Universal Music Settles Big Payola Case. History | Universal Music. Universal settles payola probe. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Universal Music Group Recordings Inc., the world's largest record company, has agreed to pay $12 million to settle a payola case that claimed the company provided vacations, electronics and other bribes to increase radio play for their artists, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Thursday. The bribes and gifts were used to gain airplay for songs that included records by Nick Lachey, Ashlee Simpson, Brian McKnight, Big Tymers, and Lindsay Lohan, Spitzer said. The California-based company agreed to pay the cash to charity along with $100,000 to cover the cost of the investigation and to adopt reforms, Spitzer said. The company didn't admit guilt, but acknowledged "various employees and independent promoters acting on behalf of the company" engaged in the illegal practice, Spitzer said.
The room was listed as a contest prize for accounting purposes. Spitzer said UMG used interns and employees and "outside vendors" to pose as listeners requesting UMG songs. Warp Records: They Came from the Future. As Warp Records blows out twenty candles, The Skinny talks to a cast of characters from its intimidating roster about the indelible mark the UK's biggest independent label has made on popular music. As Warp enters its third decade, it is increasingly difficult to imagine what the musical landscape of the UK would look like without the label and its impressive roster of iconoclasts.
Warp’s ‘golden era’ of the mid-nineties – when they were releasing the seminal works of Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and Nightmares on Wax – may be over, but in the past ten years the label has evolved to incorporate the angular rock of Battles and Maxïmo Park, and has developed and nurtured the careers of film-makers like Chris Morris, Chris Cunningham and Shane Meadows. Nightmares on Wax, the label’s longest-serving artist, reflects on Beckett’s approach: “That’s the nuts of the whole Warp success story – seeing potential in something, and then allowing that potential to come out in its own natural way. Warp Records @ 20 | ForgeToday.com.
An innocuous branch of Costa Coffee is perhaps not the most obvious place to consider as the birthplace of a seminal record label. But the shop housing the coffee chain on Division Street was once home to FON. Owned by Steve Beckett and the late Rob Mitchell, it was this small shop and their vision that became Warp; firstly a record label and shop, and latterly an absolute empire of creativity.
Beckett and Mitchell were operating in Sheffield at a time where Northern England was throbbing to the beats of techno and acid house. Tom Panton, Head of Live at the label, explains more: “Local DJs were making tracks that crossed the Detroit and Chicago template with elements of the Sheffield/Leeds/Bradford dub soundsystem culture, such as cavernous echo and massive bass.
“I think Steve and Rob’s only gameplan at that point was to release kickass dance tracks that slayed dancefloors.” “In terms of acts, Steve just signs whatever moves him and he finds exciting, regardless of genre,” says Panton. The Music Industries - Key Issues. UMG's Bravado, Tommy Hilfiger Sign Global Branding Deal. Universal Music Group's global merchandising company Bravado, is joining forces with Music Entertainment Sports Holdings (MESH), a global consumer goods company to co-create contemporary lifestyle brands inspired by music and fashion. The venture will develop, market and distribute diversified collections based on Bravado's artists, which include The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Paul McCartney, Eminem and Kanye West. The line is expected to be available in stores before the end of the year. The announcement was made by Lucian Grainge, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group, Tom Bennett, CEO of Bravado, and MESH partners Tommy Hilfiger, Joe Lamastra, Andy Hilfiger and Bernt Ullmann.
"Bravado's clients are among the most iconic musical artists in pop culture," Mr. Grainge said in a statement. "I am incredibly excited to be a part of this historic fusion of fashion, music, and retail," Tommy Hilfiger said in a statement. Mr. Overview | Universal Music. Universal Music Group (UMG) is the global music leader with strong market positions in recorded music, music publishing, and merchandising. The recorded music business discovers and develops recording artists and then markets and promotes their music across a wide array of formats and platforms. UMG's music publishing company, Universal Music Publishing Group, discovers and develops songwriters, and owns and administers copyrights to musical compositions for use in recordings, public performances, and related uses, such as films and advertisements.
Bravado, UMG’s merchandising company, sells artist and music branded products via multiple sales points including online, fashion retail, and live performances. Record Labels Artist Roster UMG’s roster is comprised of artists covering the full spectrum of music around the world, making UMG the leader in both international and local repertoire. Classical & Jazz Repertoire, Broadway and Film Scores Music Catalog Music Catalog Management Merchandising. Behind the music: The real reason why the major labels love Spotify. The launch of Spotify in the UK must surely be one of the biggest PR successes for an online music service.
