Mogul City Media & Entertainment Group

Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, and Kiwibox (http://kiwibox.com/), a social networking destination and online magazine for teens, today announced the availability of over 5,000, full-length, searchable UMG music videos. Kiwibox is the primary business unit of Magnitude Information Systems, Inc. (Magnitude) (OTC Bulletin Board: MAGY.OB). The videos, a result of the partnership struck between UMG and Kiwibox, bring high quality entertainment to Kiwibox's 2.4 million teen members while providing them the opportunity to connect and interact about their favorite artists. The launch of Kiwibox Music Videos creates a branded and sponsor friendly environment where advertisers can interact with the Kiwibox teen audience around high quality video content. "The music business continues to evolve within the Web 2.0 space and UMG's video syndication offering is a great way for Kiwibox, which already delivers a compelling destination for the sought-af

Audiolife (www.Audiolife.com), the Los Angeles-based Artist Services Company responsible for the development of a new media web-platform specifically designed for indie artists to sell music online and on-demand to fans, has released an in-depth report of findings on the future of selling CDs online. The report, "The New Way to Sell CDs Online: More Cost-Effective, Flexible and Profitable," compares the Audiolife model to competitors like CD Baby and Nimbit, and provides clear quantitative data to support the advantages of using Audiolife. The data proves that artists who sell up to 2,500 CDs online will make more money through Audiolife than they would through traditional CD distribution outlets. There are currently hundreds of thousands of artists selling their CDs online that don't sell more than 2,500 units. In fact, the average artist on CD Baby sells less than 5 CDs per year. This new model offers a cost-effective alternative that will allow artists to spend money o

Sony’s $65 million acquisition of online video sharing start-up Grouper has ignited another play at the “Who will buy YouTube” game. This version of the game includes a bonus question: How much will be (over) paid? CNET’s “YouTube could be a steal at $1 billion” states: By agreeing to pay $65 million for Grouper–a profitless video-sharing company with negligible market share–Sony has helped establish a benchmark for other companies in the space and sent industry insiders speculating wildly about what market leader YouTube may be worth. Sony’s acquisition Wednesday of Grouper, which owns less than 1 percent of the online video market, begs a rather obvious question about its far larger rival YouTube, which owns 43 percent market share: If someone were to buy YouTube tomorrow, what would they have to pay? DMReview’s definition of “Market Share”: A company’s sales expressed as a percentage of the sales for the total industry. YouTube doesn’t have 43% market share of sales for any industry

Powerful Webinar Series Reveals: All the Secrets to Mad "Growth" in 2009 Admit it! You'd much rather watch ESPN than listen to the media discuss the recession, unemployment and/or business failures. But, as a small business owner, you can't escape reality by simply flipping the channel. You still have to face the long hours, lost leads, and dwindling sales numbers. But now, we've got something to help you out! Consider this your exclusive invitation to attend March Madness. Register here: https://crm.infusionsoft.com/go/mmw/nymarket No, we're not giving you tickets to sold-out basket ball games. What we're giving you is even better - a FREE, four-part webinar series that will hand you practical tools for making mad money...despite the economy. We're calling this webinar series March Madness and during the four events we'll reveal: Secrets to improving your internet traffic Easy ways to write highly-profitable copy Proven website techniques to capt

LOS ANGELES – The widow of producer Aaron Spelling is placing "The Manor" in the exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood on the market for a jaw-dropping $150 million, making it by far the most expensive home for sale in the U.S. The French chateau-style mansion has 56,500 square feet of space on more than 4.6 acres and is the largest home in Los Angeles County. Among the neighbors are the Los Angeles Country Club and, not too far away, the Playboy Mansion. Spelling's late husband produced hit shows such as "Charlie's Angels," "Dynasty" and "Beverly Hills 90210." He died in 2006. "Everything there is glamorous, and is luxurious and it's really great scale," said Sally Forster Jones, an agent with Coldwell Banker Previews International in Los Angeles, which is co-listing the property. "There really is nothing to compare it to." Spelling told The Associated Press that she let her dog Madison, a soft-coated Wheaten Terrie

