Bertelsmann buys KKR’s stake in music rights group BMG

Bertelsmann, Europe’s largest media company, is buying private equity firm KKR’s stake in their joint venture music rights management company BMG.

The German group, best known for its TV arm RTL and publisher Random House, said on Friday the deal would close during the first half of the year, adding it would not disclose financial terms.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the purchase price was 700-800 million euros ($915 million-$1.05 billion) including debt. Bertelsmann will pay the sum out of its cash reserves, another person familiar with the deal said.

BMG is a rights management company for music publishing and recording rights. It administers the rights to more than one million songs, including works by artists like Bruno Mars, Johnny Cash, and Will.i.am.

“We are happy to have BMG back with us entirely,” Bertelsmann’s Chief Executive Thomas Rabe said.

KKR roughly doubled its investment cashing in 350-400 million euros for its equity stake, the source close to the deal said. KKR initially invested 50 million euros in BMG in 2009 and later upped the investment to 209 million.

Rock band Yes back on tour with old songs

“Something completely different – and a first for us,” said bassist Chris Squire, who co-founded the band in 1968.

“We don’t have a new album, so instead we’re going to perform three of our classic albums – ‘The Yes Album,’ ‘Close to the Edge’ and ‘Going for the One,’ all in their entirety, at each show. And the fans all seem to love the idea,” Squire told Reuters.

Squire, who is hitting the road with guitarist Steve Howe, singer Jon Davison, drummer Alan White and keyboardist Geoff Downes, admits that the concept is ambitious.

But he notes that the original vinyl releases were each about 40 minutes long.

“It’s not that staggering in terms of length,” Squire said. “Each show will be about two hours – far shorter than a Bruce Springsteen concert.”

Choosing three albums from a catalog of some 20 releases spanning five decades was not so difficult, Squire said.

Green Day to Make SXSW Debut

After loading up fans with three new albums over the past few months, Green Day will be taking all that new music to SXSW. The rockers will make their debut at the Austin festival on March 15th at a double screening of ¡Cuatro! and Broadway Idiot at the Paramount Theatre, and they’ll play as part of the ACL Live series later that night at the Moody Theater.

It’ll mark the world premiere of Broadway Idiot, a documentary following Billie Joe Armstrong as the band adapted American Idiot as a Broadway musical. ¡Cuatro!, which debuted at the X Games last month, chronicles Green Day as they recorded their recent ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré! trilogy. Though the band was forced to cancel and postpone shows due to Armstrong recovery in rehab, they’ll resume their tour on March 28th in Chicago.

Prince to appear on Jimmy Fallon Is show Friday

Prince is continuing to ramp up his public profile. This week, he’ll make an appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”

A rep for the late-night talk show confirmed the pop legend will appear on the show Friday and will perform two songs. It’s not clear whether he’ll perform new material or some of his classics.

The reclusive star has been back in the spotlight recently. He presented record of the year trophy at the Grammys, released the song “Screwdriver” on his new website and is due to perform several dates in Europe this summer.

Sitting in a century-old church on Saturday night, it occurred to Mark Kozelek that he, too, wasn’t getting any younger.

“I’m happy to still be in business after 21 years,” he said. During a two-hour-plus solo set at Los Angeles’ First Unitarian Church, the last stop on his current tour.

Cirque gives clues to Vegas Michael Jackson show

Las Vegas is combining its love of mega pop-stars and over-the-top theatrics for a new Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show opening this summer.

Cirque du Soleil CEO Daniel Lamarre announced Thursday that the company’s newest show will be called “Michael Jackson ONE.” The show at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Strip will start preview performances May 23. It will officially premiere June 29.

The show is the second collaboration between the acrobatic company and Jackson’s estate. The first production was the traveling show, “Michael Jackson: Immortal World Tour.”

The title is intended to evoke a central paradox of the king of pop’s multifaceted persona and changing musical styles.

