“Electronics retail giant Best Buy announced a definitive merger agreement to acquire digital music service provider Napster for $121 million. Per terms of the deal, Best Buy will scoop up Napster’s 700,000 digital entertainment subscribers, its web-based customer service platform and mobile capabilities–Napster CEO Chris Gorog and other senior management suits will remain at the helm post-acquisition. Best Buy said it will employ Napster’s digital services to reach new customers across an increasing array of devices, with an emphasis on capturing recurring revenue via the mobile platform.”
In an uterly devestating statement, Britney’s manager Larry Rudolph told Ryan Seacrest yesterday that there will absolutely, positively be NO VMA peformance.
“Britney Spears will not be performing at the VMAs this year. I’m telling you officially and unequivocally.”
Dave Matthews Band’s much loved saxophonist LeRoi more passed away late Tuesday night at the 46.
He was injured back in June while out ATV riding-he broke a rib and punctured a lung. His death is a result of further complications from the accident.
Hot on the heels of Lyor Cohen’s highly publicized (and criticized) decision to cash in 6.9 million worth of WMG shares…another top exec has exercised his right to cash in his options.
EVP Human Resources, Mark David Ansorge, converted $75,000 worth of options into a net of $567,000…even at the depressed rate of $7.56 (thanks to the ensuing freak out caused by Cohen’s cash out).
And the worse news? Shares for WMG dropped ANOTHER 6% as a result of the latest exec’s decision. The shares are now said to be “seariously undervalued”. More indication of troubled times ahead at the majors…
This list is just based of last year, not all time (fyi)
1. 50 Cent - $150 million
2. Jay-Z - $82 million
3. P Diddy - $35 million
4. Kanye West - $30 million
5. Timbaland - $22 million
6. Pharrell Williams - $20 million
7. Swizz Beatz - $17 million
8. Snoop Dogg - $16 million
9. Dr. Dre - $15 million
10. Ludacris - $14 million
11. T.I. - $13 million
12. Lil Wayne - $13 million
13. Eminem - $12 million
14. Common - $12 million
15. Akon - $12 million
16. Jermaine Dupri - $11 million
17. Lil Jon - $11 million
18. OutKast - $10 million
19. Chamillionaire - $10 million
20. The Game - $10 million
A LETTER FROM THE FRONT: 30 SECONDS TO MARS / EMI (THE LAWSUIT)
To our Friends and Fans,
Despite rumors to the contrary, 30 Seconds to Mars is NOT calling it quits. We are incredibly happy, healthy and very much together here, in Los Angeles, recording our new record. Besides this ridiculously overblown lawsuit (courtesy of Virgin/EMI), we are having one of the most inspiring, wonderful and exciting times that we’ve experienced to date. (More on that later…)
Beyond this distraction, we are so incredibly grateful to all of you around the world that have supported us so passionately. We would never consider stopping this just yet. These past few phenomenal years have been beyond imaginable and we owe every single bit of it to you. Thank you all for that!
So, as you may have heard we are being sued by our former record company for the ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly (but slightly clever) sum of $30,000,000. Insane? Yea that’s what we said too.
A little history…
We had been signed to our record contract for 9 years. Basically, under California law, where we live and signed our deal, one cannot be bound to a contract for more than 7 years. This is widely known by all the record companies and has been for years. In fact, so aware of it are they that they desperately try to make deals outside of California whenever possible. It is a law that protects people from lengthy, unfair, career-spanning contracts. This law also gave us the legal right to explore other possible opportunities.
Yes we have been sued by EMI. But NOT for failing to deliver music or for ‘quitting’. We have been sued by the corporation quite simply because roughly 45 days ago we exercised our legal right to terminate our old, out of date contract, which, according to the law is null and void.
We terminated for a number of reasons, which we won’t go into here (we’d rather not air any dirty laundry) but basically our representatives could not get EMI to agree to make a fair and reasonable deal.
A few things to note…
If you think the fact that we have sold in excess of 2 million records and have never been paid a penny is pretty unbelievable, well, so do we. And the fact that EMI informed us that not only aren’t they going to pay us AT ALL but that we are still 1.4 million dollars in debt to them is even crazier. That the next record we make will be used to pay off that old supposed debt just makes you start wondering what is going on. Shouldn’t a record company be able to turn a profit from selling that many records? Or, at the very least, break even? We think so.
That, and other issues, like the new regime at EMI firing most of the people we know and love, wanting to place advertisements on our website, EMI owning 100 percent of the masters of our record…forever, and basically having a revolving door of regimes at the company made it easy to not want to continue as is.
As the result of this takeover - and the firing of over 2000 employees - we have lost many of the people that were near and dear to us at Virgin/EMI and crucial to the success of 30 Seconds to Mars. A few of the great ones are still there, but it is hardly the same company we have known. After more than 5 regime changes in 9 years you’d think we would be used to the inconsistency, but the team that took the journey together for A Beautiful Lie was a very very special group of people and it’s a huge loss that so many of them are gone. (Quick fact: There is not a single employee at Virgin Records who was working at the company when we signed.)
FYI Virgin/EMI was not required to make this lawsuit public or to list such an egregiously and stupendously large amount of mullah. In fact, they were not required to set any price even close to this. We did not want to take this public, but we felt it best to explain our point of view to you, our
friends and fans, in hope that you can better understand our point of view.
We would always do our best to avoid a fight, but sometimes it’s important to stand up for what you believe in. We hope that by doing what’s right we can help to change things for the better, for ourselves and possibly others.
P.S. We will always remain grateful to the people at Virgin/EMI who were so integral to our success. And we hope that, above all, we can find a resolution to this in as civil and kind a way as possible.
There are certainly more important things out there in the world to spend time and energy on.
Is some serious trouble brewing at Warner Music Group? President Lyor Cohen has reportedly cashed in nearly a QUARTER of his shares this week, a heavy indication that all is not well for this major label.
The fruits of his labors netted him a whipping 6.8 million-but sent the alarms flying to investors everywhere causing the stock to drop 9.3% on Wednesday.
hot on the heels of a MEGA hit album with Lil Wayne, Universal continues its rein at the top of the majors by snagging themselves some serious ROCK ROYALTY.
None other than the ROLLING STONES are the latest act to take action against the major EMI label group drama and leave their long time partners for greener pastures.
The deal is not only for any future recording the boys may put out (as Mick Jagger just celebrated his 65th birthday, we’re not sure how many-or how good that would be…) but also their ENTIRE BACK CATALOGUE.
Universal refuses to disclose how they got so lucky, but the Stones had this to say:
“Universal are forward-thinking, creative and hands-on music people. We really look forward to working with them.”
And that’s all she wrote! Which label under the Universal umbrella do you think will be the lucky winner-Interscope? Def Jam? Republic (who has put out albums from The Who, Prince & John Mellencamp)?
