• The IFPI issued its 2007 Digital Music Report (download PDF). The 22-page report has 2006 statistics for downloads and mobile music, looks at emerging business models and indentifies ISPs as the "key to the problem" of Internet piracy. As seen in the headline of this Bloomberg article on the report, the IFPI is framing the industry's continued losses more as a piracy issue and less as a circumstance brought on partly by a la carte downloads, the unbundling of the album and the decline of the CD. (Read press release)

• Executive shuffle at Universal Music Nashville. Co-chairman James Stroud is out and co-chairman Luke Lewis has signed an extension. (Read article at Billboard.biz)

• Somewhat related: Country music, like some other American genres, doesn't travel well. The Tennessean's Ryan Underwood took a look at country music's poor international sales. "But executives on Music Row say the amount of foreign sales they see is miniscule and actually may be shrinking, due in part to illegal downloading as well as the lack of a ready-made network of country radio and TV outlets abroad." Canada, once 10% of Universal Music Group Nashville's sales, now accounts for 4 or 5%. (Read article at The Tennessean)

• All over the (Internet) news yesterday was Skype's upcoming, Internet-based television service. Called Joost (pronounced juiced), the service is now in beta and Skype has lined up a deal with the always-happy-to-license-content Warner Music. (Read article at Forbes.com)