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(01/30/08 5:09am)
LOS ANGELES – The number of U.S. homes that slipped into some stage of foreclosure in 2007 was 79 percent higher than in the previous year, a real estate tracking company said Tuesday. Many homeowners started to fall behind on mortgage payments in the last three months, setting the stage for more foreclosures this year.\nAbout 1.3 million homes received foreclosure-related warnings last year, up from 717,522 in 2006, Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc. said. Foreclosure filings rose 75 percent from the previous year to \n2.2 million.\nMore than 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some phase of the foreclosure process last year, up from about half a percent in 2006, RealtyTrac said.\nNevada, Florida, Michigan and California posted the highest foreclosure rates, the company said.\nThe filings included notices warning owners they were in default, or that their home was slated for auction or for repossession by a bank. Some properties may have received more than one notice if the owners had multiple \nmortgages.\nA late-year surge in the number of properties reporting foreclosure filings suggests that many are in the initial stages of the foreclosure process and could end up lost to foreclosure this year unless lenders or the government steps in, RealtyTrac said.\n“It does appear that we’re seeing a new batch of properties enter the process,” said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s vice president of marketing.\nRealtyTrac is forecasting that the pace of foreclosure filings will remain steady, rather than accelerate during the first half of 2008.\n“Assuming nothing else bad happens economically ... we will have exhausted the bulk of the worst-performing loans by the end of June,” Sharga said, referring to adjustable-rate mortgage loans made to borrowers with poor credit.\nMany of these subprime loans defaulted last year, triggering a credit crisis and saddling major financial institutions with losses.\nMore than 1.8 million subprime mortgages are scheduled to reset to higher interest rates this year and next.\nLast year’s explosion in foreclosure activity came amid a worsening housing downturn, as falling home values ate into homeowners’ equity, making it harder for many to refinance into more affordable loans or to find buyers. Those options had helped keep troubled homeowners from sliding into foreclosure.\n“We went from a sort of buying frenzy to a foreclosure frenzy in the last two years,” Sharga said.\nRecent efforts by government and mortgage lenders to help homeowners at risk of falling seriously behind on mortgage payments have had a marginal impact on the U.S. foreclosure rate so far, \nSharga added.\nIn December alone, foreclosure filings soared 97 percent from the same month a year earlier to 215,749. It was the fifth consecutive month in which foreclosure filings topped more than 200,000, RealtyTrac said.\nIn the fourth quarter, filings rose 86 percent from the prior-year quarter but only 1 percent from the third \nquarter.\nNevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year, with 3.4 percent of its households receiving foreclosure filings. That was more than three times the national average, RealtyTrac said.\nIn Michigan, where job losses are pressuring many homeowners, 1.9 percent of all households received a foreclosure filing last year. In all, 136,205 filings were issued on 87,210 properties, up 68 percent versus filings \nin 2006.\nCalifornia led the nation in total foreclosure filings and the number of homes in some stage of foreclosure last year.\nA total of 481,392 filings were issued on 249,513 properties, more than triple the number of filings in 2006, RealtyTrac said.\nIn all, 1.9 percent of households in California received foreclosure filings.\nMany of the homes receiving foreclosure filings in the state were in the inland markets, where new construction and more affordable prices helped fuel a spike in sales toward the end of the housing boom.\nOther states in the 2007 foreclusure top 10 were Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Illinois and Indiana.
(01/08/08 3:55pm)
LOS ANGELES – Warner Bros. Entertainment said Friday it will release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format, becoming the latest studio to reject the rival HD DVD technology and further complicating the high-definition landscape for consumers.\nWarner Bros., owned by Time Warner Inc., was the only remaining studio releasing high-definition DVDs in both formats.\nIt is the fifth studio to back Blu-ray, developed by Sony Corp. Only two support the HD DVD format, developed by Toshiba Corp.\nBoth formats deliver crisp, clear high-definition pictures and sound. But they are incompatible with each other, and neither plays on older DVD players, which means consumers seeking top-quality playback face a dilemma.\nWarner said it decided to go with Blu-ray because consumers have shown a stronger preference for that format than HD DVD.\n“The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger,” Warner Bros. chairman and Chief Executive Barry Meyer said in a statement.\n“We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers and, most importantly, consumers,” the statement said.\nThe company said sales of Blu-ray discs in the U.S. generated $169 million last year, while sales of discs in the HD DVD format totaled $103 million.\nAbout 60 percent of Warner’s sales of U.S. high-definition discs were Blu-ray titles and the other 40 percent were HD DVD, said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.\nOutside the U.S., the divide was far wider, with Warner’s Blu-ray discs outselling titles in HD DVD in Britain and Japan, among other markets, Tsujihara said.\nSales of set-top high-definition disc players in the fourth quarter of 2007 also factored into Warner’s decision.\nThe company saw an acceleration in sales of Blu-ray players at the end of the quarter, particularly in December, Tsujihara said.\n“We always viewed set-tops as the most significant indicator” of consumers’ format preference, he said.\nStill, one alarming trend Warner keyed on was that consumers didn’t appear motivated by price reductions on high-definition disc players.\n“When we saw that was not impacting sales in the level that it should have, and the consumer research that we did indicated that the consumers were holding back from buying either one of the two formats ... we thought it was the right time to act,” Tsujihara said, noting that even sales of standard DVDs were affected because consumers appeared unsure over which format to choose.\n“That was kind of the worst of all worlds for us,” he said.\nThere are some differences between the formats. Blu-ray discs can hold more data — 50 gigabytes compared with HD DVD’s 30 GB — but the technology’s new manufacturing techniques boosted initial costs.\nHD DVDs, on the other hand, are essentially DVDs on steroids, meaning movie studios can turn to existing assembly lines to produce them in mass.\nWarner Home Video will continue to release new titles in HD DVD until the end of May.\nPali Capital analyst Rich Greenfield said in a Web posting Friday that he expects the HD DVD format to “die a quick death, versus a prolonged format war.
