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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0928/1224324532192.html BUSINESS INTERVIEW: As executive vice president of digital media for MTV's music brands, Dubliner Dermot McCormack is confronting head-on the challenges all media companies face in an ever-changing digital landscape IT'S HARD TO know what to envy Dermot McCormack for most - his 17th-floor, corner office (the sign, in America, at least, that you have truly arrived) overlooking Times Square, or the fact that Bono has a nickname for him: Digital Dermot from Dublin. To be fair, he has earned it. McCormack is now executive vice president of digital media for MTV's music brands - including MTV itself, VH1, Country Music Television (CMT) and Logo TV. "My job is to move these cable TV brands into new platforms, expand the brands, expand the audience and make money while I'm doing it," says McCormack - who is originally from Ballyfermot - as though this were easy peasy. Few know quite as well as him, however, just how tricky the internet can be. An early pioneer of new media in the 1990s, McCormack was around for the dot com bubble (the first one, as some would argue). In fact, he was right at the heart of it. Having moved to New York in the early 1990s (the day after he graduated from DIT Kevin Street with a degree in electronic engineering - "My poor Mom," he says. "I never came back!"), McCormack was among those who built some of the earliest websites. Eventually, he went to work in advertising for the hottest new things around at the time - a website called iVillage.com. (So early on in the web age was this that McCormack talks about having approached Toyota about web advertising before the company had any sort of presence on the internet.) The iVillage group of websites still exists today, but you would be hard pushed to find any sign of the fact that, when the company went public in 1999, it was the biggest IPO in history. Shares in the comp

MUSIC Myspace making a comeback The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily. Its new owners attribute this positive response mainly to Myspace's integration with Twitter and Facebook. The ousted social network star has transformed into an online community for music enthusiasts and appears to be growing into a platform that is ready to co-exist with Twitter and Facebook. Instead of competing with Facebook, it is now going head to head with online music services like Rdio, Jango, Pandora and Spotify. Myspace is now claiming they have the biggest catalog of tracks online with 42 million songs. MySpace was purchased by News Corp for USD 580 million in July 2005. But according to Rupert Murdoch himself, the chief executive of News Corp, their purchase has been a big mistake and that it was mismanaged in every way possible. So it was not at all surprising for them to sell it in June 2011 to Specific Media for only USD 35 million, a mere 6% of their original valuation. The new owners, Chris and Tim Vanderhook, along with artist Justin Timberlake invested and reinvented Myspace. They managed to shift the site's focus from social networking into an entertainment portal. Since its launch of the new music player 2 months ago, there has been an increase in registrations and a significant rise in the amount of site traffic. Myspace appears to have a number of assets in its possession including a huge song library, large traffic and brand recognition that if the firm can sustain its new-found upward trend, the new owners may certainly have gotten a bargain. This new MySpace player boasts of unlimited and free music streaming from unsigned and established artists. They also offer customized radio mode and an easy

The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily.

The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily.

http://myblackhawkminesmusic.posterous.com/black-hawk-mines-music-mtv-boss-bono-calls-di BUSINESS INTERVIEW: As executive vice president of digital media for MTV's music brands, Dubliner Dermot McCormack is confronting head-on the challenges all media companies face in an ever-changing digital landscape IT'S HARD TO know what to envy Dermot McCormack for most - his 17th-floor, corner office (the sign, in America, at least, that you have truly arrived) overlooking Times Square, or the fact that Bono has a nickname for him: Digital Dermot from Dublin. To be fair, he has earned it. McCormack is now executive vice president of digital media for MTV's music brands - including MTV itself, VH1, Country Music Television (CMT) and Logo TV. "My job is to move these cable TV brands into new platforms, expand the brands, expand the audience and make money while I'm doing it," says McCormack - who is originally from Ballyfermot - as though this were easy peasy. Few know quite as well as him, however, just how tricky the internet can be. An early pioneer of new media in the 1990s, McCormack was around for the dot com bubble (the first one, as some would argue). In fact, he was right at the heart of it. Having moved to New York in the early 1990s (the day after he graduated from DIT Kevin Street with a degree in electronic engineering - "My poor Mom," he says. "I never came back!"), McCormack was among those who built some of the earliest websites. Eventually, he went to work in advertising for the hottest new things around at the time - a website callediVillage.com. (So early on in the web age was this that McCormack talks about having approached Toyota about web advertising before the company had any sort of presence on the internet.) The iVillage group of websites still exists today, but you would be hard pushed to find any sign of the fact that, when the company went public in 1999, it was the biggest IPO in history. Shares in the compan

