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Britney Spears, a former Mousketeer, is at the center of an aggressive drive into the movie business by a handful of young pop stars molded by the music industry and MTV. Not since the 1960s, when singers like Elvis Presley, Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Johnny Cash crooned their way onto movie screens, have studios produced as many star vehicles to showcase the hip-shimmying musical talents of the day’s teen idols. Their holy grail is “The Bodyguard,” starring Whitney Houston, which grossed $122 million and relaunched a pop song that became a perennial hit. The soundtrack is one of the best… Read more »

The world’s big record labels are finally rolling out online subscription services smack in the middle of the holiday season that caps the music industry’s worst year in at least a decade. In coming weeks, music fans – who have for years been pulling everything from Radiohead to Madonna off the Web for free from services like Napster – will be introduced to a new breed of money-for-music services like PressPlay and MusicNet, which have been developed by the major record companies. Several smaller independent firms like FullAudio and Listen.com will soon be launching subscription services too. Industry officials and… Read more »

EMI’s glittering roster of recording artists, from Mariah Carey to the Rolling Stones, failed to save the music giant from a dismal year, but investors are pinning hopes on new recruit Alain Levy to bring sparkle back to the balance sheet. In an industry facing its worst ever year, EMI is reeling from two failed mergers and a lack of big hits. Jaded investors are eager to hear Levy’s plans as the new head of recorded music when the group reports an expected sharp fall in first half profits Monday. EMI warned in September that full-year profits would slide 20… Read more »

The back-to-back debut of new video game consoles from Microsoft and Nintendo is expected to fuel strong sales of home entertainment goods as jittery Americans opt to spend more time at home after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, analysts said. They said the launch of Microsoft Corp’s Xbox on Thursday and that of Nintendo Co. Ltd’s GameCube – three days later – could even help lift third and fourth-quarter profits for some of the nation’s top consumer electronics stores. The big boost, the analysts said, will also come on a jump in customer traffic to stores… Read more »

Top showbiz execs pledged Sunday to step up their contribution to the war effort after a meeting with White House senior advisor Karl Rove. Details of Hollywood’s multifront initiative will be forged over the next few weeks, but industry moguls made clear their desire to pitch in. The campaign will include helping the Bush Administration spread its message regarding the war on terrorism both at home and abroad, support for U.S. troops and buttressing resolve among the American public. “All of us in the industry have an incredible urge to do something,” said Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing. One concrete… Read more »

Dido Armstrong had worked in a lot of different low-paying clerical jobs while struggling to make ends meet, but said Thursday nothing beats her current line of work: being a pop star. The British singer known around the world as “Dido” said that because she made such a belated breakthrough into the industry that is infamous for devouring young talent before their prime, she isn’t going to let her career be squandered. “I just know this is the best job I’ve ever had because I have had so many other jobs,” said Dido, 29, one of Britain’s biggest-selling female recording… Read more »

Teen pop queen Britney Spears has again delayed the start of her U.S. concert tour, postponing the launch date this time by one day, to Nov. 1, due to unspecified production delays, her record label said Monday. Instead of a Halloween opening on Wednesday at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., Spears will debut her tour on Thursday at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, Jive Records said in a statement. The Washington show has been rescheduled for Dec. 21, now the last date of the tour. A Dec. 4 New York City stop at Madison Square Garden also has… Read more »

The Yankee Group today released a new study that examines the viability of webcasting, even as online-only broadcasters such as Live365, RadioWave, ClickRadio, and NetRadio suffer losses, announce layoffs, and face the specter of shuttering operations altogether. Ryan Jones, the analyst who authored the report, said in the executive summary, “The challenges facing Internet-only webcasters are significant enough to keep broadcasters in the lead for the foreseeable future. But a growing listener base, falling streaming costs and an increasingly cooperative advertising community are all aligning to mark webcasting as a soon-to-be profitable complement to broadcast radio.” The report indicates that… Read more »

Rounding out its programming lineup as it launches the nation’s first digital satellite radio service, XM Satellite Radio’s “NASCAR Rig” will tour the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit throughout the Southern United States this fall. XM launched its service Sept. 25 in its two lead markets and expanded throughout the entire Southwest and Southeast in mid-October. XM will complete its national rollout in November. “XM is proud to offer NASCAR fans the world’s first 24-hour radio channel devoted to America’s most popular spectator sport,” said XM President and CEO Hugh Panero. “Our XM rig will help spread the word as we… Read more »

By popular demand, ‘N Sync, P.O.D., Sugar Ray, Christina Aguilera, Blink-182 and Willa Ford lead the lineup for MTV TRL Christmas, a super-pop holiday songbook. Ford’s new “Santa Baby (Gimme Gimme Gimme)” will be the first single/video from the album, scheduled for an October 30th release. LFO, Bif Naked, Angela Via and Saturday Night Live’s Jimmy Fallon also recorded new tracks – or at least new versions of classic Christmas tunes – for the collection. Meanwhile, TRL standbys like TLC, Smash Mouth, ‘N Sync, Blink-182 and Aguilera, contributed previously released, though often hard-to-find, tracks. The Complete Track Listing For MTV… Read more »