(09/06/06 2:54am)
LOS ANGELES -- Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group reached a tentative agreement with German media company Bertelsmann AG to acquire BMG Music Publishing for $2.05 billion in cash, a person familiar with the deal said Tuesday.\nThe agreement was expected to be signed as early as Wednesday, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the negotiations.\nBMG Music Publishing owns the rights to more than a million songs by recording artists such as Nelly, Maroon 5 and Mariah Carey, as well as classic hits by the Beach Boys, Barry Manilow and other entertainers.\nUniversal edged out a slate of rival bidders for the publishing unit, the person said.\nUniversal is already the biggest recorded music company in the world. The BMG publishing unit is expected to be absorbed by Universal Music Publishing Group, making it the largest music publisher.\nBertelsmann put its music publishing business up for sale earlier this year to help finance a $5.8 billion bridge loan used to buy back a 25.1 percent stake held by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert.\nThe move, announced in May, freed Bertelsmann from the prospect of an initial public offering for the stake.
(06/06/05 12:39am)
OAKLAND, Calif. -- In a computer-crammed space at Savage Beast Technologies, divergent melodies seep softly from headphones worn by young men and women who listen to music with the intensity of submarine sonar operators.\nTheir job is to discern and define attributes in tunes by artists as diverse as teen diva Hilary Duff and jazz legend Miles Davis.\nThe listeners classify hundreds of characteristics about each song, including beat, melody, lyrics, tonal palette and dynamics, then plug the data into a music recommendation engine -- software designed to find songs that share similar traits.\nThe goal is to help retailers suggest new music to consumers based on what they already like.\n"It's about understanding someone's music taste," said Savage Beast founder Tim Westergren. "Why does somebody like a piece of music?"\nEmployees go through weeks of training before they can recognize such song attributes as the degree of vibrato in a singer's voice, a trait that could represent the difference between a song by Karen Carpenter or Mariah Carey.\nWestergren, who previously played in bands and worked as a composer, compares the concept to isolating the spices, sauces and other ingredients that might go into any given meal and determining which will appeal most to the consumer.\nWhile he doesn't believe his company can fully decipher everyone's musical taste, Westergren argues that his system comes closer than models that recommend songs based only on what other music fans have bought.\nSavage Beast's customers include AOL Music, Best Buy Co. and Borders Group Inc.\nAOL says its music section traffic has increased by 20 percent since it began using the program in February. Best Buy uses it at listening stations in 14 stores; Borders uses it at 12 stores, Westergren said.\nA similar company, San Francisco-based Siren Systems, also takes songs apart before they're placed in a preference database.\nSiren Systems users access its recommendation engine through the www.Soundflavor.com Web site. Users can search its Web site by artist, song or album to receive suggestions for similar music. They can also search other computer users' playlists.\nRun from a basement office that's adorned with CDs dangling from sprinkler heads, Siren also licenses its engine to businesses such as MediaSpan Group, which builds Web sites for radio stations and other firms.\nLike Savage Beast, Siren trained and tested its roughly 20 song taggers, who include part-time musicians, for several weeks to recognize its array of song attributes like "horizontal density" -- a measure of how many musical elements are packed into a song.\n"The point of our recommendation technology is not necessarily to identify the new hit, it is to help you to be a good editor" of song collections, said Siren chief executive Steve Skrzyniarz.\nFor some music retailers, such recommendation models aren't all that attractive.\n"Some of the technology-only models are wrong," said Laura Goldberg, chief operating officer of Napster. "They don't necessarily follow user habits."\nNapster uses a hybrid system operated by Cambridge, Mass.-based MediaUnbound that employs data from subscriber playlists, genres and file-sharing networks. Music editors can also recommend songs or artists.\n"I'm skeptical that it would be any better and probably worse than looking at people who bought this album also bought this album," said digital music analyst Phil Leigh.\nThe recommendation engines' choices can seem hit or miss.