The almost-nine-minute mini-movie for M.I.A.'s single "Born Free" came out today and it's already been taken down from YouTube in the U.S. It's definitely NSFW, but it's also her latest attempt to drum up some attention.
The effort, codenamed "Vevo" according to the Wall Street…
Ever heard of Uber.com? Join the club. But the Los Angeles-based social networking startup now says it's a victim of "the crisis in the economy." Investors like Discovery Communications and Universal Music Group, which sunk up to $7.6 million in the social network-turned-publishing platform, want what's left of their…
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel has ruled that fair use — a complex set of exemptions to copyright meant to allow for commentary, criticism, and parody — must be taken into consideration before rightsholders request the removal of infringing content from websites like YouTube. The improper takedown suit was brought…
Los Angeles-based social network Buzznet finally confirmed a long-rumored investment from Universal Music Group, which PaidContent earlier reported to be around $25 million, brining the total invested in the company to over $32 million. The social network, which has been focused on music fans from the start, has…
Shawn "Jay Z" Carter signing with LiveNation demonstrates that one of the most entrepreneurial artists of our generation has decided that the business of recording music is advertising. The No. 1 digital music retailer, iTunes, has understood this for some time — Apple sells iPods, and iTunes is a service to make it…
Free P2P music service Qtrax launched at Cannes yesterday with the support of all four major labels: Warner, Universal, EMI and Sony BMG. Or so Qtrax claimed in its announcement, a star-laden extravaganza which reportedly cost $1 million. But Silicon Alley Insider reports that Warner, Universal, EMI, and Sony are…
Universal Music Group has partnered with Nokia to provide a subscription music service to mobile phones. Unlike PC-based subscription services such as Napster, Nokia's offering will let users keep any music downloaded after their one-year subscription expires. Of course what they don't tell you is how much this will…
In one interview with Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris, Wired was able to unravel years of consumer perplexity at the record labels' digital naiveté. Why, exactly, were they being so stupid about selling music online? Morris not only likened the music business to a Shmoo, but he also admitted that he (nor,…
"We make a lot of money from him, and suddenly you're wearing golden handcuffs. We would hate to give up that income." — Universal Music Group chief Doug Morris, on why Universal won't leave Apple's iTunes store anytime soon. Steve Jobs does have an interesting relationship with his girlfriends, doesn't he? [The…
Earlier this month Edgar Bronfman, the mogul behind Warner Music Group, copped to starting the current file-sharing war between the recording industry and consumers, blaming the business's "glacial" adoption of digital sales. If the recording industry ever needed a poster boy for its digital naiveté, it could sign…
"There was a cartoon character years ago called the Shmoo. It was in Li'l Abner. The Shmoo was a nice animal, a nice fella, but if you were hungry, you cut off a piece of him and put onions on it, and if you wanted to play football you just made him like a football. You could do anything to him. That's what was…
Digital music sales made up 15 percent of Universal Music's third-quarter revenues, bringing in $714 million — a increase of 47 percent from last year. How much of this growth is attributable to iTunes? Probably not enough to call a truce in the great iTunes pricing war of 2007. [PaidContent]
Colombian rock star Juanes sold more than 6 million songs during his new album's digital prerelease. The sales set a record, according to Universal Music, which distributed the songs via legitimate Internet and mobile vendors. People actually paid for music. Good for Juanes; better, hopefully, for the digital…
Warner Music is threatening to pull out of Apple's iTunes, continuing the trend started by an angsty Universal Music Group. Record labels and Hollywood studios alike are upset by Apple's inflexibility on pricing. Warner's contract is up at year's end, and is considering a switch to a month-to-month deal, as Universal…
Doug Morris, head of Universal Music, the most powerful of the four major record-label groups, thinks he has a plan to reclaim the music industry from Apple, maker of the iPod and iTunes. There are scant details and the plan is in flux, but the basic idea, dubbed Total Music, is this: All of the studios will pool…
Trent Reznor, frontman for Nine Inch Nails, is on the warpath against his record label, Universal Music Group. In Sydney, Reznor kicked off the NIN concert with an appeal to the crowd to steal his music until the labels realize they're ripping people off. This follows his attack on the recording industry while playing…
Not everyone thinks that Columbia Records chief Rick Rubin's proclamation of a music subscription future is crazy. Universal Music is currently exploring the subscription business model, according to Digital Music News's sources. The initiative, known as TotalMusic, would tie digital music to Internet service…
Just because you can do something doesn't make it right. On the one hand, Universal Music is dropping digital-rights management — what we used to call copy-protection software — from its online music library. On the other hand, it's suing online-video site Veoh for violating the same copyrights it's no longer…
Universal Music Group is suing MySpace for copyright infringement, a proceeding Federated Media's John Battelle likens to a "big poo-flinging goat rodeo." At issue is music and video from Universal ending up on various nerds' MySpace pages — what the suit dismissively calls "so-called 'user-generated content.'" The…
