Quoth Friedman, or whatever Live Nation mole put the Post-sized bee in his bonnet:

So let's clear up reports from Tuesday that her big fall tour isn't selling out. With the sole exception of Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium, the Sweet and Sticky tour, I am told, will outpace Madonna's last tour significantly.

Indeed, Dodger Stadium is the only venue Madonna hasn't sold out. Of course, the show isn't for five months. The fact that she's sold half the stadium now for November is pretty darn impressive

Well, first off, it's the Sticky and Sweet Tour, but that can easily be blamed on copyeditors who don't feel like slogging through Friedman's paeans to his pals too closely. The real falsity here is Friedman's assertion that Dodger Stadium is "the only venue Madonna hasn't sold out." Yesterday I did a little Ticketmaster searching for Madonna's shows in Boston and Houston, and found available seats at both dates; repeating that experiment just now revealed similar results. (I just did a plain old search, without any wiggling around for VIP seating or secondary-market offers.) Is there another definition of "sold out" that I'm not aware of? Or does he not care about those markets, since later on he puffs up his chest and says, "She's already sold out four shows at the Garden and out in New Jersey at what used to be the Continental Airlines Arena — now the Izod Arena. She's also sold out most of her venues in Europe." (Not to mention that it's the Izod Center, but again, the copyeditor assigned to this story was probably weeping by this point.)

Friedman also whines about the evil Mr. M. Group not promoting Madonna's shaping-up-to-be-a-dud Hard Candy properly:

Meanwhile, a better question to ask is why can't WMG cough up a follow-up single to "4 Minutes"? That is, assuming they would want to. "Hard Candy" is full of candidates such as "Miles Away" and "Give It to Me."

But WMG hasn't had made a move. By contrast, Mariah Carey — whose sales have outpaced Madonna's considerably — is already on her third single from her contemporaneous release, "E=MC2."

Two things: One, I do believe that part of the reason Mariah's on the verge of releasing her third single from E=MC² was that "Bye Bye" was kind of a flop; and two, apparently he forgot about the video for "Give It To Me," which has actually been spotted by this writer on MTV, of all places. But that's OK, because it's pretty forgettable.

Squatting at yourself in front of a mirror, Madonna? Is this leftover footage from "Hung Up"?

Anyway, Friedman also claims in the piece that Live Nation is on the verge of signing 360 deals with Nickelback and Shakira, but given that he claims that Nickelback's hits include "The Reason," we can assume that maybe he thought he heard "Nickelback" when what he really heard was the name of another band with a kinda-dumb, three-syllable name.

Is Madonna Being Sabotaged? [Fox 411 via Coolfer]
Earlier: Madonna's Ticket Sales Give Live Nation Something Else To Suck On

Edgar was shown the business ropes by his dad, so what's the big deal? I'm sure your family member that runs a publicly traded company does this same sort of thing all the time.

SEC documents filed earlier this year reveal that Junior OK'd a distribution and upstream deal with Green Owl Records, whose majority shareholder is rock musician Benjamin Brewer, Bronfman's son from his former marriage to actress Sherri Brewer, whose only credit is a role in the movie Shaft. Green Owl has a two-year-plus option deal with WMG, but so far nothing has been released through the agreement. If that's the case, what's the money being used for?

...But here's where the plot really thickens. Bronfman's family ties extend to a November 2006 deal, listed in the above-mentioned SEC filing, for a three-year licensing agreement with Lev Group Ltd. for the "distribution of Warner Music Group repertoire in Israel in digital and physical formats."

Holly. B. Lev, who's listed as owning 100% of the Lev Group, is Bronfman's sister. Lev has a colorful background, adopting the name Bhavani when she co-founded the company Organic India, a Google search reveals, but she had no known connection to the music business until securing the deal distribution deal from her brother.

Googling the name Lev Group Ltd. produces no results whatsoever, begging the question: exactly what kind of company is Lev, and does it have deals with any other labels?

To Benjamin Brewer's credit, he is reportedly engaged to marry M.I.A., so that might count as an upstream deal, right? That has to count for something.

If there's not more to this story (and it's probably just as likely that the "more" to the story might be more on the incriminating side than the vindicating one), you really have to wonder how much longer shareholders, who aren't likely to stay cheered up by the week Death Cab spent at No. 1 for long, will put up with this sort of mismanagement.