\nClothing merchandiser Jaime Parilla, 36, found most of the Savage Beast-picked selections at a listening station at Best Buy in West Hollywood were on the mark, but others were just strange.\nThe suggestions led him from vocalist Amerie to Vanessa Williams and Latin singer Thalia. Williams' music seemed to have the same mood as Amerie, but he was puzzled at the suggestion of Thalia.\nA search for U2 returned 1980s balladeer Richard Marx, David Bowie and Eddie Money, among others. The Marx suggestion might not seem like much of a match beyond the fact that U2's Bono and Marx both sported mullets in the 1980s.\nAnother search, looking for tracks similar to Madonna's 1980s pop hit "Like a Virgin," turned up "Talking Back to the Night" by singer Joe Cocker.\nThe midtempo pop number, which is laden with electronic keyboard and other production touches, is not typical of the crooner's better known soulful fare.\nBut it does share many elements with the Madonna classic.\n"One thing we're trying to do is not think of an artist in terms of how they might be labeled in terms of the marketing of music, and be true to the recording itself," Westergren said. "That means we might match up artists that intuitively might not be musical neighbors"
(04/15/05 4:42am)
LOS ANGELES -- Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Warner Music Group inked a joint venture deal that gives the record company a 50 percent stake in the hip-hop mogul's Bad Boy Records label.\nUnder the deal announced Thursday, Warner will market and handle digital and physical distribution of Bad Boy's new and catalog releases worldwide.\nThe label's roster of current and former artists includes Mase, Mario Winans, Notorious B.I.G. and P. Diddy himself.\nFinancial details of the partnership were not released. Two sources familiar with the deal said Warner paid about $30 million for an agreement that will last at least three years.\nCombs, whose entertainment empire also includes music publishing, clothing, restaurants and television ventures, will remain chief executive of New York-based Bad Boy Records.\nThe deal also marked an early end to Combs' distribution deal with Universal Music Group, which had been set to expire in mid-2006.\nBad Boy's releases in recent years haven't burned up the charts like its offerings in the 1990s. Mase's latest album was a disappointment, while a comeback album by R&B group New Edition languished with sales of just 244,000.\nThe infusion of cash and other resources from Warner should help Bad Boy reinvigorate its release schedule to about 10 albums a year, Combs told The Associated Press from New York.\n"There have been a lot of boutique record labels that come and go, and we're still here," Combs said. "This has ensured for the next couple of years that we have the right financial backing, the right financial structure, the right partners to remain a force in the music industry."\nThe deal for Bad Boy comes as Warner, the third-largest record company, prepares to go public. Warner was acquired last year for $2.6 billion from Time Warner Inc. by a private investor group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., now its chairman and chief executive.\nA Warner spokesman declined to elaborate on the deal, citing disclosure restrictions in effect as the company approaches its IPO.\nIn a statement, Bronfman praised Combs and his record label, calling them "an exciting new addition to Warner Music Group."\nBad Boy Records had almost instant success when it began in the early 1990s as a boutique label with Arista Records. Back then, the label generated hits from acts like Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans and Combs' own solo work.\nBut the label's sales suffered after B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was killed in 1997 and Combs' popularity started to dip.\nReports surfaced that the label had become a costly venture for Arista.\nThat partnership ended in 2002, with Combs retaining his artist roster and rights to the Bad Boy catalog. The following year, he signed a distribution deal with Universal Music Group for about $10 million.\nUniversal didn't fight Combs on his decision to leave early, he said.\nCombs intends to release a solo album and another B.I.G. record along with albums by several new acts. He hopes the new offerings will find the same success as earlier albums.\nRapper Mase's 1997 album "Harlem World" sold 3.2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But his two follow-up efforts combined to sell just short of a million copies.\nOther Bad Boy albums have also failed to reach the coveted platinum status that comes with sales of a million or more.
