Search Results for: Disney

New York – RealNetworks, XM Satellite Radio, NCSoft and TiVo were among the big winners at the first annual Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards. The awards were held on November 5th at UCLA Covel Commons at Sunset Village in Los Angeles, California. XM Satellite Radio was presented the award for Best Radio Service, given to the best digital, Internet, satellite or other format in radio with respect to variety, innovation and user experience. XM’s president and CEO Hugh Panero, was honored with the Innovator of the Year award for his profound impact and leadership in the satellite radio medium. RealNetworks’ Rhapsody… Read more »

US box office takings passed the $1bn ( £545m) mark for the first time in June, led by the success of the third Harry Potter film, a survey indicated. The North American box office took $1.03bn ( £562m) during June, Hollywood Reporter found – a 14% increase on June 2003’s previous monthly record. Takings were boosted by blockbusters including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Shrek 2. Spider-Man 2, which opened in the US on 1 July, also boosted monthly takings. New releases The third Harry Potter film topped the North American box office for the month by… Read more »

Lava Recording artist Cherie is on track to having a huge summer hit with her debut single “I’m Ready.” The song, which recently was the #2 most added song at the Top 40 radio format, entered the Top 40 chart this week at #37 and is currently being spun by key stations across the country, including KIIS FM/ Los Angeles, WXKS/Boston, WIOQ/ Philly, Y100/ Miami and Star/ Atlanta. The single is available commercially beginning today, Tuesday, May 4th, as an enhanced CD that will feature special bonus material, including remixes of “I’m Ready,” the track “Fool,” from her upcoming album… Read more »

Leland Cobain spreads a few yellowing pieces of art across his dining room table. The Aberdeen Museum of History, in the next town over, has asked him to contribute to an exhibit about his grandson, late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. One adorable Christmas card Kurt made for his grandparents at age 13 shows a hapless toddler, fishing, who has hooked the back of his shirt. There are radiant watercolor seascapes and depictions of Disney characters. Then there are the other paintings, in an apartment 55 miles northeast of Leland’s trailer. They are surrealistic, stark and powerful, revealing skeletons, aliens and… Read more »

On Jan. 6, San Francisco’s Moscone convention center pulses with all the energy of a rock concert. A crowd sprinkled with hip-hop teenagers, digerati, and aging hippies streams in to hear the annual state-of-the-Mac keynote from Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steven P. Jobs. Every facet of the event bears the fingerprints of the obsessive Jobs – right down to the music that fills the air. This year, it’s the King himself, Elvis Presley. Later, Jobs rolls the tape of Apple’s famous “1984” ad that ran on Super Bowl Sunday that year – and hasn’t been broadcast since. Only this… Read more »

Teen idol Aaron Carter isn’t in the middle of his parents’ messy split. He’s taking sides. The 16-year-old younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter announced Wednesday he was firing his mother-slash-comanager, and ordering an audit of his pop-star riches. “I feel betrayed by own mother,” Aaron Carter said in a statement. The singer has alleged that a “significant” portion of earnings-reportedly more than $100,000-from his recent tour were tapped into, in part, by mom Jane Carter. “I worked hard for months-10, 11 hours a day, not including school and press appearances-and I come home and owe money!” Aaron Carter… Read more »

Vivendi Universal and General Electric Co. have agreed to merge the French company’s Hollywood studio and other U.S. entertainment assets with GE’s television network NBC, creating a media giant with an estimated value of $43 billion. The terms of the deal announced Wednesday were largely unchanged from a preliminary agreement reached a month ago, when the two companies entered exclusive talks about a merger and sketched out broad outlines for a combined company to be called NBC Universal. The new company will include the NBC television network and its cable channels CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo and Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo. From… Read more »

Summer touring partners Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera each saw their latest solo albums reach the triple-platinum plateau in August. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Timberlake’s “Justified” (Jive) and Aguilera’s “Stripped” (RCA) for U.S. shipments of 3 million copies. Both albums debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The artists recently wrapped their co-headlining Justified & Stripped U.S. summer tour and now have set their sights on Europe. Aguilera will begin her own two-month tour there Sept. 12 in Greece with Japanese and Australian dates to follow. Timberlake will tour the region beginning Nov.… Read more »

U.S. television network NBC won Vivendi Universal’s marathon show-business auction on Tuesday with a proposed merger to create a new entertainment industry giant worth more than $40 billion. NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., clinched exclusive negotiating rights to finalize a deal that would give it a major film studio, more cable channels and theme parks to vault the No. 1 U.S. broadcast network closer to the ranks of such global titans as Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc. If the deal is completed, the new company, to be called NBC-Universal, would include Vivendi’s Universal Pictures, the Hollywood studio… Read more »

Kevin Richardson hopes others won’t have to follow his path to superstardom. Richardson left his native Kentucky as a teenager for a job at Walt Disney World before auditioning for an Orlando, Fla.-based group that would eventually become the Backstreet Boys. Now Richardson, 31, and childhood friend and songwriter Keith McGuffey have opened a music academy in downtown Louisville. Called The Music Workshop, its a catchall for performers, songwriters and producers seeking a career in music. “When me and Keith were growing up in central Kentucky there wasn’t any real outlet for us. If we wanted to get information about… Read more »