Way back in 2002, Bertelsmann made a bid to purchase the peer-to-peer site Napster as it was
teetering on bankruptcy. A U.S. court
blocked the sale a few months later, forcing the site to be liquidated, but that didn't stop a flurry of Napster-related legal action against Bertelsmann. Universal Music Group and a few music publishers sued the German conglomerate, but the longest holdout, as far as settling up goes, was EMI, which finally settled with Bertelsmann yesterday—four and a half years after the original Napster was liquidated. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but we're guessing that EMI was probably thrilled that it had at least found
one way to
scrounge up some cash.
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Idolator
Sony has completed its buyout of Bertelsmann's 50% stake in Sony BMG. The second-biggest major label will now be referred to as Sony Music Entertainment Inc., thank you very much. [
The probably delayed launch of MySpace Music has coincided with the social-networking service buying ad space in New York's Times Square and on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard—because when an online service pours a lot of money into ads, it's always a good sign about the viability of its business, right? But what's more notable about the Times Square ad (pic above, via Songs For Soap) isn't the fact that one of the Jonas Brothers looks like he's hoisting an Urban Sombrero above his head. It's what's in the immediate vicinity of the ads, and how they represent big music's accelerated decline in the new millennium.
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