MY BLACK HAWK MUSIC: As executive vice president of digital media for MTV's music brands, Dubliner Dermot McCormack is confronting head-on the challenges all media companies face in an ever-changing digital landscape. IT'S HARD TO know what to envy Dermot McCormack for most - his 17th-floor, corner office (the sign, in America, at least, that you have truly arrived) overlooking Times Square, or the fact that Bono has a nickname for him: Digital Dermot from Dublin. To be fair, he has earned it. McCormack is now executive vice president of digital media for MTV's music brands - including MTV itself, VH1, Country Music Television (CMT) and Logo TV. "My job is to move these cable TV brands into new platforms, expand the brands, expand the audience and make money while I'm doing it," says McCormack - who is originally from Ballyfermot - as though this were easy peasy. Few know quite as well as him, however, just how tricky the internet can be. An early pioneer of new media in the 1990s, McCormack was around for the dot com bubble (the first one, as some would argue). In fact, he was right at the heart of it. Having moved to New York in the early 1990s (the day after he graduated from DIT Kevin Street with a degree in electronic engineering - "My poor Mom," he says. "I never came back!"), McCormack was among those who built some of the earliest websites. Eventually, he went to work in advertising for the hottest new things around at the time - a website callediVillage.com. (So early on in the web age was this that McCormack talks about having approached Toyota about web advertising before the company had any sort of presence on the internet.) The iVillage group of websites still exists today, but you would be hard pushed to find any sign of the fact that, when the company went public in 1999, it was the biggest IPO in history. Shares in the company peaked at just over $100 shortly after the initial public offering, before plummeting to al

Last Monday, U.S. magistrate judge sentenced Grammy-winning hip hop artist Lauryn Hill to three months in prison, three months in home confinement and a $60,000 fine for federal tax evasion. Last year Lauryn Hill pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to file tax returns on more than $1.8 million of income between 2005 and 2007 and faced up to three years in prison. Hill has credited her failure to pay taxes to years of pressure she practiced as a recording star all at the same time with raising six children, causing her to go underground and shut away from the public eye. On the eve of her scheduled sentencing, Hill paid $504,000 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and another $420,000 to the state of New Jersey, her attorney told the court. She still owes another $285,000 in interest and penalties. "When the government is asking for 36 months and the judge gives three months, I think the judge gave a fair and reasonable sentence," Hill's attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters. Thirty months to the maximum of 36 months was asked by the prosecutors for a sentence. Hill's lack of a criminal record, her six children and her repayment of the back taxes as mitigating factors in the sentence, cited U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo. Hill, native of South Orange, New Jersey, must report on or before July 8. Her attorney asked the court to assign her a facility close to home. Part of one year of supervised probation is the three months of home confinement following the prison stay. Hill told the court she pulled away from society because her life was in crisis, received veiled threats and was blacklisted because she did not conform to the norms of the music industry. "I was being perceived as a cash cow, not a person," Hill said. Just this Friday, a new single by Hill, her first in several years, called "Neurotic Society," was posted on iTunes. "Here is a link to a piece that I was 'required' to release imm

