October 27, 1999
From Yahoo! Chat
cybervenue_host: We are very proud to present Lou Pearlman
cybervenue_host: Welcome Louis J. Pearlman
cybervenue_host: Your first question is as follows
capri_emanuelle asks: Hello, Lou! Congrats on becoming so famous! You've created so many of my favorite groups! I think everyone is DYING to know this: are your artists really down-to-earth people?
Louis J. Pearlman: Thank you for the compliment and yes all of our artists are down to earth and great.
Lou Pearlman: What you see is what you get
timido_angel asks: Louis, have you got anymore up and coming artists on the way?
Louis Pearlman: Yes we do, if you check Cybervenue, you'll see all of our up and coming artists. Were putting together a new TV show that will air in March
capri_emanuelle asks: Hello, Louis! You've worked w/ a lot of famous people before they even became huge names in the pop music business. Have you ever thought of venturing into new kinds of music such as rock or country?
Louis J. Pearlman: As a matter of fact, Kenny Rogers as signed with us for international distribution as well as we have an up and coming country artist named One Eyed Jack. Were open to all kinds of music.
SwTCC86 asks: Hows innosense doing and when do we get to see them?
Lou Pearlman: Innosense is doing well. We are in the process of finalizing their debut album. Which will be released next year. Look for their single to be released the first quarter of the year 2000
tampapalmsgirl_17 asks: What should we first do when searching for a career in the music business?
Louis J. Pearlman: You can send us your demo tape and photos for our evaluation. Or send it to any other record company to the attention of their A & R Department. A & R means Artist and Repitoire
capri_emanuelle asks: Hello, Louis :-) How do you like the movie business?
Louis J. Pearlman: The movie business is alot of fun and alot of work. We just complete filming "Jack of All Trades" starring Paul Sorvino, Tylo, Jessica Wesson, Zachary Ty Bryant, Daniel Fischel, and cameos by Brittany Spears, NSYNC, LFO, Take 5, Phoenix Stone, CNote, One Eyed Jack, Kenny Rogers, KC and others.
TL_Emily asks: Why did you say NSYNC won't exist and they can be replaced?
Lou Pearlman: I never said that, that is a misstatement by media sources. I love NSYNC, in fact NSYNC and I are very upset about the magnitude of improper press coverage. NSYNC is just trying to renegotiate their record distribution deal.
Louis Pearlman: The main situation is between BMG (RCA) and Zomba (Jive). We hope it will all be resolved soon. Nobody wins if we don't continue selling records.
TL_Emily asks: Why do you want to take away NSYNC's name?
Lou Pearlman: We would never take away NSYNC's name. That is not true. We never said that.
Louis J. Pearlman: In fact, NSYNC is continuing to tour and make up lost concert dates. We have an agreement to continue to tour and sell merchandise as we always have. The only problem is regarding records sales as I previously just mentioned. We are hoping that this is resolved as soon as possible so that we may release the next NSYNC album. NSYNC has protected me in this deal as well as I them. We are just trying to figure out the legal stuff that unfortunately were all caught in the middle of.
janjan25 asks: Mr. Pearlman, do you think there would be a market for a polka remix band? (seriously) Jana and Lisa
Louis J. Pearlman: You'd never know, I'm sure their probably could be...keep up the good work.
sleepy_goof asks: When will Take 5 be releasing a single in the USA?
Louis Pearlman: Take 5 will be releasing a single the first quarter of 2000. They have been busy recording in the studio their new US debut album which will eventually be released worldwide.
bina_bodi asks: I don't know if you answer this or not but anyway. It's obvious that *NSYNC wants out and BSB wants out of their deal, so why doesn't JIVE and RCA just swap the two groups? That would make everything alot easier. And then no one would be suing and be hurt.
Louis J. Pearlman: That would be a simple answer if it was true. But Backstreet boys are still at Jive and NSYNC hasn't officially left their old distributor as yet due to this legal situation. But I agree it would make life easier.
May 24, 1999
From TWST.com
TWST: If you would, first, give us a little bit of a background or historical summary on this company, enough information that would put our readers into context.
Lou Pearlman: It started in 1982 when we were incorporated. We went public in 1985, and the original name of the company was Airship International Ltd, and the original symbol was BLMP, for blimp. And BLMP traded since 1985 and we changed the name to Entertainment International Ltd, actually, about a year ago. And we changed the stock symbol as well to match the name, we went to ENTI. And we also have on the Internet, we've registered www.enti.com to match our symbol. And we thought originally we would be in the blimp business,we flew airships, our first client was McDonald's hamburgers, and McDonald's flew with us since 1985, went to Time, and we added on some other clients since then, including Budweiser, MetLife, Gulf Oil and so on. So we've built it up, presently moving into the entertainment business. And the blimp business is great. We still have our blimps available, they stand ready, willing and able to fly for clients as the need arises. But we've directed the company more towards the entertainment business. We have a company, Trans Continental Companies, Inc., which has been in the aviation business, leasing aircraft and also a subsidiary, which is a record company called Trans Continental Records. And Trans Continental Records had founded and started the distribution for the Backstreet Boys as well as 'NSYNC, which are both very popular music groups with the teen markets today worldwide. And we have other groups coming and other artists, both male and female, and simultaneously we had started a company called Trans Continental Media as a subsidiary. And the media Trans Continental Media business does the Internet work for all the Web sites for our groups. And we're planning on exploring the possibility of merging Trans Continental Media, with ENTI and forming an Internet business providing the Web site services for rock 'n roll groups. And we also have some outside clients as well that we've been doing Web sites for and computer graphics, and things of that nature as well as PR work, for media training and so forth. And this company has also done media training for our artists as well. We thought it might be interesting to put that company into the Entertainment International and we're just reviewing that now because Entertainment International, we feel, can be a very big company building up on the growing entertainment industry and that's the reason why we're shifting towards that. So we're researching and preparing to look at all possibilities of how we're going to do that. We hope to do that in the very near future.
