Music Industry News

Music Industry

New FCC Chair Has Strong Venture and Digital Ties

Source: HypeBot
January 14, 2009

UPDATE: The appointment is now official. Reaction to the appointment from the indie label community via A2IM President Rich Bengloff after the jump below/

Julius Genachowski has been named the new Chairman of The Federal Communications Commission. As with most things Obama, this is not you're father's FCC chair. From his bio:

Cofounder and managing director of venture capital firm Rock Creek. Founding partner of LaunchBox Digital Chairman and cofounder of Thummit From 1997-2005, senior ...

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Music Industry

Hecho a Mano En Cuba Announces Start of New U.S. Label

Source: Calabro Music
January 14, 2009

Los Angeles, CA -- Hecho A Mano En Cuba (Handmade In Cuba) is the first United States record label devoted solely to the legendary music of the country of Cuba. The majority of Cuban artists have not been properly introduced to a United States audience over the last five decades because of the strained relationships between the respective governments. Cuban artists have always been at the forefront of Spanish language music. Hecho A Mano En Cuba will function as a ...

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Music Industry

Times Square Virgin Megastore to Close

Source: Billboard Magazine
January 14, 2009

The Times Square Virgin Megastore, which is the highest volume music store in the U.S., will shut down come April. The store has been at the center of speculation since August 2007 when the Virgin Entertainment Group North America was acquired by two real estate companies — the Related Cos. and Vornado — in a joint venture. Last June, a Vornado executive told Reuters that the store would shut down in the first quarter of 2009. The decision to close ...

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Music Industry

Report: Obama Picks Genachowski to Head FCC

Source: PC Magazine
January 14, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama has reportedly selected former FCC staffer and IAC/InterActiveCorp executive Julius Genachowski to be the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Genachowski is already serving on Obama's transition team and most recently worked as a venture capitalist in Washington. Genachowski was chief counsel at the FCC under Reed Hundt, who was FCC chairman from 1993 to 1997, and held executive positions at Internet firm IAC/InteractiveCorp. “Under Julius Genachowski's leadership, the FCC's compass would point toward the public ...

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Music Industry

Alfred Cobbs Said It

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 13, 2009

"See, what happened in that era, when we go to record, we go down to the studio. The man say, 'Okay, Jimmie [Lunceford, pictured], what you got?' 'Okay, I got this number, I got that number.' 'Good, let's record it.' Now those were numbers that we had played on the road, and numbers that we had gotten any good response to. New numbers, you know what I mean. So there we knew just what the public liked, what they wanted, ...

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Music Industry

Guided Tour of the Most Awesome Depression Ever

Source: All About Jazz
January 12, 2009

Another Great Depression! Hardly are those words out when vast images straight out of Walker Evans trouble my sight: Hoboes! Okies! Hoovervilles! Women who resemble Harry Dean Stanton! It's all so very... 75 years ago.

Our go-to icons of abject, debilitating American poverty are so nostalgic, so sentimental, so analog. Our recurrent national nightmare deserves an upgrade.

Let's face it Flat broke and rattling a mug full of pencils, we'll still be the same wiki-addicted, diversion-craving ...

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Music Industry

Major Labels Shift Revenue Strategy from Partnership to Ownership

Source: HypeBot
January 11, 2009

Rocked by shrinking revenues and disappointed in the revenue generated by music services like YouTube, MySpace and imeem, the four major label groups have begun shifting their search for larger revenue streams from licensing and revenue sharing to an ownership model.

The trend began with 360 deals which give labels control of all the artist's revenue streams and investments in a variety of music tech companies. Then came the MySpace Music partnership. Now labels are going further with their ...

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Music Industry

Carmen McRae Said It

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 11, 2009

Since we are talking about pianists, what is it you look for in a piano accompanist?

“That's a hard question. Accompanying someone cannot be explained by a singer to a pianist. He either knows what to do or he doesn't. An accompanist and a guy who can play the piano are two different things. You have to find someone who is completely sympathetic to the soloist as a singer, and not to a soloist as an instrumentalist. It's a completely ...

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