Taylor Swift walks around with a constant expression of shock at her swell luck and good fortune. As well she should, as the pitch-challenged, confessional sweetheart is doing phenomenally well in the singing business. She doesn't do as well in the relationship business, but her prolific taste in celebrity men has served her and supermarket magazines fine. "Love is a ruthless game, unless you play it good and right," she sings on State of Grace. I would argue that Swift plays the game ruthlessly - "good and right" being adverbs open to interpretation, or even meaningless to a doe-eyed pop careerist whose open-book romantic life is grist for the mill, an attention-getting supply of gotcha-good inspiration. Red, her fourth album, is full of big, errorless music - arena-pop that is just country enough to keep the CMT crowd happy. But even if there are very few missteps, excitement and soul are decidedly lacking. Swift's lyrical style lacks for ambition; someone like Canada's Liam Titcomb, a complete unknown in comparison, has much more of a clue how to write a poppy relationship song with wordy charisma. The pigtailed set will enjoy the 22-year-old woman-child who giggles at the end of the plucky-cute Stay, Stay, Stay. "Before you I only dated self-indulgent takers, who took all of their problems out on me," she sings, resisting the urge to rhyme "Jake Gyllenhaal" with "darn it all" or "John Mayer" with "hey, that's not fair." The album's catchy first single We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together is Avril-bratty, complete with a resolute girlie army on the chorus. But beyond the adolescent stuff, the platinum-selling Kennedy-clan befriender branches out - sometimes moving in less-than-mysterious U2 ways. While State of Grace uses chiming guitars and bold dynamics, All Too Well doesn't at all try to hide its With or Without You tension-building methods. Lyrically it represents Swift's best work, involving broken p

If you're an artist, and you've spent at least five minutes looking for ways to advance your career, chances are you have already encountered a wide variety of music services displayed to you through ads. They're highly prevalent on any website related to music, on Google searches, in Gmail (if any of your emails are music-related), on YouTube, and in physical sources like print magazines or classified ads. Isn't it great that in an industry that is seeing the entry of tens of thousands of new musicians every year, there are so many nice businesses out there looking to help them? Yeah, right! The truth is, there are plenty of sleazy individuals and business entities that have been observing the decline of the traditional recording industry. They have noticed all the new artists cropping up, looking for fame and fortune. They smile when they see the common portrayal of artists on MTV and VH1 as rich, living extravagant and glamorous lifestyles, getting huge "record deals", and so on - even though that image is extremely distorted. All of this has created a prime market for services and products targeted towards musicians who want to make it big, and unfortunately for us, the majority of these are scams. So, what are you supposed to do? Ignore any seemingly-pleasant emails from important-sounding people that are "interested in your music"? Definitely not. While illegitimate organizations looking to take advantage of artists are prevalent, there are still honest people in the business, and some of them really might be interested in you, personally. Since that's the case, if you're interested in maximizing your opportunities and minimizing the time and money spent on potentially useless services, it's important to learn how to detect and avoid scams. As you read all of the points below, do keep in mind that just because some factors may warrant more caution, you should always evaluate opportunities thoroughly. An offer might have one or two red f

If you're an artist, and you've spent at least five minutes looking for ways to advance your career, chances are you have already encountered a wide variety of music services displayed to you through ads. They're highly prevalent on any website related to music, on Google searches, in Gmail (if any of your emails are music-related), on YouTube, and in physical sources like print magazines or classified ads. Isn't it great that in an industry that is seeing the entry of tens of thousands of new musicians every year, there are so many nice businesses out there looking to help them? Yeah, right! The truth is, there are plenty of sleazy individuals and business entities that have been observing the decline of the traditional recording industry. They have noticed all the new artists cropping up, looking for fame and fortune. They smile when they see the common portrayal of artists on MTV and VH1 as rich, living extravagant and glamorous lifestyles, getting huge "record deals", and so on - even though that image is extremely distorted. All of this has created a prime market for services and products targeted towards musicians who want to make it big, and unfortunately for us, the majority of these are scams. So, what are you supposed to do? Ignore any seemingly-pleasant emails from important-sounding people that are "interested in your music"? Definitely not. While illegitimate organizations looking to take advantage of artists are prevalent, there are still honest people in the business, and some of them really might be interested in you, personally. Since that's the case, if you're interested in maximizing your opportunities and minimizing the time and money spent on potentially useless services, it's important to learn how to detect and avoid scams. As you read all of the points below, do keep in mind that just because some factors may warrant more caution, you should always evaluate opportunities thoroughly. An offer might have one or two red f

"Last year Lauryn Hill pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to file tax returns on more than $1.8 million of income between 2005 and 2007 and faced up to three years in prison. Hill has credited her failure to pay taxes to years of pressure she practiced as a recording star all at the same time with raising six children, causing her to go underground and shut away from the public eye. On the eve of her scheduled sentencing, Hill paid $504,000 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and another $420,000 to the state of New Jersey, her attorney told the court. She still owes another $285,000 in interest and penalties."

