Search Results for: Alan Day

Vivendi Universal (NYSE: V; Paris Bourse: EX FP) announced today it has extended for five more years the contracts of Ron Meyer, President and Chief Operating Officer, Universal Studios, and Stacey Snider, Chairman, Universal Pictures. In making the announcement, Jean-Marie Messier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi Universal, said, “I am thrilled to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of these two outstanding leaders. As the head of Universal Studios Group’s businesses, Ron has brought the studio to new heights. With the recent creation of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (VUE), Ron, under the leadership of Barry Diller, will now expand his responsibilities… Read more »

Silverchair fans will get an early Christmas present when the band’s first new song in almost three years is unveiled on Australian and New Zealand radio at 11am (AEST) this Friday, December 21st. The track is called “The Greatest View” and according to Silverchair’s fanclub newsletter which broke the news, it’s “an epic piece of work which retains the edge of the band’s previous work but which also hints at a more lush and melodic musical direction”. “The Greatest View” was Produced and Mixed by David Bottrill who did the last two Tool albums. It was co-produced and written by… Read more »

The third time turned out to be not so charming for Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 8. For three consecutive weeks, the latest installment in the hits-laden compilation series couldn’t occupy the #1 slot three of its predecessors (volumes 7, 6 and 4) have enjoyed, thanks to Creed’s Weathered, which will remain reigning king of the mountain on next week’s Billboard 200 albums chart. The band’s third album continues to meet staggering sales, moving more than 458,000 copies last week, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday (December 12). Weathered’s three-week total stands at more than 1.7 million. Now… Read more »

Grammy-winning recording star Alanis Morissette is planning a February release for her first album of all-new material in more than three years, followed by a world tour, her publicist said on Wednesday. The new CD, “Under Rug Swept,” is a collection of 11 songs written and produced entirely by Morissette without the assistance of longtime collaborator Glen Ballard, who co-wrote and produced her first two U.S. major-label releases, starting with 1995’s “Jagged Little Pill.” The new album’s first single, “Hands Clean,” described as a song about a former relationship, is due out in mid-January, with the album set for release… Read more »

Recipients of the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award and Trustees Awards were announced today by Michael Greene, President/CEO of the Recording Academy. Pianist and band leader Count Basie and recording artists Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, Al Green, and Joni Mitchell will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards. Engineer/producer Tom Dowd and original rock disc jockey Alan Freed will be honored with Trustees Awards. Formal acknowledgment of the awards will be made in conjunction with the 44th Annual GRAMMY ® Awards ceremony, which willbe held at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Wednesday, Feb. 27. The show will be a prime-time television special on… Read more »

There’s little cheer at the beginning of the holiday sales season. With the exception of the new releases and Christmas discs from Barbra Streisand and Mannheim Steamroller, every album in the top 50 had fewer sales in the week ending Dec. 2 than the week before, according to SoundScan figures issued Wednesday. Creed’s “Weathered” (Wind-Up) continues to hold the top spot with second-week sales of 417,000 units, a 53% drop. For the rest of the holdovers in the top five, “Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 8” (Virgin) fell 46% to 353,000 units; Garth Brooks’ “Scarecrow” (Capitol Nashville) slid… Read more »

Maverick Records and Atlantic Records, two labels owned by AOL Time Warner Inc., said Monday they have cut more than 30 jobs combined over the past week. A spokesman for Warner Music said there had been 16 job cuts at Maverick Records over the last week, while Atlantic has also cut about 15 jobs. These latest job cuts come as industry watchers speculate that AOL Time Warner is looking to cut deeper in the music division after a massive cost-cutting campaign following the merger of AOL and Time Warner, which resulted in the elimination of over 600 jobs over the… Read more »

Two court decisions considered victories for the film and music industries could deny U.S. citizens the same free speech rights in cyberspace that they have in the real world, according to copyright experts and civil rights activists. A federal appeals court in New York last week ruled that the controversial 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act – which bars creating or distributing technology that can be used to circumvent copyright protections – does not infringe on First Amendment free speech protections of the U.S. Constitution. The court barred Eric Corley, publisher of hacker Web site 2600 magazine, from posting or linking… Read more »

Nelly Furtado will visit a Los Angeles-area high school next week to offer advice on the music industry to students. The event, at Santa Monica High School on December 3, is part of the Grammy Foundation’s Mentor Sessions. Previous participants include the Dave Matthews Band, Seal, Moby, Mary J. Blige, and Alanis Morissette. Furtado remains on the road in support of her hit debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, featuring the singles “I’m Like A Bird” and “Turn Off The Light.” She performs Sunday (December 2) at the My VH1 Music Awards in Los Angeles and has several radio-related festival appearances lined… Read more »

The music industry finally received the holiday gift it had been hoping for this week, as the album charts got a formidable one-two punch from alt-rock superstars Creed and the perennially popular “Now That’s What I Call Music” compilation series. “Weathered” (Wind-Up), Creed’s follow-up to the platinum blockbuster “Human Clay,” sold nearly 900,000 copies its first time out, according to SoundScan data for the week ended Nov. 27. Those numbers made “Weathered” the biggest bow since ‘N Sync’s “Celebrity” shifted 1.9 million out of the gate last summer. Nipping at Creed’s heels was the eighth installment of the “Now” series… Read more »