• Sony BMG settled its rootkit lawsuits brought by attorneys general in California and Texas. The company will pay $1.5 million in penalties, which really is a light slap on the wrist compared to expenses related to the various class action lawsuits around the country. (Read article at PC World)

• Changes at Blue Note Records, and oddly enough for this time of year there are no layoffs. Meg Harkins was named VP of Marketing at Blue Note. Josh Zieman is in as VP of Marketing for the Manhattan group of labels (Manhattan, Back Porch, Higher Octave and Real World). Two received internal promotions. Saul Shapiro was upped to SVP of Sales at the Blue Note Label Group, and J.R. Rich was upped to senior VP of publicity for Blue Note. (Read article at Variety)

• The RIAA has dropped its case against Patricia Santangelo and will instead focus on her children. (Read post at Fox News)

• A federal court in Australia upheld a ruling that the operator of www.mp3s4free.net and the ISP hosting the site are guilty of authorizing copyright infringement because the site provided links to other sites at which people could illegally download music. (Read article at Smarthouse)

• EMI is consolidating its operations in Los Angeles. The company signed a ten-year lease for 1800 Highland. The 50,000 square foot office space will house staffs from EMI Music Marketing, EMI Televisa, Caroline Distribution and the west coast office of Virgin Records. (Read press release)

• The Associated Press profiles Koch Records and the financial benefits it offers rappers with an established audience. A good quote came from Miss Info of New York radio station Hot 97. On the financial aspects of signing with Koch she said, "It's like, do I want to look like I have money or do I actually want to have money? (Koch) is not like a graveyard, but more like a retirement pension." Layzie Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony has a good strategy: Sign with Interscope for the group albums, which will lead to better sales for his more profitable solo albums on Koch. Last year, Koch Records's rap revenue was $40 million. Rap accounts for 80% of the label's revenues. (Read AP article)

• Music recommendation is fast becoming a hot investment. Ticketmaster bought music discovery site iLike.com for $13.3 million and will introduce it to its millions of customers. iLike.com, which was formerly Garageband.com, helps users organize, share and discover music. (Read article at Red Herring)