• The New York Post's Brian Garrity has an article today on some staffing possibilities at EMI. The company, he reported, is considering a role for Terra Firma managing director Stephen Alexander, and looking for an executive to run day-to-day operations and may look outside of the music industry. (New York Post)

• Social video site Bolt.com has ceased operations. A goodbye letter is at the site. "Please be advised that the operations of Bolt, Inc. and Bolt.com have ceased. Net Revolution, Inc. and Bolt, Inc. have executed an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors effective as of August 14, 2007." UMG sued Grouper in October 2006 and later settled for $10 million in March 2007. (Bolt.com)

• PassAlong Networks has spun off its Speakerheart platform. PassAlong co-founders Jozef Nuyens and Brad Edmonson will head the new company. Speakerheart allows indie musicians to publish, promote and sell their music online. (Press release)

• Classic. The migration from the majors to indie Koch continues. Foxy Brown has ended her relationship with Def Jam and will move to Koch. The deal includes her own imprint, Black Rose Entertainment. An argument could b made that Brown had worn out her welcome at Def Jam, but the writing is on the wall. If you're not selling many albums, and you're a rapper, why not shoot for a lower breakeven point? (Billboard.biz, which could not be a slower website.)

• A Russian court found the head of allofMP3.com not guilty of copyright infringement. Said the judge, "The prosecution did not succeed in presenting persuasive evidence of his involvement in infringing copyright law." In response to the defense's argument that allofMP3.com had paid part of its income to ROMS, a Russian collection organization, the judge said, "Everybody who uses soundtracks has to pay a certain amount of their income to the rights holders and this company has done that. MediaServices (the owner of allofMP3.com) has paid a certain amount of money to ROMS." (Reuters)

• The Guardian asks, "Can Universal turn the tide against Apple's iTunes?" I put in a "yes" vote, but UMG does not want to hurt iTunes as much as it wants to grow the overall pie. Everybody knows iTunes is going to be the dominant force in digital music retail for many years to come. (The Guardian)

• Clear Channel restated earnings for the period 2002 through 2006. Revenues dropped 9% for each of those years. The basis for the restatement was a reclassification of the company's television business and radio stations to discontinued operations. Clear Channel announced its plans to sell 448 radio stations in November 2006. By June 30, 2007, the company had sold 26 stations and had definitive agreements to sell 374 more stations. (AP and 8-K filing)

• How much would terrestrial radio stations owe to sound recording owners if they had to pay such royalties? MusicFIRST believes about 3% of revenues would be an "equitable" rate. To put some fear into people, the National Association of Broadcasters threw out a far scarier figure of 10-35% of revenues. (Listening Post)

• Here's an interview with Ministry of Sound head of digital sales, Jim Haysom. MOS has a number of ways to push its video content. Notably, it has achieved click-through rates from 5-9% from its pre-roll video ads and banners. The typical European banner ad gets a click-through rate of just 0.19%. (E-Consultancy)

[music jobs] HR Manager at EMI NA; New York, NY.