BRONFMAN TURNS WMG INTO A "FAMILY BUSINESS" [HITS Daily Double]

According to Bloomberg.com, Edgar Bronfman Jr., CEO of the Warner Music Group, of which Warner Bros. Records is a division, declined to comment on the status of contract negotiations with the band during a quarterly conference call earlier this month. The new Metallica album is the band's last under its current contract with the label, which dates back to 1984 when the quartet first signed with Warner subsidiary Elektra Records.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told us that finishing out its recording contract was a liberating experience for the band: "It's awesome. I mean, to be out of your record contract, it's exciting just because of, what are the new — and that's not anything disrespectful about the great bunch of people up at Warner Bros. Records. But it's just exciting to be able to communicate directly with your fans, and having the opportunities to do it, you know. I think that's really exciting."

Maybe the band will make money off the Mission: Metallica model now, but at some point, will the most crazed members of its fanbase tire of being milked for cash? Lars seems to have forgotten that the reason the band signed with Elektra ages ago wasn't to connect with the fans, it was to get paid—and if no one's willing to cough up cash for their new material, clearly the best place to be is at a major label.

Metallica's Future With Warner Music Unclear [KBS]

According to trade publication FMQB, Lyor Cohen, who some assumed would be let go by the WMG board, bounced back rather nicely:

Cohen...received a bump in his pay, with a base salary doubling from $1.5 million to $3 million, with a maximum bonus of $5 million and a minimum of $1.5 million. Cohen would also now receive $8.5 million if he was terminated.

Cohen's new contract also gives him 1,500,000 stock options and 1,750,000 performance-based restricted shares of WMG common stock.

The stock options will probably prove as worthless as mine were at WMG, but hey, the $8.5 million to get fired is certainly an excellent incentive to work hard and be successful.

Pali Research, the stock research firm that recently upgraded WMG's stock value, was less impressed, asking "Where is the corporate governance?" when told of the deal and suggesting that stockholders protest the move. Also worth protesting: The fact that WMG had zero albums in the top ten the week the company's executives got massive raises.

Lyor Cohen Receives Promotion, Raise, New Contract [FMQB]

Edgar's right hand man Lyor Cohen will also be given a five year extension. With both contracts, one has to wonder why, and it seems like Wall Street had the same thought, with WMG stock dropping to a near low. But hey, at least they've got Nickelback to rebuild the company around, right? [HITS Daily Double]

Just sayin', if you're going to spend seventy three million dollars to acquire the services of Nickelback, you might want to make sure they're signed for more than just one album.

Executives within WMG now believe the board has finally figured out that Cohen has neither the talent nor the intelligence to lead the company, and that the man behind the curtain at Def Jam was obviously Russell Simmons.

A key example of Cohen's ineptitude is the Nickelback dilemma, which comes after Cohen initiated the purchase of 73% of Roadrunner for $73m, neglecting the fact that Nickelback owed just one more LP (not three, as he's been spinning).

Now, Warner is in the unenviable position of having to shell out elephant bucks in order to keep the band (represented by attorney John Branca) or be left with another bad deal, alongside Bad Boy, Bulldog, the Eagles and Madonna.

Nickelback's four albums have sold a total of more than 16 million in the U.S. alone, including The State (March 2000): 713k; Silver Side Up (Sept. 2001): 5.37m; Long Road (Sept. 2003): 3.37m; All the Right Reasons (Oct. 2005): 6.64m, all but the last (which shifted over in midstream to WMG) through Roadrunner's previous deal with Island Def Jam.

Of all the stupid things Bronfman and his cohorts have done to the once storied Warner brand (and there are plenty, forgetting to check the fine print on one of its biggest acquisitions might be among the dumbest. If Nickelback can bolt after one more album to the highest bidder, even having the Dresden Dolls under your corporate umbrella won't be much of a consolation.

IB BAD EXCLUSIVE: IS THAT FISH YOU SMELL? [Hits Daily Double, might require some sort of sign-in]

Mr. Lavandeira has been negotiating a deal that would provide him with his own imprint at Warner Brothers Records, a division of the music giant Warner Music Group, he said. This was confirmed by several other people associated with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal has been made. The talks are preliminary, and an agreement is not certain, but Mr. Lavandeira could receive $100,000 a year as an advance against 50 percent of any profits generated by artists he discovers and releases through Warner Brothers, these people said.



A lawyer for Mr. Lavandeira and representatives of Warner Brothers declined to comment on the negotiations.



