Music Industry News

Miles Davis Lived Here

Source: Michael Ricci
October 11, 2009

The 1983 Buff and Hensman contemporary on the west end of Malibu was a beachfront hangout for the jazz legend Miles Davis.

Ocean views and a bountiful flower and vegetable garden create a peaceful setting for this 1983 Buff and Hensman beachfront house at the west end of Malibu that once was home to jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis.

Conrad Buff III and Donald Hensman are credited with helping to define “ultra-cool" in contemporary-style homes during the 1950s and ...

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Producer Rob Cavallo's Thoughts on Saving the Music Biz: 'Why Don’T We Make It Be More Like Dickens?'

Source: Michael Ricci
October 9, 2009

This week, producer Rob Cavallo had a hand in delivering the Warner Music Group another top 10 album, as the third release from Paramore landed at No. 2 on the U.S. pop chart. The burgeoning rock act sold 175,000 copies of “Brand New Eyes,” according to Nielsen SoundScan, the latest in a series of high-charting albums that bear Cavallo’s stamp. The veteran producer/A&R executive signed Green Day to the major, and worked with the act on its late-career resurgence, 2004’s ...

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Nobody Cares About You, so Raise Your Baton

Source: HypeBot
October 8, 2009

The new music industry offers the opportunity for an artist to go it on their own without a record label, a manager, agent, publicity firm, merchandise company or publishing company. The same is true at startups - bootstrapinstead of buying your way in, use open source tools, virtual offices, online colloboration, Skype, Google tools and more.

But it's also a reality that trying to do everything can make you nuts. There are never enough hours in the day to tweet, ...

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Warner Music Group Names Producer Rob Cavallo Chief Creative Officer

Source: Michael Ricci
October 8, 2009

Warner Music Group, in a sign that the struggling recorded music company is seeking to bolster its ranks of artists, has tapped producer Rob Cavallo for the newly created position of chief creative officer.

In that role he will help develop acts across all of the Warner music labels including Atlantic, Asylum, Electra and Warner Bros. Cavallo, a multiple Grammy winner, has a strong track record with credits that include Green Day's “American Idiot," Kid Rock's “Rock N Roll Jesus" ...

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British Regulators Put Roadblock on Ticketmaster-LiveNation Merger

Source: Michael Ricci
October 8, 2009

Sorry old chum. Ticketmaster and Live Nation may have to divest assets in the United Kingdom in order to go ahead with their proposed merger, British regulators said today.

The country's Competition Commission, which investigates mergers for the British government, issued a provisional ruling that the merger of ticketing giant Ticketmaster and concert production company Live Nation could “severely inhibit" German ticketing company CTS Eventim AG. CTS signed a deal before the proposed merger was announced in February ...

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The Music Industry Outlook: Still Grim

Source: Michael Ricci
October 8, 2009

How low can the music industry go? Analysts speaking at Digital Music Forum West in Hollywood this afternoon suggested that there's more pain ahead for the industry -- much more. On the other hand, they said it's not necessarily a bad time for artists, and things couldn't be better for fans.

Here are a few of the data points thrown out by NPD Group's Russ Crupnick, BigChampagne's Eric Garland and Topspin's James Lamberti:

Fewer consumers are buying music, and the ...

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Hollywood Studios in Midst of Their Own Horror Show

Source: Michael Ricci
October 8, 2009

The recent firings and hirings of studio executives at Disney, Universal and elsewhere point to a widespread corporate panic amid sharp declines in DVD sales.

Hollywood's biggest slasher story isn't playing at any theater near you. It's hitting the industry's corporate suites, where the sacking of studio executives has reached epidemic level.

As evidenced by Disney's recent firing of its studio chief, Dick Cook, and Universal Pictures' dismissal Monday of chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde, Hollywood is in a ...

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Adonis Puentes Voice of Orestes Vilat's Latin Grammy Nominated Album 'It's About Time'

Source: All About Jazz
October 7, 2009

Cuban-Canadian, singer-songwriter Adonis Puentes is the lead vocalist on Master Percussionist Orestes Vilat's album It's About Time, recently nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in the category of BEST TRADITIONAL TROPICAL ALBUM. The milestone 10th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards will be presented Nov. 5 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

This is thrilling news for Puentes who put voice to the album that has now been recognized by the Latin Recording Academy.

After spending a few months ...

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