record label

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Co-Founder of A&M Records Dies
Co-Founder of
A&M Records Dies
OBITUARY
Aug 16, 2023 5:09 PM CDT

Co-Founder of A&M Records Dies

Jerry Moss was the M in A&M

(Newser) - Jerry Moss, a music industry giant who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert and rose from a Los Angeles garage to the heights of success with hits by Alpert, the Police, the Carpenters, and hundreds of other performers, has died at age 88. Moss, inducted with Alpert into the...

This Boy Band Is About to Get Very Rich

IPO will make members of K-pop group BTS multi-millionaires

(Newser) - All seven members of K-pop sensation BTS are about to become multi-millionaires. The band's label, Big Hit Entertainment, plans to go public on Oct. 15 with a market valuation of $4.1 billion—making this South Korea's largest IPO in three years, per the Hollywood Reporter . The BBC...

How to Save Record Labels, With Help from X5
 How to Save 
 Record Labels 
Sep 4, 2011 8:25 AM CDT

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...

New Radiohead Album Hits Web Saturday

Band continues to self-release; download available Saturday

(Newser) - Radiohead is rolling out new album The King of Limbs this Saturday in digital format, the Telegraph reports, and it's once again forgoing a trifling thing like a record label. (The band notably self-released 2007's In Rainbows.) Fans eager to hear the album ASAP will have to take advantage...

Carly Simon Sues Starbucks
 Carly Simon Sues Starbucks 
Oct 12, 2009 5:36 PM CDT

Carly Simon Sues Starbucks

Coffee chain's failed music label bungled her album's release, singer says

(Newser) - Carly Simon intended the 2008 album This Kind of Love to be her swan song, and she was excited about the record company that would release it: Starbucks-owned Hear Music. The coffee chain had wooed her with a big advance and promises of high exposure in stores, but instead Starbucks...

How to Save the Music Biz
 How to Save 
 the Music Biz 
opinion
Sep 12, 2009 7:55 PM CDT

How to Save the Music Biz

(Newser) - The album is dead. Touring is on the fade. File-sharing is killing download profits. Adieu, music biz? Not so fast, reports The Wrap, which offers five fixes:
  • Drop the price. Ninety-nine cents for a song? Try 10. "Lower the price point, and you undercut the very foundation of illegal
...

Apple Teams Up With Record Labels to Revive the Album

(Newser) - Apple has joined forces with four major record labels on a mission to get music buyers to start buying albums again instead of just single tracks, the Financial Times reports. The project—codenamed "Cocktail"—will bundle album downloads with lyrics sheets, sleeve notes, photos, and assorted interactive features...

Jack White's Many Hats Multiply

(Newser) - Three bands just weren’t enough for Jack White, who’s started a music store/recording studio/record label in his adopted hometown of Nashville. Third Man Records is “where everything starts to make sense,” the White Stripes frontman tells the Wall Street Journal. “Where modern meets old and...

Royalties Deal May Save Internet Radio

(Newser) - Record labels and the online radio industry have reached a deal on royalties that insiders think will allow the medium to survive, the New York Times reports. Larger sites like Pandora will pay the labels 25% of revenue or up to 14 cents for every song they stream—whichever is...

Nashville Becomes 'Silicon Valley of Music Business'

(Newser) - Nashville really is Music City, Richard Florida writes in the Atlantic. Charting the demographics of the music industry from 1970 to 2004, Florida found that “Nashville was the only city that registered positive growth. In effect, it sucked up all the growth in the music industry.” It’s...

Jay-Z Leaves Def Jam
 Jay-Z 
 Leaves 
 Def Jam 
May 21, 2009 3:53 PM CDT

Jay-Z Leaves Def Jam

(Newser) - Jay-Z confirmed to RapRadar today that he has left Def Jam Records after more than a decade. The news follows an unconfirmed report on HitsDailyDouble that the rapper bought out his contract for $5 million. Jay-Z, 39, owed Def Jam one more album, but he was eager to move on...

Web Killed Big Acts, Saved Music: Kot
 Web Killed Big Acts, 
 Saved Music: Kot 
interview
May 21, 2009 12:50 PM CDT

Web Killed Big Acts, Saved Music: Kot

Each tech advance stirred unfounded fears: Kot

(Newser) - The Internet has so fragmented music that there may never be another big act like U2. But that’s just fine for music critic Greg Kot, author of Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music. “Art thrives best when it’s created without regard to making any kind of...

Novel Tactics Target Piracy
Novel Tactics Target Piracy
Feb 5, 2009 11:42 AM CST

Novel Tactics Target Piracy

Tax would give Isle of Man citizens unlimited downloads; Ireland will cut off miscreants

(Newser) - Two European islands are taking opposite approaches to music piracy, the results of which could influence internet policy worldwide. The Isle of Man, between England and Ireland, will charge a $1.45 weekly tax on behalf of record labels to let citizens download music without penalty. Meanwhile, Ireland’s main...

Music Milestone: Digital Outsells CDs at Atlantic

(Newser) - Atlantic Records has become the first major label to pass a high-tech milestone: More than half of its music sales are now from digital products such as iTunes downloads and ring tones for cell phones. Sales of CDs have been declining across the board in recent years, so it was...

Def Jam Exec Dead in Apparent Suicide

Shakir Stewart took the helm of Def Jam Records in June

(Newser) - Shakir Stewart, who took over at Def Jam Records when Jay-Z stepped down in June, was found dead yesterday, Billboard reports. The rap executive apparently committed suicide, though few details are available. Stewart had signed artists such as Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, and Karina Pasian to his label, and in...

Stones Exit EMI, Jump to Universal

Post-1971 catalogue comes with Jagger & Co., who take potshot at now-former label

(Newser) - After the latest skirmish between EMI’s new owner and the recording label’s bands, the Rolling Stones have fled for Universal—in a $15 million deal that includes rights to all Stones releases since 1971. Mick Jagger & Co. knocked EMI on the way out the door, the Times...

Beck Poised at Turning Point
 Beck Poised
 at Turning
 Point 
Interview
Jul 5, 2008 2:17 PM CDT

Beck Poised at Turning Point

As his record contract ends, the musician's not sure what's next

(Newser) - This week Beck will release Modern Guilt, his last record under a 14-year-old studio contract—an event that prompted the New York Times to ask him what's next. No idea, Beck said. “I haven’t bothered to plan anything. I don’t know where the record business is going...

17 Stories