Charles Mann takes a spirited look at the future of the recording industry as we know it – it could disappear in the very near future: As recently as 10 years ago, the media conglomerates that own record labels regarded them as cash cows – smaller than Hollywood but more …

Actress/singer was 54: Nell Carter, who played the sassy, matronly housekeeper on the 1980s sitcom “Gimme a Break!” and received a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” died Thursday, her publicist said. ….Carter was in rehearsals at a Long Beach theater for “Raisin,” the musical …

American Idol 2’s debut Tuesday night drew the largest audience ever for a Fox non-sports show, 26.5 million viewers tuned in: It eclipsed the 22.8 million people who watched Kelly Clarkson win the first “American Idol” competition in September. “We’re having a very happy day at Fox,” said Entertainment President …

Zingy and Nextel go polyphonic: Polyphonic ring-tones are richer, fuller sounding compositions than traditional monophonic ring-tones — the jingles that play on cellphones. Zingy will offer hundreds of new polyphonic song titles to Nextel subscribers who use the Motorola handsets, allowing wireless users to personalize the sound of their phones. …

We have been hearing about the integration of television and the Internet for some time now. Where is it? We saw some of it at last year from NBC in conjunction with the Winter Olympics, as USA Today notes: During its coverage of last year’s Winter Olympics, NBC cleverly directed …

We have gained some fascinating firsthand experience into the federal rulemaking comment process (regarding the DMCA) – I frankly wasn’t aware that there was such a thing until fairly recently, and it appears I am not alone: the number of public comments on federal rules has increased twentyfold in the …

University of Iowa professor Kembrew McLeod “reserves the right to rock” and has the ‘do to prove it (there are plenty of “hair bands” but this is a “hair family”). A statement released today shows McLeod plans to rock AT&T with a cease and desist letter, mailed by his lawyer …

Why can't the music industry learn from the experience of drug dealers or porn magnates?

The Economist decides that entertainment is a difficult business, and that key to success to to strike the appropriate balance between creative and business impulses – duh: ONE by one, the men of extravagant vision and exaggerated showmanship have been toppled from the upper ranks of the world’s media giants. …

Japan is a culture that does what its told to do, like this: Sony said yesterday it has begun sales in Japan of CD singles that require users to pay a small fee over the Internet each time they make copies. Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc said the new CDs …