“Beatles’ old record company safe for now” plus 3

Beatles’ old record company safe for now
McCartney blames EMI for lack of digital Beatles songs
McCartney blames EMI for lack of digital Beatles songs
UC Berkeley Beatles History Class In High Demand

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Beatles’ old record company safe for now

Posted: 15 May 2010 12:19 AM PDT

'+'>'); } -->

Similar Stories

Similar stories:

EMI raises enough cash to fend off foreclosure
EMI raises enough cash to fend off foreclosure

British recording company EMI Group Ltd. said Friday it has raised enough cash to fend off foreclosure by its main lender, Citigroup.
EMI, home of the Beatles, Lily Allen and Norah Jones, said that financier Guy Hands' private equity firm, Terra Firma, intends to invest additional money in EMI so the company can stay in compliance with the terms of its debt.
EMI Music Executive chairman Charles Allen said in a statement that the commitment was "a vote of confidence in EMI from Terra Firma and its investors."
Summary Box: EMI raises cash to avoid foreclosure
Summary Box: EMI raises cash to avoid foreclosure

SAVING GRACE: British recording company EMI Group PLC says parent Terra Firma will inject enough cash into the company to fend off a foreclosure by its main lender, Citigroup.
TEMPORARY SALVE: Terra Firma will inject 105 million pounds ($153 million) into EMI by June 14. That will keep the company from breaking the rules of its debt covenant through next March. The 3.1 billion pound loan is due in 2015.
TURNAROUND IN WORKS? EMI's U.S. share of album sales from January through last week rose to 11.5 percent, compared with 9.2 percent a year ago, thanks in part to a new album from country band Lady Antebellum.
EMI effort to sell rights in North America falls short
EMI effort to sell rights in North America falls short

Struggling music group EMI faces being taken over by its bankers after failing to clinch a deal to sell the North American distribution rights for its artists to Universal Music Group or Sony Music.
EMI, which has the Beatles, Coldplay, Lily Allen and Pink Floyd on its books, had hoped to raise around $304 million by offering its rivals a five-year licensing contract.
A source close to both sets of talks, who requested anonymity because the discussions were private, said Thursday that they fell apart after a failure to agree on price. EMI declined to comment.
Warner Music Group posts smaller 2Q loss
Warner Music Group posts smaller 2Q loss

Cost-cutting efforts helped Warner Music Group Corp. narrow its fiscal second-quarter loss as the recording industry continues to struggle to make the transition to selling music over the Internet.
The company said Thursday that broader economic weakness is still weighing on consumers. Revenue from online sales rose, but not enough to offset the decline in compact disc sales.
Warner lost $25 million, or 17 cents per share, in the first three months of the year. That compares with a loss of $68 million, or 45 cents per share, a year ago.
US music compilation album guru Bob Mercer dies
US music compilation album guru Bob Mercer dies

Music industry executive Bob Mercer, who signed the Sex Pistols while at EMI Music in the 1970s and most recently successfully marketed hit-single compilation albums, has died. He was 65.
Mercer died of lung cancer May 5 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his wife of 31 years Margie said.
While at EMI, Mercer signed Queen, the Sex Pistols, Olivia Newton-John, Kate Bush and Marc Bolan. In 1980, he moved to EMI Films before becoming manager for artists such as Roger Waters.

EMI Group, the 79-year-old record company of The Beatles, was given a lifeline Friday after investors agreed to inject enough cash to maintain banking agreements.

Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. will put more cash into the label, EMI said. Otherwise, it could have ended up in the hands of creditor Citigroup.

"We are very pleased in ... the vote of confidence in EMI from Terra Firma and its investors, following the significant improvement in the company's operating performance," EMI Executive Chairman Charles Allen said.

Comments

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service.

Comments are displayed newest first. If you would like to read a thread from beginning to end, select "Oldest first" from the drop down menu.

Showing:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

South Sound Shopping .com

VIEW ALL »

McCartney blames EMI for lack of digital Beatles songs

Posted: 15 May 2010 07:03 AM PDT

Paul McCartney has criticized executives at record label giant EMI for failing to bring the Beatles' music into the digital age - insisting "business hassles" have kept the Fab Four's tunes off the internet.

The band's tracks are currently not licensed for internet downloads, meaning fans are unable to buy the songs digitally through online retailers such as Apple's iTunes store.

Bosses at EMI, the company that owns the Beatles' recordings, have long been in negotiations with the surviving bandmembers and Apple Corps to make the catalogue available online - but the talks have so far failed to result in a deal.

