Search Results for: Downward

Analysts fear the worldwide music market plummeted 10% in value to $33 billion last year – the worst drop in record business history. Official stats are due April 16 from the industry’s trade group the Intl. Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), but the estimated scale of the downturn has alarmed observers. Much of the blame is laid on pirated music downloaded from the Internet, especially in the United States, as well as more consumers burning copies of CDs. The IFPI reckons that for every CD purchased, another is burned. Meanwhile, organized piracy is still on the rise, particularly in… Read more »

The man of constant sorrow should have plenty of cause to celebrate, though Brandy might be kind of crabby. After 63 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack will levitate to #1, beating out the R&B crooner, who seemed headed for a chart-topping debut. Last week, O Brother, which has sold over 4 million copies since its December 2000 release, jumped from #15 to #2 after being graced with a Grammy for Album of the Year. While the album will move up on the chart with sales of 160,000 copies, it sold around… Read more »

BMI, the performing rights organization, today announced that the BMI rate court has approved an interim license agreement for radio stations streaming their over-the-air broadcast signals on the Internet. The agreement is available to radio stations represented by the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC), which is currently involved with BMI in a proceeding in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to determine final license fees and terms for broadcasting music in the BMI repertoire over-the-air and streaming broadcast signals on the Internet. In the proceeding, the RMLC’s position is that stations do not need… Read more »

It’s unusual for an artist to have released only three proper studio albums in the course of a career that spans over a decade. When the sonic auteur in question is Trent Reznor, mastermind behind techno-industrial pioneers Nine Inch Nails, though, fans have been accustomed to pacifying themselves with various EPs, soundtracks and remixes, while adopting the proverb “All good things come to those who wait” as a mantra. Now, more than two years’ worth of anticipation might be drawing to a close. While keeping busy with various endeavors, most recently a remix of N*E*R*D’s single “Lapdance,” soundtrack work and… Read more »

When it comes to riding the boy-band wave in pop music, nobody has done it better than Lou Pearlman. The Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync and O-Town are just a few of the groups the Orlando-based impresario and his company, Trans Continental Entertainment, have launched on the road to hormone-fueled success. But in the past few months, Pearlman has hit some sour notes. About 15 key executives and staffers, including company vice presidents, the chief operating officer, a tour manager, accountants and publicists, have left or been laid off. O-Town, Pearlman’s latest breakout success, recently left for a management firm run… Read more »

When the superstar pop vocal group ‘N Sync sat down to pick the songs for its upcoming album, the quintet found itself at odds with its record company. The Florida-based group, which has sold more than 25 million records worldwide since debuting in 1997, wanted to rock the boat with “Celebrity,” which is due in stores July 24. But Jive Records executives worried that too much change might make fans disinclined to buy, buy, buy like they have in the past. “They were like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t like that song. I don’t think you should go there. It’s… Read more »