Wednesday Bits & Pieces: Tip of the UMG Change-Over, Yahoo Music Head Departs, MTV Funding Videos & More
Changes afoot @ UMG
The departure of longtime Universal Music Group vice chairman and CFO Nick Henny was announced this week, the first high-level executive to exit under new UMG ruler Lucian Grainge. Seen as only the tip of what will be a massive restructuring at the largest of the four major music groups, chatter continues about the fate of executives and the labels themselves including Island Def Jam, Mercury and both Motown and Republic labels. Stay tuned… After a relationship lasting almost four decades, Queen has officially parted ways with EMI, signing with UMG in a deal that will see the release of remastered albums next year… In more exits, Yahoo Music chief Jeff Bronikowski is reportedly leaving to join AOL Music - AOL has also been named among those recently interested in acquiring Yahoo, other names on the list include BMG Rights Management backer KKR… Though no longer “Music Television” in name, MTV has announced the launch of a new series of videos called Supervideos, that will see the company funding the videos themselves – a move spawned by the return of music video popularity online, and possibly the rise of a new rival in Vevo. The first video project is for the LCD Soundsystem song “Pow Pow”… Elsewhere, Warner Music is launching an archival project dubbed Sight of Sound, which will focus on the integral role that visuals played in the pre-Internet age, and to document the rich history of the label… And after two years of running as an ad-funded streaming service, the UK company We7 is refocusing as an online radio service similar to Last.fm and Pandora.
04.30.10In Case You Missed It: Reading Recap
Always Front & Center... This Week: Adobe, iAds & Lala
Last weekend saw the news that EMI Music chairman Charles Allen is reportedly pulling back from his strategy to sell-off parts of the music group in an effort to righten the company’s state of financial disorder… The New York Times published a lengthy piece focusing on the new Live Nation Entertainment and its leading duo Irving Azoff and Michael Rapino… Rhapsody beat out other mobile music services this week by being getting its new iPhone app approved by Apple, making it the first service in the U.S. market to allow users to store subscription music in the phone’s memory… A lot more Apple in the headlines this week as Steve Jobs publicly sounded-off on his company’s continued stance against supporting Adobe Flash on its mobile devices. Billboard takes a look at what that means for music, while questions remain on how it all could relate to Apple’s imminent iAds platform that will likely cost advertisers at least $1 million dollars to buy into the new ad network… UK-based streaming service We7 announced that during the month of March, and for the first time ever, it had covered all operating and royalty costs with advertising revenue, making it the first company in the the ad-funded space to do so… Elsewhere, David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants Inc. has started a record label, and its first release will be Orange County’s Runner Runner… And many are wondering if the freshly posted notice from Lala that it will be shutting down on May 31st and is no longer accepting new users means an iTunes in the cloud is finally on the way…
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