Search Results for: The Maine

A start-up co-founded by famed Norwegian hacker “DVD Jon” is on Tuesday introducing a service that enables users to copy and use copy-protected Apple Inc iTunes songs on many popular non-Apple devices. The San Francisco-based company, doubleTwist, is releasing a service that makes it easy for consumers to share both user-generated and professionally created audio, photos and video clips via computers, certain mobile phones or PSP game players. Beyond computer-to-computer media-sharing, doubleTwist lets users synchronize media sitting on their computers to mobile devices they or their friends own, simply by “dragging and dropping” media files into a desktop folder that… Read more »

Wal-Mart has lost the head of its digital media department. Kevin Swint, once the champion of the retail giant’s music and video services, has left one large empire to join another, according to a report by Rafat Ali of PaidContent.org. Swint is starting the first full week of February as the international head of movies and television at Apple, Inc, where he will be tasked with managing the company’s burgeoning digital video channels. Apple has made clear its intentions to build the reach of its visual content offerings in line with the scope of its successful music distribution efforts. Swint’s… Read more »

Universal Music’s publishing division has overtaken EMI as the world’s leading major music publisher, according to market research on Monday. Music & Copyright (M&C), which is published by Informa said Universal’s market share among major music groups rose to 24 percent in 2007 from 11.9 percent a year earlier. Over the same period, EMI’s music publishing share remained steady at 17 percent. Independent publishers account for around one third of the global market. EMI was bought by private equity firm Terra Firma, which earlier this month announced plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs at the music company as part… Read more »

Heath Ledger, the Australian-born actor whose breakthrough role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain” earned him a nomination for an Academy Award and comparisons to the likes of Marlon Brando, was found dead Tuesday in an apartment in Manhattan with sleeping pills near his body, the police said. The police said Mr. Ledger, 28, was found naked on the floor near the bed in an apartment in SoHo that he had been renting. The chief police spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said the police did not suspect foul play. “There was no indication of a disturbance,” he… Read more »

The daughter of an acclaimed electronic music producer is safe, and her mother remains jailed after authorities in California arrested the woman earlier this week on a child abduction warrant obtained in Maryland, even though the charges have been dismissed.Ashley Duffy is no longer wanted by police, but her arrest Tuesday and subsequent jailing, police and prosecutors in Montgomery County, Md., confirmed to ABC News, was made based on a felony warrant that officials now say should never have been issued. The 3-year-old girl, Kaia, may be safe, but a California court will have to resolve the ongoing custody dispute… Read more »

After failing to crack the million mark with her last two albums, Janet Jackson is wary of using the “c” word to describe her upcoming release, “Discipline,” which hits stores on February 26. “I think a comeback is when you leave and then you … come back,” Jackson said with a laugh during a recent interview. “People are always quick to use that word ‘comeback,’ but I never went anywhere, really.” “Discipline” marks her 10th studio disc, and her debut release for Island Def Jam after more than a decade at Virgin Records. Her last album, 2006’s “20 Y.O.,” stalled… Read more »

British rock band Radiohead scored its second No. 1 album on the U.S. pop charts on Wednesday with a release that was initially sold on the Internet under a revolutionary “name-your-own-price” system. “In Rainbows” also topped the charts in Britain, Canada, France, Japan and Ireland, a representative for the group said. The critically acclaimed album sold a relatively modest 122,000 copies during its first official week in U.S. stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan data for the week ended January 6. It sold an additional 10,000 copies the week before, when some retailers put it on shelves ahead of its January… Read more »

Britney Spears was derailed yet again in her struggle to get her life back on track, losing custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline. A court commissioner Friday gave sole physical and legal custody of the former couple’s two little boys to Federline and suspended the troubled pop star’s visitation rights. Spears was hauled away from her home to a hospital by paramedics a day before, after police had to intervene when she refused to return the children to Federline after a court-monitored visit. Commissioner Scott Gordon ordered another hearing to be held Jan. 14. Federline had previously… Read more »

U.S. album sales plunged 9.5 percent last year from 2006, continuing a downward trend for the recording industry, despite a 45 percent surge in the sale of digital tracks, according to figures released Thursday. A total of 500.5 million albums sold as CDs, cassettes, LPs and other formats were purchased last year, down 15 percent from 2006’s unit total, said Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks point-of-purchase sales. The shortfall in album sales drops to 9.5 percent when sales of digital singles are counted as 10-track equivalent albums. About 844.2 million digital tracks sold in 2007, compared to 588.2 million in 2006,… Read more »

Singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg died Sunday (Dec. 16) at his home in Maine after fighting prostate cancer for several years. He was 56. Although he made his biggest impact in pop music — via such hits as “Longer,” “Same Old Lang Syne,” “Hard to Say” and “Leader of the Band” — he had strong ties to Nashville and country music.Daniel Grayling Fogelberg was born Aug. 13, 1951, in Peoria, Ill. His father, whom he would immortalize in song, was a band leader, his mother a classically trained singer. Fogelberg dabbled in art and acting at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana… Read more »