EMI Music revenue shrinks by 15%
Against a backdrop of “very challenging” market trends, EMI Group Plc. is forecasting a 15% contraction in revenue from its recorded music division.
In a trading update delivered this morning to the London Stock Exchange, the British-based major also noted that it is eyeing-up a securitisation of its music publishing assets, and has suspended its dividend payments.
Despite the harsh revenue forecast for EMI Music, the group said constant currency sales for its record division in the year to March 31 were in-line with guidance published in February.
The British firm said EMI Music’s digital revenue had increased by 59% and currently represents about 10% of its revenue.
EMI Music Publishing, typically the group’s most consistently-buoyant division, is likely to register “broadly flat” revenue at constant currency, underpinned by a 28% rise in digital revenue. Digital formats now generate 8% of the publishing division’s sales.
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Full Story Via The Hollywood Reporter
Internet radio loses royalty fee appeal
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A U.S. Federal copyright panel upheld a contentious decision on Monday that would increase royalty fees Webcasters must pay to record labels.
The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board said after reviewing filings submitted by small commercial Webcasters, National Public Radio, and others, none of them had “made a sufficient showing of new evidence or clear error or manifest injustice that would warrant rehearing.”
The three-member board in its five-page order also declined to postpone the May 15 deadline when the new fees are scheduled to kick in.
The new rules prescribe rate hikes of .08 cents per song per listener retroactive to 2006. The rates would climb to .19 cents per song by 2010, which amounts to a 30 percent increase per year. Each station would also have to hand over a minimum 500 U.S. dollar royalty payment under the ruling.
Full Story Via China View
American Idol: In defense of Simon Cowell
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I like slam dunk contests. This should go without saying, given that dunk contests are generally epic displays of supreme, rare athleticism. Now, since these events are technically “contests” they have to be judged. Herein lies the greatest dunk contest problem: the judges. You see, the judges are given scoring cards, numbered one through ten (ten being the highest). This is not Figure Skating; decimals are not allowed. Historically, any number under four is not utilized, a score of 4 only given to missed dunks. So, really, it’s a seven number scale on which to judge. But, when looking deeper, you see that completed dunks are never judged lower than a 7, regardless of how unoriginal or easy they may be.
Full Story Via Buddy TV
Nine Inch Nails- Year Zero
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Trent Reznor’s concept album returns to electronic roots. How does it all hold together?
Trent Reznor has made a career of mixing futuristic sound with base desire. Starting with Pretty Hate Machine, he set forth a world view that is fractured and flawed, but very human in the face of a culture that is ever becoming more robotic and unfeeling by the moment.
NIN has had its ups and downs, tinkering incrementally with harder, more distorted sounds and creeping away from the more electronic home base of PHM. With Broken, he dispatched the almost funky vibe of “Down In It” with a barrage of raw-edged metal in the form of “Wish.”
Full Story Via IGN
Suspect Named in Jam Master Jay Slaying
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It’s never too late to tie up loose ends—when murder is involved, at least.
Federal prosecutors in New York have named a suspect in the four-year-old slaying of Run-D.M.C. spinner Jam Master Jay, who was gunned down Oct. 30, 2002 at 24/7, his Queens recording studio.
According to court documents filed earlier this month, Ronald “Tinard” Washington has been identified ad the armed accomplice of the still-unidentified gunman who shot Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell.
Washington has also been tagged as a suspect in the 1995 shooting death of Randy “Stretch” Walker, a close pal of the late Tupac Shakur.
Full Story Via Eonline
‘Slow Burn’ is an inferno of absurdity
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“She walks in smelling like mashed potatoes, and every guy within 30 feet wants to be the gravy.”
Such mouthfuls of hard-boiled nonsense regularly erupt from Luther Pinks (James Todd Smith, aka LL Cool J, as he is billed) in “Slow Burn,” a wooden police thriller that is as dull as it is impenetrable and ultimately beyond ludicrous. Luther has a thing about odors. People and places conjure the scents of grapefruit, mangoes and tangerines and even Big Macs in his amazingly sensitive nostrils.
Full Story Via SeattlePi.com
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