Sony BMG Posts 1st Quarter Losses, Sony Looks to Buy Out BMG

Sony BMG Music Entertainment lost $49 million on sales in its first fiscal quarter. Over the same period last year, the company had a net income of $21 million. The company's three best sellers this year have been Usher's Here I Stand, Leona Lewis' Spirit and Neil Diamond's Home Before Dark. While all three debuted atop the Billboard album charts in their first week, none of the three have managed to crack the platinum mark. Despite the losses, Sony is reportedly seeking to buy out the remaining 50% stake it doesn't own in the company from German company Bertelsmann. The buy out could be complete by early August, as Bertelsmann has come down on their price from $1.2-1.5 billion to roughly $920 million.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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