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Welcome to 2002: The Year of the Living Dangerously. For the record labels that is. The major labels took their sweet time and finally rolled out Pressplay and MusicNet, online music subscription services, as 2001 came to an end. The reaction thus far has been, in a word, blah. And the reaction I am talking about is not coming from consumers, it is coming from inside the industry. “The services are useless right now,” one major label executive told me. “Unless we crush file-swapping, we’ll fail online. And if that happens the industry will have to rethink its strategy beginning… Read more »

Pressplay, an online music joint venture between Sony Corp. and Vivendi Universal, yesterday said it will launch to consumers in the United States on Wednesday, December 19. The service, which will offer fans streaming, downloading and CD-burning of music from Sony Music, Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, EMI Group as well as several independents. It will be available to the first several thousand consumers through Microsoft Corp.’s MSN Music, Roxio and Yahoo! and will soon be offered through MP3.com and other affiliates, the companies said. Pressplay said it plans to widen the availability of its service after the New Year.

Performing rights organization BMI on Tuesday plans to announce two licensing deals covering public performances of millions of songs on Microsoft Corp.’s MSN Music and Yahoo Inc.’s music Web sites. BMI, founded in 1940, represents about 350,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers and grants businesses and media access to its repertoire of about 4.5 million musical works. Once payment and performance data is received, fees collected from the public performances on these sites will be distributed as royalties to the songwriters, composers and music publishers of the works BMI represents, the organization said.

Consumer electronics company SONICblue Inc. on Monday unveiled a high-end home entertainment hub that can store an entire music collection and furthers the company’s thrust into the budding market for digital audio and video entertainment. At about $1,500, SONICblue’s Advanced Digital Audio Center can become the centerpiece of a music enthusiast’s wired home. It features a 40-gigabyte hard drive that can record up to 650 hours of music. Through the system, available only via SONICblue’s Web site, music from a CD can be recorded to its hard drive, played back over receivers within the house, downloaded to an MP3 player,… Read more »

The tension is palpable at Universal Studios as USA Networks CEO Barry Diller considers merging his media empire with the studio’s Vivendi Universal parent. “All we know for sure is that Barry Diller is going to be a helluva lot richer a week from now,” said one senior studio executive who was about to attend the Universal Christmas Party. Vivendi Universal, seeking an elusive U.S. distribution outlet for its array of television and film assets, said on Tuesday it was in talks to buy the entertainment assets of USA, which is about 40%-owned by the French company. Whatever Diller does,… Read more »

Whitney, Cher and Faith have done it, so why not Mariah? Pop diva Mariah Carey will join those elite ranks on February 3 when she sings “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Super Bowl XXXVI at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, the NFL announced Tuesday (December 11). This year’s game, to be televised on Fox, is expected to attract 130 million viewers in the United States and 800 million viewers worldwide, according to the NFL. The Super Bowl is traditionally the most viewed annual event on television. U2 will perform during the halftime show. Pregame show performers will be announced next… Read more »

In an effort to create added buzz on their upcoming releases, Loud Records has partnered with Zingy to offer Hip-Hop fans an opportunity to preview new music and customize their cell phone ringtones. First to participate in this new promotion are WU-TANG CLAN and MOBB DEEP. Always eager to find innovative methods to reach consumers and stay connected with the streets, Loud Records CEO Steve Rifkind has entered into a groundbreaking partnership with Zingy, the first comprehensive wireless portal geared toward the unique communication and entertainment needs of teens and young adults. “As technology continues to advance so quickly, there… Read more »

A group of Phish fans has donated over $170,000 to fund music education for children, including eight new grants this week that benefit low-income, minority, and gifted children from California to Connecticut and Kentucky to Kosovo. The funds will bring new instruments, instructors, curricula, and professional development for teachers to a wide range of settings and musical genres. The funds come from sales of the 928-page Phish Companion and the double-CD Phish tribute Sharin’ in the Groove. Each was produced by the Mockingbird Foundation, an entirely unconventional organization that has no salaries, paid staff, or office, and donates all funds… Read more »

Loud Records extends its reach into wireless networks through a groundbreaking new partnership with mobile entertainment portal Zingy (www.zingy.com). Fans of the digitally progressive Wu-Tang Clan and Mobb Deep may now customize their cell phones with free ringtones and logos from their new albums. This marks the first time in the U.S. that music has premiered for mobile phones before an album release. “Technology is advancing so fast in this day and age, there’s no better way to get involved than through the wireless networks. Cell phones are so widely used that ringtones are one of the best ways to… Read more »

With only days to go before the top music companies start selling music online, they appear unwilling, at least initially, to support most of the digital music players currently sold. Analysts have dim expectations for the new ventures because their music will remain largely chained for now to the computer desktop – and only for as long as subscribers pay to “rent” it. “What’s the use if I’m going to have it on my desktop and I can’t take it with me?” says Jackie DeLeon, 26, a student housing coordinator at the University of Illinois-Chicago who uses her portable MP3… Read more »