Taylor swift continues to step a notch everyday, country-pop singer started at a very young age and from then on she struggled on her way up. Her hardships didn't last long. She found her big break and here she is as how we know her. Hardships are really paying off, singer's album "Red" topped the U.S. album chart for a second week despite a big percentage drop. Singer-songwriter Swift has undoubtedly paved the way to stardom on her own. She gained the respect of her fans by being one of them. Teen girls idolize her by being her, she's reasonably gorgeous even in ballet flats. She's awkward but speaks her mind through her song. She's a geek chic oozing with sex appeal. And above all, she's a star but she is approachable. It was not a surprise that her forth album "Red" is another big hit. Released October 22, 2012 through Big Machine Records, Red is the fourth studio album by singer-song writer Taylor Swift. According to Nielsen SoundScan data for the week ending Nov. 4, "Red" retained the apex with 344,000 copies sold, may sound much but actually it has a decline of 72% from 1.21 million sales on the first week. Despite the big difference in terms of sales, Red maintained to be on top on the second week and until now on its third week. There is no stopping "Red", industry forecasters put forward that the album will spend a third straight week atop the Billboard 200 chart next week. The new Billboard 200 chart's top 10 will be revealed on the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 14. Red is a 16-song geyser of willful emotions, Swift's songs grows with her as well. As she ages her songs matures with her. Album includes songs entitled, 1. "State of Grace" - a not typical Taylor at all is what you will see in this song, she was blindsided by love. Lush and dreamy, a drum driven song is what you can expect in "State of Grace". 2."Red"- this song is a different shade for Taylor, it talks about how impossible it is moving on from a

Pirates are not just hunting oceans' floor but also the music industry. There's still no way she can pay record companies the $222,000 judgment she owes said the Minnesota woman at the center of a long-running court fight over the unauthorized downloading of copyrighted music after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal Monday. The justices did not give remark on their decision. The amount was excessive argued by the attorneys of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, of Brainerd. In the early to mid-2000s, the music industry filed thousands of lawsuits in opposition to people it charged of downloading music without authorization and without paying for it. Most of these cases were settled for about $3,500 apiece. Only two defendants refused to pay and went to trial one of them is Thomas-Rasset while the other was former Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum. The later also lost and was ordered to pay $675,000. Back in 2006, the initial case was file against Thomas-Rasset. Ever since the case was filed has gone through three trials and several appeals. According to the evidences presented by the industry, Thomas-Rasset made available over 1,700 songs to other computer uses via the file-sharing service Kazaa, though the lawsuit targeted only 24 songs. "I'm assuming that since they declined to hear the case it's probably done at this point," she said. But she also said she needed to consult with her attorneys to determine what happens next. Thomas-Rasset at the age of 35 and who works for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe tribal government, maintained her claim that as she has all along can't afford to pay. "There's no way that they can collect," she said. "Right now, I get energy assistance because I have four kids. It's just the one income. My husband isn't working. It's not possible for them to collect even if they wanted to. I have no assets." She became a grandmother in June, Thomas-Rasset added. She refused

A look into Whitney Houston's life by Blackhawk Mines Updates Whitney Houston, along with the late Michael Jackson, has helped in paving the way for black artists to utilize mainstream media and gain global support in the music industry. The cousin of singer Dionne Warwick, Houston shot into international fame after her discovery in the 80s. In 1992, she got married to another artist, Bobby Brown, who seem to have the opposite upbringing than her. However, her career made a turn for the bad after her marriage. During the late 90's, she was already notorious for cancellations of appearances, late arrivals and no-shows. Rumors started to circulate that she was doing drugs with her husband. Houston was arrested in 2002 for having marijuana but during a prime-time TV interview, she denied ever having or using drugs. Houston's marriage ended in 2007 and she entered a rehab for drug use. But she admitted herself that her drug use was not halted even after finishing the rehab program. After 2 years, Houston launched a comeback album (after seven years), 'I Look To You' and promoted it during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. But as the events of the past several years have proven, rehab had not been effective for Houston as opposed to how it had redeemed Robert Downey Jr. Recently, people are speculating that her fall from fame has dried out her fortune. Having no planned albums in the future, her only comeback appearance was the film Sparkle which will be released in August. She played a supporting role alongside singer Jordin Sparks -- her first in almost 6 years. There were also rumors that Houston was one of the possible choices as a judge in the singing competition, 'The X Factor' but those were flatly denied by Simon Cowell. Just hours into the 54th annual Grammy Awards, Houston was found dead in her hotel room with the cause of death remaining unknown. Coroner's officials are not going to release details regarding the autopsy on Sunday due to the request of

