Music Industry Layoff Roundup: MTV, Real & More

It’s starting to feel a bit like watching a car crash happen in front of you. You know you should look away and yet you can’t. You’re feelings of "glad it’s not me" are tinged with a fear of "hope I’m not next". Here’s a round-up of music industry layoffs so far this quarter…

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  Viacom let 850 go worldwide including about 300 at MTV
• The Real/MTV Rhapsody America partnership is cutting 25 jobs and closing its NYC office. UPDATE: Real confirms the layoffs but denies that it is completely shutting down the NYC office. (ALD)
• RealNetworks itself is laying off 130 people or 7% of its staff.
• The Hollywood Reporter has let go of 17 and Variety has closed its DC bureau with more cuts expected.
• UK’s Pinnacle falling into insolvency means that almost 100 lost their jobs. More fallout is expected as indie labels distributed by Pinnacle suffer from lack of payments.
• Last week music blog network Buzznet let go of at least 10 of its 85 staffers.
• Earlier Pandora let go of 20 of its 140 employees or 14%
• imeem has cut 25% of staff and is actively looking for a buyer.