Search Results for: four year strong

Sumner Redstone, the billionaire businessman who grew up in Boston’s former West End and went on to build a career at the forefront of the entertainment industry, delivered a message to a standing-room-only crowd at Boston University yesterday: content is still king, but in the digital age, copyright is what matters. Redstone, 84, the majority owner of National Amusements and the chairman of the boards of Viacom, the CBS Corporation, and the MTVi Group, spoke at the School of Law Auditorium about the challenges of keeping a media company profitable in the digital age and answered questions from Bill Schwartz,… Read more »

Executive said on Monday the music company’s business was poised to rebound as it tapped new revenue streams to counter the decline in sales of traditional CDs. Warner Music, the only publicly listed major music company in the United States, has seen its share price decline as CD sales have fallen. People are increasingly buying music through online downloads rather than physical CDs and records. The company’s third-quarter earnings report, for the three months to June 30, showed a 2 percent revenue decline as growth in digital revenue failed to make up for declining CD sales. To counter this, the… Read more »

The quickest-rising star in Los Angeles morning radio isn’t cute or hip or young or remotely trendy.He’s Don Cheto (aka Mr. Cheto), a 63-year-old hillbilly from the town of La Sauceda in Michoacan, Mexico, who crossed the border more than 30 years ago, speaks accented English, bickers with his daughters over their boyfriends and complains about the loss of morals. And yet Don Cheto has managed to drive listenership of his station, regional Mexican KBUE (La Que Buena), taking it from No. 14 in share for audiences age 12-plus to No. 4 in less than a year, according to Arbitron.… Read more »

With an emphasis on the visual over the audio, MTV from its inception has never been “about the music.” But after seeing interest in its signature trophy show wane in recent years, the network put the spotlight where it belongs for a music awards show: on the concert stage. The result of this brainstorm, and a few other format changes to its Video Music Awards? The most watchable show in many a Moon Man outing. Even if that isn’t saying much. And this despite opening with an onstage career suicide by Britney Spears. More on that later. The 2007 VMAs… Read more »

KT Tunstall’s apparently tireless capacity for work makes even her laugh. “I feel like a camel,” the Scottish singer-songwriter says with a giggle. “Because I had 10 years of nothing, it does give me an enormous capacity for embracing what’s going on and remembering all that time when I was really wishing things would happen.” That’s why, after two straight years of touring and promotion behind her multiplatinum debut, “Eye to the Telescope” — first released in the United Kingdom at the end of 2004, although its U.S. release was not until February 2006 — Tunstall is, eagerly, right back… Read more »

For four years, AFI isn’t the only fire Davey Havok and Jade Puget have had inside – they’ve also been trying to flesh out the debut album by their long-pending side project, Blaqk Audio. Now, finally, the LP is good to go.”It’s very different from AFI,” Havok warned us at last weekend’s Live Earth concert in East Rutherford, New Jersey . The album, CexCells, has been in the works since 2003 – around the time Havok and Puget told Rolling Stone that they were hoping to release the project in early 2004. When AFI broke into the mainstream with 2003’s… Read more »

With his ragged mane and heavily tattooed wiry frame, former Guns N’ Roses bass player Duff McKagan looks every bit the rock star. But the 43-year-old musician doubles as a savvy investor, overseeing a diverse portfolio ranging from property and stocks to vintage guitars. While he draws the line at donning a suit and tie, McKagan also runs the business affairs for his new band, Velvet Revolver, which just released its second album, “Libertad.” “I do everything I can do so this band doesn’t get ripped off,” said McKagan, who subscribes to the online edition of The Wall Street Journal,… Read more »

A British band has funded its first album entirely via a new Web site which allows up-and-coming acts to bypass record labels and gives fans the chance to buy into their success. Gilkicker, a four-man guitar band from the southern English city of Portsmouth, raised the 15,000 pounds ($30,000) they needed to make their debut album within 10 days of new music site www.slicethepie.com going live. “We told a few people on Myspace and told a few friends to look and told them they could invest in us,” said Sam McCarthy, the band’s 25-year-old singer and guitarist. “It was mainly… Read more »

Amid continued controversy over applying the Fairness Doctrine to radio, the controversy over charging webcasters millions in retroactive royalty fees has seemingly come to a conclusion. On Thursday, the House of Representatives failed to come to the rescue of webcasters in a dispute with record companies over new royalty rates the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) put into place. Still, many broadcasters claim they cannot afford the increased fees and might go silent forever. At the hearing, the committee explored ways of revising the regulations that aimed to maintain a wide variety of listening options while also ensuring that artists are… Read more »

“Hands Held High,” one of the most powerful songs on Linkin Park’s new album, includes lyrics about bombs blowing up mosques, a bumbling leader, high gas prices and general world confusion – an obvious missive against President Bush and the war in Iraq. Or maybe not. Tell that interpretation to Mike Shinoda, the rapper/musician who writes most of the lyrics for the blockbuster band, and you’ll get an earful on making assumptions about the group’s most adventurous album to date, “Minutes to Midnight.” “We’re not a political band. And I see some of the stuff that you’re referring to …… Read more »