• Apple and the major music groups will meet with the European Commission on September 19 and 20. The parties will discuss the Commission's antitrust accusations regarding territorial issues with iTunes. The Commission would like to see equal pricing across territories and wants shoppers in one territory to access an iTunes store of another territory. Refer to this April 2007 article in the Financial Times for more on the Commission's antitrust probe. (PC Advisor)

• Proving once again that the future of hip hop is marketing, Pharrel will hook up with Moet Hennessy USA for a marketing campaign. Pharrel will do more than lend a name to a brand, he will create the music for seven internet spots and three television commercials. (Billboard.biz)

• The IFPI is pleased as punch that a new Swedish government-commissioned report has recommended that ISPs take greater responsibility for removing infringing material from their networks. From the report: "It is proposed that the law be amended so that Internet Service Providers can be ordered, under penalty of a fine, to take action such as terminating the contract of a subscriber to prevent continued infringement using the Internet Service Provider’s services." (IFPI)

• Apple confirmed that the upcoming iPod touch will not download MP3s from web pages over the Internet. No biggie. Americans love to sideload. (Listening Post)

• Over at Michael Geist's blog, he has some comments on a Vancouver Sun article on the state of the Canadian recorded music industry and some rebuttals for comments by the CRIA's Graham Henderson. II'll add a comment to one of his points: The fact that Canada's digital sales increased 122% last year versus 65% in the U.S. does not speak to any relative health in Canada. Instead, it means Canada lags behind the U.S. digital growth is slowing. Less mature markets tend to have higher growth rates but lower overall numbers. Canada's rate of growth will drop just as growth dropped here. (Michael Geist)

• There is a big difference between television and music in terms of quantity of content available, but this quote from Tracey Scheppach, Starcom USA's SVP of video innovations, and the interview it's from is still worth examining: "...one lesson that I have learned from TiVo is when a consumer has control over what they want to watch and when, the long tail is just not that long." (Ad Age, via Techmeme)

• The Bay Area mourns the closing of Mill Valley's Village Music. (SF Chronicle)