Whitney Houston, along with the late Michael Jackson, has helped in paving the way for black artists to utilize mainstream media and gain global support in the music industry. The cousin of singer Dionne Warwick, Houston shot into international fame after her discovery in the 80s.

The one-time leading social networking site Myspace has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over the privacy probe recently conducted. Myspace was charged with representing its privacy policies to its users, which brings to mind similar deals agreed upon by Google and Facebook on respective FTC investigations involving them. FTC announced last week that despite Myspace's telling users that it will not share personally identifiable data with others; it gave advertisers "Friend ID" numbers of users. This enabled advertisers to search the users' publicly available personal data such as full names and could even lead to discovery of their web activity. The terms of the settlement specified that Myspace is not going to misrepresent its privacy policies while implementing a comprehensive privacy program. In addition, the two parties agreed to a regular independent privacy audits every other year for 2 decades. Myspace had been the most popular social network since it launched in 2003 but was overshadowed by the arrival of Facebook. Specific Media of Irvine California is the current owner of Myspace after News Corp sold it for USD 35 million last year. Black Hawk Mines said that it had already conducted a complete assessment of Myspace's privacy and advertising practices after its acquisition and had "successfully improved upon its historical practices", taking the now social media platform to the forefront of industry's best practice for ad delivery. Moreover, any questions about Myspace's pre-acquisition ad practices were apparently put behind. Back in 2011, FTC and Google also reached a settlement over charges that the search engine a breach of its own privacy policy had happened in launching the now defunct social platform named Buzz. Their agreement will require Google to get user permission first before sharing consumer data with third parties or if it is going to change a service and use the data in a

PRSYNC PRESS RELEASE ON ENTERTAINMENT - MY BLACK HAWK MINES MUSIC - The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily. Its new owners attribute this positive response mainly to Myspace's integration with Twitter and Facebook. The ousted social network star has transformed into an online community for music enthusiasts and appears to be growing into a platform that is ready to co-exist with Twitter and Facebook. Instead of competing with Facebook, it is now going head to head with online music services like Rdio, Jango, Pandora and Spotify. Myspace is now claiming they have the biggest catalog of tracks online with 42 million songs. MySpace was purchased by News Corp for USD 580 million in July 2005. But according to Rupert Murdoch himself, the chief executive of News Corp, their purchase has been a big mistake and that it was mismanaged in every way possible. So it was not at all surprising for them to sell it in June 2011 to Specific Media for only USD 35 million, a mere 6% of their original valuation. The new owners, Chris and Tim Vanderhook, along with artist Justin Timberlake invested and reinvented Myspace. They managed to shift the site's focus from social networking into an entertainment portal. Since its launch of the new music player 2 months ago, there has been an increase in registrations and a significant rise in the amount of site traffic. Myspace appears to have a number of assets in its possession including a huge song library, large traffic and brand recognition that if the firm can sustain its new-found upward trend, the new owners may certainly have gotten a bargain. This new MySpace player boasts of unlimited and free music streaming fr

