Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban arrives in U.S. theaters today, after doing boffo biz in Europe this week: The new Harry Potter film has broken a record set by its predecessor, The Chamber of Secrets, by taking £11.5m in three days at the UK box office. The Chamber …

The new Warner Music Group is dumping about half its roster of artists in order to cut costs. For the artists being cut, this more or less sucks, but it may benefit those artists who remain as each will (in theory) get more attention: More than a thousand employees got …

With heavy heart I must state that the time has come to ask our much appreciated readers to – if they feel so inclined – contribute, to help defray the increasing costs of bringing tbomedia.co.uk to you. Due to the “success” of the site – mainstream media attention, traffic increasing …

We are very excited to announce tbomedia.co.uk merchandise, at very reasonable prices for super cool stuff. Be bold with your support of tbomedia.co.uk with super cool T-shirts, sweatshirts, mousepads and coffee mugs – each available with the familiar Blogcritics logo and three different slogans: tbomedia.co.uk: YOU ARE ENTITLED TO OUR …

Exceptional rabblerousing speech by Rob Light of Creative Artists Agency, delivered at 2004 Concert Industry Consortium: TURBULENT TIMES: Where are the answers? ….Every new technology since the beginning of the last century has caused that generation to scream “the sky is falling.” The silent film business was a wonderful new …

In the wake of 9/11, the line between diligence and paranoia has grown fuzzier than ever, as this story demonstrates: Steve Kurtz, a Buffalo art professor, discovered on the morning of May 11 that his wife of 20 years, Hope Kurtz, had stopped breathing. He called 911. Police and emergency …

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which goes into effect on November 15, was passed in the wake of the Enron accounting scandal. Interestingly, it will have profound ramifications for the recording industry according to an essay by Richard Menta: The Sarbanes-Oxley act was designed to protect investors by improving the …

Entertainment giant Viacom has been shaken by the resignation of president Mel Karmazin on Tuesday, and chairman of the Viacom Entertainment Group Jonathan Dolgen on Wednesday. HITS Daily Double has a nice summation of the Karmazin situation: Sumner Redstone’s bombshell announcement yesterday that he will relinquish his CEO title at …

Like the Energizer Bunny, the record labels just keep plugging away pushing here, prodding there, doing all they think they can get away with to limit the freedom of consumers, especially the digital freedom of consumers. The latest tactic: restrict the number of times blank CDs can be copied: Tools …

This is a very profound and philosophical debate touching upon where our priorities lie as a culture. It sounds like just another turf war between jobs and technology – between Paul Bunyan and the power saw – but it is also about our means of valuation of entertainment and art. …