Music Videos

The board of SAG-AFTRA has approved a landmark contract for performers who work in music videos. The board, as expected, endorsed an agreement reached last month with the major record labels, including Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group, on a first-ever industrywide contract to cover dancers and performers who work on music videos. Under the contract, which takes effect Monday, dancers who work on music videos produced by or on behalf of the labels would receive a minimum daily pay rate and health and retirement benefits.

Silent slapstick filmmaker Mack Sennett moved to Los Angeles in 1913, setting up shop in what is now Echo Park, and began to make short movies starring an upstart comedian named Charlie Chaplin. Three years later, he built a set of soundstages to make movies with his movie star girlfriend, Mabel Normand. Now those Silver Lake soundstages, which became part of the Mack Sennett Studios, are getting a face-lift under new owners. PHOTOS: Hollywood Backlot moments Jesse Rogg, a Grammy-nominated music producer, bought the production space for about $3.3 million this year from Stephen Collins, a former photographer who owned the property for nearly three decades.

It was the comeback that turned into a train wreck. Millions of viewers tuned in to MTV's Video Music Awards last year to see Britney Spears' highly anticipated return to the stage after a period of painful turmoil and near career collapse, only to see the singer flounder during her ceremony kickoff performance. The awards show itself received similarly disparaging reviews, with critics deriding everything from its Las Vegas locale to its Web-centric aesthetic. This time around, as the network stages the 25th ceremony set to unfold Sunday at the Paramount Pictures lot in Los Angeles, executives are hoping the show itself will be able to stage that big comeback.

The cover of "A Space Oddity" by Chris Hadfield, International Space Station commander, is going galactically viral Monday. But it was a decidedly terrestrial affair. And it centered on a Silver Lake producer and a Canadian singer who once did vocals for Bowie, say those who were involved. Hadfield, who already reset the bar for social media with his tweets from space , is a talented singer and guitarist. He sat in with many a Canadian musician, and joined singer-songwriter Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies last month for a rendition of “Is Somebody Singing,” which the two co-wrote.

Music videos from Green Day, Jay-Z and Linkin Park will begin reappearing on YouTube as soon as December, the result of a multiyear agreement reached with Warner Music Group Corp. The Internet's dominant video site and one of the world's largest music companies had been locked in a dispute over the value of music videos, some of the most popular content on YouTube, whose young viewers are coveted by advertisers. Licensing talks reached an impasse late last year, resulting in Warner's videos being pulled from the site.

Launch Media, the Santa Monica company that produces a music magazine on CD-ROM, will acquire MusicVideos.com to broaden the content on its Web site, the companies will announce today. Newport Beach-based MusicVideos.com features nearly 1,000 alternative, dance, country and hip-hop videos and serves up more than 1 million videos each month. Those videos will now be available at Launch's music-oriented Web site, http://www.launch.com. Four of MusicVideos.

If Rio Caraeff had his way, the phrase "I want my MTV" would be replaced by "I want my Vevo." The 34-year-old Santa Monica music executive, who once headed the digital music business for Universal Music Group, launched Vevo in December. In April — less than six months later — the site vaulted into the No. 1 spot for online music videos in the U.S., garnering more than 43 million unique viewers who watched 350 million streams, according to ComScore Inc. Among all video sites, Vevo ranked fourth, just after Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Fox Interactive Media, and beating out the likes of Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp.

The Recording Industry Assn. of America said Thursday that shipments of prerecorded music and music videos reached $12.5 billion in 1996, up about 2% over the 1995 total of $12.3 billion. The association said unit shipments rose to 1.14 billion in 1996 from 1.11 billion in 1995. Hilary Rosen, the association's president, said the group is surveying consumers and funding research to determine what it will take to foster America's passion for owning music.

And here you thought music video was just glamour boys with poufy hair preening behind blemish-obscuring smoke--money for nothing, as it were. But this relatively recent genre represents something else entirely to the American Cinematheque, which, in conjunction with the Long Beach Museum of Art, has scheduled this weekend a mini-festival whose brave assertion--as stated in its printed program--is nothing less than that "music video is the art form of the '80s."

America Online signed deals to offer thousands of music videos from Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. The deal comes after Universal, owned by French conglomerate Vivendi Universal, in February said it planned to charge for music videos over the Internet and on cable video-on-demand services. AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc., is seeking to launch free services to boost online advertising revenue to offset a dwindling dial-up Internet membership.