McCartney has put the blame on EMI, but hopes the "crazy" situation will be resolved in the future.

He tells BBC Newsbeat, "To tell you the truth I don't actually understand how it's got so crazy. I know iTunes would like to do it, so one day it's going to happen. It's been business hassles, not with us, or iTunes. It's the people in the middle, the record label. There have been all sorts of reasons why they don't want to do it."

But McCartney doesn't fear that a new generation of internet-using music fans will miss out on the group's legacy.

He adds, "We get so played and noticed and tributed (sic) as the Beatles that I'm not complaining."

A statement from EMI reads, "Discussions are ongoing. (We) would love to see The Beatles' music available for sale digitally."

Copyright WENN.com

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

McCartney blames EMI for lack of digital Beatles songs

Posted: 15 May 2010 06:53 AM PDT

The band's tracks are currently not licensed for internet downloads, meaning fans are unable to buy the songs digitally through online retailers such as Apple's iTunes store.

McCartney has put the blame on EMI, but hopes the "crazy" situation will be resolved in the future.

But McCartney doesn't fear that a new generation of internet-using music fans will miss out on the group's legacy.

He adds, "We get so played and noticed and tributed (sic) as the Beatles that I'm not complaining."

A statement from EMI reads, "Discussions are ongoing. (We) would love to see The Beatles' music available for sale digitally."

Copyright WENN.com

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

UC Berkeley Beatles History Class In High Demand

Posted: 14 May 2010 10:37 PM PDT

E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

The following page was sent to

UC Berkeley Beatles History Class In High Demand

A copy was sent to your e-mail address

Send Another E-mail

Print Share +

Digg

Facebook

Stumble It!

del.icio.us

Fark

Twitter

Comments (1)

UC Berkeley Beatles History Class In High Demand

Linda Yee, Reporting.
BERKELEY (CBS 5) ―

Click to enlarge: The Beatles.
AP

It's one of the hottest classes on the UC Berkeley campus. Eager students took a quiz just to qualify, with a waiting list twice the capacity of the classroom.

Back in 1964, they caused the screams heard around the country. 46 years later, the Beatles are rocking a new generation with a two unit, fully accredited class at Cal.

All fourteen albums in the Fab Four's catalogue are heard during the course. But it's not just about listening to the Beatles music, there are lectures and heady discussions.

The course was conceived and taught by undergrad Max Keller.

"I've dedicated chunks of my life to creating this course," Keller said. "I took almost a year to build this course from the ground up. I researched; I read 15-20 books. I went back and I learned every aspect of them."

Keller is 22 years and old and wasn't even born when the band broke up in 1970.

"But it doesn't matter when you were born. People love them regardless of their age, their music is timeless," Keller said.

Assistant Professor Ken Ueno of the school's music department sponsors the course.

"So many classes here are so intense. It does lighten things up a little bit. It doesn't necessarily mean they're getting an easy credit for anything," Ueno said.

And it isn't easy getting in.

"We had to write why we like the Beatles," said student Rebecca Gibson. "Which of the albums are our favorites, and he would go over everything and pick people."

For the past two semesters, there have been waiting lists.

"I got 90 to 100 responses the first semester from people who wanted to take it. And I just got shy of that this semester, and I can only fit roughly 40 people" Keller said. "People love them and people are fighting tooth and nail to get in. This has become an incredibly popular class, beyond my wildest dreams."

This new generation of Beatles fans were swept up in the music thru video games and new digital releases.

"I'm not sure why, it's just a cultural phenomenon. They're catching on again," student Lucas Campbell said.

They view documentaries, Beatle movies, and read books that cover their lives to those weirder moments in Beatles history.

But don't suggest it's an easy class.

"They have assignments that they have to do, they have to write papers and there will be a final," Keller said.

Speaking of a final, how much Beatles trivia does the teacher know?

CBS 5: Who sat in for Ringo when he was sick, on tour in Australia?

Keller: Jimmy Nichols, during the '64 tour.

CBS 5: What pseudonym did Paul use, and for which song?

Keller: This is a tough one.

The answer is Bernard Webb for the song "Woman" by Peter and Gordon.

Keller was stumped with that question, but but he knows a lot of Beatles history.

The course won't be offered next semester, Max Keller is graduating. But they're looking for another Beatles expert to take up the course in Spring 2011.

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Beatles

Saturday, May 15, 2010