• The New York Post has reported that Steve Bartels, an operations executive at Island Def Jam Music Group and president of Island Records, will also be the president of the label group. (New York Post)

• Prince, just weeks ago a leading light for the future of the music industry, has entered the muddy, new media-vs-old media fight. The artist is threatening to sue YouTube, eBay and The Pirate bay for failing to filter pirated versions of his content. (Epicenter)

• Ad-supported music download site SpiralFrog has finally launched. I recently reviewed the beta version of the site. Read that post here. Even though my post came before deals to include the catalogs of IODA and INgroove, the site still looks like a Universal Music Group exposition. (UMG is the only major to have signed on.)

• UMG's Fontana Distribution will distribute Amoeba Records, the label founded by legendary retailer Amoeba Music. (Press release)

• CrunchGear has a positive yet thin review of new music service Grooveshark. I have registered witht the P2P service but have not yet given it a whirl. Expect some comments within a week or so. (CrunchGear)

• Sony BMG has joined with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide to offer customized programming for Starwood hotels. Starwood believes it will offer exposure to Sony BMG artists. Sony BMG is excited to give each different hotel brand a different sound and feel. Of course, other than promotion a goal is the upsell (always an iffy proposition if you ask me). Starwood will sell $20 CDs with Sony BMG artists. (Reuters)

• 20 great music applications for Facebook. (Mashable)