Despite only having spent around £5,000 on marketing since 2006 (according to Daniel Ek, one of Spotify's founders), they've managed to gain huge media coverage – not least in The Guardian. It's been described as sexy, incredibly user-friendly and the future – maybe even the saviour – of legal music consumption. I've met Ek, a fellow Swede. He seemed like a really nice guy who loves music, and when he said it's important that artists are compensated, I really wanted Spotify to be all the things the hype had promised. I signed up and quickly realised that, yes, Spotify is indeed user-friendly – if not for discovering new music, for rediscovering music from my teenage years as well as records I've lost along the way. But I wondered how artists could be compensated with so few adverts (sometimes, despite being logged on for hours, I haven't seen any ads at all). In Rainbows.
In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a download via a pay-what-you-want model, followed by a standard CD release in most countries in the last week of 2007. The album was released in North America on 1 January 2008 on TBD Records. In Rainbows was Radiohead's first release after the end of their contract with EMI and the end of the longest gap between studio albums in their career.
Recording with producer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead worked on In Rainbows for more than two years, beginning in early 2005. In between recording, the band toured Europe and North America for three months in mid-2006. Upon its retail release, In Rainbows entered the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200 at number one; by October 2008, it had sold more than three million copies worldwide in both digital and physical formats. Production[edit] Recording[edit] Music and lyrical content[edit] Artwork[edit] Release[edit] Radiohead Says: Pay What You Want. Roughly 12,000 albums are released in an average year, so the announcement late Sunday night that the new Radiohead record, In Rainbows, will be out Oct. 10 is not itself big news. Sure, Radiohead is on a sustained run as the most interesting and innovative band in rock, but what makes In Rainbows important — easily the most important release in the recent history of the music business — are its record label and its retail price: there is none, and there is none.
In Rainbows will be released as a digital download available only via the band's web site, Radiohead.com. There's no label or distribution partner to cut into the band's profits — but then there may not be any profits. Drop In Rainbows' 15 songs into the online checkout basket and a question mark pops up where the price would normally be. Click it, and the prompt "It's Up To You" appears. Click again and it refreshes with the words "It's Really Up To You" — and really, it is.
From Disc to Digital: A Case Study on Radiohead's "Name Your Own Price" Method. Over the past decade, the music industry has experienced extreme change due to digitization. Not only has it affected the way that music is recorded and produced, but it has also affected the entire business model of how music is promoted and distributed to the public, as well as how revenue is earned. Prior to the digital era, major labels were one of the primary distributors of music, and physical record sales were the one of industry’s main revenue sources. But when recordings were transformed to electronic format and free music sources such as illegal downloading and streaming evolved, this main revenue source was taken away. However, music digitization also opened many doors for artists, allowing them the tools and capabilities to promote and distribute their own work, as well as exposing their music to a wider audience.
Even under the most lucrative record deals, artists can end up with less than 30% of overall sales revenue, which is then often split among several band members. Would Adele have been as successful if she was signed to a major label? Adele at the MTV Video Music awards 2011. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/WireImage Record label trade organisation BPI has published its end of year sales statistics and, unsurprisingly, Adele tops both the singles (Someone Like You) and album charts (21).
But what the stats also reveal is some of the majors' ineptitude to develop proper album-artist careers. Sony Music doesn't have a single album in the top 10, despite the fact it usually accounts for more than 20% of record sales. EMI doesn't fare much better. So what's gone wrong? But the problem runs deeper. It's not just that Adele is an exceptional artist – she's been supported and developed by her label. Yet labels are now all looking to sign "the next Adele". Instead of signing loads of acts, hoping that one of them sticks, Russell keeps his roster small. The more money spent on artists, the bigger the pressure to deliver as quickly as possible, as shareholders want to see a return on their investment. Epic Records drops Death Grips over album leak. Death Grips have pushed their label one step too far. Epic Records announced on Thursday that they are "working to dissolve [their] relationship" with the hip-hop group, a month after the band posted their new album as a free download.
"Epic Records is a music first company that breaks new artists," the major label told Pitchfork. "That is our mission and our mandate. Unfortunately, when marketing and publicity stunts trump the actual music, we must remind ourselves of our core values. To that end, effective immediately, we are working to dissolve our relationship with Death Grips. We wish them well. " Epic's decision does not just follow the leak of No Love Deep Web, which is still available for free online. Accused of breaching their contract, Death Grips are ordered to surrender their master recordings and remove the music from the web. Music Industry Case Study.