Topic: Media Sector

Steve Jobs

If you love something, set it free. Unless, of course, it begins to sputter and plunge into a tailspin. Then, introduce the iMac.READ»

Warner, 7digital Spread the Music

In a sign that the major labels are finally beginning to embrace digital music worldwide, U.K.-based digital music provider 7digital announced a pan-European licensing agreement with Warner Music to sell their MP3s, nearly completing ...READ»

Is the Music Industry Blackmailing Microsoft?

Microsoft plans to pay Universal Music a percentage of its revenue from sales of its new portable media player, the Zune, the New York Times reported yesterday. Microsoft is trying to position the Zune as an iPod killer and plans to ...READ»

Sign of the Dot-Com Apocalypse II

Perhaps the greatest business blunder of the Internet Age is the AOL Time Warner merger. Today's New York Post reports, as we first noted yesterday, that AOL may be dropped from the media company's official corporate name. This is ...READ»

Record Realization

Is the record industry finally getting the message? CNN reports Vivendi unit Universal Records is slashing prices on its CDs in an effort to lure consumers back into record stores and away the nether worlds of file ...READ»

Can Sony's Lia Vollack Save the Music Industry?

Lia Vollack, Sony's soundtrack guru, is the shrewdest music executive in Hollywood. In the past five years, in the face of a little glitch called the Failure of the Music Industry -- the 40% drop in CD sales since 2000 -- Vollack's power has grown immensely. Why? Because soundtracks -- often purchased as a keepsake of a movie -- reliably sell CDs. Can the record labels keep her happy long enough to hold onto their last cash cow?READ»

• Music Goes Green
• Six Soundtracks that Topped the Charts
• Music's Invisible Money Machine

Three E-Readers That Could Change Publishing Forever, and One That Won't

Okay, we know the e-book revolution is just fomenting beyond the horizon, soon to sweep the publishing world. But which electronic devices will be at the vanguard, and which ones won't? Asustek's Dual-Screen E-Book, the Cheapest ...READ»

Call for New Leadership in the Music Industry

I was just listening to a podcast entitled The Future of Music hosted by David Slusher from IT Conversations. He was interviewing the authors of the book of the same name, Gerd Leonhard and David Kusek. David indicated that he has ...READ»

The Birth of the Goog-Tube

The rumors are true! Google has acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. According to a Google press release "YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community." The transaction has ...READ»

Update: imeem's Final Label Match

I posted a few weeks back at length about imeem's success in securing the rights to stream from three of the four major labels' catalogs. (You can read the post here.) Earlier Monday, imeem announced that it had made a deal with the ...READ»

Fixing the Music Model: Virgin Media, Universal to Launch Subscription Service in U.K.

In another ambitious scheme to repair the music industry and discourage illegal downloading, Virgin Media inked a deal with Universal Music to offer an unlimited-download subscription service to customers in the U.K. by year's end. ...READ»

The Sound of Freedom?

Today’s deal by Bertelsmann to sell its big BMG music publishing unit to Vivendi seems, at first glance, like a victory for the little guys. After all, music giants such as Sony, Warner, and EMI all wanted to buy BMG -- and the ...READ»

Coffee with Peter Fader

Early this afternoon, Peter Fader, a marketing professor at Wharton, stopped by Fast Company's offices to visit. We sat down for coffee and conversation, exploring Fader's work in predictive and explanatory models for electronic ...READ»

Al Gomes and Bignoise

Artists Hall of Fame :Brian Scott Co-founder of the internationally acclaimed Blue Man Group Appearance: Lead vocals and guitar on The Arm's "Bucket" CD: 'Digital Mystery Tour: Side One,' Track 1Bill Champlin Lead singer of ...READ»

If Sirius XM Died, No One Would Miss It

Sirius XM [SIRI] is preparing to file for bankruptcy as early as Tuesday, due to a $175 million debt maturing this weekend that the company can't pay. If satellite radio as we knew it disappeared, would it really matter? Granted, ...READ»

Maverick Mogul

As he builds his own digital version of the vertically integrated movie studio, Broadcast.com founder Mark Cuban is questioning everything about the business--and naturally ticking a lot of people off.READ»

Attack of the Baby Pixars

Digital animation isn't the cozy little world it used to be. Now lots of people are trying it--and trying to shoot the big studios' lights out.READ»

Why the Music Industry Needs A Makeover

A recent article in Crain's New York Business (subscription required), titled "Music Labels' New Leaders," explores the music industry's shift to hiring the hippest hitmakers to man the helm of many top -level positions in the ...READ»

BeCG Wants a Music Revolution

An extreme team within the world's fifth-largest music company is working to win the file-sharing battle and overhaul an industry. Can it get its competitors to stop suing and play along?READ»

Last.fm Gets Power from The Orchard

Maybe it's The Orchard Gets Power from Last.fm... The Orchard, a digital distribution vehicle for music, has formed a lot of partnerships lately with record labels and mobile carriers and content providers. But none of these ...READ»

RIAA To Stop Suing Individuals For Music Piracy

'Tis the season traditionally associated with goodwill, but I'm not sure I could've predicted this piece of good news: the Recording Industry Association of America is going to stop suing individuals for music piracy. There are ...READ»

Are Slipping iPod Sales Bad News for the Recording Industry?

Over at PaidContent they're making a bit of noise about some thinking by analyst Mark Mulligan that says a slip in rising iPod sales is bad news for the record industry. It's an interesting idea, but basically misses the point. The ...READ»

What Will CBS Do With last.fm Part Deux

I've been thinking a lot about CBS' acquisition of last.fm since I first posted about it last week. Maybe it's because I'm totally obsessed with the music discovery and listening service, or it's that I'm really unsure as to whether ...READ»

The Music Industry: No Longer a One Trick Pony

There was a time when all a record label had to worry about was making hits. Good hits paved the road to successful albums, and then the label got paid--really paid. As holder of the majority of the publishing rights of music ...READ»

Media: Can Google, Limewire Outplay iTunes?

The digital music market continues to be an exemplary battleground for the implications new media has on pre-established business practices. Startup gBox and infamous Limewire are venturing into the digital music market to try to ...READ»