Jennifer Lopez's Florida beach day was interrupted by the nearby sound of gunshots Sunday, according to reports. The sound of three gunshots erupted while the singer and former "American Idol" judge was in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., shooting a music video for her upcoming single "Live It Up" with rapper Pitbull, set for release Wednesday. Lopez had been photographed earlier in the day dressed in a black bikini and green printed caftan on the upbeat set with boyfriend Casper Smart.  "BREAKING: Gunshots fired on Fort Lauderdale Beach DURING my JLo interview.

Justin Bieber has released his latest music video, "All Around the World," and is giving fans and critics a glimpse of his life during his "Believe" tour. The video plays out as a mash-up of footage from the 19-year-old's world tour and his performances of the song at various venues. It also shows the tour from his point of view. So it's fitting and fairly clever that his team approached the song in this manner. The YouTube sensation-turned-global pop star teased to the video on Twitter Thursday and finally made the big reveal on Friday.

Once pegged as "the smart Monkee," singer, songwriter and guitarist Michael Nesmith is now embarking on his first U.S. solo tour in more than two decades. Nesmith shot to fame after "The Monkees" series premiered in 1966, and though he recently reunited with the band for a tour, it's now his turn to hit the road solo. The 70-year-old artist and his backing band will focus on the deep trove of country, folk and rock music he made after leaving the Monkees in 1970. Nesmith will hit the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills on March 24, with guest guitarist John Jorgenson dropping in for one number during the L.A.-area tour stop.

Another day, another component in the Justin Timberlake promotional juggernaut. Around the same time Tuesday night that The CW was airing a one-hour special memorably titled "Target Presents the iHeartRadio Album Release Party with Justin Timberlake," Vevo premiered the music video for "Mirrors," the second single from "The 20/20 Experience. " Timberlake's third solo album -- which marks his return to music following a six-year break -- arrived in stores Tuesday, though it had been available to stream on iTunes since March 11. On Saturday he performed at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, and last week he appeared for five nights straight on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Do you like dreamy indie-rock bands? Fireworks? Extremely confusing (but visually stunning) music videos? Today is your day, friend. New clips from Phoenix and Beach House are making the online rounds, and though we haven't really a clue what either one of them is about -- both revolve around what appear to be elaborate sporting-event spectacles -- each is a treat to behold. First up: Phoenix's video for "Entertainment," the lovely lead single from the French band's upcoming "Bankrupt!

Google Inc. is in discussions with the major labels about launching an online music streaming service that would position it to compete with Spotify, MOG and others, a person familiar with the matter confirmed. The labels are in discussions with Google about renewing deals that pay the music companies a fee whenever one of their copyrighted songs is used in a YouTube video, said the person who was not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations.  As part of these talks, Google is proposing a premium subscription service -- perhaps as soon as the fall of this year.

MySpace has reached a licensing deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment to stream music videos from such artists, as Britney Spears, Beyonce Knowles and Bruce Springsteen. MySpace said it would share ad revenue with Sony BMG, which will make its music videos and select audio material available on artists' profile pages to MySpace's U.S. users.

Sales of recorded music and music videos sank 8% to $12.6 billion last year, the music industry's leading trade organization said. The dramatic drop in dollar value reflects an 8.9% decline in shipments of compact discs, which account for most of the industry's volume. According to statistics from the Recording Industry Assn. of America, labels shipped 803.3 million CDs, generating about $12 billion. The overall decline follows a 4.1% drop-off a year earlier.

Miguel appears to be taking advantage of his new renown. Hot on the heels of his  head-turning performance last week at the Grammy Awards (where his "Adorn" won an R&B song prize), the L.A.-based soul singer released a politically charged music video Wednesday for his track "Candles in the Sun. " Unlike "Adorn" and many of the steamy love songs on Miguel's acclaimed 2012 disc "Kaleidoscope Dream," the eerie "Candles in the Sun" ponders a laundry list of societal ills, including "babies on crack," "white-collar war crime" and "mindless bureaucracy.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Jan. 6-12, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SUNDAY Put out the good china, because "Downton Abbey" is back for a third season on "Masterpiece Classic. " But first, the special "Secrets of Highclere Castle" explores the edifice that serves as the setting for the British-made period drama. (KOCE, 7 and 9 p.m.) What a way to go! A barbeque-centric service complete with a smoker-shaped casket is among the unusual send-offs featured in the special "Best Funeral Ever.