Taylor Swift is dreaming of a “Red” Christmas, it seems. Industry sources are forecasting that her latest album, “Red,” is on track to possibly spend a sixth non-consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart next week. The album could move between 260,000 and 290,000 by the end of the tracking week on…

In its second deal of the day, BMG Rights Management has acquired the Mute back catalog owned by EMI, which includes records released by artists like Depeche Mode, Erasure, Moby, Goldfrapp and Nick Cave. According to sources, BMG paid over 7 million pounds, or between $11 and $14 million, for the assets it acquired. While…

On Thursday, when YouTube sent out its regular reports on view counts, one data company, SocialBlade, noticed that the channel views for Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group saw its channel count sliced by about 2 billion views. That led some folks to conclude that the views were “fake” and that nefarious “black hat” techniques were…

As part of our year-end special, we asked you, the audience three specific questions about 2012 — and we got dozens of thoughtful, intelligent, well-considered responses. In the last of three questions we asked the industry  “What will the most important/influential issue facing the music industry be in 2013?” To which we got a huge…

Who made the biggest, most disruptive impact on the music industry in 2012?  Here are ten to consider… (1) Jeff Price, former CEO, Tunecore. Balls, he’s got ’em.  Fights, he picks ’em.  Results, he sometimes gets ’em.  And in an industry mired in hugely complicated and logjammed issues with endless doubletalk, that’s pretty good. There were…

Warner Music Group today announced that Sony EVP Rob Wiesenthal has been appointed Chief Operating Officer, a new position, effective January 1.  Wiesenthal will be based in New York and report directly to CEO Steve Cooper. Wiesenthal joins WMG from Sony Corporation where he has served in various leadership roles including Executive Vice President &…

For the last three months, rumor has it that Lyor Cohen is forming a talent mgmt company. Now, the NY Post reports that Irv Gotti is set to come on board. According to an anonymous source, the deal was made this week. The Inc. shall rise again? Stay tuned. [RapRadar]