music label

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Punk Label Boots Drug CEO Over Un-Punk Price Gouging

'It blindsided and upset us on every level'

(Newser) - Former hedge-fund manager Martin Shkreli has been booted from the punk label he was bankrolling for doing one of the most un-punk things possible: jacking up the price of the drug that treats the potentially deadly parasitic infection toxoplasmosis by 5,000%, the Guardian reports. Shkreli became infamous this week...

How to Save Record Labels, With Help from X5
 How to Save 
 Record Labels 

How to Save Record Labels

Lessons from a tiny Swedish firm that's raked in $10M

(Newser) - As the music industry navigates a path for the digital era, a tiny Swedish label has proven itself an excellent guide. Though it has just 43 employees, X5 Music Group topped the classical charts last year, its sales on par with Universal, the biggest label there is. Its strategy is...

Clarkson, Beyoncé Songs Nearly Identical

Clarkson explains fiasco, didn't mean to copy Knowles

(Newser) - Kelly Clarkson is battling her record label again, this time for releasing a song that appears to copy the Beyoncé single “Halo,” the New York Post reports. When Clarkson realized that the backing track songwriter Ryan Tedder had given her for “Already Gone” was the same as...

And Now, a Tune From Our Sponsor
And Now,
a Tune From
Our Sponsor

And Now, a Tune From Our Sponsor

MySpace Music enlists advertisers to enable free downloads

(Newser) - The soon-to-launch MySpace Music service will consist mostly of sponsored streaming and downloads, Wired reports. MySpace will likely not start up its own pay-download service, along the lines of iTunes, instead maintaining its partnership with Amazon’s online store. Critics worry MySpace’s rather thin roster of major-label partnerships will...

Runner-Up 'Idol' Snags Music Deal

David Archuleta inks deal with Jive

(Newser) - “American Idol” runner-up David Archuleta has inked a deal with “Idol” creator Simon Fuller’s 19 Recordings/Jive Records, the AP reports. The 17-year-old lost to David Cook, 25, a former Missouri bartender, in an upset in last month's finale. Cook signed with the same label, MTV reports; the...

Man Tries to Cash $360B Check
 Man Tries to Cash $360B Check 

Man Tries to Cash $360B Check

21-year-old says girlfriend's mother gave him the money

(Newser) - A 21-year-old Texas man has been busted for attempting to deposit a $360 billion check, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports, stolen from his girlfriend's mother for, he claimed, the purpose of starting his own record label. Suspicious of the sum, the bank called the check’s owner. Arriving police found...

Spitzer Hooker Pitches Music Labels

No deal yet as Ashley Dupré awaits possible charges from federal investigation

(Newser) - The music manager who orchestrated Mariah Carey's comeback is shopping Eliot Spitzer’s 22-year-old call girl, Ashley Alexandra Dupré, to top music labels, the New York Daily News reports.

Starbucks Quits the Music Biz
 Starbucks Quits the Music Biz 

Starbucks Quits the Music Biz

Coffee giant sheds record label as part of shakeup

(Newser) - Starbucks is handing control of its record label to Concord Music Group barely a year after it got into the music business, Variety reports. The move is part of a shakeup as the coffee chain refocuses on its core business to jolt itself out of a slump. Starbucks' label Hear...

Record Labels Sue Chinese Sites to Block Illegal Music

Industry takes on huge world of downloads

(Newser) - Major record labels are suing two Chinese websites that allegedly allow illegal music downloads in a case that could have a huge impact on the way the Chinese obtain music.  The groundbreaking multi-million dollar case over copyright infringement could pave the way for even larger claims, the Wall Street ...

Perez Hilton, Music Mogul?
Perez Hilton, Music Mogul?

Perez Hilton, Music Mogul?

Celebrity blogger is in a deal with Warner Music to start his own imprint

(Newser) - “Madonna’s leaving, Perez is coming.” Those words are straight from the mouth of the music industry's most unlikely new player, gossip blogger Perez Hilton. He has parlayed posts praising unknown and upcoming acts on his website into a possible deal doing the same for Warner Brothers Records,...

