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Posts Tagged “Sony BMG”

smile

Next Big UK Pop Star Wishes You Would Floss More Often

While the record industry may be relying heavily on adolescent talent in its time of crisis, hope remains for pop music fans of a certain age and rarefied taste who love Josh Groban, but wish he could perform an emergency root canal in a pinch. SonyBMG has signed a 35-year-old singing dentist from north London to a million-pound record deal, a prize he earned after sending them "an operatic version of the Prince anthem 'Purple Rain.' " More »

11:45 AM on Thu Jul 3 2008
By Kate Richardson
121 views, 3 comments

Latest by Kate Richardson: @GhostOfDuane: Sorry, I'm not as well-versed in David Bowie as I really should be. more »

W Hotels, the cutting-edge-in-1998 Starwood chain that I commonly think of as "the Cheesecake Factory of overnight options," has launched a concert series in conjunction with Sony BMG. Those who took the plunge of charging $429 to their MasterCard—the card company is an official sponsor as well—for a reservation on Tuesday night at the hotel chain's Westwood oupost received, in addition to their "Fabulous Suite," two free drinks, two tickets to an on-site concert by Paddy Casey (who, the hotel notes, is "backed by U2's management team"), and a 3 p.m. checkout. No word on how many people actually turned out, but it sounds to me like W is trying to recreate Social@Ross, except at a fraction of the cost and with much less starpower! And I bet the drinks were well drinks, too. [W Hotels via Songs For Soap]

1 comment

Bertelsmann is getting out of the music business earlier than originally planned: It's currently making the initial moves toward selling its 50% stake in Sony BMG back to Sony, according to a report in the Financial Times. Does this mean that their building in Times Square will finally take down the billboard advertising Christina Aguilera's Stripped? [Variety]

1 comment

hand over the rights to the blonde vinyl catalog and no one gets hurt

Is "Out Of Print" Nearly A Thing Of The Past? Probably Not.

Self-publishing outfits have been around for awhile now, giving deluded artists the opportunity to flood the marketplace with the products of their genius one on-demand copy at a time. However, Amazon is using the print-on-demand CD publishing service CreateSpace to get music back in print that you probably didn't realize you wanted in the first place—unless you're looking for six specific titles. More »

11:30 AM on Tue May 6 2008
By Dan Gibson
620 views, 11 comments

somewhere, kelly clarkson is smiling

Clive Davis Will Have His Revenge Yet Again!

The news that Clive Davis is being reassigned to a different, less important post at Sony BMG was a little surprising; after all, his latest prize signing, Leona Lewis, debuted at No. 1 on this week's album charts, despite her Muzak presence ruining my trip to a bookstore recently. His loss of power is another sign that the era of the mega-act is being read its corporate last rites. More »

12:00 PM on Fri Apr 18 2008
By Dan Gibson
948 views, 4 comments

slap fights

Perez Hilton To Sony BMG: "Oh, You Bitch!"

It's on now, Sony BMG! Perez Hilton is planning to boycott all Sony BMG artists in response to the lawsuit they've filed against the professional canker sore. Perez is unable to understand why Sony BMG is angry that he streamed Britney Spears songs on his site, as the attention he's given her obviously has helped the sales of Blackout, which has currently sold a quarter of what 2003's In The Zaa-own pulled. As much as it will pain him not to scribble on the faces of artists such as Britney, R. Kelly, Leona Lewis, and Kenny G, he swears their faces will grace his blog no more. Gasp! More »

3:45 PM on Wed Apr 2 2008
By Anthony Miccio
1,346 views, 6 comments

Latest by n/a: Who is Perez Hilton? more »

ironies

Anti-Piracy Malware Enthusiasts Sony BMG Sued For Piracy

The same company that tried to force rootkits on the computers of folks who actually went to the trouble of buying their CDs has been sued for stealing software. An IT guy at Sony contacted the French company PointDev for tech assistance, only to give a pirated license code for their Ideal Migration program. After a raid on the company's IT infrastructure, some now believe that almost half of the software on Sony BMG's computers might be pirated. More »

11:30 AM on Tue Apr 1 2008
By Anthony Miccio
332 views, 1 comment

Latest by Hiphopopotamus: Half a million? Dream bigger PointDev... a 3 minute MP3 is half a million, software is 5 million, minimum. more »

MySpace's digital-music joint venture is reportedly bringing Sony BMG and Warner Music Group aboard this week; the service, which will allegedly launch later this year, is expected to incorporate both paid downloads and ad-supported streaming. Or, as a nameless source breathlessly says, it'll "bring in all forms of [making money from digital music] and much more tightly integrate them." It should probably think about somehow integrating the hackers who will be gunning for a way to make the "paid" part of the service free as soon as it launches if it wants to really be all-encompassing. [NYP]

2 comments

joint ventures

Sony BMG's Future May Be As Uncertain As Music Business' Future

Even though a Sony BMG representative hinted that the company may reissue its back catalog on vinyl over the weekend, the fate of the company itself seems unclear. Billboard reports that Bertlesmann CFO Thomas Rabe and CEO Hartmuth Ostrowski were heard murmuring about whether or not they'd continue in their joint venture with Sony once the deal is up next year: More »

2:45 PM on Tue Mar 18 2008
By Maria T Sciarrino
396 views, Comment

in the groove

Don't Call It A Comeback: Letting More Vinyl Rumors Flow

The "Vinyl Revival" panel at SXSW was pretty good, and not just because it offered the perk of free coffee. The discussion went through the typical pattern of production processes, distribution and whatnot, but when the Q&A started, things really sprang to life—especially when one member of the audience, a representative from Sony BMG, mentioned that his parent company is working on releasing its entire back catalog on vinyl. I can't imagine this starting up anytime soon, but it sure sounds like a long-overdue idea.

