News Byte
Peter Kafka in Media on May 16 at 11:17 am PT
Harvey Geller, Universal Music Group’s longtime lawyer, left the company earlier this week. A person familiar with Universal said Geller was now headed for another job but didn’t have other details. His name will be familiar to many digital-media companies, since he often led fierce and sustained battles against them on behalf of the world’s biggest music label.
There won’t ever be a mass-market record industry again, and that’s fine with me because that industry didn’t operate for the benefit of the musicians or the audience, the only classes of people I care about.
– Music legend Steve Albini on Reddit
News Byte
Tricia Duryee in Commerce on May 2 at 10:43 am PT
The Verge is reporting that next week Microsoft is planning to sell subscriptions for the Xbox, similarly to how wireless carriers sell phones. Under the plan, the Xbox plus Kinect will cost $99 plus $15 a month for two years, including access to the Xbox Live Gold service and its streaming TV and music. Right now, the package appears to be cheaper than paying upfront for the console, though that doesn’t factor in any future price discounts for the aging hardware.
Peter Kafka in Media on May 2 at 4:00 am PT
Prettier pictures, same sound. Paying customers only.
Peter Kafka in Media on April 24 at 3:14 pm PT
A record $1.9 billion quarter for iTunes.
Kara Swisher in News on April 23 at 1:01 pm PT
ATD adds another staffer to the team.
Lauren Goode in Media on April 16 at 11:55 am PT
Most people now consider themselves “digital device adopters.” But what’s your digital personality? IBM’s latest study aims to find the answer.
