Search Results for: Disney

The official story goes like this: On the last night of Jim Morrison’s life, the rocker went to a movie in Paris, listened to records, fell ill and died of heart failure in his bathtub at the age of 27. But rumors have always swirled around the death of The Doors frontman and, 36 years later, a former Paris nightclub manager is telling a different story. In a new book, Sam Bernett says that Morrison died in a toilet stall of his club after what he believes was a heroin overdose. He writes of his shock on finding Morrison’s body:… Read more »

Apple Inc. added Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer Inc. movies for sale on the iTunes Web site, offering customers such classic titles as “The Great Train Robbery” and modern hits like “Rocky.” MGM, owner of the world’s largest film library, will sell about 100 of its movies on iTunes, Derick Mains, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple said today in an interview. Films from MGM, the fourth studio to sign on since Apple started the movie-download service eight months ago, boost the iTunes catalog to more than 500 films, Apple said in a statement. Except for Walt Disney Co., where Apple Chief Executive… Read more »

Media industry executives and analysts have expressed surprise and alarm at last week’s decision by EMI, the record label, to start selling music videos without the protection of anti-piracy software. The decision was a little-noticed part of the company’s ground-breaking deal with Apple that made all of EMI’s catalogue available on iTunes in a format that can be copied and played on any digital device without restriction. That deal, announced with fanfare by EMI chief executive Eric Nicoli and Apple founder Steve Jobs, was hailed as ushering in a new digital music era. EMI is expected to begin announcing deals… Read more »

There are actors who sing and singers who act, but throughout pop history few entertainers have successfully balanced those twin careers. Neither could Hilary Duff, though not due to lack of effort. While her career as a pop diva skyrocketed – she released two platinum albums and a best-selling greatest-hits disc in just three years – the former Disney child star found her acting career stalling. Despite her considerable star wattage, Hollywood had difficulty seeing Duff beyond her past sugary sweet roles and good girl persona (no rehab or pantyless partying here). “It always shocks me the lack of openness,… Read more »

Every day, the roughly one million people who visit the iTunes Store home page are presented with several dozen albums, TV shows and movie downloads to consider buying — out of the four million such goods the Apple site offers. This prime promotion is analogous to a CD being displayed at the checkout stands of all 940 Best Buy stores or featured on the front page of Target’s ad circular. How do bands get these boosts? Who decides whether Arcade Fire is plugged at the top of the iTunes site — or whether Nickelback gets no mention? Apple has jettisoned… Read more »

At the Jonas Brothers’ family home in New Jersey, a wooden sign over the bathroom door reads “Patience is a virtue.” It’s a lesson the Brothers are lucky to have learned. Though the pop-punk boy band is riding high at iTunes and Radio Disney on the strength of “Year 3000,” the brothers have taken an unexpectedly circuitous route to success. The Jonas Brothers — Nick, 14, Joe, 17, and Kevin, 19 — were born as a band in 2005, when incoming Columbia Records president Steve Greenberg was handed a stack of CDs by Columbia artists with whom he wasn’t familiar.… Read more »

When Fall Out Boy released their third full-length album, From Under the Cork Tree, no one realized just how well the LP would do. It ended up being one of the surprise breakout hits of 2005 and sold more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S. alone – making for much less surprising first-week sales totals for the band’s follow-up effort, Infinity on High. With close to 260,000 copies flying off record store shelves last week, FOB’s Infinity on High has earned the Chicago rockers a career first: a #1 debut on Billboard ‘s albums chart – a debut one… Read more »

Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” led the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts for an eighth consecutive week Thursday, but barely edged the new single from Fall Out Boy. The pop punk band’s “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s An Arms Race” debuted at No. 2 thanks to 162,000 digital downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This is the highest bow for a band since radio-only titles joined the chart in December 1998. The last group to start as well or better was Aerosmith, who debuted at No. 1 under prior Hot 100 rules with “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” in September 1998. In… Read more »

A minor career change for the guitar legend Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards will make an appearance in the next Pirates of the Caribbean flick, the franchise’s producer has revealed. Richards famed rock and roll persona was famously the inspiration for Johnny Depp’s Academy Award-nominated role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the two previous films, and will make a cameo appearance at Sparrow’s father, it is rumoured, for the third outing. Hollywood heavyweight Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed the 63-year-old rocker would be appearing in the latest outing at the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: World’s End’ during a Walt Disney Corporation press… Read more »