Though the agreement under discussion would represent a small sum for Warner Brothers, it would help support Mr. Lavandeira's claims that he has an ear for more than the latest celebrity scoop. More than that, though, a label deal for Mr. Lavandeira, whose Web site draws an estimated 2.8 million visitors a month, according to ComScore Media Metrix, would be a recognition of the influence that blogs can wield in generating word of mouth about music.

Later in the article, one of Perez's pets claims that visits to her band's MySpace page "tripled" after he promo'd the band on his site, leading one to believe that this new imprint will in fact go beyond the idea of the 360 deal and allow the label share in ad revenue from MySpace pages—or at least get paid by the pageview? On the bright side, though, "Mr. Lavandeira" claims that he's going to be "really actively involved" in the label—which might mean that he'll have less time for blogging! (Hey, just trying to stay positive.)

Perez Hilton Could Play New Role: A&R Man [NYT]
[Photo: AP]

"Warner Music Group has not authorized the use of our content on Qtrax's recently announced service," WMG spokesman Will Tanous told SAI via e-mail. Universal Music Group, the world's biggest music label, doesn't have a deal with QTrax either but is in talks with the company, says a person familiar with the situation. The LA Times quotes an EMI pr person saying that they're not in either. We haven yet to hear back from Sony-BMG, the fourth big major.

Here's the QTrax response, as of 9:57 pm eastern Sunday night: ""We are in discussion with Warner Music Group to ensure that the service is licensed and we hope to reach an agreement shortly."

QTrax officials had previously said they had deals with all four majors, which would give them access to a catalog at least as big as the 5 million tracks that Apple sells through its iTunes service. But we're told that the service's previous deal with Warner, signed in 2006, expired last year.

Launch delays strike again! Although it's probably not a good sign that they decided to go through with the press blitz despite not having 75% of the major-label population on board. (Didn't anyone learn the lessons of AnywhereCD?) The site's sort of up, although people have been reporting issues with downloading the client to me. (I'm locked out until March 18 at least since I'm on a MacBook.) You can see its inner workings (no download required!) at music.qtrax.com; right now they appear to be offering albums from the labels they're currently squabbling with, although given the delays that I've heard about I wouldn't be surprised if those pages were just placeholders. At least they give you the option of buying digital copies of said albums through their Amazon affiliate links, right? I bet they'll make tens of dollars off those today!

Warner, UMG, EMI: No Deals With Free Music Service QTrax (WMG) [Silicon Alley Insider]

Last year WMG engaged in similar lawsuit-threatening tactics against the streaming-media site imeem, and that company subsequently caved, making licensing agreements with the majors that will probably run it into the ground sooner or later. I'm going to guess that the "sue first, chat later" tactic is being repeated here, especially since Seeqpod's been getting a fair bit of positive press for its iPhone compatibility lately, and what better way to deflate said press with a nice, juicy court document? Here's hoping that the Hype Machine and elbo.ws are watching their backs, or at least responding to their DMCA takedown notices in a timely manner.

Seeqpod [Official site]
Warner Music Suing MP3 Search Engine Seeqpod (WMG) [Silicon Alley Insider]

We find it very difficult to understand why WMG acquired Bulldog. How does selling (effectively) $3,000 concert tix help Warner Music sell CDs and digital downloads (not a label 360 deal, as it involved artists with nothing to do with WMG)? While it may be fun for WMG management to attend ultra-luxurious parties with their celebrity friends, it is unclear why WMG and their investors had to own and therefore foot the bill (losses) for all these events? WMG needs to be slashing costs and investing in its A&R efforts, not "partying" with the Hamptons' crowd on the company's bill, as if the recorded music biz was vibrant.

These are all excellent questions. (And the allegation, further down, that no one except the most desperate actually paid the $15k to get in, raises even more.) Anyone want to see if Lyor Cohen is back from his helicopter ride so he can give us an answer? We'll wait.

I Know What WMG Did Last Summer: "Party Like it's 1999″ [Pali Research, reg. req.; via Silicon Alley Insider]
[Photo: Getty Images]

"You need to look no further than Apple's iPhone to see how fast brilliantly written software presented on a beautifully designed device with a spectacular user interface will throw all the accepted notions about pricing, billing platforms and brand loyalty right out the window. And let me remind you, the genesis of the iPhone is the iPod and iTunes - a music device and music service that consumers love," he said.

