Morning Fix: Sony's Q4; Pandora's Controversial Artists Letter; Inaugural AMP Awards
By Andy Gensler, Brooklyn
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Sony Corp. is back in the black for its fiscal fourth quarter for the first time in four years, recording a 93.9 billion yen ($948 million) profit, with big help from a weaker yen that boosts overseas earnings. Sales and income were flat in its music business. Best-selling titles included One Direction's "Take Me Home" and Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience."
Billboard.biz
PANDORA EMAIL TO ARTISTS RUFFLES FEATHERS
An email exchange between artist and label owner Blake Morgan and Pandora founder Tim Westergren was seen in an article at the Huffington Post. Morgan told the Huffington Post in the third quarter of 2012 he received $1.62 in royalties for 27,900 spins on Pandora. He also took issue with Pandora's support of legislation that could lower the royalties it pays.
Billboard.biz
The Association of Music Producers held the inaugural AMP Awards in New York on Wednesday night during Creative Week, honoring the best uses of music in advertising and branding. Eleven trophies were awarded in 10 different categories, plus two Hall of Fame Awards were presented to Coca-Cola and McDonald’s for their long history of incorporating memorable music in campaigns.
Billboard.biz
Kobalt has added to its bet on greater transparency with the launch of a new interactive client portal where clients can view the usage data and royalties earned on YouTube user-generated videos.
Billboard.biz
THE EAGLES CATALOG JOINS RDIO -- THEN DISAPPEARS
The Eagles catalog became available for streaming at Rdio on Wednesday after being a longtime holdout from subscription services. No other subscription service in the U.S. had nabbed the Eagles catalog. A check at Deezer's U.K. site turned up no Eagles catalog.
Billboard.biz
LIBERTY MEDIA Q1 RESULTS RISE DRAMATICALLY FOLLOWING SIRIUSXM INCLUSION
The acquisition of a controlling interest in the satellite radio giant boosted revenue and profitability metrics.
Billboard.biz
Country trio Lady Antebellum should nab its third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart next week with Golden. Industry sources project the new release will sell around 150,000 copies by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, May 12.
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The San Diego digital music company said it grew its paying subscriber base between 10% and 20% as a result of redesigning its service to be more approachable to casual listeners.
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Historic Jazz label Blue Note Records has joined with crowdfunding platform ArtistShare in a new partnership called Blue Note/ArtistShare committed to discovering and nurturing up-and-coming young jazz talent.
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With NARM president Jim Donio now enjoying his 25th anniversary with the organization, he kicked off the opening session for the "Music Biz," held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, by noting that NARM has reinvented itself many times during its 55-year existence.
Billboard.biz
The Grammy-winning producer's label recently announced an exclusive multi-year, worldwide agreement with Universal-owned Capitol Records.
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PRIMARY WAVE STRIKES $125M BANK DEAL, BECOMES ONE COMPANY
Primary Wave Music, the indie music firm that counts CeeLo Green as its chief creative officer, has struck a $125 million deal with two banks to reduce its debt and restructure its businesses, according to the New York Post. Primary, run by CEO Larry Mestel, houses two separate companies: a music publishing firm and a talent management and marketing agency. In 2011, Primary merged the talent management business with Violator, run by the late Chris Lighty, to create a joint venture, Primary Violator. Under the reorganization, the businesses will be merged into one company.
New York Post
Randy Jackson, the judge who helped Mariah Carey join his ranks on "American Idol" — at a record-setting sum, no less — is no longer the iconic singer's manager. Jackson, who first met Carey in the 1990s as an A&R man for Columbia Records, helped broker her deal to join "Idol" for $18 million, but after a tumultuous season marred by disagreements, feuds and rumors, he may be saying goodbye to his fellow judge as well as his former client,Showbiz411 reported Wednesday (May 8). Carey released new single "#Beautiful" earlier this week and signed a contract with Red Light Management,
MTV
David Bowie's latest music video featuring him as a Christ-like figure surrounded by women in skimpy outfits and priests in a bar was slapped with an adult-only rating by video sharing website YouTube on Wednesday. The video for the single "The Next Day," starring actors Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard, was temporarily pulled from YouTube with a screen shot saying it had been removed because its content violated YouTube's terms of service, according to the British singer's publicist.
Reuters
NBC’s The Voice acknowledged Wednesday some fans who voted online and via text this week ran into trouble. The Voice host Carson Daly said during Wednesday's broadcast that the show wanted to be “completely upfront” with its audience. “We noticed some inconsistencies with this week's texting and online voting,” Daily said. Jason George, CEO of Voice vote-tallying company Telescope, addressed the problems and said they did not affect the outcome of the show’s final results.
The Hollywood Reporter
Keep an eye on the sky the next time you're at a concert -- a cold beer might be coming your way. It's been announced that attendees of South Africa's OppiKoppi music festival will be able to order beer that comes delivered on an octocopter drone. Called the OppiKoppi beer drone, the device is an 8-propeller helicopter that can be loaded with beer and flown over the festival, arriving at the GPS location of any person who orders a cold brew from a mobile app.
CBS News
The Red Bull Music Academy has released a 12-minute documentary short entitled “Too Old To Be New, Too New To Be Classic: 12 Years of DFA” that examines the history of NYC’s independent “indie dance” music label (watch here) on the occasion of its 12 anniversary.
Billboard.biz
STOP THE PRESSES
- Hip hop, jiu jitsu and chess come together
- Kanye West to appear in 'Anchorman' sequel?
- Ronnie from 'Jersey Shore' -- My Kidneys Were Ticking Time Bombs
- Chris Brown -- Yup, I Graffitied My Own House
- Wearable robots getting lighter, more portable
- Natalie Maines says country music industry is abusive like Chris Brown
- Why music makes us all verklempt (or angry, or wistful, or ...)
- Snoop Dogg claims he briefly operated as an actual pimp
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