Music Industry News

At One Manhattan Corner, Music Never Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
October 1, 2009

God’s work--at least as it appeared two weeks ago inside an oak-paneled studio on West 44th Street in Manhattan--consisted of the following acts: A musical archivist removed from its case the sole extant copy of some 1941 session takes of Billie Holiday crooning “All of Me.” A recording engineer received this disc and placed it very gently on a turntable. The studio itself then did the rest: Its speakers cracked with static, a quick piano vamp followed, the horns came ...

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YouTube to Regain Warner Music Videos

Source: Michael Ricci
October 1, 2009

A new agreement lets Warner control the advertising around its music videos and split the proceeds with YouTube but keep most of the revenue. Licensing talks had reached an impasse late last year.

The Internet's dominant video site and one of the world's largest music companies had been locked in a dispute over the value of music videos, some of the most popular content on YouTube, whose young viewers are coveted by advertisers.

Licensing talks reached an impasse late last ...

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Comcast in Deal Talks with NBC Universal

Source: Michael Ricci
October 1, 2009

Cable giant Comcast Corp. is kicking the tires of NBC Universal, according to people familiar with the situation.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator with almost 25 million subscribers, has been looking to increase its content holdings for several years. In NBC Universal it would get its hands on not only a big broadcast network and movie studio, but also several powerful cable channels, including USA, Syfy, CNBC, MSNBC and Bravo. NBC parent General Electric has often denied that it ...

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Retired Prosecutor Says He Lied in HBO Documentary About Roman Polanski Case

Source: Michael Ricci
September 30, 2009

A retired Los Angeles County prosecutor who claimed in a 2008 documentary that he advised a judge to sentence Roman Polanski to prison for having sex with a minor now says that he lied on film about his role in the case.

The on-camera statements by David Wells in Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired were seized upon by Polanskis defense attorneys, who say in court documents that Superior Court Judge Laurence J. Rittenband and Wells engaged in misconduct by improperly ...

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Kimmel Center to Manage University of the Arts Merriam Theater

Source: Michael Ricci
September 29, 2009

Kimmel Center President and CEO Anne Ewers and Sean Buffington, President of the University of the Arts announced today a five-year agreement to have the Center manage the University's historic Merriam Theater. The agreement allows the Kimmel Center to book theatrical productions, such as its successful Broadway series, additional Kimmel Center Presents concerts and performances, as well as making the space available for rent by commercial and non-profit organizations. The University will continue to present its main-stage student performance season ...

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Leo Records: Thirty Years Old and Counting

Source: Michael Ricci
September 28, 2009

Remarkably, the latest batch of releases from Leo Records marked the labels thirtieth anniversary. In those three decades, proprietor Leo Feigin has released a prodigious amount of music on the Leo, LeoLab, Golden Years, Long Arms and Feet First labels, achieving an enviable balance between releases by established stars and those by lesser known artists that the label has backed and developed.

Leo has a fine array of releases by Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, the Ganelin Trio, Joelle Leandre, Sainkho ...

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Saxophonist Hailey Niswanger Tapped for Alto Chair in Either/Orchestra - Berklee Sophomore Also on NPR's Jazzset Starting 10/01

Source: MFA - Mitchell Feldman Associates
September 28, 2009

(Boston, MA - September 28, 2009) Saxophonist Hailey Niswanger (pronounced NICE-wonger), a 19-year-old sophomore studying jazz performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston on a full scholarship, has been selected as the new alto saxophonist in the Either/Orchestra, saxophonist Russ Gershon, the founder and music director of the Cambridge, MA-based band announced today. Miss Niswanger is the first woman to become a full-time member of the ensemble (as opposed to appearing as a guest vocalist or substitute instrumentalist) ...

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Roman Polanski's Attorneys Stunned by Arrest

Source: Michael Ricci
September 27, 2009

Director Roman Polanski and his attorneys were stunned by his arrest in Switzerland on Saturday on a child sex charge filed decades ago in Los Angeles, according a French newspaper report. “We absolutely were not expecting such an arrest, in so far as he regularly goes to Switzerland, and he’s done so for several years,” lawyer Herve Temime told Le Figaro, adding that Polanski “even owns a chalet situated in the Gstaad," a Swiss ski village. Polanski was arrested 31 ...

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