"For years now, Warner Music has been offering a choice to consumers at Apple's iTunes store the option to purchase something more than just single tracks, which constitute the mainstay of that store's sales. By packaging a full album into a bundle of music with ringtones, videos and other combinations and variation we found products that consumers demonstrably valued and were willing to purchase at premium prices. And guess what? We've sold tons of them. And with Apple's co-operation to make discovering, accessing and purchasing these products even more seamless and intuitive, we'll be offering many, many more of these products going forward."

The chairman also issued a warning to mobile operators, and offered advice to those aspiring companies hoping to cash in on that underdeveloped market, according to MacUser.

"The sad truth is that most of what consumers are being offered today on the mobile platform is boring, banal and basic," Bronfman said. "People want a more interesting form of mobile music content. They want it to be easy to buy with a single click - yes, a single click, not a dozen. And they want access to it, quickly and easily, wherever they are. 24/7. Any player in the mobile value chain who thinks they can provide less than a great experience for consumers and remain competitive is fooling themselves."

A single click! Information architect-friendly rhetoric like this from people running music companies is nearly revolutionary. Although I guess this means that Edgar isn't all that high on the ringle.

Warner reverses stance, praises iTunes [MacNN; ht Chris Molanphy]

Greenfield put the stock's target price at $5 in his latest missive, and so far today, shares have gone down accordingly, complete with dead-cat bounce; the graph above was just snatched from Yahoo! Finance. Silicon Alley Reporter is hearing that once the stock gets low enough, EMI owners Terra Firma may try and snatch up the company; it seems unlikely at this point given Terra Firma's desire to cut costs at all costs, but if a combined EMI-WMG does finally come to fruition, it'll surely buoy the fortunes of anyone who directly makes money off of copying documents that are handed out during mass layoffs.

WMG: How Low Can It Go? Will EMI Buy? [Silicon Alley Insider]

Warner Music Quarterly Loss Widens [Billboard]
Mixed notes for EMI's fiscal first quarter [Hollywood Reporter]

This morning, I decided to listen to "Combinations," so I brought in my archaic portable CD player, just in case it didn't work on my computer (it didn't). And guess what? The stupid CD doesn't play in that either. As you may have seen in a previous post, watermarked discs also don't play in DVD players and car audio systems. So I ask you, Reprise/Warner Brothers, "Where am I supposed to listen to this CD that you want me to review?"

We're stumped, too. Maybe their answer will be "In 1985"?

note to labels: stop watermarking your discs if you want people to review them! [chasing coolness]

I buy most of my music on iTunes, because the albums are only $9.99. When the new Linkin Park "Minutes To Midnight" CD came out, I went to iTunes and to my surprise, the album cost was $11.99. No extra tracks, no videos, nothing extra. So I decided to buy the physical CD instead.

I bought the CD for $16.99, and when I went to pop it into my Macbook Pro, the CD never showed up in iTunes. And it never displayed in the Finder. I thought maybe my mac goofed, so I ejected it and inserted it again. No dice. So I popped it in my work PC, and it opened Windows Media Player and allowed the CD to play, but, when I tried to view the CD's contents in Windows Explorer, it showed the tracks as 1kb files, which is obviously wrong. The true files are hidden. They secretly employed some type of copy protection to prevent my fair use. I have the right to copy or listen to my music on my computer.

Then I did a Google search and found out that other people had the same issues. Then I got angry. There was no disclaimer on the CD packaging. In fact, the CD had the compact disc logo, which as far as I know is a standard, but it seems that this Warner Bros. CD is not following the standard.

I decided to try the CD in my older Power PC iMac. It worked! I ripped the CD into iTunes and then added the tracks to my MacBook Pro. So I paid full price for a crippled CD from Warner Bros. And I pay for my music! Why are they trying to restrict my ability to open the CD on my Mac and rip into iTunes?? It's conduct like this that will cause people to stop buying CDs and download illegally instead.

From this point on, I will no longer buy Warner Bros. labeled CDs, nor will I purchase them on iTunes. I will acquire music from this label by using other means. Warner Bros., this is your fault!!! And if this happens when I purchase any other CDs from other record labels, they will no longer get my money. And I will tell everybody that I know.

