Geffen Records and DIC Entertainment Partner to Launch Major New Force in Entertainment – SPG- The Slumber Party Girls
Geffen Records and DIC Entertainment (DIC), have partnered to create an entertainment brand for teens called “Slumber Party Girls”. It was announced today by Andy Heyward, CEO, DIC Entertainment and Ron Fair, Chairman, Geffen Records, & President, A&M/Interscope Records. The cornerstone of the SPG brand is a multi-ethnic entertainment group, featuring five teens who sing, dance and act, and were chosen from more than 1,000 who auditioned. The Slumber Party Girls will serve as the “house band” for the highly-anticipated dance competition series, “Dance Revolution!,” which is inspired by the hit video game franchise from Konami.
“I believe we are creating a model for a unique form of entertainment that raises the bar aesthetically for smart and savvy tweens growing up in the digital age. Its all driven by a collection of hit songs, great choreography and a superbly assembled group of multi-talented girls who can grow to become world-class artists in their own right,” says Ron Fair.
I can’t wait to tune in……….
Â
Kazaa To Pay 100 Million in Settlement
The music industry has reached a legal settlement with its longtime enememy Kazaa, one of the world`s best known file-sharing networks and a longtime source of illicit music and movie downloads, Reuters reported. Under terms of the deal, Kazaa`s owner Sharman Networks will pay the world`s four major music companies — Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music — more than $100 million and commit to immediately going legit, the music industry trade group International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said.
Â
Edgar Bronfman Jr., CEO of Warner Music Group, announced a new “e-label” his company is planning to launch that would sign new and niche artists and release their music only online. Artists who don’t have mass market appeal could release small groups of songs every few months and Warner Music Group will avoid the large cost of producing an album-length CD, he said.
Artists signing with the e-label will retain ownership of recording masters and the copyright to their music. “An artist is not required to have enough material for an album, only just enough to excite our ears,” Bronfman said, during a speech at the Progress and Freedom Foundation’s Aspen Summit. The conservative think-tank focuses on promoting free-market solutions for technology and other industries.
Warner’s e-label is one of the ways the technology and entertainment industries can work together on new business models following several years of disagreements, Bronfman added. He offered this olive branch to the technology industry following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June that P-to-P vendors Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. can be sued by the entertainment industry for encouraging their users to violate copyright law.
Bronfman urged technology companies and the entertainment industry to resurrect a relationship that goes back to the earliest days of recorded music. Recorded music has long shaped itself to the distribution technologies available; for many years, pop songs clocked in around 3 minutes because that’s as much music as a 45 rpm record could hold, he said.
“Technology shapes music,” he added. “Music drives technology adoption.”
Some older news as in 36 hours, but still big news that we all knew was about to happen.
EMI Group ended a third effort to buy Warner Music Group and form the world’s second-biggest music company following a European Union court decision that
damped prospects for regulatory approval. EMI shares fell. EMI has decided not to pursue a combination with Warner Music for the time being, the London-based company said today in a PR Newswire statement. “The board will review this
position in the light of future developments.”
When it rains, it pours. XM reported an even wider loss for the second quarter on Thursday. In the past 3 months (ending June 30), the company reportedly lost $231.7 million, a significant drop compared to this time last year where they lost $148.8 million. Although XM pulled in nearly double the revenue of last year ($227.9 million), they have yet again lowered their estimates for full-year subscriber accounts.
The company blames “current marketplace dynamics” as the culprit, however the charges absorbed for restructuring their massive debt certainly played a part. Last year it was an issue with product availability and soft retail sales. It’s anyone’s guess what the finger will be pointed at next year when the losses are even greater. Hey! Maybe they’ll blame KOAR.
Â
  When we go to the post office to mail a letter, we can choose how we want the post office to rank our mail compared to other mail in the queue. We can buy a first class mail stamp, but if it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, we would turn to Federal Express or its competitors. We would expect to pay a premium in exchange for the carrier ranking our mail above someone who didn’t pay that premium.Â
  For example, when we purchase a book from Amazon.com, we are given several options for how we want our book shipped to us. If Amazon were to offer us the option to buy a book at a few percentage points off of the retail price we might pay if we went to a bookstore without the convenience of near immediate delivery, Amazon would be at a competitive disadvantage to, say, Barnes & Noble, Book People, or your local independent bookseller. If all the books had to be shipped at the lowest rate, e.g., the book rate (remember that?) there probably would be no Amazon.com.
  The Internet, on the other hand, ranks every piece of traffic at the same priority and that priority is the “going� rate, which often is the slowest rate unless you’re on a virtual private network (one of the several examples of violations of “net neutrality� that demand in the marketplace has already created). This is one of the definitions of “net neutrality�, meaning that ISPs treat each piece of traffic in a “neutral� manner, meaning ISPs do not let anyone jump the queue and wouldn’t let you if you wanted to—even if you were willing to pay more for the benefit. CONTINUE READING
Newsletter