Search Results for: Disney

Continuing the sample of pre-show news, there’s word that Viacom has signed on with Apple to offer feature-length movies on the iTunes Store. Viacom, which is the parent company of CBS and Paramount Studios, joins Disney on the iTunes Store. Steve Jobs is expected to announce the addition to the iTunes Store lineup today. The deal will see Viacom only offering catalog titles (that is, movies that have been on DVD for some time), and should thus be seen as a cautious entry into the Apple fray. To date, Apple has sold most catalog movies for $9.99, compared to $14.99… Read more »

High School Musical officially graduated at the top of its class. The surprise monster hit soundtrack accompaniment to the Disney Channel’s tween song-and-dance fest, finished as 2006’s chart valedictorian, selling more than 3.7 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released Thursday. In the SoundScan era, the only other soundtracks to finish atop the yearend chart were The Bodyguard in 1993 and Titanic in 1998. Remarkably, High School Musical debuted on the charts way down at number 143 in January 2006. The disc increased its position each week, eventually hitting the top spot on two nonconsecutive weeks in March. It… Read more »

LOS ANGELES – U.S. album sales, which include CDs and digital albums, fell 4.9 percent in 2006 as an increasing number of consumers preferred to download individual songs from the Web, Nielsen SoundScan said on Thursday. While data from the music tracking company showed overall music unit sales rose 19.4 percent last year due to digital downloads, the growth momentum of that category also disappointed some market watchers. “Not only did year-end 2006 digital sales fall short of our expectations, more concerning is the deceleration in growth during the fourth quarter,” Richard Greenfield, an analyst with Pali Research, wrote in… Read more »

With members of Yellowcard spending the last few months scattered across the country – in New York, California and Florida – what better place to reconvene than sunny Orlando, Florida? After all, it is the nation’s favorite vacation destination. “Yeah, we didn’t really come down here for vacation,” guitarist Ben Harper laughed. “We’re playing a couple of shows at [Disney World’s] Grad Nite, and we figured here was as good a place as any to finish up the saga [of] writing our new album.” Since January, frontman Ryan Key and bassist Pete Mosely have been living in New York, writing… Read more »

New York – It’s been a stunning year for Brian Wilson. The former Beach Boy released his rerecording of the group’s “SMiLE” album to critical acclaim, and staged a worldwide tour chock-full of standing ovations. The original “SMiLE,” recorded more than 37 years ago, was never released officially. The Nonesuch Records release bowed at No. 13 on The Billboard 200. The set, whose full title is “Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE,” has sold more than 300,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has been nominated for three awards at the Grammys on Feb. 13. Two nights before that, he will be… Read more »

New York – Just think: Instead of exposing Janet Jackson’s breast at the Super Bowl last Feb. 1, what if Justin Timberlake reached across her chest, fumbled with Jackson’s top and…. The stitching holds! There is no malfunction! That means no national discussion of showbiz morals, no drastic tightening of FCC restrictions – but the fallout is just as serious. Cameron Diaz, mortified by her boyfriend’s failed attempt to reach second base, breaks up with Timberlake before the Super Bowl is even over. She immediately sends word to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady that she’s available. The flustered Brady… Read more »

Hilary Duff is, after all, your girlfriend and, yes, you should stand up for her. But did you really have to bring small children to tears? According to a report on MTV.com, Madden – Good Charlotte lead singer and Duff’s current partner in love – was at a radio station’s Christmas show in New York last Friday when he was approached by two young autograph seekers. Duff quickly pointed out the problem – one of these boys was Cody, the kid brother of her arch-nemesis Lindsay Lohan! To sign an autograph for this completely uninvolved 8-year-old child would be like… Read more »

New York – As rap stars go, Jin has the typical look down cold: Hoodie, baggy sweats, chunky diamond stud earring, a Chinese character tattooed on his neck and a large blingy necklace. Not everything’s typical, though. “Yeah, I’m Chinese. And what?” he asks with mock exasperation. At just 22, the Miami-bred, New York-based rapper is something of a pioneer – the first Asian-American hip-hop artist to get a major solo record deal. At the same time, he worries that it’s his race, not his rhymes, generating all the attention. “Being Asian helps me so much,” he says. “It definitely… Read more »

Los Angeles – Some of Elvis Presley’s first RCA recordings from nearly 50 years ago, including never-before-heard takes of “All Shook Up” and “Jailhouse Rock,” will be put up for bid on Sunday at an auction of show business memorabilia. The six unedited reel-to-reel tapes – “pre-master” originals from the private collection of the studio engineer who recorded them, are valued at between $30,000 and $50,000, according to international auction house Bonhams & Butterfields. Highlights will be played on Saturday for potential bidders at the Bonhams gallery in Los Angeles, marking their first public exhibition, auction spokesman Erik Simon told… Read more »

It’s fitting that the title of the new Blink-182 single connotes permanence. The release of “Always” has given the band’s year-old untitled album unprecedented longevity. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had four singles,” singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge explained. “[This album] is like ‘The Little Engine That Could.’ We even talked about a fifth single. We’ve never done this before. It is kind of weird that we’re still around.” Since the band’s sixth album dropped last November, it’s yielded the singles “Feeling This,” “I Miss You,” “Down” and “Always,” which is expected to surface at radio next week. Should there be… Read more »