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Music video pioneer MTV Networks, owner of the popular cable TV stations MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon, said Monday it would cut between 8 percent and 9 percent of its work force. Jeanine Smartt, a spokeswoman for MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc., said she did not know the exact number of jobs that would be eliminated under the plan. According to an internal memo obtained by Reuters, the cuts entail absorbing MTV Networks’ online operations into its core business and moving out of separate downtown Manhattan offices. MTV Networks also will consolidate “Nick at Nite” and “TV Land” organizations,… Read more »

Jermaine Dupri says fame has not gone to his protégé Lil’ Bow Wow’s head. On the contrary, in a couple of weeks the rhyming teen titan will be letting everyone know just how grateful he is for his success when he releases “Thank You,” the first single off his Doggy Bag album. “It’s a song directed to the fans,” Dupri said Wednesday from his Atlanta studio. “The song is thanking everybody, not just the fans. [He’s thanking the] mom-and-pop retail stores, just everybody who had a hand in helping Bow sell 3 million records.” The producer said he’s been working… Read more »

R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck has been ordered to stand trial Nov. 12 accused in an alleged air rage incident. Buck, 44, is charged with being drunk on an aircraft, criminal damage, using threatening words and assaulting two crew members on a British Airways flight. “The incidents were alleged to have taken place on a BA flight from Seattle to Heathrow on April 21, 2001,” the Lord Chancellor’s Department said in a statement on Friday. Buck has denied the charges. His trial will be heard by judge John Crocker at Isleworth Crown Court in west London and is expected to last… Read more »

MusicNet, the subscription-based music distribution company backed by RealNetworks and a handful of major record companies, said today that it has named former MTV executive Alan McGlade as its chief executive officer (CEO). McGlade, most recently president and CEO of MTV’s The Box Music Network, takes over from RealNetworks Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser, who is chairman of MusicNet and had been interim CEO since it lured AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG and the EMI Group to the venture. MusicNet, which has since brought on board independent label Zomba Recording Corp. as a fifth partner, is facing a probe by… Read more »

Madonna’s acclaimed DROWNED WORLD TOUR 2001 which played to sold out audiences around the world this past summer will arrive in stores on video and DVD November l3th. A tour-de-force concert extravaganza, DROWNED WORLD TOUR 2001 was originally broadcast live on HBO from the diva’s hometown of Detroit, Michigan at The Palace of Auburn Hills on August 26th, 2001. DROWNED WORLD TOUR 2001 is a dazzling all-out revue which focuses on a mix of material primarily from Madonna’s two most recent releases as well as show stopping versions of her signature songs HOLIDAY and LA ISLA BONITA. The San Francisco… Read more »

The Backstreet Boys release their first-ever greatest-hits package, titled The Hits: Chapter One, on Tuesday (October 30). The 13-song collection includes the group’s new single “Drowning” and also comprises songs from the group’s 1996 album Backstreet Boys, 1999’s Millennium, and last year’s Black & Blue. In conjunction with the album release, the group will also release a VHS/DVD video titled The Video Hits: Chapter One on November 6. Singer Brian Littrell revealed that the Backstreet Boys had little trouble when it came time to select their favorite songs. “You know, we always agree on what the best song is for… Read more »

Cue ear-splitting shrieks from millions of preteen girls. For Lance Bass, as most adults don’t know, is one-fifth of ‘N Sync, the mega-selling boy-band that has helped keep the music industry afloat in recent years. It’s hard to imagine ‘N Sync winning a Grammy Award for its lightweight pop. So – strange but true – Bass is setting his sights on winning a coveted Academy Award from stuffy Hollywood for his role as a moonlighting movie producer. The 22-year-old Mississippi native set up a movie production company earlier this year, naming it A Happy Place, and is holding meetings like… Read more »

In a move seen as almost inevitable by many in the music business, Nancy Berry has resigned as vice chairman of Virgin Records Group. The move comes just days after her estranged husband Ken Berry was replaced at the helm of Virgin parent EMI Recorded Music by ex-Polygram chief Alain Levy. Nancy Berry’s departure marks Levy’s first visible action to reshape EMI’s embattled U.S. label divisions, which have given up substantial market share over the past few years; EMI is currently in last place among the big five record congloms. Nancy Berry, who has been with Virgin’s U.S. operations for… Read more »

Next week Backstreet Boys will release their first greatest-hits package, The Hits: Chapter One, which includes 14 songs from their three studio albums as well as the new single “Drowning,” which features Kevin Richardson on piano. On November 6 they’ll follow with the VHS and DVD release “The Video Hits: Chapter One.” While the obligatory “best-of” release, is often a signal of creative drought, that’s not the case for Backstreet Boys. The group worked on a batch of new songs on its last tour, which ended October 19 in Las Vegas. “We had a writing studio and we got five… Read more »

More than 25 artists – from boys (of the Backstreet, ‘NSYNC and O-Town variety) to men (elder statesmen such as Aerosmith, James Brown and Rod Stewart), from vocal queens (Destiny’s Child, Mariah Carey, Carole King) to the King of Pop – took the stage Sunday at RFK Stadium for the all-day United We Stand – What More Can I Give benefit concert for victims of September’s terrorist attacks. Themes of unity and perseverance permeated every performance, with artists often thanking the sold-out crowd for the message they were sending to the rest of the country – that no matter the… Read more »