Search Results for: Thursday

Bertelsmann AG and Sony Corp. announced a preliminary plan to merge their music businesses Thursday, setting the stage for a music company that would vie for world primacy with Universal Music Group. A merger of Sony Music Entertainment and Bertelsmann’s BMG, if it comes to pass, would bring together the world’s No. 2 and No. 5 music companies as the industry struggles with losses blamed on music piracy. The new company, to be called Sony BMG, would be equally owned by Sony and Bertelsmann and run by Andrew Lack, chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment. Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, the… Read more »

In a move aimed at stemming wide-scale online piracy on college campuses, Penn State University on Thursday reached a deal to offer thousands of students free access to the Napster music service. Penn State President Graham Spanier said the school will offer students access to digital music and limited downloading from Napster’s newly relaunched music service at no cost. Students can also buy permanent downloads that can be burned to CDs or transferred to portable devices for 99 cents each, he said. Napster, the song-swap pioneer that revolutionized online music and turned the music industry upside down, was bought last… Read more »

XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. said Thursday its third-quarter loss widened, as cost increases swallowed up a fivefold increase in revenue. After dividends on preferred shares, the Washington-based satellite radio broadcaster reported a loss of $145 million, or $1.12 a share. It lost $114 million, or $1.26 a share, in the same period last year. A Thomson First Call survey of analysts produced a mean estimate of a loss of $1.17 a share for the latest quarter. XM’s revenue rose to $26.9 million from $5.6 million, as the number of subscribers climbed 34 percent during the quarter to 929,648 at… Read more »

Just one week after being congratulated by a judge for staying clean, Scott Weiland has been arrested for driving under the influence of drugs. The former Stone Temple Pilots frontman/current Velvet Revolver singer, who turned 36 on the day of this most recent arrest, was apprehended Monday morning in Los Angeles at 6:37 a.m. An L.A. police spokesperson said that an officer was dispatched at 6:07 a.m. to the corner of Melrose and Genesee, where Weiland’s 2001 BMW allegedly struck a parked van. No injuries were reported. By following the debris and tire marks, a police officer was able to… Read more »

Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weiland, who celebrated his 36th birthday yesterday, and bassist Duff McKagan are slated perform an acoustic version of the Rolling Stones classic “Angie” (alongside some “special surprise guests”) this Thursday, October 30, at the famous Los Angeles photography studio SmashBox. The performance will be part of a fashion show organized by McKagan’s wife, swimwear designer Susan Holmes, as part of this year’s L.A. Fashion Week. Weiland and McKagan are also set to make an autograph-signing appearance at Dragonfest-a massive comics, martial arts, and sci-fi convention-on November 16 at the Glendale Auditorium in Glendale, California. Meanwhile, Scott… Read more »

Sharon Osbourne, wife and manager of metal legend Ozzy Osbourne and host of her own talk show, is auctioning off hand-painted molds of her breasts online, according to the Associated Press. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Boarding For Breast Cancer Foundation, or B4BC, a nonprofit group co-founded by professional snowboarder Tina Basich. Osbourne displayed the molds on Thursday’s (October 23) edition of the Sharon Osbourne Show, prompting her guest, actor Anthony Anderson, to bid $5,000 for them. Osbourne was treated for colon cancer in 2002. The disease is now in remission. Osbourne will host the annual M.A.P.… Read more »

Viacom Inc., the media conglomerate that owns CBS and MTV, reported a 9 percent increase in third-quarter earnings Thursday thanks partly to higher advertising revenues. Viacom earned $700 million in the three months ending in September, up from $640 million in the same period a year ago. Per-share earnings were 40 cents, beating Wall Street’s estimates by two cents, as reported by Thomson First Call. The year-ago earnings were equivalent to 36 cents per share. Revenue rose 5 percent to $6.60 billion from $6.31 billion a year ago, driven by an 8 percent increase in overall advertising revenues, to $2.88… Read more »

Two weeks after her arrest on drug charges, Courtney Love was in Los Angeles Juvenile Court on Thursday in an attempt to regain custody of her 11-year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. The custody battle came in the wake of Love’s October 2 arrest and subsequent charge for being under the influence of a controlled substance. Just hours after her arrest, Love was reportedly transported to a Century City hospital by Beverly Hills emergency services for an undisclosed drug overdose. On October 10, officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) came to place Frances Bean,… Read more »

For years, both onstage and on “The Osbournes,” we’ve witnessed legendary metal singer Ozzy Osbourne shake, stammer, stutter and shuffle around with a walk that grew increasingly hunched over and motor functions that only seemed to be getting worse. Speculation ran rampant. Were these maladies related to years of drug abuse dating back to the Black Sabbath days? Parkinson’s Disease? Muscular Dystrophy? The answer is, in fact, none of the above. Thanks to a Boston neurological specialist, Ozzy now knows the cause of the “shakes” that have plagued him for decades and with the help of a new medication, he’s… Read more »

Marilyn Manson was the target of a protest Thursday (October 16) by dozens of bible-waving evangelical Christians in Monterrey, Mexico, according to Reuters. About 100 people prayed and sang hymns for the soul of the shock rocker, who performs in the northern Mexican city on November 5. Organizer Arsenia Campos, whose daughter was murdered last year by a young man claiming to be involved with a Satanic cult, said, “We are praying for him so that he can know God and become transformed.” Despite the protest, concert promoters said the show would go on. Meanwhile, Manson brought his live show… Read more »