On the day that Bertelsmann announced it had bought out Kohlberg Krvis Roberts & Co. (KKR),its partner in BMG Rights Management, at a price-tag estimated at well-over a quarter billion dollars, Billboard.biz caught up with one of the deal’s key architects, BMG Rights Management’s Hartwig Masuch. Here Masuch details the rationale behind the buy-out, plans for expansion…

The indie engines that could—Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Baauer—are looking down at the field from their present perches at the top of the sales chart. While “Thrift Shop” slipped by 12% after breaking 400k a week earlier, “Harlem Shake” grew by 13%, so their positions could conceivably be reserved on next week’s chart. Bruno…

Unlimited music service Muve Music now has 1.4 million U.S. subscribers, a Cricket Wireless executive said this week at the World Mobile Congress conference in Barcelona. The executive added that Muve will expand outside the U.S. within a month, but did not name the carrier or country. A Cricket spokesperson tells Billboard an announcement of the carrier’s…

EMI veteran Geoff Smith has been appointed head of digital for Universal Strategic Marketing, a newly created role. Based in London, Smith will be tasked with creating international opportunities and innovative solutions for catalog artists across the major’s digital platforms and services. Smith comes to Universal Music’s international catalog operation after six years at EMI,…