• Victory Records has sued Virgin Records and parent company EMI, claiming tortious interference with contractual relations (they tried to steal away Hawthore Heights). (Read article at Reuters)

• Financial Times reported yesterday that Google is "engaged in a frantic round of negotiations aimed at persuading traditional media companies to supply their content to YouTube." Company cheif executive Eric Schmidt is said to have met with CBS, Viacom and other major media companies, "offering tens of millions of dollars in upfront payments for the right to broadcast their video content legally on YouTube." If EMI was mentioned in the article, there would have been a music slant in this post. (Read article at Financial Times)

• After the unveiling of Cingular's music subscription services, a report that all is copasetik between Apple and Cingular. (Read post at Digital Music News)

• The latest new business model: Reuters on Sellaband.com, a website that allows music fans to invest money in bands. Once a band reaches a threshold ($50,000 is mentioned, in $10 increments) it gets access to a studio and professional assistance (producer Tony Platt will work with bands). Fans gets a "free" copy of the resulting CD and "a cut of CD sales and a share in advertising revenue generated for the site." Sellaband keeps 40% of the music publishing revenue as well as all the interest from the escrow accounts that hold fan donations. At even a modest interest rate, the company could do pretty well just from the escrow accounts. The longer it takes for a band to reach $50,000, the more interest Sellaband makes. No word on what happens to fans' money when a band doesn't reach the threshold. (Read article at Reuters)

Boosey & Hawkes is looking for a Royalty Tracker.