Search Results for: alternative press

A peace treaty announced Tuesday between the record business and Silicon Valley could reshape the debate over what role Capitol Hill should play in mandating antipiracy technology being sought by Hollywood, making it more difficult for the movie biz to pursue its legislative agenda. The landmark pact among the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA), the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP) launches a new chapter in the music industry’s fight to recover from devastating levels of computer piracy. For its part, Silicon Valley will actively help the RIAA, the lobbying arm of the major… 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 »

The embattled record industry got more bad news on Sunday as a study showed online sales of music dropped 25 percent in the first nine months of 2002. The survey by research firm ComScore Networks Inc, which monitored more than 1.5 million Web users, showed online sales of music – in the form of physical singles, albums, CDs and tapes – fell to $545 million from $730 million in the same period a year earlier. Sales of digital downloads were also included in the survey but accounted for a tiny portion of the total, ComScore said. As the music industry… Read more »

Garageband Records (http://www.garageband.com) demonstrated its support for Internet radio today by announcing a new turnkey service that will provide webcasters with an alternative and more affordable source of music. This announcement is part of the company’s broader plan to promote its independent artists through multiple channels including Internet, college and commercial radio. In addition, as part of the International Webcasting Association’s (IWA) “Campaign to Save Internet Radio,” Garageband announced that its artists will be showcased during a twenty-day live broadcast in Las Vegas. The broadcast begins today at 12:00pm PDT and can be accessedfrom www.SaveInternetRadio.net and www.Webcasters.org. Garageband’s service comes… Read more »

Warner Music Group has cut a deal with music tech firm RioPort to offer more than 30,000 digital singles as a la carte downloads, starting at 99 cents per track, in a bid to kickstart the nascent online music market. Warner will make the tracks available this month in the United States and Canada via RioPort’s distribution infrastructure. In a marked step forward for Warner’s online efforts, the label also will allow users to burn the tracks to CDs or transfer them to portable devices. The offering will include work from Warner acts Green Day, Enya, Linkin Park and Sugar… Read more »

There’s a line in the CKY song “Escape From Hellview” that goes, “I’m on the loose with my neck in the noose/ But hey, I enjoy the intense.” So when they picked up cameras to shoot a video for the tune, they decided it would be cool to hang guitarist Chad Ginsburg from a tree. It almost became the last stunt Ginsburg would ever pull. Since the grass-roots band self-financed the shoot on a meager budget, the only stunt coordinator they could afford turned out to be unqualified. The harness he tied around Ginsburg wasn’t secure enough, and the guitarist… Read more »

Napster’s newly altered Web page said it all Wednesday, one day after its remaining 42 employees were fired and the song-swap company’s doors closed for good. After a Delaware bankruptcy judge blocked the sale of the company’s assets to its chief investor, the company prepared to convert its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization filing into a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding. There was no eulogy for Shawn Fanning’s innovative software application from the recording industry, which helped kill Napster with its lawsuits. The Recording Industry Association of America has made no comment on Napster’s passing. Record labels, artists and copyright holders all… Read more »

The results of a new survey find that consumers don’t see digital music downloads as an alternative to buying CDs Video may have killed the radio star, but Forrester Research has said Internet piracy was not to blame – as record labels have claimed – for the 15 percent drop in music sales in the past two years. “There is no denying that times are tough for the music business, but not because of downloading,” said Josh Bernoff, principal analyst at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research firm Forrester Research, who released a report on the digital music market on Tuesday. Based on… Read more »

Acknowledging that online piracy is forcing dramatic changes in the music industry, the world’stwo largest record companies are poised to make it easy and cheap for fans to buy-rather than steal-songs off the Internet. The moves by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment accelerate the industry’s transition to an era in which music is distributed electronically. Other major labels are likely to follow as the record business grapples with the rise of online music copying through unauthorized services such as Napster, Kazaa and Morpheus and potentially billions of dollars in lost sales. Rather than trying to force consumers to… Read more »

Universal Music Enterprises (UME) and Disc Marketing, Inc. have entered into a multi-year agreement to create compelling music “premiums” for many of the world’s major consumer brands, it was announced today by Bruce Resnikoff, President, Universal Music Enterprises. Under this agreement, UME, through its Special Markets division, will become the principal supplier of music content for music premiums developed by Disc Marketing for its wide range of corporate clients. UME will also provide manufacturing services for Disc Marketing. The agreement additionally calls for Disc Marketing to become the exclusive supplier of enhanced content for UME’s premium CD music packages. Utilizing… Read more »