11:00 AM on Tue Mar 18 2008
By Maria T Sciarrino
665 views, 18 comments

Latest by n/a: i'm still an avid vinyl collector and listener but with the rise of bit torrents and serato the art form is dying if not on its last limbs.i salute Sony BMG but not sure if there going to back it more »

Sony BMG is making its DRM-free catalog available at Amazon's MP3 store, thus making the online shop the only place where consumers can legally buy unprotected digital music from all four major labels. [Variety]

2 comments

whaddaya say to taking chances

Sony Hoping That Convenient Card Format Will Inspire People To Start Giving Music As Gifts Again

Sony BMG has announced more plans for its Platinum MusicPass, the album-in-a-gift-card scheme that will allow people who pony up $12.98 to download MP3s* of the album touted on the card. In his analysis of the product, Glenn at Coolfer posits that Sony BMG is pitching the Platinum Music Pass as a gift idea; presumably it'll be stocked with gift cards from companies like American Express and iTunes in the checkout aisles of retailers like Best Buy and Winn-Dixie. (And I do have to say that shrinking albums down to card size is an excellent way to respond to retailers' slashing of floor space for music.) But let's be honest: would you get your friend a Jennifer Lopez album on a plastic card as a way to say "happy birthday" or even "you might want to cut down on the blush"? Our poll on your preferred format for gifting music is after the jump. More »

2:30 PM on Mon Jan 7 2008
By mjohnston
833 views, 19 comments

Latest by CarsmileSteve: hmmm, [www.suck.uk.com] these, if they weren't TWENTY QUID each more »

nobody rides for mp3

Sony BMG Can't Let Go Of Putting Out Physical Product

Sony BMG is leaving DRM behind and entering the MP3 market ... with albums that you can buy in stores. But in a move designed to counteract the ever-shrinking amount of floor space devoted to music, those albums won't be on CD or DVD-Audio or DualDisc some other sort of disc. No, they'll be on cards—you know, the sort of dinky plastic gift cards that you now see offering things like iTunes credits and American Express-mediated money at the checkout counters of your big-box retailers in these high fructose corn syrup-averse times! And they'll also be more expensive than $9.99, natch. What, you thought you were going to get off easy on this? More »

8:51 AM on Fri Dec 21 2007
By mjohnston
361 views, 8 comments

Latest by Jasonbob7: I think the idea is pretty good. While I agree that it's way more convenient to find and download songs on your computer, there's a lot to be said for the "impulse buy" aspect of music purchasing. That's more »

More layoffs at Columbia: Staffers in the marketing, publicity, and promotions departments were let go on Tuesday, although so far the online department seems to have escaped unscathed. [Billboard]

1 comment

rumors

Is Sony BMG Slashing Its Executive Ranks?

That's what Silicon Alley Insider is claiming; according to its report, "40 to 70 mid-level execs" will be purged from the company's ranks during the holiday season, thanks to dismal revenues this year. Perhaps this means that the label is planning to actually let people know that it's putting out new albums next year, as the SAI noted that "the company was able to eke out an $8 million profit before taxes, but that was largely because it wasn't spending money promoting many new releases." We're sure Kelly Rowland is shocked by that little tidbit!

Exec Layoffs Coming At Sony-BMG [Silicon Alley Insider]

2:55 PM on Fri Nov 30 2007
By mjohnston
570 views, 1 comment

Latest by loudersoft: What it doesn't say: all of these executives will be replaced by Rufus from Pancake Mountain, The Cat In The Hat, the staff of Wonder Showzen and The Little Engine That Could. more »

MySpace and Sony BMG have entered into a revenue-sharing agreement where the money made off ads on artists' pages will be split between the two companies, a groundbreaking arrangement that will no doubt result in MySpace artist pages being even more laden with buggy Flash video that crashes Firefox over and over and over again even though all you're trying to do is look up a freaking tour date. I mean, um, in the short term it should at least squeeze at least a few more dollars into the music industry's pockets, provided that the bottom doesn't fall out of the Internet ad game. [Reuters]

Comment

"EU competition regulators gave Wednesday a new green light to a recorded music joint venture between Sony Music and Germany's BMG, after a court ordered a reassessment of the merger. The European Commission decided that the creation of Sony BMG 'would not create or strengthen a dominant or collectively dominant position in the music markets.'" [AFP]

Comment

youtube

Beyonce's Spill Results In Sony Playing Whack-A-Mole With Video Sites

Tuesday night's Beyonce concert, where the singer took a tumble down some steps before performing "Ring The Alarm," had a curious coda: A plea to not post clips of Beyonce's fall on the video-sharing site YouTube. Of course, some people didn't heed that call, and grainy clips of the incident popped up faster than you can say "You must not know 'bout me." More »

8:45 AM on Thu Jul 26 2007
By mjohnston
5,287 views, Comment