• Sony BMG got some press for using Second Life to promote its acts. Now EMI is getting into the game. Its Innocent label will use Habbo Hotel, a cartoonish social networking site, to promote boy band 365. They're certainly leaving no stone unturned. (Read article at NMA)

• Apparently there's some chatter than Microsoft is considering a purchase of EMI, though one analyst calls such a deal "odd and unlikely." Agreed. (Read article at newrating.com)

• Neil Gillis, formerly of Concord Music Group, has been named President/COO of Dimensional Music Publishing. (Read post at Hits Rumor Mill)

• Bloomberg has hopped on the indie label bandwagon...although their market share doesn't show a huge gain in strength. "The independents have come from almost obscurity to having an immense effect on the music landscape," said a fund manager. He was referring to how Impala may have sank the Sony BMG merger. Have indies come from "almost obscurity"? I recall the same thing being said when Epitaph broke The Offspring and Rancid in the mid-'90s. Bottom line: More than market share, their strength has come from better organization toward common goals. (Read article at Bloomberg)

• Digital Music Group increased its loss in the third quarter of 2006. On revenues of $1.2 million, the company lost $848,000. (Read press release)

• Sony will launch a Connect download store in Canada next week. That's the last you'll hear of Sony Connect for quite some time. (Read article at Canada.com)

• VNU will restructure the company into "market-focused" groups. Among the company's music-related publications are Billboard and Radio & Records, which will fall under the "music" umbrella along with Bookseller, Kirkus Reviews and The Book Standard. (Read article at Foliomag, via paidContent)