Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA

So I was like in the, in the center.

I, you know, I knew the whole-- You know, even before that it was when I was with Bertelsmann, I negotiated with, uh, Jeff Bezos personally about book, uh, online stuff and so on.

So I, I know a lot of the players, the top players, um, and I know...

And so what made me personally, when I had my, I would say midlife consideration, you know, as I said, when I turned like forty or was it thirty-eight? I don't know how old you are right now, but, but, um, uh-

'Our investigation shows that contrary to listener expectations that songs are selected for airplay based on artistic merit and popularity, airtime is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees.

This agreement is a model for breaking the pervasive influence of bribes in the industry.' Spitzer had requested documents and information from EMI, Warner Music Group, Vivendi Universal, SAS Universal Music Group, as well as from Sony BMG, which is a joint venture of Sony Corporations and Bertelsmann AG.

Spitzer said his investigation showed Sony BMG paid for vacation packages and electronics for radio programmers, paid for-" contestant giveaways for listeners, paid some operational expenses of radio stations and hired middlemen known as independent promoters to provide illegal payments to radio stations to get more airplay for its artists.

Spitzer also said emails among company executives showed top officials were aware of the payments.

Mm-hmm

... got bought up by Bertelsmann in Germany.

Oh.

[laughs]

That was 98 in the majors.

um but it was interesting it was interesting to be inside um and then when vivendi acquired universal uh they've asked me to they also acquired a company at that time which was called mp3.com based in san diego and they asked me to launch the european uh arm of mp3.com which was very exciting that was in 2000 i believe and then 2001 and then um I've moved to BMG, so Bertelsmann, in 2002 to run the European marketing division and business development.

So looking at opening up new opportunities for music, mostly in Europe.

And during that time, I got invited, I don't know how, I got invited to fly, to go to Lagos, Nigeria.

Right.

Because what winds up happening is that you're signed, and then we got a publishing deal, right? And then the guy, they're super passionate at Chrysalis, and then Chrysalis gets swallowed up by Sony, and Sony gets swallowed up by BMG, BMG gets swallowed by the Bertelsmann Group, so...

But by the time all those corporate turnovers happen, the people who signed you to begin with probably don't even work there anymore.

And, you know, they're just, the new people are just given all this stuff and they're like, I like Indonesian hip hop.

Good point.

Bertelsmann has a 67% stake, so they have control but also certain obligations.

I wonder how that influences their decisions.

Exactly.

And the twin Reading and Leeds festivals with their shared lineups will be happening in Reading and Leeds, with Florence and the Machine, Charlie XCX, Fontaines, and more topping the bill.

And on the finance front, the big mean Germans, or actually the parent company of the big mean Germans, BMG, Bertelsmann will be having its half-year earnings report call.

That one's happening on Friday.

A few music folks celebrating birthdays this week.

One of the very first things this government did was to have a... well, it reacted and put a lot of importance on some things that took place in the German book trade fair.

Now, I've talked in the past about how the two major companies, Bertelsmann and von Holzbrink, both connected to the Bormann Organization and the Underground Reich, run American Publishing.

Well, one of the companies that runs American Publishing is the von Holzbrink firm.

uh... it's controls among other country a company's rather henry uh... holton company uh...

it controls uh... for our star out strauss and jerusalem martin's press and others and one of the people that the uh... upon holtz brink firm appointed to run henry hold i think the guy they appointed to run henry holt was a guy named michael now bond he was appointed by fun whole spring which is a a company that was very close to Hitler during World War II.