Rapper Ja Rule set to leave NY prison in gun case

Platinum-selling rapper Ja Rule was set to leave an upstate prison on Thursday after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession but head straight into federal custody in a tax case.

The rapper, who had been in protective custody at the Mid-State Correctional Facility because of his celebrity, has some time remaining on a 28-month sentence for tax evasion, correction officials said. His sentences were expected to run concurrently.

Ja Rule may have less than six months left and may be eligible for a halfway house, defense attorney Stacey Richman said. An order to pay $1.1 million in back taxes is one of the main reasons he wants to get back to work, she said.

“Many people are looking forward to experiencing his talent again,” Richman said.

Ja Rule scored a Grammy Award nomination in 2002 for the best rap album with “Pain is Love.” He also has appeared in movies, including “The Fast and the Furious” in 2001 and “Scary Movie 3” in 2003.

Timberlake perform at 1st London Olympic park concert

Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z were named on Tuesday by live music promoter Live Nation Entertainment as headline acts for the Wireless Festival on July 12 and July 13.

Other acts will include Snoop Dogg, John Legend, Frank Ocean, Emeli Sande, Rita Ora, and DJ Calvin Harris.

Last month Live Nation said it had secured exclusive rights in 2013 to host concerts in the Olympic Park and Stadium complex in east London that was designed so it could be transformed into a space for entertainment, leisure and work after the Games.

The announcement was a boost for the British government which pumped public money into the London 2012 Games, adamant the Olympic site would not become an expensive white elephant.

Wrote songs like Birds and Drifting

“I felt the same way as you sing in the songs and suddenly, I felt someone understood me,” he wrote in the letter.
 
That’s the magic of Xu’s music, stirring up mutual emotions among listeners.
 
Twenty years ago, the singer-songwriter left his hometown Xi’an in Shaanxi province to pursue his music dream in Beijing. In those early days, with no money and no record company to produce his works, he wrote songs like Birds and Drifting to express his struggle between dreams and reality.
 
In one of his early songs, Two Days, he murmurs: “I have two days, one day for hope and the other day for hopelessness.”

The waiting is finally over – he has become one of the best-known rock musicians in China.
 
The 44-year-old’s new album seems to be another chapter of his life. Replacing the desperate lyrics and impetuous rock beats are warmth, peace and contentment.

Grammy performers told to cover up

Grammy performers have been told to cover up at Sunday’s big music awards show, and keep their buttocks, nipples and genitals under wraps. Their politics can’t show either.
 
In a “wardrobe advisory,” broadcaster CBS also asked musicians and audience members likely to appear on camera at the February 10 Grammy Awards ceremony to avoid wearing brand names on T-shirts as well as clothing with political or activist slogans.
 
“Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered. Thong type costumes are problematic. Please avoid exposing bare flesh under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack,” said the memo issued by CBS standards and practices department and obtained by entertainment industry website Deadline.com on Wednesday.
 
“Obscenity or partially seen obscenity on wardrobe is unacceptable for broadcast,” the note added.
The warning follows a lengthy court battle over indecency and obscenity standards on US network television.
 
CBS, a unit of CBS Corp, was fined $550,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for airing a glimpse of Janet Jackson’s breast when her costume slipped while singing at the Super Bowl half-time show in 2004.
 
The fine was later thrown out and that decision was upheld by the US Supreme Court in June 2012. CBS has expressed “deep regret” for the incident.

Beyonce not the cause of Super Bowl blackout

“There’s no indication at all that this was caused by the halftime show. Absolutely not. I know that’s been out there that this halftime show had something to do with it. That is not the case,” Goodell said.

Beyonce was the halftime performer at Sunday night’s game and used plenty of power to light up the stage. Some had joked that her electrifying performance was to blame for the outage.

But the halftime show was running on its own generator, said Goodell and Doug Thornton, a vice president of SMG, the company that manages the Superdome.

“It was not on our power grid at all,” Thornton said, adding that the metered power consumption went down during halftime because the house lights were down.