Hypebot’s New Music Business Briefing For Thursday November 30th, 2006
> Universal expects MySpace to settle their lawsuit.
"I think it will settle. It would be a horrible case for them to lose," music head Doug Morris said at the Reuters Media Summit in New York.(Reuters via cNet)
> Warner Music buys UK firm The Rights Company and gets into the video content business. (Variety)
> Set your alarm clocks: The Warner Music Group 4thQ earnings call is tomorrow (Friday) at 8:30AM EST. Expect flat numbers and slower download growth.
To listen: (800) 857-2625 or (210)
234-6601. Passcode is “Warner Music.” A replay of the call will be at
(866) 443-1220 or (203) 369-1096 for a week. There is also webcast at www.wmg.com.
> Founder Jac Holzman talks about the early days at Elektra Records. (Guardian Unlimited)
> Are The Beatles finally headed to iTunes? (TechWeb) Not bad news for potential EMI investors. (see below)
> Music attorney Stephen Gordon has written a an op-ed piece skeptical about how much of the $1 Universal is getting for each Zune will go to the aritst. (Register UK)
> EMI stock continued its two day upward trend on the news of a buyout by one or more financial groups. But their trying to keep it business as usual within EMI including a new UK mobile marketing deal with Flytxt. (press release) Expect more similar deals from both majors and indies. And don’t miss the story we broke on EMI experimenting with the mp3 format. (here)
