• Album sales were flat last week and were down 11% year-over-year. For the year, album sales are down 16%. Digital track sales dropped 2% last week and were 38% higher year-over-year. For the year, sales of digital tracks are up 50%.

• It's a momentous event of sorts, I suppose: The first artist signed to Justin Timberlake's Tennman Records is YouTube star Esmee Denters. Now comes the hard part: Getting people to pay for it. (Billboard.com)

• Microsoft's new Ignition marketing program is a good use of the company's division. The program's first band, Warp Records' Maximo Park, will get pushed across the Zune Marketplace, the Xbox Live marketplace and the MSN.com portal -- that's 30 million regular users. (Reuters)

• A music analyst for Gracenote has started a website called Music Appraisals that, yes, appraises music and music memorabilia. (East Bay Express)

• Mexican indie label Noiselab and music download site Beon.com have created an MP3 store. Look for the "Beon MP3" tab on the right side of the middle section of the home page. (Billboard.biz)