Tag Archives: Sony

T.I. Makes His Label Demands

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T.I. Makes His Label Demands

Former Atlantic Records hip-hop star T.I. isn’t trying to hear any conversation about signing with any new label if they aren’t talking the right amount of money. During a recent radio interview, Tip made it plain that he knows his worth and only wants to discuss signing with a label that understands how many ways he generates revenue.

“I am currently a free agent. Everything’s coming out my pockets. Y’all do me all the favors you want to,” he told 94.3. “There’s nothing wrong with a helping hand. [laughs] You know what the problem is, nobody wants to pay fair market value. I done went into all the distribution houses, the Sony‘s, the Universal‘s and the Warner’s of the world and it’s across the board. The consensus is pretty much unanimous, they want to be in business, they just don’t want to pay to be in business. And so I’ma tell you like this — you might be able to catch you knows who’s out of you knows where but you ain’t gonna be able to get no ‘King’ on your roster, man or anything less than eight-figures. I’m just gonna tell everybody, let that be a message to you. I can nickel and dime myself to where I’m going.”

“You got the recording industry, publishing, you got touring, you got merch, you got film, you got television, you got fashion, you know what I’m saying?” he continued. “Technology. That’s eight areas of business, right now currently, that I’m generating streams of revenue from. If you feel like you want to participate in all eight of those things, it’s going to cost you about 50, 60 million [dollars]. But if you only want one or two of those things, then come to the table with 12 or 15 [million dollars], we can talk about that too.”

via: hiphopblog

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Lauryn Hill Writes Open Letter

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Check out the letter below:

It has been reported that I signed a new record deal, and that I did this to pay taxes. Yes, I have recently entered into an agreement with Sony Worldwide Entertainment, to launch a new label, on which my new music will be released. And yes, I am working on new music.

I’ve remained silent, after an extensive healing process. This has been a 10+ year battle, for a long time played out behind closed doors, but now in front of the public eye. This is an old conflict between art and commerce… free minds, and minds that are perhaps overly tethered to structure. This is about inequity, and the resulting disenfranchisement caused by it. I’ve been fighting for existential and economic freedom, which means the freedom to create and live without someone threatening, controlling, and/or manipulating the art and the artist, by tying the purse strings.

It took years for me to get out of the ‘parasitic’ dynamic of my youth, and into a deal that better reflects my true contribution as an artist, and (purportedly) gives me the control necessary to create a paradigm suitable for my needs. I have been working towards this for a long time, not just because of my current legal situation, but because I am an artist, I love to create, and I need the proper platform to do so.

The nature of my new business venture, as well as the dollar amount reported, was inaccurate, only a portion of the overall deal. Keep in mind, my past recordings have sold over 50,000,000 units worldwide, earning the label a tremendous amount of money (a fraction of which actually came to me).

Only a completely complicated set of traps, manipulations, and inequitable business arrangements could put someone who has accomplished the things that I have, financially in need of anything. I am one artist who finds value in openly discussing the dynamics within this industry that force artists to compromise or distort themselves and what they do, rather than allowing them to make the music that people need. There are volumes that could (and will) be said.

 

Lauryn Hill Signs New Record Deal, Tax Evasion Sentencing Delayed

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Reports TMZ:

Lauryn Hill just bought herself a couple weeks of freedom.

The R&B legend was to be sentenced to prison today after pleading guilty to blowing off her 2005-2007 tax returns … but the sentencing was moved to May 6 to give Lauryn a chance to repay a chunk of her $968,000 tax debt. Hill’s attorney said the singer recently signed a million-dollar recording deal with Sony … she was also planning to take out a $650,000 loan to put toward the bill. Hill faces several years in prison … but her attorney is hoping for probation.

A pricey new record deal would certainly help L Boogie’s cause that she’ll be able to pay Uncle Sam all their dough if she is able to drop a new album and tour. Late last year she hit the road with Nas for the “Life Is Good/Black Rage” tour. ”Black Rage” was the name of a single that Ms. Hill was thought to be dropping. However,  that has not happened as of yet.

via:hiphopwired.com

Beyoncé’s Album ‘Mrs Carter’ Pushed Back

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Well rumors are swirling that Beyoncé long awaited new album may be pushed back to the fall. According to music industry insiders there is concern surrounding the two singles she has released. According to Virgin Radio reports:

While Beyoncé’s Mrs. Carter album was initially given an April 16th release date, the project is now being pushed back because her promotional songs have flopped. A source from Sony has said of “Bow Down” and “I Been On”, “No one thought that both records would fall flat. They were supposed to be her biggest two songs off the album.” The source adds that Beyonce is starting fresh and will not release a single or an album before she goes on tour next month. The insider said, “It’s back to the drawing board. More promo songs will be released, until she gets a hit song that everyone will embrace.”

via:gumbumper.com

Sony Unveils Next Generation Playstation 4 Console [PHOTOS]

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Sony just unveiled its next generation gaming console, the Playstation 4. Although it was foregone that the new system would be unveiled at tonight’s media event, speculation has turned to reality as Sony reveals details about this powerful system and all its bells and whistles.Engadget reports that after an introduction from Sony Computer Entertainment President and CEO Andrew House,  lead system architect Mark Cerny detailed the PS4′s development, which was five years in the making.

“We were able to create in PlayStation 4 a system by game creators, for game creators,” Cerny said. As far as specs, he said it runs on x86 architecture, a “highly enhanced” PC GPU (with “almost 2 teraflops of performance,” he added), an unknown amount of local HDD storage, and 8GB of GDDR5 system memory. Cerny next unveiled the DualShock 4, which looks an awful lot like the leaks we saw recently — it features a touchpad, a light bar, and what looks like rubberized grips. Otherwise, it looks an awful lot like a DualShock 3 with some new bells and whistles.

So far there are robust game streaming features, social media integration, the ability to play games as they are downloading and much much more. One particularly interesting reveal, PS3 game will not be backwards compatible with the new console but all PS1, PS2 and PS3 games will be playable from the cloud. Also, the PS4 will have 16X more RAM than the Xbox 360 which will allow to start playing a game (“suspend/resume” functionality) as soon as you turn the power on. Check out some photos of the event, hardware and software below. Your move, Microsoft.

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YouTube Deletes 2 Billion Fake Views From Universal, Sony & RCA Videos

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YouTube Deletes 2 Billion Fake Views From Universal, Sony & RCA Videos

It looks like three major record companies - Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG and RCA Records - are in hot water with YouTube. According to The Daily Dot, the popular Internet video provider has stripped the three music groups of more than 2 billion falsified video views. Last week, YouTube’s parent company Google retracted upwards of 2 billion views from videos published by UMG, Sony/BMG and RCA. These views are believed to be the product of “black hat” view count-building techniques, in which third-party companies inflate the total view tallies as a means to manipulate a video’s popularity and its increase exposure on YouTube. The biggest offender of the three record houses was Universal Music Group, who was stripped of over a billion views out of its total 7 billion hits. Sony/BMG and RCA were hardly spared either, with the two companies losing 850 million and 159 million views, respectively.

Yet these lost views aren’t the only punitive measures that Google has taken against the three companies. All but five of UMG’s published videos have been deleted from its channel, while the number of videos on Sony’s channel has been pared down to three. Google’s crackdown on these black hat views has affected more than 500 different official artist channels, including channels for Chris Brown, Beyoncé, Michael Jackson and many more. UMG is the first of the three companies to acknowledge its dip in views, and cited its shift to publishing videos on VEVO as the reason why its YouTube channel had been downsized. DX will keep you updated as more information comes to light. via:hiphopdx