music labels

reuters

Google Inc is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are as it steps up its rivalry with Apple Inc , according to people familiar with the matter. Google’s Andy Rubin, the brains behind [...]

bloomberg

Vivendi SA’s music labels and Time Warner Inc. are seeking arbitration in a copyright case in which the labels charged that “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” played its recordings without a license. Lawyers for the two sides said they’d entered into an arbitration agreement and asked U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson to halt the case and [...]

nytimes

IN a midsummer night a few dozen people, many in glasses and with messenger bags, gathered at Zebulon, a bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to watch a new low-budget movie called “The Builder.” The story of a contemplative Irish immigrant, it moved slowly, driven by atmosphere rather than dialogue, but the audience watched patiently at small [...]

nypost

Amid a slowdown in the concert business, AEG Live, the second-largest live entertainment company in the world, is talking to the major music companies about taking a minority stake in the business, The Post has learned.The Los Angeles-based company, a unit of AEG, an owner of sports teams and concert and sport venues, has been [...]

arstechnica

The big music labels and movie studios have stepped back from the lawsuit business. The MPAA’s abortive campaign against individual file-swappers ended years ago, while the RIAA’s more widely publicized (and criticized) years-long campaign against P2P swappers ended over a year ago.
So why have P2P lawsuits against individuals spiked dramatically in 2010? It’s all thanks [...]

press release

Music Intelligence Solutions, Inc.’s uPlaya service, a leader in the field of digital music and media discovery, was recently named one of the Top 10 Innovative Technology Companies in Georgia by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), the state’s leading technology organization. The uPlaya service, powered by Music Intelligence Solutions, Inc., was selected for [...]

ca.reuters

In a grainy black and white Web video, similar to footage from an in-store security camera, you can make out the muscular frame of rapper 50 Cent, smashing dozens of TV sets with a baseball bat.
None too subtle in its message, the clip is part of a advertising blitz by Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and [...]

techcrunch

2008 was the year of free streaming music. When MySpace Music entered the fray a little over a year ago, it seemed like the music labels had finally relented, and were willing to experiment with free streaming music to users. The future looked bright.
2009 is the year of reckoning. The European launch of Spotify, which [...]

spinner

When alternative music gained momentum in the early ’90s, many artists migrated from major labels to smaller, boutique ones. Very often, the smaller label or imprint would actually be distributed — and sometimes even owned — by a major. Nonetheless, the movement towards “independent” labels eventually spawned the term “indie rock” and, from that, the [...]

BRAD STONE
nytimes

With CD sales dropping fast, it is not hard to imagine how the major music labels could benefit from the growth of Web start-ups like Imeem. The company’s service lets people listen to songs, discover new artists and share their favorites with friends. And in return, Imeem owes the labels licensing fees for use [...]

Greg Sandoval
news.cnet

There’s hardly a corner of the entertainment business John Doe hasn’t explored.
He’s not one of the people who waxes on about rights and wrongs in the music and film industries without any hands-on knowledge. The band Doe formed, X, was part of the first wave of punk rock bands that stormed Los Angeles in [...]

Erick Schonfeld
TechCrunch

The concept of building a Digg for music has been tried before (see Contrastream or iJigg), but a music streaming site called thesixtyone is the closest I’ve seen so far to getting the formula right. It features only about 50,000 tracks self-uploaded by indie artists and music labels, but visitors can listen to the [...]

Julia Boorstin
cnbc

There’s no question that the music labels missed out on the digital music revolution and the real money is in concerts (see my prior blog).
So where does that leave the music labels?
CD sales continue to decline and thanks to losses to piracy, digital revenues won’t fully replace their old packaged music business. It’s time [...]

Late last year the almost impenetrable iron curtain guarding the upper echelons of Japan’s shady pop industry was momentarily broached, when the super-rich and super-smug (”I’ve got so much money I can’t keep track of it”) producer Tetsuya Komuro was arrested on suspicion of defrauding an investor of ¥500m. In the months since, he’s largely [...]

A federal judge has strongly dismissed claims that major labels conspired on digital music pricing levels, according to court documents obtained by Digital Music News. The decision was issued by US District Judge Loretta A. Preska for the Southern District of New York in October, and recently unsealed….
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