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Brian McKnight is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, musical arranger, record producer--even an actor, co-starring in the sitcom Sister Sister--who's been hanging platinum records on his walls for the past 10 [...]

Present-tense promotion means 'never a day without change or 10 things that need immediate attention.' Just as Jeff McClusky & Associates is more than a radio promotion firm, its success [...]

After two successful decades, the nation's premier radio-promotion-and-marketing firm provides hundreds of stations with a variety of services. But its foundation and driving force remains unchanged: an unflagging enthusiasm for [...]

THE BILLBOARD INTERVIEW ETTA JAMES Etta James' first taste of fame came at age 15, when she co-wrote and recorded 'The Wallflower' (a.k.a. 'Roll With Me Henry')--the answer record to [...]

Now celebrating her 50th year in the music business, Etta James can point with pride to an impressive catalog of her work. Currently available are 23 individual albums, a two-CD [...]

With Its Brand Of Mind-Blowing Mysticism And Eye-Popping Showmanship, EWF Has Created A Musical Legacy Earth, Wind & Fire has sold more than 20 million albums--including an astonishing six consecutive [...]

HOLLYWOOD After nearly a year of public sniping and speculation, BMG Entertainment and music industry giant Clive Davis have entered into a 50/50 joint agreement to form J Records. Terms [...]

A&R BY BILL FLANAGAN (RANDOM HOUSE; 342 PGS.; $23.95) Most novels about pop music fixate on how the troubled but talented recording artist gets screwed over by the big bad [...]

Dueling birds hope to land mobile auds Satellite radio. All those promises. One hundred national radio channels covering virtually every type of music with digital sound and, in many cases, [...]

HOLLYWOOD Having apparently exhausted the amount of settlement monies that can be collected from tobacco and gun industries, 28 states' attorneys general turned to the other great villain in the [...]

Universal's acquisition of indie music publishing giant Rondor Music from its co-founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss turns the Hollywood conglom into the world's No. 3 music publisher. The current [...]

HOLLYWOOD Napster, the maverick dot-commer that has wreaked havoc in the music biz, is learning the hard way that it's tough to survive in rogue waters of the copyright world. [...]

HOLLYWOOD Founded four years ago, DreamWorks Records is currently home to the eighth-bestselling album in the nation: 'Infest,' the debut effort from rock/hip-hop outfit Papa Roach. Driven by the hit [...]

HOLLYWOOD When music mogul Clive Davis unveils his new joint venture with BMG Entertainment -- a $100 million-plus, multi-year deal that the Arista Records founder would like to wrap up [...]

Scribe William Goldman's now-famed pronouncement about showbiz was 'Nobody knows anything.' Given the current battles raging over the Internet's free-wheeling distribution of entertainment, Goldman's dictum could be amended 'Nobody owns [...]

(HOUSE OF BLUES; 1,000 SEATS; $15) HOLLYWOOD Presented inhouse. Band: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Chris Gage, Rob Gjersoe, Christine Albert, Brad Fordham. Reviewed May 13, 2000. Touring behind his first release [...]

The recorded music business -- and the rest of Hollywood's creative community -- breathed a collective sigh of relief April 28. That's when a U.S. federal court ruled that MP3.com [...]

HOLLYWOOD Founded last year, New York City-based Artemis Records is focusing its artist development efforts on Kittie, a ferocious hard-rock quartet of Canadian schoolgirls (ages 1517) whose debut album, 'Spit,' [...]

'When I signed Train, they didn't have a following outside of the San Francisco Bay Area,' says Columbia Records Group senior VP/A&R Tim Devine. 'So the first thing we did [...]

Marketing-driven acts drown out fresh voices at music congloms As the number of record companies shrinks down to the Big Four, the number of records sold by acts discovered on [...]

Santana and Arista's Davis lead top nods to Old School HOLLYWOOD The Grammys were a Santana 'Supernatural' soiree all the way. For Clive Davis, the man who brought Carlos Santana [...]

HOLLYWOOD The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has absorbed the Music Producers Guild of the Americas. As a result, the org will form a Producers and Engineers Wing, [...]

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has become the third entertainment industry trade association to file suit against a Web-site operator for giving away access to copyrighted product via [...]

New Warner EMI catches riches in 'Net When Time Warner's Warner Music operations and EMI announced on Jan. 24 their intention to create a $20 billion company called Warner EMI [...]

He started out playing trumpet in his grade-school band, switched to electric bass when the Beatles hit, then co-founded White Wing Records, 'the coolest record store in Miles, Ohio' (a [...]

There are many. Chief among them is thinking like the labels it distributes. Currently celebrating its 20th anniversary, RED Distribution began in May 1979 as Important Record Distributors. As the [...]

'My favorite moment working with Ken Ehrlich,' says Celine Dion, 'was when he invited me to participate in a Grammy Nominations TV special and he wanted me to sing 'At [...]

AT THE 2014 GRAMMYS, Ken Ehrlich reserved a featured spot for John Legend to sing something that wasn't yet a hit: 'All of Me.' Ehrlich chose the song 'just because [...]

Ray Charles. Truthfully, what can we say? Maybe 'Hey' (hey), 'Ho' (ho)... The basic biographical facts are these: Born Ray Charles Robinson on Sept. 23, 1930, in Albany, Ga. Raised [...]

'Brain McKnight has always been distinguished by his amazing voice, incredible musicianship and the strength of his songwriting,' says Universal Music Publishing Group Worldwide president David Renzer. 'While the A&R [...]

For almost two decades, the dedicated Memphis organization has supported activities that honor the music and promote its awareness internationally. 'To promote and preserve the blues around the globe': That's [...]

James Brown died of heart failure on Christmas morning, Dec. 25, 2006, at age 73. But his gifts as a singer, songwriter, record producer, activist and showman extraordinaire will certainly [...]

Showbiz is turning MySpace into My Promotional Space. Now that musicians and the major labels have turned the social networking Web site into a marketing tool, the site is exploring [...]

It's probably the best time in the recent history of the music business to be a strong independent,' enthuses Koch Entertainment president Bob Frank 'The majors have had to do [...]

'There are very few opportunities for acquisitions of this magnitude,' says Warner Strategic Marketing president Scott Pascucci, referring to the recent announcement that Rhino Records-now under the WSM aegis--scored the [...]

The blues may have its roots in Africa, but it remains one of the true wellsprings of African-American music. Virtually all the acknowledged masterworks are available on CD, and classic [...]