the world” laying down the blueprint for many other existing festivals. With the Wall Street Journal classifying this year’s tour as “Rock’s premiere summer caravan with shows in 30 U.S. cities,” Lollapalooza undoubtedly continues to be one of the hottest festivals to date, with an overwhelming fan demand prepared to bask in a day of music and festivities. The main stage features Queens of the Stone Age replaced by A Perfect Circle on August 16, Jurassic Five, The Donnas, Incubus, Audioslave and non-other… Read more »

Members of Glassjaw, the Used, Less Than Jake, Mest and Story of the Year sat down on couches in the New Media lounge of Warner Bros. Records and shot their fans Wednesday morning. The shootings came in plain sight of a roomful of people via the Xbox Live, and the bands’ respective fans shot back. Using headsets to communicate with each other, the band members wound through the cobblestone paths of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, making the occasional open plea for advice, like “How do you survive the rocket blasts? I’ve died three times.” Fans with gamer tags such as… Read more »

In late April, Madonna gave a rare in-store concert before 400 fans to plug her new American Life album. Outside the event, which took place at Tower Records in New York’s Greenwich Village, another 2,000-plus fans thronged. For years, Tower has harnessed such star power to burnish its credentials as a purveyor of hipness. “It was the buzz around town,” boasts store manager David Montes of the Madonna love-in. But the splashy appearance obscured a harsh backstage truth: Tower Records is in such deep trouble that its parent, privately held MTS Inc. in West Sacramento, has put the company on… Read more »

Mariah Carey’s unlikely to give Eminem a charm bracelet, much less extend an olive branch. The pissed-off pop songstress, who’s relaxing in the Caribbean before setting sail on a six-month world tour in support of her new album, Charmbracelet, had some pointed words for the rap superstar after hearing reports that Em threatened to include samples of several rambling voicemail messages she left him in an upcoming tune. “I don’t know what the hell he’s doing,” Carey grouses in the New York Daily News on Thursday. “It’s a little excessive. Doesn’t it seem a little bit girly? Like we’re in… Read more »

While most acts go on the road in support of new albums, several Def Jam Records artists will launch a tour next month behind the release of a new video game. Hosted by Method Man, the Def Jam Vendetta tour will encompass concert performances by Capone-N-Noreaga (CNN), Keith Murray, and Joe Budden, as well as a gaming contest where players will go head-to-head on the recently released “Def Jam Vendetta” video game. The tour will kick off May 10 in Milwaukee and visit more than 20 cities through early June. In each market, Murray, CNN, and Budden, as well as… 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 »

EMI Group Plc chairman Eric Nicoli didn’t confirm any of the myriad rumors of possible merger plans for his music major at a media confab in Gotham Tuesday, but he didn’t try very hard to dispel them, either. The British label group – which has been twice spurned by European and U.S. regulators in its attempts to link up with rival majors – would benefit from the expanded scale and geographical reach offered by a combination, Nicoli said at UBS Warburg’s Media Week event. And the regulatory skepticism, while still significant, may have been diminished somewhat by the dismal performance… Read more »

After a long struggle marked by false starts, frustration and fan indifference, commercial online music services see this year as the crucial second act of a hit show in the making. Since launching a year ago, subscription music services headed by the major label-backed ventures Pressplay and MusicNet have taken heat from music fans who compared them unfavorably with free peer-to-peer networks like now-idled Napster. But after expanded licensing deals and platform upgrades, these services and rivals Listen.com’s Rhapsody and FullAudio, are better armed to take on free services like Kazaa and Morpheus, which emerged in the wake of Napster’s… Read more »

Faced with adverse publicity to copy protection on CDs, a year ago Bertelsmann Music Group bravely gave in and promised to replace a clutch of Natalie Imbruglia CDs which were protected by Midbar’s Cactus Data Shield. But a year is a long time, BMG is at it again, this time apparently set on applying copy protection to all its music products. Not, of course, that this should be surprising. The music companies are absolutely intent on copy-proofing their products, and although they’ll maybe retreat a little when irate consumers pelt them with ordure, they’ll be right back just as soon… Read more »