TWST: What leads you to that segment? What do you find as the key issues or trends that have caused this evolution?
Louis J. Pearlman: I feel like with the entertainment industry, we have seen a lot of growth and we have seen the need for having the Internet be a very big part of that growth, especially with the awareness of the younger audience out there that this is now a vastly complex world that we live in, but you now have computers linking everything up. So it gives everyone that worldwide capability to communicate and to have people in far countries to get on-line with us and know exactly what's going on because they can contact the States reasonably inexpensively. This will help our growth in Entertainment International because I think a big part of the future is the synergy of the entertainment/Internet businesses.
TWST: Give us a look at the management team today. What do you feel are the skill sets and bench strengths that you have as you look at these new opportunities? What areas have you identified in which there might be changes or additions to this management team?
Lou Pearlman: I think that one of the big things should be that as President of the company-of Entertainment International-I've been involved in it since its inception and I've been involved with our Web site company from its inception. And I feel that putting the two together would be a very strong marriage: we both can work harmoniously in developing the ability to capitalize on entertainment and internet related opportunities such as merchandising items over the Internet, which has been a very big eye-catcher for us because we have a lot of people buying T-shirts, hats, caps and all kinds of paraphernalia from their favorite artists on our websites. If they can't purchase it on tour, they have an opportunity here to do it via the Internet. And I think we have our own in-house people that have been familiar with the marketing, the sales, the actual creation of our Web sites to make it exciting and to have, again, advertisers who want to advertise and have viewers who want to watch and see the latest and the greatest news in updates of their favorite artists. Because most of our fans out there are not just fans, but they're fanatics, and they're out there trying to find out the latest and the greatest of what's happening. And I think we're poised, between our whole management structure to be able to do that pretty nicely. We feel it could be very beneficial to expand into this segment of the business since there are so many things going on today with computers, and Web sites and so on. Certainly, we get many hits-several million per week.
Louis Pearlman: And we've had Trans Continental Records-just to let you know how good the marriage will be-the media company is the exclusive designer for Trans Continental Records that handles its artists, and last year alone we had between Back Street Boys and 'NSYNC, the top three selling videos last year in the music market here in the United States and as they had three albums in the Top Ten last year 'NSYNC had a Christmas album and their regular album and Back Street Boys had their album, all three in the Top Ten last year. That's not bad for a company that has only been in the business just a few years. So we're taking advantage of the Internet side through our Entertainment International. So that's our goal and we're trying to effectuate that.
TWST: Give us a vision then: what will this company look like in five years? What are the attributes that you feel this company will have in hand?
Lou Pearlman: The company is talking right now with a major record company, which is also involved in the motion picture business about doing a deal with each other, and we're in talks, right now, about that and we'll be announcing those very soon. And once those talks are done, and it goes into the contractual stage, we'll announce who the company is, but it is one of the largest entertainment companies in the world that we're talking with. And that should give us a good shot in the arm to do some venturing with them. And I see building up and expanding that relationship into the future as well as with any other potential companies, because this will be on a non-exclusive basis for us, and this will be the first of many potential contracts that we'll have for the future. And we're looking forward to that and to the expansion. So, it's great and we feel that we'll have a big base into not just their areas, but we'll be expanding into other areas of the entertainment business as well, cautiously and aggressively. We'll also be expanding our computer base to include many more artists, actors and actresses as well as any companies that are involved in the entertainment business that would like us to handle their Web sites too. So the Web sites are going to be a big part of our company. And we also do the Web site for Chippendale's as well, which is Chippendale's dancers on tour, so we do that work too. It's a worldwide publication.
TWST: You feel then that whatever growth will be internal and then through strategic alliances as opposed to merging or acquiring other companies in similar or supplementary areas of the Internet?
Louis J. Pearlman: Yes, that's correct. We're also looking at expanding further into those areas and, certainly, letting the public see the company grow and build it's awareness factor and capabilities in the entertainment business. And how we intermingle that with the computer age and how we go ahead that into the Internet. So it should be very exciting and we're all looking forward to building this up a lot more. And over the next 60 to 90 days, we should be seeing a lot of growth-quick growth-within the company with these expansion plans.
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