The smallest major record label, EMI, was acquired by Terra Firma earlier this year, and according to a document the company sent to potential investors, Terra Firma may be looking to get out of the recorded music business in 5 years.

Terra Firma is in the process of selling 15 percent of its interest in EMI, and, according to the investor document, plans to sell off its recorded music business in 2012. The document named Warner Music Group, Google, and News Corp. as potential buyers. [Read More]

Via: paidContent

The Vevo launch party has been going on for an hour and executives and stars are ready to take the stage. I spoke briefly with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt, who told me that Vevo, which is a joint venture between Google’s YouTube and the major record labels, will “revolutionize the music industry by finally allowing it to make money online.” As for how, he told me to wait and see, but he added that advertising, merchandise and ticket sales are part of the mix. As I was being ushered out of the VIP section, I manage to talk with artist Sheryl Crow. Asked what impact Vevo could have on the industry, she said, “Nothing will ‘save’ the music business, but every little thing helps. And anything that puts money in artists’ hands for the work they do is a good thing.”

U2 leader Bono is taking the stage now to start the proceedings: “We are here to launch the great cash cow that was the music business. But we are also here to celebrate a new model for the music business. It’s also a great vehicle that will allow fans to go behind the scenes with their favorite artists.” Still, Vevo is starting off small, it won’t feature HD until sometime next year, he added. [Read More]

Google overhauls its look in order to compete with newer more web 3.0 looking search engines such as bing (the costco of search engines) and the newly remodeled Yahoo. Apparently progress means pushing bigger search buttons.

Via: paidContent

With both Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) overhauling the user interfaces of their search engines, it only made sense that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) would want to tweak the look of its site too. The company is testing out an updated logo and home page (See screenshot to the left). And the results pages now features a left hand column by default, which includes related searches as well as a colorful way to quickly navigate to other Google properties, including news. Search Engine Land reported last week that the changes could go live to all users next year—if the tests are successful. VP Marissa Mayer described the changes to the publication as “an overall cleaning up of the search results page.” [Read More]