• Warner Music Group's Rhino Records has laid off 15 employees as a part of WMG's greater restructuring plans. (Billboard.biz)

• Multimedia retailer Hastings Entertainment, Inc. reported improved net income on slightly lower revenues for Q1 2007. Overall it was a good quarter that showed the company is properly retooling its product mix. Net income increased 29% to $2.5 million year over year while revenues dropped to $128 million from $131 million. Cost of revenues decreased to 62.7% from 64.5% last year. Comp store revenues dropped 3.9%. Music sales were down 13% while electronics rose 17.5%. (Press release)

• Paul McCartney''s solo and Wings catalog made its herladed debut on online stores and services yesterday...but for whatever reason it wasn't on iTunes. (PC World)

• Pandora, the online music recommendation engine, will be available through Spint Power Vision phones (for $2.99 per month) as well as Sonos home audio systems (as 32 different Pandora radio stations). (MP3.com)

• PassAlong Networks is powering a music download store by MP3Car.com, which offers an in-dash application to discover and purchase songs. (Press release)

• Joost announced a deal with Creative Artists Agency. (Press release)

Posted by Glenn at 12:40 PM | Link
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• The bidding for BMG Music Publishing has narrowed down to 12-15 bidders. Sony Corp is not one of the finalists. EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group are beilieved to still be in the running. (Billboard.biz)

• The Songwriters Guild of America puts itself on the side of the RIAA in its legal fight with XM Satellite Radio over portable devices that record songs broadcast on XM. (Digital Music News)

• Warner Music Group announced a quarterly cash dividend of $19.3 million, which turns out to be $0.13 per share of common stock. (Press Release)

• Kevin Federline has inked a deal with Sony BMG. His album Playing With Fire will be released on October 31st on his own Federation Records. No, he's not managed by Nettwerk and Terry McBride. (AllHipHop.com)

• WOXY is going off the (Internet) air on September 15th. (WOXY.com)

• Warner Music Group's Kevin Liles on P. Diddy: "Our expectation when we did the deal with Bad Boy was to break one new artist every 18 months and to reintroduce P. Diddy. He's broken three new artists this year so it's over our expectation, but still under what we know he can do." (Reuters)

• Legendary music critic Robert Christgau was among eight Village Voice employees fired yesterday. Gakwer's post has an email from Christgau to friends. (Gawker)

• The Global Media and Entertainment Summit will be held on December 9th and 10th in New York City. (GlobalEntertainmentNetwork.com)

Posted by Glenn at 9:58 AM | Link
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In today's LA Times Charles Duhigg reports that EMI's Adam Klein, the EVP of strategy and business development, has left the company. Or, in Duhigg's words, he was forced out -- which, since people rarely leave to pursue other opportunities, is usually the case.

This move follows the departure of EMI's head of digital development and distribution, Ted Cohen, who left in late May to begin a consultancy group called TAG Strategic.

What this says about the futurer of EMI's digital development is unclear, but it's certainly not a positive sign. Developing the digital side of the business is probably the highest priority for all four major music groups. EMI's digital sales have certainly increased -- everybody's has -- but Duhigg reminds us that EMI's market share dropped by 0.4 points in the last six months. A change of a key leadership position and a loss of market share adds a bit of uncertainty that EMI could do without.

Reading on Adam Klein:

• The USA Today's Kevin Maney talked to Klein in November of 2005 about EMI's digital strategy and the obstacles the industry faces. "We're not asleep at the switch. It's just that of all the industries I've studied, none has had to deal with such a confluence of events."
• November must have been PR month at EMI: EE Times talked to Klein about EMI's many digital plans, ranging from over-the-air downloads to CD copy protection.

Posted by Glenn at 1:04 AM | Link
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• EMI is said to be seeking private equity backing to bid for Bertelsmann's music publishing division, a move would that would leave EMI with the resources to bid for Warner Music Group. (Reuters)

• Another reason not to put major labels on a deathwatch: Universal Music is getting into the TV production business. The company announced its Globe Productions division will produce reality-based TV shows that will use artists on its labels' roster. (The Guardian)

• British company UBC Media announces a download service that allows digital radio listeners to instantly buy a song as it is broadcast. (Reuters)

• Digital Music Group has acquired Chancellor Records. The deal encompasses over 2,000 songs from the label that had hits by Frank Valli and Fabian. The acquisition fits with Digital Music Group's stategy of selling oldies and out-of-print songs at music download stores. (DMN Newswire)

• Rumors of layoffs at Island Def Jam. (The Velvet Rope)

• An article on Tune Town in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, and the record store's difficulties as music sales have fallen since 2000. (Lowell Sun)

Posted by Glenn at 9:20 AM | Link
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And so the Sony BMG saga continues.,,

As many expected, Columbia Records president Steve Greenberg will leave the company on Friday, Billboard.biz reported today. His future was in question after Don Ienner and Michelle Anthony left Sony BMG last week. Greenberg was brought to Columbia be then CEO Andrew Lack, who has since given up the reins to Rolf Scmidt-Holz. It has been reported that Greenberg had since clashed with Ienner.

Greenberg founded and had served as president of S-Curve Records. Prior to that he helped break Hanson, Joss Stone and Baha Men.

Posted by Glenn at 9:42 PM | Link
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Big, big news out of 550 Madison yesterday as Dony Ienner and Michelle Anthony both resigned their top executive posts at the Sony Music Label Group. (As with most cases in corporate America, the word resigned is used instead of the more accurate phrase forced out.) Ienner was chairman of the label group, Anthony was president. Rob Stringer, chairman and chief executive of Sony BMG's British unit and brother of Howard Stringer, Sony's chairman, will take over as head of the Sony label group.

For a good recap, read the NY Times article by Jeff Leeds or Chris Morris's article at the Hollywood Reporter.

For a good thread on the subject with plenty of anonymous candor, read this thread at The Velvet Rope.

Hits pointed to three factors that lead to the duo's dismissal: a tepic year of new release sales until last week's Dixie Chicks' album; executive turmoil since the Sony BMG merger; and a move by Sony BMG head Rolf Schmidt-Holtz to bring the Sony and BMG cultures together by moving in Rob Stringer.

The full email from Rolf Schmidt-Holtz to employees after the jump.

Continue reading "Sony Music Shake Up: Ienner, Anthony Out" »

Posted by Glenn at 11:35 AM | Link
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Sanctuary Records Group, a financially troubled label that has been in the British press almost as much as EMI in the last year, fired its chief executive, Andy Taylor. A statement today said:

"The board's decision to remove Mr Taylor followed their conclusion that certain of the prior year adjustments made in the 2005 accounts should have been presented as a correction of fundamental errors and not as changes in accounting policy."

Translation: the accounting errors mean previous losses will be adjusted and presumably were worse than reported.

Posted by Glenn at 12:06 PM | Link
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