Deconstructing Pop Culture

RIAA is the trade association for the U.S. record industry. It is the counterpart to the Motion Picture Association of America (“MPAA”), which is the trade association for the U.S. film industry. One of their activities is compiling and disseminating statistics pertinent to each of their respective businesses. I have maintained a database of RIAA [...]

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The term “record man” refers to a person who has an intuitive feel for the nuances and subtleties of the record business. I would insert the requisite gender disclaimer however the fact of the matter is there are few (if any) record women, at least none whom I’ve known personally. Harassment laws notwithstanding in my [...]

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I grew up in La Jolla, California. My interest in music started off being primarily aesthetic. By the time I was 15 I had been to over a hundred operas and symphony concerts. I took music lessons and played the piano. Round about then I bought my first record, the Beatles’ “Revolver.” In junior high [...]

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Here are copies of most of MCA’s annual reports or Forms 10-K since 1966. One item of note is the 1969 annual report where management specifically identifies large write-offs on the films “Sweet Charity” and “The Loves of Isadora.” This level of detail is unusual. MCA 1966 Annual Report MCA 1967 Annual Report MCA 1968 [...]

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There was a brief note in today’s New York Times by Michael J. de la Merced, “Suit Accuses Citigroup of Fraud in EMI Deal.” It states the private equity company Terra Firma has filed a lawsuit against Citigroup in connection with Terra Firma’s acquisition of EMI in May 2007 for $4.8 billion. The gist of the [...]

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Marc Cohn is a performing artist. Let me start off by saying it is not my intention to be disrespectful to him. He has had plenty of travails in his life, including being shot in the head. However he is a perfect illustration of what happened as the record business migrated from its former template, [...]

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An article in the December 7, 2007 New York Times by Patrick McGeehan, “Vinyl Records and Turntables Are Gaining Sales,” discusses the resurgence of vinyl long-playing records. They still however remain a miniscule fraction of the marketplace. The transition from LPs to vinyl started in the mid-1980s and had snowballed by the early 1990s. I recall [...]

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In support of a recent post at the musicindustynewsletter, here are copies of the three main agreements between the Beatles, Capitol Records and EMI Records. 1962 Agreement 1967 Agreement 1969 Agreement [They are matters of public record having been filed in various litigations in New York and London.]  

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In support of a recent post on musicindustrynewswire, here are the actual sales figures for the period 1964 – 1985: Beatles Sales 1964 – 1985 This figure visually depicts the same information:   On the subject of Beatles’ bootlegs, see Charles Reinhart, You Can’t Do That – Beatles Bootlegs & Novelty Records (1981).  It has [...]

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Here is a selection of annual reports from CBS. I post these to support this article and as part of my on-going project to make accessible earlier reports from influential entertainment companies. The same caveats that pertain to the Warner Communications reports also apply here. CBS 1970 Annual Report CBS 1972 Annual Report CBS 1973 [...]

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