R.E.M. Breaks Up After Three Decades

(rollingstone) 'We've made this decision together, amicably... The time just feels right,' says bassist Mike Mills

R.E.M. announced today that they have broken up after 31 years together. "As lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band," the band said in a statement on their official website. "We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished."

In just over three decades as a band, R.E.M. released 15 albums including landmark works such as Murmur, Reckoning, Document, Out of Time andAutomatic For the People. The band's final album, Collapse Into Now, was released in March of this year. The band have plans to release a career-spanning greatest hits collection later this year, which will include a handful of new songs finished after the band completed Collapse Into Now.

"During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, 'what next'?," bassist Mike Mills wrote on the R.E.M. site. "Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together."

Mills insists that the band have ended their working relationship on very good terms. "We feel kind of like pioneers in this," he says. "There's no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We've made this decision together, amicably and with each other's best interests at heart. The time just feels right."

"I hope our fans realize this wasn't an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way," says frontman Michael Stipe.

Ethan Kaplan, owner of the R.E.M. fan community Murmurs and former Senior Vice President of Emerging Technology at Warner Bros. Records, says that the band's decision was influenced in part by label politics. "I suspected this was coming last fall," Kaplan tellsRolling Stone. "If you remember, they weathered a lot of storms in this business, and have always operated on their own terms. [Warner Bros.] changed starting last September, and I think the demands on a band now to get a record out were more than they might have wanted to commit. I can understand that after how hard they worked for how long, the thought of going back to 'paying dues' with new label staff, in a very weird industry, was too much."

Game's Manager Jimmy 'Henchman' Rosemond Wanted By Feds Warrant issued for Czar Entertainment CEO's arrest in connection to drug case.

Czar Entertainment boss Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond, who manages the careers of the Game, among others, was reportedly on the run on Tuesday (May 17) after federal authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in connection with a drug case.

The New York Post reported that the warrant was issued last week after the feds indicted Rosemond for his alleged involvement in a cocaine distribution ring. At press time, the paper said Rosemond had not yet been found and that an unnamed law enforcement source confirmed that there was a fugitive warrant out for the hip-hop mogul.

Just hours after the story broke, Rosemond's lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, told MTV News that he had not seen the arrest warrant or indictment but that he was aware of the case. "I've spoke to Jimmy and this is not a surprise," he said. "We've been defending this in the pre-indictment stage for years now."

What he was surprised by, though, was that he did not know about the arrest warrant until he read about it in the New York tabloid. Lichtman said that considering the narcotics investigation has been going on for an unspecified number of years, he knew it was "inevitable" that charges would be brought, but that he didn't know when it might happen.

"I don't dispute the fact that there is an arrest warrant, but I haven't seen it," he said. "I suppose they're looking for him now, and when they find him, the case will start." Asked if Rosemond would turn himself in to face the charges, Lichtman said he did not know.

Rosemond has a colorful past, and last year, the New York Daily News reported that he had been named in court records as an informant for state and federal law enforcement officials dating back to the mid-1990s. His former lawyers requested leniency in a Los Angeles gun case against Rosemond by citing his repeated cooperation with authorities.

In 2008, Rosemond called for the firing of former Los Angeles Timesreporter Chuck Phillips after the journalist implicated Rosemond in an article claiming that he was among the men behind the 1994 ambush of late rapper Tupac Shakur at a New York recording studio.

The previous year, Rosemond's then-14-year-old son was allegedly roughed up by G-Unit member Tony Yayo as part of an alleged ongoing beef between G-Unit and Czar, who split ways in 2005; the charges against Yayo were dropped a year later when he pleaded to a lesser crime of noncriminal harassment.

CD could die out in five years says HMV chief

(the sun) THE CD could die out in FIVE YEARS - the boss of HMV claims.

Chief exec Simon Fox said the market would be worth just £300 million in three years' time.

This compares with almost £900 million last year.

Beyond 2016, CDs would be like vinyl - with little presence in a store.

Fox said: "There will be a place for CDs, but it's difficult to see out more than five years."

The market for CDs hit an all-time high in 2004 - when we bought 162 million. Last year sales plunged 12 per cent to 98.5 million.

HMV has given almost a quarter of its latest stores over to "technology" - such as headphones and iPods.

Sales across the chain dived 15 per cent in the 18 weeks to September 3.