Search Results for: plan b entertainment

U.S. album sales have declined in the first half of the year, despite the demise of song-swap service Napster, which the recording industry claimed would depress sales and hurt their bottom lines. According to New York-based SoundScan, which tracks music retail trends, sales of current albums – recordings released less than 18 months ago – have fallen about 8 percent year-to-date, while sales of all albums fell about 2.8 percent. Many music company officials shrug off the decline, blaming it on a lack of mega-hits and a slowdown in the economy. Many also predict the trend will improve in the… Read more »

MP3.com Inc., the online music company being acquired by Vivendi Universal, said on Thursday it would provide technology for Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment’s music subscription service Pressplay. Pressplay, the two record labels’ answer to the controversial Napster song-sharing service, plans to use MP3.com’s media delivery and subscription management technology for its service, which is slated to launch this summer. MP3.com, in turn, will use the Pressplay service in its music download Web site.

Napster plans to appeal a crushing decision handed down by a federal judge that the company remain off-line until it can perfect its song-swapping system. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall shot down the notion that Napster could quietly come back online without 100 percent effectiveness in its song-screening technology after an injunction that it remove all copyright music. Napster told Patel in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that it could promise more than 99 percent effectiveness. But Patel demanded 100 percent compliance to keep infringing music out of the hands of music fans used to trading the songs for free. That… Read more »

LMiV today announced the launch of websites for five radio station affiliates and outlined plans to roll out another 166 sites. The five beta sites-consisting of stations owned by Bonneville, Corus, Emmis, Jefferson-Pilot, and Entercom-showcase the concepts and network infrastructure behind LMiV. Little more than eight months ago, LMiV’s five founding companies pledged to redefine radio’s relationship with the Internet by giving broadcasters the opportunity to expand into the electronic publishing arena. With the launch of these sites, the consortium says it is now delivering on that promise. “For the first time, we’ve made the Internet serve radio’s interests, instead… Read more »

Multi-Platinum Artist Mandy Moore, whose third album, “Mandy Moore,” was recently released and features the single, “In My Pocket,” will serve as the 2001 national honorary chairperson of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s School & Youth Campaign. The School & Youth Campaign includes programs such as Pasta For Pennies, Pennies For Patients and Hop For Leukemia. School & Youth programs nationally rank second in the amount of money raised for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In 2001, $9.5 million will be raised. “We’re very pleased to have Mandy Moore join us as national honorary chairperson for our School & Youth… Read more »

File-sharing network Aimster has been slapped with two new copyright infringement suits – one on each coast – even as it continues its battle with the record industry. Six major film studios – Disney, MGM, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal – filed suit against the upstate New York-based Netco in District Court for the central district of California. A separate complaint, filed in Manhattan District Court by Time Warner, is pending. In its complaint, the studios alleged that the Netco seeks “to supplant Napster as the preferred forum for the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted works.” The… Read more »

Internet media network Yahoo! Inc. said on Thursday it plans to buy Webcasting company Launch Media Inc. for $12 million in an effort to boost its own music properties, which have failed to gain traction over the last two years. Yahoo is betting that Launch, which designed a Web service that tailors Internet radio playlists to the tastes of individual users, would provide key features to complement its music services. Yahoo already offers music CD sales, downloads of digital music files and its own Webcasting efforts. The company plans to pay 92 cents a share, which represents a 59 percent… Read more »

Midway Games Inc., a leading software industry publisher and developer, announced today that Island Gold Recording act Saliva will re-record the popular song “Theme From Peter Gunn,” for the all-new remake of the classic SpyHunter ® videogame, scheduled to ship this fall for the PlayStation ®2 computer entertainment system. Saliva will record two new versions of “Theme From Peter Gunn,” one instrumental format as well as a lyrical version. Both are expected to be used to add intensity to the relentless action in the SpyHunter videogame. Additionally, a music video containing behind-the-scenes footage of Saliva’s recording session and band interviews… Read more »

Showtime Event Television (SET) presents a concert extravaganza on pay per view when the nation’s hottest bands take the stage for ‘Stone Temple Pilots and Live at Rolling Rock Town Fair 2.0 with Deftones, Tantric and Oleander.’ The two-hour rock music pay-per-view event of the summer airs Saturday, August 11 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. The suggested retail price is $19.95. The Rolling Rock Town Fair 2.0 concert festival in Latrobe, PA is sold out but music lovers will still have an opportunity to catch their favorite bands on pay per view when top headliner Stone Temple Pilots (STP)… Read more »

‘N Sync, Faith Hill and Britney Spears, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Tim McGraw, 98 Degrees and Monica will turn their talents to the Lord when they read prayers written by Pope John Paul II for an upcoming spoken word CD. Multi-media company, Compulsion Entertainment will produce the CD project, which also includes actors James Earl Jones and Jennifer Love Hewitt, as well as Pope John Paul II, himself. The CD will be a companion recording to a seven volume collection of the Pontiff’s writings titled, The Private Prayer Books of Pope John Paul II, published by Simon &… Read more »