Now, we know that Warner Music Group is pro-DRM, but really—forcing consumers who have been willing to shell out cash for CDs to jump through hoops just so they can transfer a brand-new record to their computers seems kind of cruel. And it's not just cruel to the consumers, either; it hurts the people who work at the label as well, since at this point any formerly paying consumer threatening to hold back his dollars can't be good for the bottom line. Haven't the powers that be at Warner learned anything from the rootkit debacle? Or is Warner just figuring that the Linkin Park album is the last album that'll enjoy big sales, anyway, so why not go out with a consumer-revolt bang?

New Linkin Park CD Has Hidden Copy-Protection [Len's Blog, via The Daily Swarm]

It's like a subscription music service, but without the monthly subscription fee. Lala is betting that in return for getting all that free access to music at home, listeners will pay to buy the songs they want to take with them on iPods and other music players. The prices will range from $6.50 to $13.50 for an album. (For now, Lala plans to sell music only by the album rather than song by song.)

Lala, whose owners include Bain Capital LLC and several veteran Silicon Valley investors, is underwriting the free offering by paying major labels $6 to $8 a user each month, about the same wholesale rate paid by online music-subscription services like RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody. But where Rhapsody and its competitors charge users $12 a month for "all you can eat streaming," Lala.com will charge nothing. And where Rhapsody and its competitors require users to load special — and occasionally glitchy — programs to access their offerings, Lala will work through a normal Web browser. Users of Lala's Web-based service can create and save playlists, send them to friends and browse the virtual collections of other users — all for free.

More important still, the new service will work with Apple Inc.'s iPods — something no iTunes competitor featuring major-label content has been able to do.

This is a pretty shrewd move for lala, which has made its "music-discovery service" rhetoric believable by, among other things, investing in the streaming-radio stalwart WOXY, and the fact that these files will be iPod compatibile makes us wonder if this scheme could actually work—even though only albums will be available. But as the piece notes, other try-before-you-buy services have traditionally been compatible only with Windows Media-compatible players, whether they used the PlaysForSure DRM or the file locks offered by the Zune Marketplace; none of those players, though, have the marketshare that iPods do, which immediately widens the potential revenue stream. Sure, it probably won't save album sales singlehandedly—particularly since the CD-swapping side of lala is still open—but the ability to sample full albums, as opposed to 30-second song snippets or press photos, will likely give the available titles at least a bit of a bump.

Listen to Music Free, but Pay to Carry [WSJ]

The record company seeks a court order to stop imeem from using Warner Music content on its site, and unspecified damages, including up to $150,000 for each unauthorized music video or song posted on the Web site.

In its complaint, Warner claims imeem invites "millions of users to flock to its Web site to copy, adapt, distribute and perform unlicensed sound recordings and musicvideos."

The record company also contends imeem's operators have deliberately refrained from using technology to prevent its users from sharing content.

"Imeem itself directly engages in much of the infringing conduct by duplicating, adapting, distributing and performing Plaintiff's works through imeem's own servers,'' the lawsuit states.

WMG's suit against imeem joins Universal Music Group's suit against MySpace in the "labels vs. social networks" arena, although truth be told, we didn't really know imeem did much else aside from allowing sites to embed streaming media. Whether or not infringement-fighting initiatives like MySpace's "Take Down, Stay Down" will accelerate these lawsuits being settled out of court is unclear, but we're pretty sure one thing: The founders of Friendster are probably pretty happy right now that they didn't get into the music game, since they can now spend less money on lawyers and more money on ... well, whatever they're doing now that their site's turned into something of a ghost town. (A ghost town that sends us a lot of e-mails, but still.)

Warner Music sues social-networking site [Variety]

As a first project, the division will revive "Diary," a show that [Den Of Thieves' Jesse Ignjatovic] once created and executive produced for MTV, for CMT, the company said. The show, which aired more than 80 episodes, takes viewers into the lives of popular entertainers. WMG said Monday that Martina McBride and Gretchen Wilson will be among the first artists who will be featured in the revived series.

While we're excited by the prospect of watching Marty Stuart talk about how much his hamstrings hurt in the morning, we can't help but wonder if today's country stars can match the standards established by Diary's turn-of-the-century heyday, when—if we remember correctly—there was an entire episode in which Ja Rule did nothing but get in and out of his car.

WMG takes spin at programming [Hollywood Reporter]

As another 400 industry pros loose there jobs it's worth remembering that...