PRSYNC PRESS RELEASE ON ENTERTAINMENT - MY BLACK HAWK MINES MUSIC - The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily. Its new owners attribute this positive response mainly to Myspace's integration with Twitter and Facebook. The ousted social network star has transformed into an online community for music enthusiasts and appears to be growing into a platform that is ready to co-exist with Twitter and Facebook. Instead of competing with Facebook, it is now going head to head with online music services like Rdio, Jango, Pandora and Spotify. Myspace is now claiming they have the biggest catalog of tracks online with 42 million songs. MySpace was purchased by News Corp for USD 580 million in July 2005. But according to Rupert Murdoch himself, the chief executive of News Corp, their purchase has been a big mistake and that it was mismanaged in every way possible. So it was not at all surprising for them to sell it in June 2011 to Specific Media for only USD 35 million, a mere 6% of their original valuation. The new owners, Chris and Tim Vanderhook, along with artist Justin Timberlake invested and reinvented Myspace. They managed to shift the site's focus from social networking into an entertainment portal. Since its launch of the new music player 2 months ago, there has been an increase in registrations and a significant rise in the amount of site traffic. Myspace appears to have a number of assets in its possession including a huge song library, large traffic and brand recognition that if the firm can sustain its new-found upward trend, the new owners may certainly have gotten a bargain. This new MySpace player boasts of unlimited and free music streaming from unsigned and established artists.

The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily. Its new owners attribute this positive response mainly to Myspace's integration with Twitter and Facebook. The ousted social network star has transformed into an online community for music enthusiasts and appears to be growing into a platform that is ready to co-exist with Twitter and Facebook. Instead of competing with Facebook, it is now going head to head with online music services like Rdio, Jango, Pandora and Spotify. Myspace is now claiming they have the biggest catalog of tracks online with 42 million songs. MySpace was purchased by News Corp for USD 580 million in July 2005. But according to Rupert Murdoch himself, the chief executive of News Corp, their purchase has been a big mistake and that it was mismanaged in every way possible. So it was not at all surprising for them to sell it in June 2011 to Specific Media for only USD 35 million, a mere 6% of their original valuation. The new owners, Chris and Tim Vanderhook, along with artist Justin Timberlake invested and reinvented Myspace. They managed to shift the site's focus from social networking into an entertainment portal. Since its launch of the new music player 2 months ago, there has been an increase in registrations and a significant rise in the amount of site traffic. Myspace appears to have a number of assets in its possession including a huge song library, large traffic and brand recognition that if the firm can sustain its new-found upward trend, the new owners may certainly have gotten a bargain. This new MySpace player boasts of unlimited and free music streaming from unsigned and established artists. They also offer customized radio mode and an easy integration with Facebook. It's yet to prove that t

The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily. Its new owners attribute this positive response mainly to Myspace's integration with Twitter and Facebook. The ousted social network star has transformed into an online community for music enthusiasts and appears to be growing into a platform that is ready to co-exist with Twitter and Facebook.

The one-time leading social networking site Myspace has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over the privacy probe recently conducted. Myspace was charged with representing its privacy policies to its users, which brings to mind similar deals agreed upon by Google and Facebook on respective FTC investigations involving them. FTC announced last week that despite Myspace's telling users that it will not share personally identifiable data with others; it gave advertisers "Friend ID" numbers of users. This enabled advertisers to search the users' publicly available personal data such as full names and could even lead to discovery of their web activity. The terms of the settlement specified that Myspace is not going to misrepresent its privacy policies while implementing a comprehensive privacy program. In addition, the two parties agreed to a regular independent privacy audits every other year for 2 decades. Myspace had been the most popular social network since it launched in 2003 but was overshadowed by the arrival of Facebook. Specific Media of Irvine California is the current owner of Myspace after News Corp sold it for USD 35 million last year. Black Hawk Mines said that it had already conducted a complete assessment of Myspace's privacy and advertising practices after its acquisition and had "successfully improved upon its historical practices", taking the now social media platform to the forefront of industry's best practice for ad delivery. Moreover, any questions about Myspace's pre-acquisition ad practices were apparently put behind. Back in 2011, FTC and Google also reached a settlement over charges that the search engine a breach of its own privacy policy had happened in launching the now defunct social platform named Buzz. Their agreement will require Google to get user permission first before sharing consumer data with third parties or if it is going to change a service and use the data in a