Amazon Will Sell Sony BMG Music Sans Copyright Curbs

Fourth major label to join up

(Newser) - Amazon will sell songs from Sony BMG free of digital rights management, making it the first online music store to offer tunes without copyright enforcement mechanisms from all four of the major labels. Many consumers have long opposed the use of DRM because of its potential to hinder playback on...

Sia's Real Problems Pleases
Sia's Real Problems Pleases
NEW RELEASE

Sia's Real Problems Pleases

First album from songstress in 4 years is a winner

(Newser) - Folk and acid-jazz queen Sia Furler has returned with her first record in four years, and critics are singing the praises of Some People Have Real Problems. The New York Sun’s Bret McCabe pokes fun at Furler for signing with the Starbucks label—provenance of “laid-back background music...

Radiohead Album Offered Free Online Tops Charts

'In Rainbows' still popular even after months of free downloads

(Newser) - Rock band Radiohead's new album "In Rainbows" debuted in the No. 1 spot in record sales on Billboard charts this week despite being available for free on the band's website for months. The down side: only 122,000 copies were sold—good but not great—and the release topped...

Sony BMG Will Bail on DRM
Sony BMG
Will Bail
on DRM

Sony BMG Will Bail on DRM

Label becomes fourth and final industry giant to ditch copy protection

(Newser) - Sony BMG will begin offering at least part of its music catalogue online without restrictive digital rights management mechanisms, Business Week reports. The decision comes after the other three major labels—Warner, EMI, and Universal—decided to ditch DRM in 2007, challenging Apple's 80% share of the legal music downloads...

Digital Music Packaging Getting Jazzed Up in '08

Downloads to start offering more than just music

(Newser) - Part of the reasons CDs are still popular in the age of digital music is the extras, Reuters reports. When you buy a CD, you get extended album art, lyrics, and liner notes. With an album downloaded digitally, it's just song titles and thumbnail art. The industry hopes to change...

Universal, Last of Majors, Signs On to Imeem

Imeem will distribute all four major label's music on social network

(Newser) - Universal Music Group is the last of the major record label groups, and the largest, to sign a deal with social-networking site Imeem. The site allows users to upload songs to their pages, but not download or store them on computers or iPods, reports the Wall Street Journal. Every time...

Radiohead: Pioneers of the New Music Industry

On In Rainbows : a business watershed

(Newser) - Born of a “stoned philosophical conversation about the value of music,” Radiohead’s voluntary-pay download arrangement for its In Rainbows album has, the New York Times argues, made 2007 a watershed for the music industry. This year saw the creation of the music star free agent, as Radiohead...

MySpace Will Transmit Blunt
MySpace Will Transmit Blunt

MySpace Will Transmit Blunt

Revenue-sharing model allows artists to set music prices for direct sale on MySpace

(Newser) - MySpace will host and sell videos of exclusive musical performances on its MySpace Music site, reports the New York Times. Artists will record a series of exclusive videos for the site, and will be able to set their own prices, unlike Apple's iTunes flat-rate prices. The system, called Transmissions, won't...

Radiohead Move Lowers Wall Street Appraisal of Music Majors

Labels fear more artists will adopt direct sales

(Newser) - Analysts downgraded leader Warner Music' stock to a "sell" today, predicting greater losses for the embattled music sector, News.com reports. Major labels remain unable to cope with digital undercutting of the CD format, and now fear a second front: the defection of high profile acts like Radiohead and...

Startup Rips Labels Out of iTunes
Startup
Rips Labels
Out of iTunes

Startup Rips Labels Out of iTunes

Ziggy Marley, Ricky Skaggs among those using it to sell direct

(Newser) - Your band doesn't need a record label to find fame on iTunes, says the founder of the new digital music company TuneCore. All you need are your songs, and its helping hand to get a 10-track album into Apple's online store for the price of a "six-pack and a...

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