Calder had even more reason to look away, because of his partnership with BMG.
Live Nation, Sony, BMG Rights, KKR and Bertelsmann were also said to be in the mix.
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In his autobiography Cowell recounts a BMG executive begging Cowell not to work with the wrestlers.
BMG, whose broader range of artists gives them far greater leverage with radio stations and big retailers.
Yet he stepped in to sign 'N Sync, even though the group's freedom to leave BMG was unclear.
Sony BMG is planning to sell songs without digital rights management, according to a report Friday on BusinessWeek.com.
Mail-order music clubs such as Columbia House and BMG Music Service have taken to the Web as well.
He replaced the much-loved but aging Davis with Antonio (L.A.) Reid as head of BMG's Arista Records label.
BMG, one of the world's five biggest record companies, is a key part of Bertelsmann's ongoing media stepout.
BMG, the music division of Bertelsmann, a German media conglomerate, is losing money.
The resulting hoo-hah also sparked lawsuits from vexed customers and left Sony BMG parleying with lawyers over an appropriate settlement.
Initially the site will offer 1 million, DRM-free songs (ramping up to 5 million) from Sony BMG, Warner Music, and EMI.
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Last November Watson did a deal with BMG Music to help launch a new 17-year- old pop singer named Britney Spears.
He could re-up with BMG, dump it in favor of a rival or spurn the Big Five altogether and challenge them head-on.
Sony ( SNE - news - people ) BMG and auditioned to appear in the final Harry Potter movie.
When it launched in October 2008, Spotify publicized music rights deals with Sony BMG Music, Universal Music, Warner Music, EMI and Merlin.
The court ruled that that the commission relied on scant evidence to decide that Sony BMG Music Entertainment would not be too powerful.
The level of damages which Williams, co-writer Guy Chambers, EMI and BMG must pay will be decided at a later date, he added.
Williams and record companies EMI Music Publishing and BMG Music Publishing had offered Ludlow Music a 25 percent slice of revenues from the single.
Currently its locker accepts content only from the Web sites of customers that include Fox Music, Fox Sports Mobile, Sony BMG, TVT Records and Walt Disney .
Calder has an option to terminate his distribution deal with BMG in June, and music mavens are mulling the Great Clive Question:What will he do?
By early January 2008, a few months after Amazon MP3 launched, the three other major labels--Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony BMG--dropped DRM.
That same year he was laughed out of the BMG boardroom when he proposed a deal with Zig and Zag, two morning chat show puppets.
She left BMG for Def Jam Japan and in 2005 had her biggest hit, "Story", a tune that was downloaded more than three million times.
Many music insiders are sceptical about just how advanced Sony's talks with BMG are the companies admit that they have yet to do their due diligence.
She's had a modestly successful recording career--her newest album is the fifth she has recorded for Sony BMG, the joint venture between Sony and Bertelsmann A.G.
Zelnick also settled a lawsuit he filed against Calder, who runs 20% BMG-owned Zomba Recording, for yanking the red-hot group 'N Sync away from BMG's RCA label.
Big music companies like Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony-BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Group are already experiencing a sharp decline in sales of compact discs.
And Sony BMG will join EMI, Universal Music Group and a pack of independent labels that sell so-called digital rights management-free music in Amazon MP3, the company's music store.
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