Search Results for: Set It off

Digital media company Roxio has agreed to acquire the most substantial remaining assets of embattled Internet music provider Napster Inc. Roxio will acquire Napster’s technology patents but is not assuming any of the company’s outstanding financial liabilities. The deal is subject to a Nov. 26 Delaware bankruptcy court approval. Napster, based in Redwood City, California., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 3. It listed assets of $7.9 million and liabilities of $101 million, as of April 30. The terms of the deal include a purchase offer of $5 million in cash and 100,000 warrants to purchase Roxio common… Read more »

One of pop singer Christina Aguilera (news)’s latest music videos has Thais decrying not its explicit dancing and revealing costumes, but a Thai-language billboard in the backdrop that alludes to the country’s sex industry. Saharat Wannachomphu, marketing director for BMG Thailand Co., the local distributors of Aguilera’s new album, said the company had decided not to air the video for the song “Dirrty” on local television, the Nation newspaper reported this week. In the video, the scantily clad 21-year-old dances in a boxing ring next to a wall with posters in Thai that read “Thailand’s sex tourism” and “Young underage… Read more »

Universal Music, the music arm of Vivendi Universal and the world’s largest record company, will decide in coming weeks which of its Web music properties are worth keeping as the French media giant seeks to downsize, sources close to the company said on Thursday. Company representatives declined comment, but people familiar with the company said such a move was in line with Vivendi chairman and chief executive officer Jean-Rene Fourtou’s overall mandate to sell about $12 billion in company assets to reduce debt. “One of the things that will be happening in the next few weeks is that Universal Music… Read more »

Twenty-five years after his death, Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n Roll, is about to do something he never managed in life – debut an album at No. 1 on record charts around the world. According to industry watchers, Presley’s “Elvis 30 Number One Hits” compilation, which was released by Bertelsmann AG’s RCA Records on Sept. 24, is poised to top the charts in at least 12 countries around the world. Sales in the United States alone are expected to hit almost 500,000 units in the last week, said a spokesman for RCA, noting it would be the first… Read more »

Yoko Ono and Frederic Seaman, a former personal assistant to John Lennon, privately reached agreement early today in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan, foregoing closing arguments and jury deliberation after four days at trial. The lawsuit, filed by Ono over three years ago, charged Seaman – who worked with the Lennon family between 1979 and 1982 – with failing to return several documents and hundreds of photos after he was found guilty of grand larceny in 1982. Seaman had stolen and subsequently returned Lennon’s personal diaries as well as letters, drawings, contracts, demo tapes, and stereo equipment. However, Ono’s… Read more »

While many consider the Hives to be the answer to their rock and roll prayers, a single question remains at the fore: when can fans expect a new album? Their current LP, Veni Vidi Vicious, is two years old – although a major-label reissue in June fostered much wider exposure – and longtime Hives fans are jonesing for some new material. Despite feeling their fans’ pain, the Hives will serve no album before its time. “We hope to finish it when we’re done with it,” was guitarist Nicholaus Arson’s closeted response to the well-worn query. He’s reluctant to cite a… Read more »

In what the recording industry called the largest judgement ever in a U.S. copyright case, a federal jury in Los Angeles has fined a California CD maker more than $136 million for music piracy, officials said Friday. The jury handed down its multi-million dollar verdict against Media Group, a Fremont, California-based CD manufacturer, Wednesday, requiring it to pay $90,000 for each of more than 1,500 songs it copied illegally since 1995. Media Group declared bankruptcy last year after the judge in the case found the company and its then-chief executive, Jimmy Chan, guilty of “willful” violation of copyright laws. While… Read more »

Free-music Web site Listen4Ever.com is having some serious trouble living up to its name, after the Recording Industry Assn. of America successfully pressured Internet service providers to pull the China-based site off the Net. The RIAA said Wednesday it is withdrawing a planned lawsuit in which the trade org said it was “seeking assistance” from four ISPs in cutting off access to the site, which offers several thousand tracks from major-label artists for free download. “This particular network was a crass attempt to evade our copyright laws by setting up shop in China, while offering a treasure trove of mostly… Read more »

While many have left their hearts in San Francisco, Avril Lavigne will leave her clothes in Cleveland. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum intends to display the outfit the spunky 17-year-old singer/guitarist wore in her MTV Video Music Awards-nominated “Complicated” clip, according to a Hall spokesperson. While flattered at the honor, Lavigne is just as surprised as anyone that her baggy cargo shorts, fitted white tank top and signature necktie will hang in the same building that houses such illustrious memorabilia as John Lennon’s 1965 Rickenbacker 12-string and Hank Williams’ white wool cowboy hat. “I think that’s… Read more »

The world’s biggest music labels on Wednesday said they have offered major concessions to a group of angry pop stars to try to settle a high-profile dispute regarding recording industry contracts. But a representatives for the artists, who have been lobbying for a change to California labor law, said that a settlement was still not in sight. “I want the artist community to know that the record companies came to the table with substantial compromises and it’s now in the artists’ hands,” said Hilary Rosen, president and chief executive officer of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Rosen said… Read more »