*Jackson, Miss. --The legendary Malaco Music Group, after 40-plus successful years of making southern rhythm & blues and gospel hits, has tapped industry veteran Lionel Ridenour to head up its new Urban Music Division. The Urban Division will bring a mix of established and new cutting edge talent from the worlds of Hip Hop and R&B to the legendary soul, blues and Gospel label. "We are excited about branching out into new territory with our Urban Music Division and Lionel Ridenour was our first choice to helm this project," said Tommy Couch, President of Malaco. He brings with him to Malaco, 20 years of working with the best that Hip Hop and R&B have to offer. We look forward to working with Lionel and the talented new artists that he will be escorting through our doors." Under his deal with Malaco, Ridenour will also focus on bringing the industry's hottest new urban independent labels to the Music Division. "Our plan is to create a new home for

In an event that hits the computer world only once every few years, security experts are racing against time to mitigate the impact of a bit of malware which is set to wreak havoc on a hard-coded date. As is often the case, that date is April 1. Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years. Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent... though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives. Thanks in part to a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the head of the writer of the worm, offered by Microsoft, security researchers are aggressively digging into the worm's code as they attempt to engineer a cure or find the writer before the deadline. What's k

The 2nd Annual Urban Music Awards USA is set to take over New York City on July 18th, 2009 at Manhattan's Highline Ballroom. In light of the recent success of US and UK collaborations featuring UMA nominees Estelle feat. Kanye West, Taio Cruz feat. Busta Rhymes, M.I.A feat. Jay-Z, TI, Kanye West and more. The UMA's are returning with the 'United We Stand' initiative, which offers the opportunity to see the best UK has to offer coupled with the biggest US acts, live on one stage. "We are very excited for 2009 as all artists know that their bread and butter now lies in international bookings and it's extremely paramount that collaborations are celebrated leading to music fans being exposed to new good quality music worldwide" added Jordan Kensington, CEO of Invincible Group, & The Urban Music Awards. The Urban Music Awards is always known for setting trends for others to follow, by being the first truly independent awards ceremony to give music fans

Rapper T.I. is turning his legal woes into an MTV docu series. Cabler will follow the hip-hop star as he performs more than 1,000 of community service before beginning to serve his one-year prison sentence next spring. Ish Entertainment is behind the untitled series, which has scored a six-episode order from MTV. Cameras already chronicled T.I.’s release from house arrest, and shooting will start in earnest this summer, leading up to his return to jail in early 2009. MTV plans to air the show some time soon after that. T.I. -- real name Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. -- has had several brushes with the law, and he was arrested in October just hours before he was to be honored at the BET Hip-Hop Awards. The rapper, who had already been convicted for selling crack cocaine in the late 1990s, was charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. The Grammy winner, nicknamed “the King of the South” for his Atlanta-influenced rhym

(Multichannel Merchant) Not long ago, marketers thought it sufficient to plan catalog mailings and e-mail campaigns in concert with one another, acknowledging that the e-efforts would support and bolster the printed and mailed catalog. This approach is fine as far as it goes, but it's limited. Now it's critical to think beyond the integrated mail plan to the integrated marketing plan. The list of challenges that catalog marketers face is long, and getting longer, what with astronomical postal increases and an ever-present cadre of Web competitors chipping away at catalogers' profitability. Statements like “Perhaps we shouldn't mail as often to prospects in order to keep costs down” and “Well, most of our customers are buying online, maybe we should focus primarily on e-mail to support the business” are being heard everywhere. These may be common thoughts, but they aren't necessarily the solutions. Catalogers are concerned because the heart of their business model is

