Search Results for: amy winehouse

Vivendi Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy has no plans to spin off the music unit Universal and he said on Saturday he believed the gloom surrounding the industry had been over done. Speaking at the annual Midem conference, Levy said the music industry was going through a huge transition at the moment, with new business models for mobile and Internet services appearing all the time. But he predicted there would still be a viable market for physical products like CDs for many years to come and he said the industry’s future lay, as always, in spotting the right creative talent. “I… Read more »

2007 was a year of duality for music. While the industry continued to tank, it was quietly a very good year for rock ‘n’ roll and indie music. The Boss returned with his old band, the Police actually got along and even Led Zeppelin reunited. The most exciting music was busy breaking down barriers. Arcade Fire played in intimate churches; Web site TakeAwayShows.com and the film “Once” returned music to the streets; and a certain British band eliminated a very big middle man. “In Rainbows,” Radiohead: The much-ballyhooed online release of “In Rainbows” in some ways obscured what an excellent… Read more »

The Grinch might be stealing Christmas from music retailers, but thanks to Josh Groban and Oprah, there’s still some singing in Whoville. For the sales week kicked off by Super Tuesday–the release date before Thanksgiving when record labels typically schedule their big guns–the figures were abnormally bad, with only one Top 10 bow and a seven-week-old album topping the charts. Still, that album, Groban’s Noël, can thank last week’s performance on The Oprah Winfrey Show for driving it past Alicia Keys and into the number one spot. Noël crowned the Billboard 200 by selling 405,000 copies for the week ended… Read more »

Amazon today launched a public beta of “Amazon MP3”, a new digital music download store with a huge selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads. Amazon MP3 has over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists represented by over 20,000 major and independent labels. Every song and album on Amazon MP3 is available exclusively in the MP3 format without DRM software. This means that Amazon MP3 customers are free to enjoy their music downloads using any hardware device, including PCs, Macs, iPods, Zunes, Zens, iPhones, RAZRs and BlackBerrys; organize their music using any music management application such… Read more »

It has finally come to this: labels are simply giving their music away. A new Web site named SpiralFrog.com allows visitors – with label approval – to download music free of charge. It launched Monday in the U.S. and Canada after a beta-testing period. The fine site features more than 800,000 tracks and 3,500 music videos, and promises hundreds of thousands more soon. It makes money through advertising, rather than by the 99-cent downloads popularized by Apple’s iTunes. The service, founded by Joe Mohen, pays record companies part of its advertising revenue. Thus far, Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, the… Read more »

Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music label, on Thursday said it will test the sale of songs from artists such as Amy Winehouse, 50 Cent and the Black Eyed Peas, without customary copy-protection technology. The company said in a statement it will allow the sale of thousands of its albums and tracks available in MP3-form without copy-protection software, known as digital rights management, over a trial period. Universal’s test-run marks a departure from the music industry’s common practice, with most major recording studios insisting that music sellers use DRM technology to curb online piracy. “The experiment will run… Read more »

Justin Timberlake and Beyonce lead the pop parade of nominees for the MTV Video Music Awards with seven nods apiece, it was announced Tuesday. Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” was nominated for video of the year, as was Timberlake’s ambitiously cinematic “What Goes Around … Comes Around,” which co-starred Scarlett Johansson. Also competing in the category are Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” Kanye West’s “Stronger,” Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (featuring Jay-Z) and Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” Timberlake was also nominated for male artist of the year and “most earth shattering collaboration” for pairing with Timbaland for “Sexy Back.” Beyonce was nominated for female artist of the year and for… Read more »

Bon Jovi topped the U.S. album charts for the first time since 1988 on Wednesday, while rock duo the White Stripes scored a personal best with a No. 2 debut for their latest release. Bon Jovi’s “Lost Highway” sold 292,000 copies in the week ended June 24, the rock troupe’s biggest one-week sum since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. The Island/Mercury Nashville set is Bon Jovi’s third No. 1 album, joining 1988’s “New Jersey” and 1987’s “Slippery When Wet.” Sales were fueled in part by the group’s new country fanbase, wrangled in with the Grammy-winning 2006 hit… Read more »

McFly’s latest double a-side “Baby Come Back/Transylvania” has put an end to Beyonce and Shakira’s three-week run at the top of the Official UK Top 40, while landing the young pop-rock act their seventh No. 1 single. The track debuts ahead of “Beautiful Liar” which drops to two, while Akon’s “Don’t Matter” jumps up eight spots to three. Gym Class Heroes’ “Cupid’s Chokehold” is at four while Scootch’s Eurovision flop “Flying The Flag” charts at five. The pop trio were ranked 22nd out of 24 at Saturday’s event in Finland. In the rest of this week’s top ten, Linkin Park… Read more »

There’s another eclectic bill, courtesy of Perry Farrell, for this year’s Lollapalooza Festival, set this year for August 3-5 in Chicago’s Grant Park. Although only re-establishing itself in recent years, the rock festival has planted itself as a big date on the U.S. festival calendar, re-jigging itself last year with a bigger capacity and more stages. Top of the bill this year are Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Kanye West and Pearl Jam, it was confirmed yesterday, along with Modest Mouse, CSS, Kings Of Leon, TV On The Radio, MIA, LCD Soundsystem, The View, Hot Chip, Amy Winehouse, LCD Soundsystem,… Read more »