Uncategorized

New distribution deal via DSL: – Listen.com has secured a major distribution channel for its music-subscription service Rhapsody, cutting a deal with high-speed Internet provider Verizon Online DSL. The pact, to be announced Wednesday, makes Rhapsody’s on-demand streams available to Verizon’s 1.5 million DSL customers in the U.S. Service offers …

Independent movie studio puts trailers on file sharing network: To the world’s largest entertainment companies, the controversial Kazaa file-sharing network is Public Enemy No. 1—a wildly popular source of free, downloadable music and movies. But to Lions Gate Entertainment, an independent film studio based in Marina del Rey, Kazaa is …

Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age. This is an exhibit and website flaunting copyrights: The laws governing “intellectual property” have grown so expansive in recent years that artists need legal experts to sort them all out. Borrowing from another artwork–as jazz musicians did in the 1930s and Looney Tunes …

PW reports that the Nobel Prize has already given a lift to Imre Kertesz’s American publisher: Imre Kertesz, the hungarian novelist who won this year’s Nobel Prize for literature, has been a boon for Northwestern University Press, which publishes him in English. Acting press director Donna Shear says the house …

Just yesterday we noted a strange efflorescence of commodes in the news. It’s happened again: Citing the perception that people like to read on in the john, a German publisher has begun publishing toilet paper literature, including poems by Heinrich Heine and Christian Morgenstern, as well as short mystery stories, …

As previewed here, the FCC approved a plan for digital radio in the US: The Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to adopt digital radio technology created by iBiquity Digital, a company backed by large broadcasters including ABC and Viacom. The commissioners enthusiastically endorsed the technology, saying it will benefit the …

Colleges join corporations in clamping down on file sharing: The leaders of six major higher-education organizations are asking the presidents of all American colleges to take steps to stop illegal distribution of copyrighted materials, such as songs and motion pictures, through college computer networks. “Digital file sharing technology has made …

American Idol silver medalist Justin Guarini will get his turn in the spotlight as RCA announced it will release one or more records by the young man with the fro: RCA said Guarini was signed to 19 Recordings Ltd, the label of British entrepreneur, star-maker and “American Idol” producer Simon …

The TODAY Show is holding an Idol-like competition – do you have what it takes? Think you have what it takes to be the next Faith Hill, Enrique Iglesias or Alicia Keys? You mean they’re not looking for the next Iggy Pop? Tired of crooning in the shower and finally …

Interviews with execs from EMI and Unversal: EMI Group was once hailed as the music company that brought the world the Beatles, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. But by the time record veterans Alain Levy and David Munns took over the British company’s struggling music operations last October, employees …