Search Results for: AVOID

A clash with shareholders cost Thomas Middelhoff his job at the helm of media giant Bertelsmann – even though the company made money while rivals like AOL Time Warner and Vivendi ran into trouble. Not even one of the deals of the decade – reaping billions from selling a stake in AOL Europe at the height of the Internet bubble – could save Middelhoff from the same fate as Vivendi’s former chief Jean-Marie Messier and Robert Pittman, ousted as head of AOL Time Warner’s AOL division in a management shakeup. Bertelsmann said Sunday that Middelhoff was leaving due to “differing… Read more »

There will be no more drugs and violence on Mexican radio stations in and around Tijuana. Baja California state radio stations signed an agreement Thursday to ban songs known as narco-corridos, and instead have decided to play only songs that promote positive messages and good values. They also urged Spanish-language U.S. stations across the border in California to do the same. Casio Carlos Narvaez, a representative of the Radio and Television Industry Chamber, said stations will not be able to compete if their U.S. counterparts don’t take the same step. “We should promote this self-imposed regulation to avoid converting into… Read more »

Following the success of its secure and simultaneous digital distribution in early June of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ long-awaited new single and title track “By The Way,” DG Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: DGIT – News), announced today that Warner Bros. Records collaborated with DG Music for the simultaneous, digital delivery of all 15 songs from the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s (RHCP) latest album. The distribution of one single from the RHCP album per day on 15 consecutive days by DG marks the first time that an entire album has been digitally delivered to radio stations through a private digital network.… Read more »

All things must pass-including criminal sentences-and that has the family of the late George Harrison ticked off. The rocker’s wife and son are angrily objecting to the release last week of the deranged fan who broke into the ex-Beatle’s mansion in December 1999 and nearly killed him in a knife attack. An independent panel in England comprising a judge, a psychiatrist and a British citizen determined 36-year-old Michael Abram, a former drug addict who suffers from schizophrenia, was well enough to be released back into the community and set him free on July 4 from the Scott Clinic, a psychiatric… Read more »

Could George Michael’s latest single and video, “Shoot the Dog,” actually be a shot in the foot? Never one to shy away from controversy, Michael has outdone himself with the animated clip, his first foray into the world of political satire, in which he takes on President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Queen Mum. In the song, Michael criticizes British foreign policy – at least when it comes to dealings with the Middle East – as being too closely aligned with that of the U.S. The video depicts Bush as an idiot and Blair as… Read more »

When was the last time this happened: a breakthrough artist spends the night its album debuted in the top 10 on The Billboard 200 chart playing the opening slot at a tiny Sunset Strip club instead of headlining its own show – or partying like a rock star elsewhere in town? How about Wednesday (June 12) night, when current it-girl Avril Lavigne, who’s all of 17 years old, played an unexpectedly aggressive early set at the Viper Room in Hollywood. Though Lavigne was there, in theory, to warm the mostly-music-industry-crowd up for the hitless bands Lo Cal AM and Plain… Read more »

Former Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby died at his Los Angeles home on Thursday morning following a long battle with AIDS. He was 42. The cause of death has not yet been determined, according to Craig Harvey, operations chief for the Los Angeles coroner’s office. One of the original members of the ’80s metal rockers known for hits such as “Round and Round” and “Lay It Down,” Crosby began speaking out several years ago about his drug use in the band’s heyday and how it led to his contraction of the deadly virus nearly eight years ago. Ratt formed in the… Read more »

Mega-nü-metal bands are kinda like Microsoft. Every time they unveil a product, it’s gotta be more advanced than the last, and each new offering is accompanied with a celebration that upstages the one before. On November 15, 1999, as Korn prepared to release their fourth album, Issues, the band played a rock show at the legendary Apollo Theatre in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, a site usually foreign to rock shows. On Monday night, to christen the release of their new disc, Untouchables, the band simulcast a one-hour concert from the Hammerstein Ballroom to 40 movie theaters across the… Read more »

Popular music has been upended by every technological advance from electricity and the phonograph to cassette tapes and recordable CDs. The switch from analog to digital accelerated the pace of illicit duplication and distribution, sounding the loudest alarm yet. As Napster struggles to survive, other sites from Gnutella to KaZaa are filling the void. Last week, labels and music publishers sued Audiogalaxy, a booming file-swapping network that lured 3.5 million users in March. The complaint: The Recording Industry Association of America, on behalf of labels, is vigorously seeking to stamp out proliferating Web sites that permit free downloads of music.… Read more »

Radio remains one of the most powerful marketing tools available to the recording industry, despite skyrocketing costs of gaining access to the airwaves via independent promoters. While word-of-mouth, video and Internet brush fires occasionally catapult unknowns to stardom, radio remains the most reliable and efficient means of enticing listeners to record stores. Yet many fans surfing the airwaves are far from satisfied. The complaint: Consolidation has made radio even more cookie-cutter bland, with narrow, unimaginative playlists. Demographic targeting and audience testing eliminate variety, stifle regionalism and foist the least objectionable music on the public. Failing to recognize that an individual’s… Read more »