Stories related to: music label

“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 two albums should both drop in time for the holiday season, with the first official singles out in the fall. More »

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 pot and an unlicensed weapon on the man, rounding out the fraud charge. Bail, fortunately, was more modest: $3,750. More »

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. More »

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 Music released albums by Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor last year. More »

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 Journal reports. Spokesmen for the two websites insist they’re not responsible for content they don’t host. More »

“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, the New York Times reports. More »

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 their device of choice, or personal copying. More »

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 that is easily ignored while waiting for a non-fat mocha latte”—but applauds her “blustery, soulful" vocals. More »

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 the charts in part because there have been few other new offerings in this traditionally slow post-holiday stretch. More »

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 market. More »

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 that in 2008, and Apple's iTunes is expected to lead the way. More »

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 someone plays a track, Imeem will pay Universal a fixed fee, in addition to sharing ad revenues. More »

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 and others turned down major-label contracts, becoming economically viable independents. More »

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 require users to leave MySpace, as an earlier, failed system did. More »

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 Madonna to an online sales model that cuts out the labels entirely. More »

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 pizza."  TuneCore lets individual artists market themselves, then pocket all the sales after Apple takes its cut. More »

Madonna is set to leave traditional record labels behind for an all-encompassing deal with concert promoter Live Nation, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Material Girl will bank $120 million; Live Nation gets three studio albums, the right to promote her concert tours, and various merchandising opportunities during a 10-year deal that seems certain to shake the music industry. More »

Oasis, Jamiroquai and other bands not tied to record labels may soon follow in Radiohead's footsteps by offering their music for free download, reports the Daily Telegraph . While fans may pay whatever they choose for Radiohead's new album, released today, a spokesperson says the majority of visitors preordering on the band's web site are bypassing the freebie in favor of the £40 box set. More »

Ordered to pay $9,250 for each of 24 illegally shared songs, a 30-year-old Native American single mother has decided to appeal the judgment against her in a copyright infringement case, her lawyer announced in a CNN interview. A jury determined last week that she owed a total of $222,000 to the music labels they believed were damaged by her use of the Kazaa file-sharing network. More »

Amazon threw down the guantlet to iTunes today when it launched its digital music store, Amazon MP3. Roughly 2 million songs are available for 89-99 cents each, with albums going for $5.99 to $9.99. Not only do those prices beat iTunes's, but all the files are DRM-free. Selection is limited, however, by some major labels' refusal to let their music be sold unlocked. More »