(09/05/03 6:28am)
LOS ANGELES --The world's largest recording company said Wednesday it would slash wholesale CD prices in a bid to revive lagging music sales, which have dropped 31 percent industry-wide in the last three years.\nUniversal Music Group said it would cut the suggested sale price on a majority of its CDs by $6 to $12.98. The company hopes retailers will follow its lead and drop their CD prices to around $10 or less. The price changes would go into effect by Oct. 1.\n"We expect (this) will invigorate the music market in North America," UMG Chairman and CEO Doug Morris said in a conference call Wednesday.\nIt was not immediately clear how retailers or other record companies would respond to the move, which comes as music sales are picking up on the Internet with Apple Computer Inc.'s breakthrough 99-cent-a-song offering. Company officials said they had not discussed the pricing strategy with retailers, who would be notified formally Thursday.\nOfficials at the National Association of Recording Merchandisers did not return calls Thursday.\nKevin Milligan, vice president of merchandising at Torrance, Calif.-based record retailer Wherehouse Entertainment Inc., said he had not received notice from UMG, but that in general, the move is good news for consumers.\n"Whether it will ultimately be good news for retail? I think it's still up in the air," he said.\nTraditional music retailers such as Tower and Wherehouse have been suffering as large stores such as Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. can afford to sell music at a loss, covered by sales of more profitable items.\nUMG's current wholesale price for a CD album is $12.02, with a manufacturer suggested retail price of $18.98. Under the new pricing structure, the wholesale price would be $9.09. The wholesale price for CDs by a handful of performers, including Eminem and Shania Twain, would be about a dollar more, said Jim Urie, president of Universal Music & Video Distribution.\nThe company also said it would cut wholesale prices on cassettes and change the suggested retail price to $8.98. Latin recordings and multiple disk packages or CD box sets would not be included in the pricing change.\n"Our new pricing model will enable U.S. retailers to offer music at a much more appealing price point in comparison to other entertainment products," Urie said. "We are confident this pricing approach will drive music fans back into retail stores."\nOfficials at EMI, BMG and Warner Music Group declined to comment. Sony Music Group officials could not be reached immediately.\nUMG also said it would no longer give retailers co-op advertising or discounts, which are common in exchange for favorable product positioning at stores.\nJosh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research, Inc. said the decision to cut prices underscores how badly the industry has been hurting.\n"That is very significant. That's basically saying 'we give up,'" Bernoff said.\nRevenue from album sales has declined from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $12.6 billion in 2002, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group that represents the largest recording companies.\nThe recording industry blames its sales slump largely on illegal music swapping over peer-to-peer networks. The industry has begun to aggressively target people who share music using software by Kazaa and others.\nBut industry critics say the record companies have, for more than a decade, ignored the effects of soaring CD prices on sales. They also contend the artistic quality of music has deteriorated.\n"This is something that the industry has failed to address ... You could make downloading music go away tomorrow and the industry would still face challenges," said Sean Baenen, managing director of Odyssey, a consumer marketing research firm in San Francisco. "All the data suggests that quality and price are major factors to the equation."\nIn a survey conducted this year by Odyssey, 53 percent of U.S. consumers age 16 and older said they did not buy more cassettes and CDs because they have become too expensive. The survey had a 2 percent margin of error.\nIf retailers also drop their prices, Universal's move would make CDs more competitive with online services, including Apple's popular iTunes Music Store and Buy.com's BuyMusic.com.\nThose services allow consumers to purchase and download individual tracks -- usually for 99 cents -- or albums for about $10. The buyer then can burn it to a compact disc or transfer it to a supported music player. A number of companies also provide music downloads for a monthly fee.\nUMG will need a "meaningful" lift in sales to offset the price cut, said Zachary Horowitz, president and COO.\n"The challenge at retail has been keeping people coming to the stores to support the music and artists they love," Horowitz said. "We're confident from our research we'll get ... a very dramatic and sustained increase"
(05/02/03 5:23am)
LOS ANGELES -- The recording industry said Thursday it had settled federal lawsuits against four college students it accused of making thousands of songs available online for illegal downloading.\nThe students agreed to pay damages of between $12,000 and $17,500 each and not illegally distribute copyrighted music, the Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement. None of the students admitted wrongdoing.\nThe lawsuits, filed April 3, marked an aggressive step by the industry to go after individuals engaging in what it sees as online music piracy. It had previously sued only file-sharing services, where most illegal copying and swapping of copyright works takes place.\nThe RIAA said the defendants -- students at Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Michigan Technological University -- stored a total of more than one million songs on central servers and made them available to people with access to their schools' high-speed Internet networks. The schools were not named in the lawsuits.\nThe RIAA originally sought damages of $150,000 per song, but Matt Oppenheim, the group's senior vice president of business and legal affairs, said it was "in everyone's best interest to come to a quick resolution."\nOppenheim added that the defendants "now clearly understand the seriousness with which we view this type of illegal behavior."\nPrinceton student Daniel Peng and Michigan Tech student Joseph Nievelt each agreed to pay the RIAA $15,000. At Rensselaer in Troy, N.Y., Jesse Jordan agreed to pay $12,000 and fellow student Aaron Sherman agreed to pay $17,500.\nPeng's attorney, Howard Ende, called the lawsuit against his client "outrageous."\n"I don't think the suit was really about him, it (was) about sending a message, a message meant to intimidate," Ende said.\nOppenheim said at least 18 other similar networks at universities have gone off-line since the RIAA filed the lawsuits.