Search Results for: GERMANY

Detroit – Karl Haas, who brought classical music to millions of listeners through his syndicated radio program, “Adventures in Good Music,” has died. He was 91. Haas died Sunday at a hospital in Royal Oak, according to WCLV-FM in Cleveland, which produced his program. “Adventures in Good Music,” an hour-long program in which Haas blended music and talk aimed at casual listeners, was syndicated to hundreds of stations in the United States, Australia, Mexico and Panama and was broadcast by Armed Forces Radio. Haas delighted listeners with his vast musical knowledge and his penchant for punny program titles, such as… Read more »

The message posted in an Internet chat room read, “Seeking well-built man, 18-30 years old for slaughter.” A few months later, a user responded: “I offer myself to you and will let you dine from my live body. Not butchery, dining!!” It wasn’t a joke, and what followed was far more gruesome and bizarre than the plot of nearly any horror film. In March 2001, Armin Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer technician in Hesse, Germany, killed, dismembered and ate 43-year-old microchip engineer Bernd Juergen Brandes. While Brandes was still alive, the two dined on parts of his flesh together, then Meiwes… Read more »

New York – Dreams of world domination must be hard for MTV executives to avoid when they host a party at the Kremlin, with a Russian diva and Queen dueting on “We Will Rock You” and Russian soldiers performing a hip-hop dance routine. MTV Networks will reach a milestone in February when the turn of a switch starts an MTV outlet in Africa, the company’s 100th channel worldwide and first based on that continent. Most of its American audience is probably unaware of the extent to which MTV and its sister networks have blanketed the world in an aggressive expansion… Read more »

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Lisa Marie Presley is keeping Graceland but selling the bulk of the Elvis estate, including rights to her father’s name and image, in a deal worth approximately $100 million. Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. announced an agreement Thursday to sell 85 percent of its assets to businessman Robert F.X. Sillerman, founder of music and sports promoter SFX Entertainment. The Presley estate brought in almost $45 million last year. Sillerman said more aggressive marketing, supported by capital raised through a new publicly traded company, can make Elvis an even bigger earner. Presley occupies a unique place in American pop… Read more »

MUNICH, Germany – Prosecutors have dropped an investigation of Oasis singer Liam Gallagher over a 2002 brawl at a Munich hotel in exchange for a $65,200 fine, a spokesman said Monday. The Dec. 1, 2002, fight at the hotel left Gallagher with several broken teeth, and police said at the time that he had kicked an officer outside the hotel’s nightclub. Anton Winkler, a spokesman for Munich prosecutors, said contradictory statements by those involved left authorities unable to clearly establish who started the brawl. “We have closed the investigation against the payment” of $65,200, he said. Gallagher, 32, had been… Read more »

London – When the curtain went up on MTV’s Europe Awards in Rome on Thursday, only one of the performers was signed to an independent record label. And at European pop music’s annual showcase event where fans vote for their favorites either online or by mobile phone, not only were the majority of acts from the United States, but all major prizes went to Americans. The independent record industry says the business has been taken over by four mega-companies that are helping to entrench American cultural “hegemony” across the music world. “The record business is stacked in favor of the… Read more »

London – EMI Group PLC, one of the world’s ‘big three’ music companies, reported a fall in sales and a net loss for the first half of its fiscal year Friday but said it expected an improvement in the second half when its album release schedule kicks in. EMI, whose artists include Coldplay, Norah Jones, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams, said it was confident the global music industry was returning to a growth phase after a sales slump from 2000 to 2003. Chairman Eric Nicoli said the global industry recorded a decline of 1.3 percent for the first half of… Read more »

Los Angeles/New York – Columbia Records has moved up by one day the North American release of the new Destiny Child’s album, just as the R&B trio confirmed the first dates for its 2005 world tour. “Destiny Fulfilled” will be issued off-cycle from a traditional Tuesday stateside release on Nov. 15, the same date that the disc will be available internationally. The company says the change is due to the “potential for Internet leaks and ‘burned’ CD counterfeits” that could “lead consumers to experience inferior and incomplete versions of the album.” The move by follows Wednesday’s (Nov. 3) announcement that… Read more »

Apple(R) today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 150 million songs from the iTunes(R) Music Store, marking another major milestone for the online music business. The 150 millionth song was “Ex-Factor” by Lauryn Hill and was purchased by Beth Santisteven from Ignacio, Colorado. iTunes users are now downloading more than 4 million songs per week, a rate of over 200 million songs per year. Apple also announced the immediate availability of iTunes gift cards at all Best Buy stores. “Crossing 150 million downloads marks another major milestone for the online music business,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s… Read more »

Apple Computer says it has sold five million songs in the first 10 weeks after opening three European iTunes Music Stores on the Internet in Germany, France and Britain. It made the announcement in a presentation on the fringes of the annual Apple Expo on Tuesday. Worldwide, Apple has sold more than four million of its market leading iPod digital music players and sold more than 100 million tracks on its iTunes online music store in the United States since it was launched in April last year.