The latest from the American Idol judge-hunting drama: Mariah Carey is reportedly upset when she found out that producers are seriously considering Nicki Minaj as another judge. Though it was in no way final, Carey must have been annoyed if she really was led to believe that she will be the only female judge in the panel. Now, Minaj could be the big gamble Idol is willing to take in order to regain its former popularity - though if this would not work, let this be a warning that the show will definitely take a plunge and be a total train wreck. Adding fuel to the fire is Carey's controversial tweet weeks ago saying:"@AmericanIdol What's going on? need the info!! What about this combo? : ) if we could ever get him to do it!" Along with the message was an attached photo of Carey with Lenny Kravitz, obviously suggesting him as a possible co-judge. So far, only Carey has been confirmed in signing the judging contract with Idol but with speculations that there will be four judges this season, and Randy Jackson's exit, producers have 3 more slots to fill. Another rumored possible Idol judge is revealed to be Kanye West, with reports claiming that producers are in negotiations with the rapper. However, West seemed to be unsure as he does not think it's his cup of tea. At any rate, it was revealed that he was offered the same annual salary as Carey. Meanwhile, Randy Jackson has also been confirmed to be leaving the judging panel, possibly for a mentor post. This leaves the show with an all-new judge lineup, with others speculating there could be 4 judges this coming season. Other rumored celebrities being considered to judge Idol are Enrique Iglesias, Adam Lambert, Keith Urban, Nick Jonas, Brad Paisley and Pharrell Williams. American Idol is only several months away from its 12th season but the final set of judges is still given to much speculation. And for the producers, it will be challenging to steer an old franchise back to its glory d

He is the middle class singer who likes to sing the blues. So perhaps John Mayer's music may sound a little more authentic now he is being sued over allegedly receiving money from a fraudulent investment operation. As much as $465,000 was handed over to the star's representatives by a Ponzi scheme ran by notorious criminal Frederick Darren Berg. He was given an 18-year-sentance in February for duping investors out of more than $100m through his investment company. According to TMZ, Mayer was drawn into the frame when the trustees charged with recovering as much of the stolen money as possible decided to sue those who had benefited. New legal documents show he is one of the people who received dirty money after a booking agency was allegedly paid by his company. It is claimed Grabow & Associates, and their client and Mayer by extension, are in possession of as much as $465,000. The agency specialises in booking entertainment for corporate and private events, and set up the Your Body is Wonderland singer with a money-spinning appearance in 2008. Mayer's lawyer said: 'John Mayer performed at a corporate event in 2008 and was paid for his services. 'The opportunity was brought to John through his talent agency, CAA.' A ruling has yet to be delivered on the case. Nice work if you can get it: The middle class blues singer played a show in 2008 Frederick Darren Berg was sentenced to 18 years in prison for defrauding hundreds of investors of more than $100 million through the Meridian Mortgage investment funds he ran for nearly a decade. U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Jones imposed the prison term recommended by Berg's plea agreement. He told him: 'I'm not sure how you live with yourself, with the damage that you caused.' Judge Jones noted that the lead defendant in a $90 million Ponzi scheme previously considered Washington state's largest fraud received a 20-year sentence. But he said the slightly shorter term for Berg was appropriate since he'

The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player.

The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily. Its new owners attribute this positive response mainly to Myspace's integration with Twitter and Facebook. The ousted social network star has transformed into an online community for music enthusiasts and appears to be growing into a platform that is ready to co-exist with Twitter and Facebook. Instead of competing with Facebook, it is now going head to head with online music services like Rdio, Jango, Pandora and Spotify. Myspace is now claiming they have the biggest catalog of tracks online with 42 million songs. MySpace was purchased by News Corp for USD 580 million in July 2005. But according to Rupert Murdoch himself, the chief executive of News Corp, their purchase has been a big mistake and that it was mismanaged in every way possible. So it was not at all surprising for them to sell it in June 2011 to Specific Media for only USD 35 million, a mere 6% of their original valuation. The new owners, Chris and Tim Vanderhook, along with artist Justin Timberlake invested and reinvented Myspace. They managed to shift the site's focus from social networking into an entertainment portal. Since its launch of the new music player 2 months ago, there has been an increase in registrations and a significant rise in the amount of site traffic. Myspace appears to have a number of assets in its possession including a huge song library, large traffic and brand recognition that if the firm can sustain its new-found upward trend, the new owners may certainly have gotten a bargain. This new MySpace player boasts of unlimited and free music streaming from unsigned and established artists. They also offer customized radio mode and an easy integration with