Posted on: July 30th, 2008 And Then There Were Four?

Sony BMG Music Entertainment lost $49 million on sales in its first fiscal quarter. Over the same period last year, the company had a net income of $21 million. Sony is reportedly seeking to buy out the remaining 50% stake it doesn’t own in the company from German company Bertelsmann. The buy out could be complete by early August, as Bertelsmann has come down on their price from $1.2-1.5 billion to roughly $920 million. That would leave Sony, Warner, EMI and Universal as the only major record labels. Pretty soon there will just be one giant record label, called “The Record Label” How sad, Rollerball here we come….

Filed under: Business, Labels | No Comments »

Posted on: July 25th, 2008 Stones Sign New Deal

The Rolling Stones have signed a long term deal with the world’s largest record label, Universal Music. They left their longtime home at EMI due to the subsequent unrest following the label’s sale to Terra Firma. The new deal includes all of their post 1971 records, which unfortunately for Universal also includes Dirty Work, Steel Wheels and Bridges To Babylon to name a few of the stinkers the stones have laid over the past 25 years. The deal includes new records (can’t wait) as well as digital rights to the Stones catalog. The Stones records will be released on Polydor Records, a label actually older then the Stones themselves.

Filed under: 70s, Business, Labels | No Comments »