Search Results for: GOLD

The president of Vivendi Universal’s MCA Records has resigned, becoming the latest casualty of the slumping music industry. Jay Boberg, 44, told MCA employees Thursday that he was stepping down from the post he has held since 1995. He said in a memo to label executives that he leaves a roster of acts that is “an artistic and musical gold mine.” A spokeswoman said Boberg wasn’t available to elaborate. Boberg joined artist manager Miles Copeland in 1979 to found pioneering I.R.S. Records, which was later sold to EMI for an estimated $20 million. He was tapped to head MCA’s publishing… Read more »

Tough times may have hit the record business, but sellers of musical instruments and products are humming. “It looks like we got back to the high water mark of $7 billion in annual U.S. sales in 2002, and I’m very bullish about the next 10 years,” said Joe Lamond, president and chief executive officer of International Music Products Association, representing nearly 8,000 retailers and makers of musical instruments and products in 85 countries. The estimated 2002 U.S. level would represent an uptick from $6.7 billion in 2001, which had fallen from the industry’s record $7 billion in 2000. The latest… Read more »

Christine Lewis wrapped herself in the flag – an Elvis flag – to celebrate what would have been the king of rock ‘n’ roll’s 68th birthday. The 52-year-old from Somerset, England, was among 600 to 700 fans gathered Wednesday on the front lawn of Graceland, Elvis Presley’s last home, to cut a cake and sing “Happy Birthday.” Celebrants stood in line up to 90 minutes to get onto the grounds for the party. “I could imagine him being here. I cried so much,” Lewis said. For the occasion, she wrapped herself in a flag with red and blue stripes and… Read more »

Call them the new poster boys of pop punk. Dub them bearers of a torch once carried by Green Day and Rancid. Pronounce them the best thing to happen to the genre since the invention of the pogo. Just don’t call New Found Glory the next big thing. “I’d hate to be the next big thing,” singer Jordan Pundik said. Rather than ride a rocket to the top, Pundik and bandmates Cyrus Bolooki (drums), Chad Gilbert (guitar), Ian Grushka (bass) and Steve Klein (guitar) adopt a policy of slow and steady, careful not to suffer from overexposure. “Our videos aren’t… Read more »

Hundreds of Phish fans camped out at Madison Square Garden Tuesday in the hope of landing seats to the jam band’s New Year’s Eve concert – its first concert in more than two years. “We’re dying for tickets!” said Matt Lamberg, a 21-year-old college student from Binghamton, N.Y., who’d been waiting for six hours. “Their energy is totally different. It’s beautiful. It’s what life’s about.” Phish has long attracted a devoted following that’s willing to travel thousands of miles to hear them play. Tuesday’s event was a huge draw. Phish is known for its New Year’s Eve shows, and the… Read more »

The soft drink’s slogan may be the “Joy of Pepsi,” but there’s no joy for Britney Spears, whose contract has not been renewed by the cola giant. Pepsi has now signed on Destiny’s Child star Beyonce Knowles for commercials. Pepsi announced it signed Knowles for her star power in both music and movies. This summer, she made her film debut in Austin Powers In Goldmember and will appear in the upcoming movie The Fighting Temptations. The Destiny’s Child frontwoman will appear in two TV commercials for the cola company as part of a new campaign that also will include radio… Read more »

Veteran record executive Clive Davis, whose ouster from Bertelsmann AG’s Arista caused an uproar two years ago, returned to the fold on Tuesday by selling his half of J Records to the company and taking the helm of a combined label group. As Bertelsmann’s music group, BMG, focuses on cutting costs during a prolonged industry downturn, the group said on Tuesday it would buy the 50 percent of Davis’ J Records it did not already own for undisclosed terms and combine it with its legendary RCA Records, home to stars like Christina Aguilera. Davis – pushed out in a management… Read more »

The Future of Music Coalition (FMC) has set its third annual policy summit for Jan. 5-7, 2003, at Gaston Hall on the campus of Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown University. The FMC has designated the summit as a forum to bring together independent musicians, music-biz executives, lawyers, teachers, and politicians to discuss and debate some of today’s most pressing music-related issues, including digital technology, artists’ rights, and Webcasting. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) will give keynote speeches during the event, which will also feature as panelists Fugazi principal/Dischord Records co-founder Ian MacKaye, musician Patti Smith, California State Senator… Read more »

As one of the forefathers of rap, with a history of social activism, Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay was an unlikely target for the kind of violence that killed rappers Tupac Shakur or the Notorious B.I.G. He was married with three kids, and a fixture in the Queens neighborhood where he grew up. Yet authorities were searching Thursday for the gunman who killed the 37-year-old disc jockey with a gunshot to the head inside his recording studio. “Jam Master Jay was a longtime family man and one of the founders of the group that knocked down all the doors for hip-hop,… Read more »

The seminal album of British punk rock celebrates its 25th birthday on Monday and shows no sign of growing old gracefully. On October 28, 1977, the Sex Pistols unleashed their debut album, “Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols,” on an unsuspecting world. It shot straight to the top of the album charts and stayed there for an astonishing 47 weeks. Everything about the album was designed to shock, from its provocative title, its 12 short, explosive songs and its garish pink and yellow pop art album cover. The names of the tracks were printed on the album sleeve… Read more »