• Austin City Limits Studio Theater will be a $15 million, 2,000-seat venue that will be part of a larger, $225 million project in Austin, Texas. Forty nights a year it will be a soundstage for tapings of "Austin City Limits." Willie Nelson and his nephew Freddy Fletcher are co-partners with Stratus Properties Inc. (Read AP article)

• Fontana Distribution beefed up its roster by signing an exclusive distribution deal with Six Degrees Records, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2007. Next year the label plans to release albums by Bebel Gilberto, Ojos de Brujo, Spanish Harlem Orchestra and CéU. Six Degrees also announced a new digital only series of albums that will aim to break new artists. The series' first release will be the five-track Emerging Artists Sampler Vol. 1. It has songs by Rara Avis, DO (featuring Omar Sosa & Greg Landau), ZAMAN 8 and Hafez Modir, MNO, and Jef Stott.

• Sirius reports holiday sales are slower than expected and now expects 5.9 million to 6.1 million subscribers by the end of 2006, which would equal 2.6 million to 2.8 million new subscribers for the year. (Read article at MarketWatch)

• BusinessWeek's Olga Kharif on the new generation of software meant to help sites like YouTube identify prohibited content. MySpace is testing an automated take-down tool, and Google is expected to have a similar technology installed in YouTube by the end of the year. (Read article at BusinessWeek.com)

• Pontiac has a partnership with Virgin Megastore. The auto manufacturer is sponsoring Virgin Recommends at ten Megastores. In return, Virgin will act as musical expert to Pontiac. (Read article at Billboard.biz)

• EMI became the first major label to sign up with eListeningPost, a new viral marketing service that allows bands to send out secure versions of songs or videos to distribution lists. After a one-time set up fee, the service costs $9 per month. (Read press release)

• Reminder: The FCC will hold a public hearing on media ownership in Nashville, Tennessee on Monday, December 11 at 1pm. The event will be held at Belmont University's Massey Performing Arts Center.

• RIP Logan Whitehurst, drummer for The Velvet Teen, and Ronnie Lipin, famed music publicist and manager.

[music jobs] Director of Content at Dada Entertainment; New York, NY.