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Last week’s news that Virgin Megastores in New York’s Union Square and San Francisco were closing was evidently the tip of a very sharp iceberg. Billboard reports today that the multi-media chain’s only three remaining stores in Denver, Orlando and Los Angeles will also be shuttered by this summer. In a move that almost predicated the closures of the Virgin chain, Virgin Entertainment Group North America was acquired by a pair of real estate companies in 2007, Vornado and Related Cos., mostly because those companies were interested in Virgin’s prime locations. The music stores were paying well below-market value per-square-foot… Read more »

A foreclosure auction scheduled this week for Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch was canceled after an investment company bought the loan. Colony Capital LLC spokeswoman Caroline Luz said the loan purchase was recently made by Colony and the auction slated for Wednesday was off, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. In a statement released Sunday by a Jackson spokesman who identified himself as B. Michael, the singer said he was “pleased with recent developments involving Neverland Ranch … that would allow me to focus on the future.” Jackson had gone into default on the $24.5 million he owes on the 2,500-acre… Read more »

In the last month, two very different West Coast live music venues have met two very different fates. In Los Angeles, the resolutely DIY noise and punk outpost the Smell celebrated its 10th anniversary with a series of shows featuring scene stalwarts like No Age and Abe Vigoda. In Seattle, however, music fans mourned the sudden closing of the Crocodile Cafe; the 16-year-old space, which was heralded as the “living room of grunge,” closed unexpectedly December 16. In an age where clubs seem to come and go in the blink of an eye, one that remains open into its teens… Read more »

Britney Spears was derailed yet again in her struggle to get her life back on track, losing custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline. A court commissioner Friday gave sole physical and legal custody of the former couple’s two little boys to Federline and suspended the troubled pop star’s visitation rights. Spears was hauled away from her home to a hospital by paramedics a day before, after police had to intervene when she refused to return the children to Federline after a court-monitored visit. Commissioner Scott Gordon ordered another hearing to be held Jan. 14. Federline had previously… Read more »

Is GirlFrenzy more like a GirlFizzle? The one-off daylong music festival, set to take place in October and feature an all-estrogen lineup of singers, has been indefinitely postponed, without so much as an explanation to fans or performers. “Right Arm Entertainment and Live Nation have postponed the first annual GirlFrenzy,” read an announcement on the concert’s official site. The promoters said the show would be rescheduled sometime for 2008. Among the topliners slated to appear at the show, which was supposed to take place Oct. 27 in Irvine, California, were Sheryl Crow, Avril Lavigne, Fiona Apple, Miranda Lambert, MySpace stalwart… Read more »

The past few years have been bittersweet for music retail in Los Angeles. The opening of Amoeba Records in 2001 gave the city one of the stronger music outlets in America, but was followed soon by the closings of Aron’s Records and Rhino Records. Yet indie music fans not wanting to brave the Hollywood traffic to hit Amoeba had an outpost near downtown in Sea Level Records, run by Todd Clifford, merchandise man for the rock band Silversun Pickups. The store arrived as the city’s Echo Park neighborhood was undergoing a revitalization, and stocked a heavily curated catalog (top sellers… Read more »

In their previous videos, My Chemical Romance have worn boarding school uniforms and natty black suits. But in the upcoming clip for “The Ghost of You,” the Goth punkers are ditching all things refined and donning drab Army fatigues. While details on the video had been pretty scarce, frontman Gerard Way spilled some of the beans last week, and then continued to give up info when MTV News caught up with him at the KROQ Weenie Roast in Los Angeles. “The video is set in World War II, and it’s really about… loss and the fear of losing people, so… Read more »

Janet Jackson may be wishing her bodyguards had exerted just a bit more control last Friday. A New York man hit Jackson with a whopping $120 million lawsuit, alleging her security detail gave him such a beatdown outside a New York nightclub that he suffered “permanent damage” according to the New York Daily News. Bronx resident Leonard Salati claims Jackson’s goons grabbed him, put him in a chokehold and then proceeded to start “dragging him down the steps” of the Marquee club on Feb. 4. All this, he claims, because he tried to pass a note to the “Nasty” singer… Read more »

Los Angeles – Online music seller Napster Inc. reported a narrowed loss for its latest quarter, excluding a gain from the sale of its Roxio consumer software division. The Santa Clara, Calif., company also said current quarter’s revenue will top the average Wall Street prediction. For the third quarter ended Dec. 31, Napster earned $12.8 million, or 36 cents a share, a reversal from a last year’s loss of $25.6 million, or 92 cents a share, in the same period. The latest results included a gain from the sale of the Roxio division, which made CD-burning software, to Sonic Solutions… Read more »

Los Angeles – Warner Music Group reported a narrower loss Monday, crediting a restructuring effort that cut costs. The privately held New York-based firm, home to artists like Madonna and Kid Rock, reported a $136 million net loss for the 10-month period ending Sept. 30, compared to a $239 million loss in the same period last year. The company was reporting on a 10-month period because it has changed its 2004 fiscal year-end from Nov. 30 to Sept. 30. The period covers three months ending Feb. 29, when the recording company was still part of Time Warner, and the following… Read more »