Showing posts with label deal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deal. Show all posts
Friday, July 29, 2011
@JayZ & @KanyeWest #album deal irks #Indie retailers
Watch the Throne is due for release on iTunes on 8 August
Scores of independent US music stores have written an open letter to Jay-Z and Kanye West over exclusive release deals for their upcoming album.
Watch The Throne will be released first on iTunes before the Best Buy chain's exclusive deal to sell the album nearly two weeks ahead of other music retailers.
The letter says the deal will do "great damage" to more than 1,700 record stores and calls for equal access.
Jay-Z's spokesman had no comment.
Posted by the organisers of Record Store Day, the letter has been signed by shops across the US and calls the release plan a "short-sighted strategy".
"We know that you are busy, and that you put most of your energies into creating great music, but we are writing to you in the hope that you will hear us and take the time to rectify this matter," the letter states.
"As representatives of the independent record store music community, we are asking you to allow record stores and music fans equal access to your new album."
'Disastrous'
Some of the letter's signatories have also threatened to pull current and previous releases by the two artists from their shelves.
Others in the music retail industry have also criticised the move.
"A two-week window will be disastrous for music retailers," said Eric Levin, owner of Criminal Records and the head of the Alliance of Independent Media Stores.
According to Billboard, between the two exclusive iTunes and Best Buy release windows, 75% of the demand for the album is expected to be satisfied within 10 days.
Exclusive release deals are now common for top acts.
Recent examples include AC/DC's Black Ice given to Wal-Mart, while Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy
and the Rolling Stones Biggest Bang DVD package, were also sold through Best Buy.
Record Store Day was created in 2007 to celebrate independently owned record stores in response to counter media coverage about the demise of record shops.
However, independent stores have suffered a decline over the last decade due to digital music sales.
BBC News - Entertainment & Art
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
#NFL #Football: #Lockout OVER, Let the Games begin
The deal means the Green Bay Packers will start the defence of their NFL Championship on 8 September as scheduled
NFL owners and players have agreed a new deal which ends fears of a strike blighting the coming season.
The two sides reached agreement - which will be in force for the next 10 years - after months of thorny negotiations on issues including how annual revenues of $9bn (£5.5bn) are divided.The NFL Players' Association decision to accept the deal comes after the clubs' owners backed it last week.
Green Bay will host New Orleans in the regular season's opener on 8 September.
The players' union and the owners worked throughout the weekend on a mutually acceptable settlement, and the Associated Press reported that the final deal was reached on Monday morning.
Key to the agreement was exactly what proportion of the NFL's revenue should go to the players.
The old deal - which expired in March after the league's 32 owners decided to opt out of it back in 2008, and saw players being locked out for the first time since the 1987 strike - saw revenues split roughly 50-50.
It is understood that the new agreement will see the owners keep 53% and the players 47%.
There will also be a team salary cap, which includes bonuses, of about $120m (£73.6m) in place for the 2011 season, and something similar for 2012 and 2013.
A new salary system will also be introduced to deal with the issue of rookies' pay.
And players will be granted unrestricted free agency after four seasons with a club, rather than three under the old deal.
"Our guys stood together when nobody thought we would. And football is back because of it."
-DeMaurice Smith NFL Players Association chief NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said of the long-awaited deal: "This is a long time coming, and football's back. And that's the great news for everybody."
And NFL Players' Association chief DeMaurice Smith said: "We didn't get everything that either side wanted... but we did arrive at a deal that we think is fair and balanced.
"I know it has been a very long process since the day we stood here that night in March.
"But our guys stood together when nobody thought we would. And football is back because of it."
Preparations for the coming season will now be accelerated, with clubs scrambling to sign young players who were picked in this spring's draft, as well as rookie free agents.
Talks with veteran free agents could also start on Tuesday, with signings beginning on Friday.
The Associated Press reports that training camps will open for 10 teams on Wednesday, 10 teams on Thursday, another 10 teams on Friday, and the last two teams on Sunday.
The deal makes it likely that the latest NFL International Series game between Tampa Bay and Chicago at Wembley will go ahead as planned on Sunday, 23 October.
The lockout of NFL players lasted 132 days before the sides reached a full agreement on the new collective bargaining agreement on Monday.
The deal ends several court battles and a war of words between labor and management. 
Here’s a look at how the spring and summer of discontent came to an end:
| Date | Description | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb. 6 | Super Bowl XLV: Packers 31, Steelers 25 | ||||||||||||
| March 1 | Minnesota district Judge Dave Doty ruled owners illegally created a $4 billion lockout fund by redoing TV contracts and sought to “harm” players | ||||||||||||
| March 9 | Sources claim agreement reached on rookie pay scale. Cole story | ||||||||||||
| March 11 | NFL Players Association decertifies as a union | ||||||||||||
| March 12 | Owners officially lock out players | ||||||||||||
| March 15 | Vikings RB Adrian Peterson says NFL is "modern-day slavery" in interview with Shutdown Corner. | ||||||||||||
| March 28 | Retired NFL players file antitrust lawsuit against NFL | ||||||||||||
| April 11 | NFLPA announces Rookie Debut lineup, confirming it won’t boycott/interfere with NFL draft | ||||||||||||
| April 20 | "Mid-tier" players reportedly demand seat at negotiating table. Wetzel story | ||||||||||||
| April 25 | U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson rules the lockout should be lifted to save players irreversible damage. | ||||||||||||
| April 26 | Date that NFL free agency would have begun | ||||||||||||
| April 28 | NFL draft still commences, but fans boo commissioner Roger Goodell | ||||||||||||
| April 29 | 8th Circuit panel puts Nelsons ruling on hold four days later | ||||||||||||
| May 16 | U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals grants NFL owners a stay. Wetzel: NFL players must decide how long to battle | ||||||||||||
| May 25 | NFL Coaches Association files brief with Eighth Circuit expressing support for players | ||||||||||||
| June 3 | Full appeal scheduled in Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for legality of lockout. | ||||||||||||
| June 7 | Owners, players meet secretly at a New York City hotel | ||||||||||||
| June 14 | Owners, players continue secret sessions near Baltimore | ||||||||||||
| June 21 | Owners meet in Chicago | ||||||||||||
| June 22 | Owners, players meet outside of Boston for the first of two days | ||||||||||||
| June 28 | Goodell and Smith fly together to attend rookie symposium, a sign of “progress” in the labor talks | ||||||||||||
| July 4 | Cited as date needed to insure normal season Cole story | ||||||||||||
| July 7 | Owners, players meet at Manhattan law firm | ||||||||||||
| July 8 | Eighth Circuit Court rules that lockout is legal | ||||||||||||
| July 11 | Legal teams representing owners, players meet in Manhattan | ||||||||||||
| July 13 | Owners and players join talks | ||||||||||||
| July 21 | Owners vote 31-0 to ratify CBA proposal. | ||||||||||||
| July 25 | Players vote 32-0 to ratify CBA agreement. | ||||||||||||
| Aug. 11 | First week of preseason (Thurs-Mon.) | ||||||||||||
| Sept. 8 | First regular season game: Saints at Packers | ||||||||||||
| Sept. 11 | Week 1 Sunday games |
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