Looking to edge in on the turf shared by Amazon, Google and Apple, Best Buy unveiled its own cloud music service, which lets users access their songs stored on remote storage through various devices. [More]
music
Report: Amazon Lost $3 Million By Selling Lady Gaga Album For A Buck
By 6.3.11
When Amazon tried a publicity stunt in which it sold Lady Gaga’s album Born This Way for 99 cents for two days last month, it may have had to swallow $3 million due to licensing fees it had to cover. [More]
Warner Music Group Sold For $3.3 Billion
By 5.6.11
Billionaire investor Len Blavatnik will pay $3.3 billion to acquire Warner Music Group, which is currently owned by a private investment group controlled by Warner chief Edgar Bronfman. While $3 billion may seem like a high price to pay for a money-losing company with $2 billion in debt, Blavatnik faced competition from over a dozen other bidders, including Sony, Live Nation and Bertelsmann. [More]
Supreme Court Action Will Net Eminem Millions In Music Downloads Case
By 3.22.11
Whether the arena be the Grammys, Oscars or freestyle rap battles, you don’t want to face Eminem as an opponent. That’s a lesson Universal Music Group learned when it took on the rapper in the Supreme Court, which refused to hear its appeal in a lawsuit over downloadable music. The court’s refusal to hear the case, reports the Detroit Free Press, probably means Eminem won between $40 million and $50 million from the publisher. [More]
Ticketmaster Settles Class Action Lawsuit
By 1.28.11
If you bought a ticket from Ticketmaster between Oct ’99 and May ’10, get ready for some bucks/ticket discounts coming your way. Ticketmaster has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought against it in 2003 that alleged the ticket giant’s processing fees were just a “profit component” and didn’t recoup any actual costs of doing business. [More]
How To Move Mystery Songs From Your Brain To Your MP3 Player
By 12.13.10
Back in the Stone Age, it used to be the job of radio DJs and Sam Goody employees to translate your pathetic humming and insipid descriptions of songs you like into genuine song titles, as well as the tunes’ artists and albums. [More]
You Make The Call — Did Lady Antebellum Rob Alan Parsons Project Blind?
By 11.19.10
If it sounds like you’ve heard Lady Antebellum’s Country Music Award-winning “Need You Now” a million times, maybe it’s because it’s been on the radio since 1982, when the Alan Parsons Project released the same song with different words as “Eye in the Sky.” [More]
Michigan College Cancels New Pornographers Show Because It Doesn't Want To Promote Porn By Association
By 9.15.10
Anyone who has ever listened to the songs of Canadian power pop supergroup The New Pornographers is aware the band is strictly PG. And the folks at Calvin College in Michigan are aware of this fact. But that still hasn’t stopped them from pulling the plug on the band’s scheduled show for fear that their school be associated with the word “pornographers.” [More]
Amazon Cancels My MP3 Download Order, Giving Me Free Music
By 8.9.10
Brent says an Amazon billing snafu gave him two free MP3s then sent him an email saying the transaction was canceled. By the time Amazon had shut down the order Brent had already downloaded his songs. He has a theory as to why the muck-up occurred: [More]
Chicago Music Fest Bum Rushes Paying Audience So It Can Prepare For Fundraiser Dinner
By 8.3.10
Ravinia, a century-old Chicago summer music festival, is getting hardcore about raising money. This year it sold tickets to a concert performance of songs by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, sung by Broadway veterans and played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Sondheim is always a big deal for musical theater types, and the event seemed like a home run for both the fans and Ravinia–until the concert ended after 65 minutes with no encores, and the general admission audience was told to leave so that Ravinia could reward their core supporters with a gala dinner. [More]
I Used Twitter To Score Free Concert Tickets And Get Cruel Live Nation Security Guard Fired
By 7.29.10
Jess took her ailing mom to see an American Idol concert in Massachusetts but was mistreated by employees who were less than willing to accommodate her mom’s special needs. The next day she took to Twitter, fired off a couple complaints and spurred Live Nation to make things right. [More]
Pop Tunes Bastardized For Your Kid's Pleasure
By 7.27.10
Since 2001 Kidz Bop has cranked out albums of pop hit covers with children singing inelegantly sanitized version of the originals. The discs provide the soundtrack to little kids’ birthday parties everywhere. They’re also the official soundtrack of hell. [More]
Judge Slashes RIAA's $675,000 File Sharing Award To $67,500
By 7.10.10
A federal judge yesterday bench slapped the Recording Industry of America, calling a jury’s $675,000 verdict against file sharer Joel Tenenbaum both eye-popping and unconstitutional. The judge struck a strikingly populist tone in reducing the verdict to $67,500, arguing that the same legal reasoning that protects large corporations from excessive punitive damages also protects “ordinary people” like Tenenbaum. [More]
Dollar Tree Stops Playing Music In Store
By 7.7.10
Ultra-cheap discounter Dollar Tree has turned off the in-store music in all of its stores, citing cost issues. On the company’s Facebook page, shoppers keep complaining that the company is being too cheap (many don’t seem to know about licensing fees for music), but Dollar Tree’s official response is that it freed up expenses to keep prices low. [More]
Sony, Live Nation Are Conspiring To Keep Me Away From The Lilith Fair
By 6.24.10
Kevin is big enough of a man to admit he needs to get his Lilith Fair on. He was so pscyhed about getting his tickets as early as possible that he pre-ordered a Sarah McLachlan CD just to get a pre-sale concert code that gave him access to early tickets. [More]
Apple Shuts Down Lala Music Service, Saddens Customers
By 4.30.10
It’s official, Apple is shutting down Lala.com, a streaming service where users could pay for the rights to steam songs or buy and download them. After May 31, 2010, however, the web music will stop streaming and customers will be given iTunes credit. [More]
Ticketmaster Charges You $2.50 To Print Your Own Ticket, $0 For Mail
By 4.16.10
Theoretically, companies charge you additional fees to offset costs of your more expensive choices. Or, to discourage or encourage certain behaviors. Ticketmaster, as usual, has a different idea. They charge you $2.50 for you to print your own ticket at home, and $0.00 to have them mail it to you. That’s a headscratcher, until you realize people printing their tickets at home are often last-minute people and if you’re in a rush you’re more likely to agree to additional fees if it gets the job done. [via Reddit] (Thanks to Bargaineering!) [More]