Confused about how to attribute credit for sales and brand-building success? You’re not alone. It’s a hot topic given the level of media spending in digital formats and continued media fragmentation. But there’s a way to do it called media mix modeling. And it should be at the head of every marketer’s priority list. Let’s start with a pair of baseline examples, advertisers with retail, call center, and online commerce touch points with their customers. Vonage and XM Radio fit the bill. Their activities sound complex, but there is something to be learned from the way they sell their products and interact with their customers over time. Both firms sell through retail at establishments like Target, Staples, Best Buy, Comp USA and Circuit City. You can buy at these stores and activate your account either by phone or online. In addition, both can take your order right online, and will ship your device. You can activate your account either by phone or online in this scenario as well. Both fi

Want your own recording label? Producing music has never been easier or cheaper. Richard Budrik, 54, had been manager of a Manhattan wine store for two decades when he decided last year to start his own record label. Huh? A middle-age man who knew zip about the shark-eat-shark music business? Throw money into an industry that was laying off thousands of workers? Budrik, though, did not have to risk his life savings, as he might have done a generation ago. He invested a measly $5,000. More surprising: In just 18 months his little label, Premier Cru Music, has pulled in revenue of $16,000 and has gotten worldwide airplay on BBC radio. Budrik woke up one morning to find himself producer of a Bangkok disc jockey's top-five pick. Technology has done to the marketing of recorded music what it did a decade ago to the publishing of the printed word--lowered the barrier to entry down to just about zero. Clay Pasternack, chairman of the Association for Independent Music, says you can put out

OK, so you've recorded your demo - now what? Now you need to get your demo in the hands of the people who can help you take it to the next level. But with so many people trying to get their demos heard, how can you make sure your demo won't get lost in the shuffle? Follow these simple steps to move your demo to the top of the pile. Here's How: Do Your Research Before you start sending out your demo, you need to compile a list of labels who might be interested in hearing it. Sending your hip hop demo to an indie rock label is a waste of time and money. What bands do you like? What labels are they on? What labels deal with the kind of music you play? Spend some time online researching artists you consider to be similar to yourself and the labels that work with them. that way, your demo will land in the hands of people who "get" what you're doing. Learn Demo Policies One you have your short list of labels, you need to learn each label's policy on demos. Some

Legal Ease For artists who are releasing their own record for the first time, without the involvement or assistance of a label, the process can be a little intimidating. It can be easy to miss some key legal details in the process. Here, therefore, is a very basic checklist of issues to be considered when releasing a record. Bear in mind, though, that your own particular circumstances may dictate that you take certain steps that are different from, or in addition to, the various steps mentioned below. Also, it has been necessary to greatly oversimplify some of the issues discussed below due to space limitations. 1) Agreement Between Members of Group . If it is a group (as opposed to a solo artist) releasing the record, and if the group has not already formalized its relationship by way of a partnership agreement, incorporation, or limited liability company ("LLC"), the

By David Hooper If you want to get a record deal, get people to your shows, or sell music like crazy, the answer isn't some kind of "magic pill" website that you post your music on, blindly sending out a bunch of demos, or anything to do with having good music... although good music certainly helps. The answer is to develop a mindset that naturally attracts people to what you're doing as well as an understanding of how the music business game is played. As you develop as a person, your music career will develop with you. Sounds crazy, but it's true, and I've seen it time and time again, with thousands of acts that I've worked with, from garage bands, to the guys selling out arenas. Of course, part of developing includes making mistakes along the way. Check out these ten common music business mistakes, and ways to avoid them... 10. Being too difficult (or too nice)First of all, let’s get this clear... Just because you wrote a few good songs and recorded the

By David Hooper If you want to get a record deal, get people to your shows, or sell music like crazy, the answer isn't some kind of "magic pill" website that you post your music on, blindly sending out a bunch of demos, or anything to do with having good music... although good music certainly helps. The answer is to develop a mindset that naturally attracts people to what you're doing as well as an understanding of how the music business game is played. As you develop as a person, your music career will develop with you. Sounds crazy, but it's true, and I've seen it time and time again, with thousands of acts that I've worked with, from garage bands, to the guys selling out arenas. Of course, part of developing includes making mistakes along the way. Check out these ten common music business mistakes, and ways to avoid them... 10. Being too difficult (or too nice)First of all, let’s get this clear... Just because you wrote a few good songs and record