Search Results for: Thursday

Technology companies and advocacy groups announced a new lobbying organization Thursday to counter Hollywood in the battle over access to digital music, movies and books. Founding members of the Washington-based Alliance for Digital Progress ? which one Hollywood executive demeaned as “a bit strange” ? include Microsoft Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Motorola Inc. and the Information Technology Association of America. The group wants to fight Hollywood efforts to require anti-copying technology in digital entertainment devices. Technology advocates say embedding such technology in computers and software would crimp product innovation ? and trample consumers’ rights. “Hollywood leaders… would have organized the… Read more »

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 »

U2’s activist frontman Bono will not be traveling to Iraq, despite recent reports that such a trip was in the works. “There is no truth whatsoever to this story,” a spokesman from RMP London, the singer’s publicity firm, said on Thursday (January 9). “Bono continues to campaign for many issues relating to debt, AIDS, and trade in Africa but he has no involvement in this issue and no plan to visit Iraq,” the spokesperson said. In early December of last year, Bono and actress Ashley Judd traveled the American heartland the week of World AIDS Day, seeking to raise awareness… Read more »

With Steve Case set to leave as chairman of AOL Time Warner in May, industry observers said Monday that CEO Richard Parsons was the front-runner to further consolidate his power base and take on the additional chairman title. However, with Case gone as a scapegoat for investor gripes, Parsons must produce proof of a turnaround at the ailing America Online unit or else risk becoming a target for angry investors, they said. “He’s now the man in charge with no one to blame,” said Hal Vogel, head of media investment firm Vogel Capital Management. “He’ll get to take the praise… Read more »

Sony chose Andrew Lack, NBC’s president and chief operating officer, to take the helm of its music division on Friday, a day after Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola resigned to start a new label. The move was surprising, considering Lack has no experience in the music industry; a veteran newsman, he worked at CBS News from 1976 to 1993 before joining NBC News. He was named president of the entire network in May 2001. “We are delighted that Andy will join Sony and lead our music company,” Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony Corp. of America, said in a statement. “He… Read more »

Sony Music chairman and chief executive Tommy Mottola, who was responsible for building the careers of Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and other superstars, announced Thursday he was leaving the company to start his own music label. The departure ends Mottola’s 14-year tenure at Sony, though the new label is being created in partnership with Sony. Mottola joined the company back when it was CBS Records in 1987. Sony is letting him out of his contract two years early. “I have been thinking about taking up this new challenge for about a year, and really made the decision to go forward… Read more »

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform March 7 at Boardwalk Hall, the Convention & Visitors Authority and Clear Channel Entertainment announced this week. “We’re very excited to bring Bruce Springsteen here,” Mark Juliano, the authority’s chairman, told The Press of Atlantic City for Thursday’s editions. “This is the first time he’ll be playing Atlantic City, and it’s very exciting to see New Jersey’s greatest artist come to its most historic venue. Tickets are $75. They’ll go on sale Saturday.

Should old acquaintances be forgot and never brought to mind? Not if you’re the Osbournes. Sharon and Ozzy aren’t about to forgive and forget a woman who allegedly crashed their New Year’s Eve party and walked out with a $15,000 diamond necklace she obtained by winning a raffle illegally. The Osbourne camp issued a statement to the press Friday evening to draw attention to the incident, and to talent agency ICM, where the presumed perpetrator is employed. The party, which doubled as a ceremony to renew their 20-year-old marriage vows, was held at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The necklace was… Read more »

In more bad news for the music industry, album sales declined for the second straight year in 2002, down 10.7 percent from the previous year. Nielsen SoundScan reported this week that 2002 album sales fell from 763 million in 2001 to 681 million. Overall music sales in 2001 had been down 5 percent – the first decline since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991. Hilary Rosen, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, blamed the decline mainly on illegal downloading of music off the Internet. “There’s no question that the availability of free music on the… Read more »

Phish put its long-suffering fans out of their misery in style. Returning from a two-year hiatus, the Vermont jam band with the obsessive fan base played a long, high-energy show at Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve before a raucous crowd, with some fans paying more than $1,000 to get into the sold-out concert. A band known for its New Year’s Eve showmanship didn’t disappoint: Tom Hanks made a surprise stage appearance, and as the clock struck midnight costumed dancers on stilts spread through the audience and fake snow and white balloons tumbled from the rafters. But the crowd… Read more »