Morris, 71, has split his time the last few months courting advertisers for Vevo, he said in a Dec. 2 interview. The site will be introduced tomorrow at an event in New York where Mariah Carey, Rihanna and Lady Gaga are scheduled to attend. AT&T Inc., McDonalds Corp. and MasterCard Inc. have agreed to advertise, according to New York-based Vevo.
Vevo, powered by Google Inc.s YouTube and featuring music videos, concert footage, interviews and original content, allows record labels to attract premium-prices for ads while controlling how - - - - >

The collection will go on sale Oct. 6 exclusively at Walmart and Sams Club stores in the U.S. and Canada, said Tom Welch, senior music buyer at Walmart, in an interview Aug. 13. The set includes “Sonic Boom,” an 11-track compact disc with new material; a greatest-hits album with titles such as “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “I Was Made for Loving You;” and a DVD of a live concert in Buenos Aires.
Exclusive deals with retailers typically give artists more money than a traditional record - - - - >

Chinese incomes are lower than in the United States, and the quality of pirated entertainment there is quite good, making legal goods a tougher sell.
U.S. entertainment and media companies hope a World Trade Organization decision this week requiring Beijing to lower import barriers will make more legal products available in China, and perhaps diminish demand for pirated goods.
But theres a long to way to go in a country where a pirated DVD is easily available for a third of the price of a movie ticket - often before the movie opens in Asian cinemas.
“I dont care whether its pirated or - - - - >

Competition is increasing for music publishing catalogs and the income they generate from stores, radio and Web play, ads and movies. Last month KKR & Co., the private-equity firm run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, bought a majority stake in Bertelsmann AGs music-rights unit.
Unlike recorded music, publishing is buffered from falling CD sales by its more diverse revenue sources. Owners can earn cash returns of 7 percent to 20 percent or more a year, depending on the songs and how theyre marketed, investors and dealmakers - - - - >

“I remember going into his office when we were very small,” said MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, “when most other companies wouldnt pay attention to us.”
Holt, then a marketing vice president with Interscope Geffen A&M, urged bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Weezer and The Black Eyed Peas to nurture MySpace profile pages too. The bands streamed new songs for free on their MySpace profiles, and some had the best album launches of their careers.
“The artists loved it and it created a Pied Piper effect for the fans,” Holt said. When it came to music promotion, Holt realized, MySpace was like - - - - >

Spotify, a new legal virtual jukebox of more than six million tracks, offers unlimited music free of charge with ads every 20 minutes or ad-free for 9.99 pounds ($14.77) a month, creating a fresh revenue stream for record companies. More than 1 million people downloaded the application in five months after its October debut in Europe — just a few months longer than it took iTunes, backed by the cachet of Apple Inc.
Global music sales slumped more than 25 percent this decade and the industry says 95 - - - - >

Instead of just receiving licensing fees or a share of ad revenue from the online video site, Universal is seeking an equity relationship on an ad-supported site focused on high-quality music videos, separate from the grainy user-generated fare common to YouTubes main site.
Other record labels such as Warner Music Group Corp., Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Group Ltd. have also been contacted about the plan although they are not part of the talks. Universal is a division of Frances Vivendi SA.
The discussions began about a month ago but are still in the preliminary stages, said the people, who spoke on - - - - >

Google Map
In New York there is a vineyard right in the middle of downtown called City Winery. They offer among other things, a change to squeeze your own grapes with traditional methods, hand on vines like back in the old country.
Dr. Mark Pruzanski, president of biotech firm Intercept Pharmaceuticals, plucks out an unripe grape with a sticky hand. He’s living his pet fantasy of making his own wine.
Pruzanski signed up weeks ago to make a private-label barrel of cabernet, which will yield roughly 270 bottles. Cost: a $5,000 basic membership fee, plus $3,280 for grapes and $425 to $1,100 for - - - - >

In a move that gave Sony a large portion or market share in the recording industry, Sony Corp. bought out label Bertelsmann AG. The two had been partners but it the time had come for the electronics giant to claim full control of the business.
The music business combination four years ago made Sony BMG the world’s No. 2 record label, generating savings and pre-empting other industry consolidation. But the venture’s cost-cutting didn’t keep pace with falling CD sales, and the two companies’ digital strategies didn’t jibe.
So they called it quits, and Sony bought out its partner for $900 million in - - - - >

MySpace has started a program to release free music on its site with an attachment. In addition to no cost streaming, a partnership between Amazon and MySpace lets you see the option to purchace music with them.
In a bid to spruce up its popular online hangout, MySpace plans to flip the switch Thursday on a much-anticipated service that will give its roughly 120 million users free access to hundreds of thousands of songs from the world’s largest recording labels.
The catch: the music can be played only on personal computers connected to the Internet and listeners have to tolerate advertising splashed - - - - >