• Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) announced yesterday he is free from Interscope Records. If anybody follows the Radiohead "minimum donation" model, it's Reznor. Since he produces his own albums, there's no reason to fear a drop in quality...though one has to wonder how infrequently he'll release material without a label keeping the studio perfectionist from a Tom Scholz-like schedule. (Billboard.biz)

• Industry sources claim Oasis and Jamiroquai are thinking about following Radiohead's lead and selling directly to fans. Whether or not the albums will be offered for voluntary donations is not known, although the article does mention that Madness plans to offer its next for free. Remember when I said last week that this Radiohead thing wouldn't mean a whole lot until 15-20 major artists followed suit in the next 18 months? Change that to 14-19, maybe 13-18 if Jamiroquai is considered major these days. (The Telegraph)

• Ian Rogers, the head of Yahoo Music, is squarely against DRM and completely in favor of making digital music more convenient for consumers. That sentiment covers not only a la carte downloads but subscription services, too. The rub is that music execs -- and some analysts -- are in love with the idea that subscriptions offer the best hope for labels. At last week's Digital Music Forum, Rogers railed against Yahoo engineers building "false controls" for labels. I sense a big problem building. If partners like Yahoo can't rationalize a subscription service's value proposition, and consumers aren't getting it either, when will subscriptions either change or die? (Ian Rogers' blog, via paidContent)

• