The Justice Department approved Sirius Satellite Radio’s $5 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio on Monday, saying the deal was unlikely to hurt competition or consumers.
The deal was approved despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry.
Sources say the merger will save hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs—savings that will ultimately benefit their customers.
XM Satellite shares rose $1.97, or 16.5 percent, to $13.90 in afternoon trading after the government’s announcement while Sirius shares rose 28 cents, or almost 10 percent, to $3.18.
 
Game On! Warner Music has re-signed Lyor Cohen for a five-year contract, and upped the executive to chairman and CEO of recorded music for North America from chairman and CEO of U.S. recorded music according to Billboard. Cohen will get a raise to $3 million from the previous $1.5 million annual salary level. In addition, his bonus is to range from a minimum of $1.5 million to $5 million. The contract also awards Cohen 1,500,000 stock options and 1,750,000 performance-based restricted shares of WMG‘s common stock.
Black Velvet: Great bands always seem to have short shelf life. Apparently Velvet Revolver broke up. Scott Weiland stunned fans at last night’s (Thursday, March 20) VR concert in Glasgow, Scotland, UK by dropping a huge hint the band’s time may be up. He told the sell- out crowd: “You’re watching something special… the last tour by Velvet Revolver.
Dolly Parton Invests in Herself: She has self-released the disc on her own label, Dolly Records, and hired a seven-member promotions team. The album reached No. 2 on Billboard in its second week.
Signings: Philadelphia rock act The Scenic have signed to Victory Records. The band has shared the stage with Saves The Day, All Time Low, Dashboard Confessional, Men Women & Children, and Houston Calls.
New Music: Cash Cash formerly The Consequence has posted new music on their myspace. The band will be releasing their debut in late summer through Universal Republic .
Name That Tune: Check out the article in the Washington Post titled ‘Who Will Emerge as The Future of Radio? The reality looks a lot more like hit radio. The top artists on Last.fm the other week were Radiohead, the Beatles and Red Hot Chili Peppers — not exactly acts unknown to FM radio. Del Colliano believes only Apple could produce the next radio — something providing the serendipity of radio delivered through an infrastructure that already enjoys mass acceptance.
Playlists Are the New Albums? The Washington post posted a column how consumers love to customize and express themselves through playlists. Also, Imeem founder Dalton Caldwell said the music industry has been slow to change. I don’t think these people know how fast technology moves.
For the Love of Money – Now Pierced with Sorrows: Plagued by decades of bad fiscal decisions, the Jackson family is broke. They have fallen far from their days as sequin-studded stage stars who could rake in seven-figure paydays for a single performance says the New York Post.
Recommended Listening: Alternative act There For Tomorrow recorded there debut EP with producer James Paul Wisner (Underoath, Dashboard Confessional) and released the record in 2007. The band has shared the stage with AFI, Taking Back Sunday, Angels and Airwaves, and Buckcherry. Listen to the track Pages.
How Realistic is Total Music? Even though Apple and major record labels are talking concerning the idea of bringing the “Total Music” concept to iPod devices, the deal is still not imminent. The Total Music concept involves labels providing music for a specific device, like the iPod, in return for a cut of the device. The labels want a piece of the hardware business which isn’t a bad idea. Regardless, there are several obstacles of Total Music becoming reality which can be read here.
Who Thought of the idea of Pre-loading the iPod with Songs? Universal CEO Doug Morris according to Cnet. Morris has approached Apple with an idea to offer a device that comes preprogrammed with Universal Music’s entire library on it. The FT reported that Morris wants $80 for any Apple device bundling Universal Music songs,while Apple has offered $20.
New Music: Check out music from Columbus band House Of Heroes. Our favorite track is Leave You Know.
Any Takers? Jay-Z wants his own label, but can’t find a home for it. According to an insider, “He wants a label to give him $100 million for the Carter Music Group and provide for overhead, development and digital investment. It’s crazy. He wants the labels to basically be his venture capital fund – but unlike a venture cap, they won’t get 50 percent. This is not the ’90s anymore.”
Sales for Nine Inch Nails: Here is another column that appeared in the New York Times that talks about NIN’s impressive sales figures for an instrumental album. First-week sales generated more than $1.6 million. That sum is the result of more than 781,000 “transactions,†including free and paid downloads, as well as online orders of the CD.
Top Current Albums:
Jack Johnson – Sleep Through The Static – (TW)55,280 – (Total)871,488.
**Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin just said yesterday that people just don’t buy records anymore. That may be true for their audience and demographic, but certainly not true for Johnson. Johnson just sold close to 1 million records in 6 weeks without any big media hype.
Daughtry – Daughtry – (TW)21,092 – (Total)4,000,000
**Daughtry has been charting for 70 weeks and isn’t going anywhere. Daughtry’s debut could easily pass 6,000,000 when all is said done and of course, it’s another victory for American Idol.
Alicia Keys – As I Am – (TW)32,000 – (Total)3,300,000
**Multi-talented Alicia Keys has already sold over 41 million albums and singles worldwide as of 2007, a bucketload of records for a young artist.
Taylor Swift – (TW)33,000 – (Total)2,700,00
**Highly motivated Swift began to regularly visit Nashville, where, at age 14, she wrote songs with local songwriters. Her hard work ultimately landed her on the Top Country Albums charts.
Idol Streamrolls Over the Stars: “American Idol” led FOX to another ratings win Tuesday, trouncing ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” in the hour they aired opposite one another.
Signings: UK singer Adele has signed with Columbia Records. She has been hailed by the British press as the new Amy Winehouse” – I don’t think she is. Listen to the track Hometown Glory.
Smashing Pumpkins May Release Songs, Instead of Albums: “But I don’t think we will make records again,” the drummer Jimmy Chamberlin explains, pointing out that the band’s contractual commitment to Reprise Records is finished. “I look at it like the old business model is dead and the music business doesn’t know how to move forward. We want to keep things vital and keep things viable and get our music across while remaining relevant. Music has in many ways just become an advertisement for your tour.
“I think what we’ll do is start releasing songs,” Chamberlin continues. “The record or CD format places too many limitations on your piece of art. People just don’t buy records anymore.
MTV’s ‘Rock Band’ Song Purchases Double: MTV has said that more than 6 million songs have been purchased for the “Rock Band” video game—doubling the number of purchases as of just two months ago.
New Artist: Ferras is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter who is signed to Capitol Records. Ferras struck a deal with the label after an audition for the label’s chairman Jason Flom while on Spring Break from Berklee College of Music. His record was released 3/11/08 and his single from the album ‘Hollywood’s Not America‘ was featured as the “exit song” of part of Season 7 of American Idol.
Facebook About To Pass MySpace In Worldwide Traffic: Facebook was up 2.6%, from January to February, while MySpace grew 3% according to comScore. Facebook continues to close rapidly on MySpace’s visitor total: At 100.7 million uniques in January, Facebook is now just about 8% smaller than MySpace’ 109.3 million. A year ago, MySpace’s worldwide lead was nearly 4x.
How Apple Succeeded: Despite flouting all the rules of being “evil,” Steve jobs has built one of Silicon Valley’s most successful companies. Read the article ‘How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong‘.
Striking a Deal: Siri Music, the creative venture from producer/songwriter Chauncy Jackson has entered a worldwide distribution and licensing deal with Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman’s brainchild, Federal Distribution via Universal Motown Republic Group. Stefani Vara’s will be the first album released under the multi-year deal.
Fox 411 columnist Roger Friedman discusses Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman and Lyor Cohen’s contract extension. Check out the comprehensive package.
The legal department was too busy figuring out new ways to remuneratively reward Edgar Bronfman and Lyor Cohen for destroying the company. The stock closed on Tuesday at $5.21 after rebounding from $5.02 earlier. There are no WMG albums in the top 20 this week. One wonders, are there stockholders? Where are they? How can this just go on and on? …
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