* major labels are no longer controlled by people who care about music. They are owned by stockholders who care about profits.
* l abels can no longer control what gets played on the radio. Thanks to Eliot Spitzer and the FCC payola isn't what it use to be.
* with the internet offering unlimited media sources radio no longer has the clout that it used to anyway.
* free file sharing has forever devalued music.
* single songs downloads have killed the album purchase and thus gutted the profits labels saw from them.
* digital delivery is eroding the labels' gatekeeper status in distribution.
* consumers have more diverse competition for their entertainment $'s and time than ever before

All good points, although we'd also add that the actions of the labels against those people who may actually buy records has also driven away consumers. As have out-of-touch executives, and wrongheaded attempts to rectify the digital-market surge, and ... well, you get the point. Whether or not top brass at labels will as well is still up in the air, but the fact that the layoffs will likely hit the rank-and-file, and not the executive suites, makes us think that there's a long way to go.

Warner Music Group To Layoff 400. Is The End Of The Major Label Near? [Hypebot]

Warner Music Group has sent a notice of termination to the recently launched DRM-free music service AnywhereCD.

The service, which was formed by Michael Robertson, founder of the original MP3.com, is stocked with music from a variety of labels including ones under the Warner Music Group umbrella, as well as several indie labels like SubPop and Roadrunner Records.

"AnywhereCD is selling Warner Music Group content in a manner that flagrantly violates the terms of our agreement," says a WMG representative. "Accordingly, we have sent them a notice of termination and they are required to immediately remove all of our content from their site."

As of this writing, though, the WMG albums are still on the site; a Reuters story published this morning is attempting to clarify WMG's position, saying that WMG was OK with AnywhereCD "[offering] a service to let CD buyers rip their albums into MP3 files." (Like ... iTunes?) We'll keep an eye on this story throughout the day, but we're starting to wonder if our joke about WMG chair Edgar Bronfman Jr. not noticing that this AnywhereCD deal was going down may have actually been rooted in truth.

Warner Music wants unprotected albums off Web site [Reuters via Hypebot]
WMG Issues Termination Notice To DRM-Free Service [Billboard]
Earlier: Warner Music Group Sneaks Into DRM-Free Music World

EMI made a big stink about dropping DRM from its online offerings, but today Warner Music Group quietly started offering DRM-free files of its own through the site AnywhereCD, which sells full MP3 albums as well as MP3-album/CD bundles. Billboard.biz reports that the site, which was launched by the founder of MP3.com, only offers full albums—not single tracks—and that the MP3s users buy are ripped at 192 Kbps. Whether or not users will flock to the site remains to be seen, but this is definitely a curious move for Warner, given that WMG chairman Edgar Bronfman has been vocally pro-DRM in the past. (Maybe someone thought he wouldn't notice?)

Warner Music Group Ditches DRM? [Billboard.biz, via Coolfer]

EMI Group PLC, the London-based music company, said Tuesday it had received a takeover approach from its competitor and longtime suitor, Warner Music Group Inc.

In a press release, EMI said Warner had made a preliminary approach, although it was uncertain whether it would lead to a formal takeover proposal. A Warner spokesman couldn't immediately be reached.

"If a proposal is made, it will be considered with a particular focus on conditionality, the regulatory and operational risk profile, and on valuation in relation to the company's stand alone value and the value creation available from a combination," EMI's statement said.

This will be the fourth attempt at a merger—and the second in a year—for the two companies, which have both had their share of problems lately. If the companies were to get jump through all the requisite regulatory hoops and, finally, get together, the EMI/Warner hybrid would command about one-fourth of the worldwide music market. Although the prospect of greater dominance shouldn't make executives—or the stock market, which responded positively to news of this takeover—too excited; after all, it was lower-than-expected sales by one-time worldbeaters like Robbie Williams and Diddy that helped get both companies into their current, bruised state, and we doubt that news of this merger will be the defining event that inspires customers to want to start buying music again.

EMI Says It Received an Approach From Warner Music [Bloomberg]
Earlier: Idolator's coverage of EMI

Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield on Wednesday lowered his WMG estimates for the second time in 10 days because of its own weak results, the EMI warning and "continued rapid declines in physical CD sales."

Concluded Greenfield: "While WMG is clearly better managed than EMI (where it appears there is complete internal turmoil), WMG is more exposed to the declining U.S. market with 40% of WMG's revenues coming from North America (compared to about 33% for EMI)."

Oh, he did not just throw out the old "You're crazy, you're ugly, and nobody loves you!" line to EMI. Damn!

Music business stuck on downbeat note [HollywoodReporter.com]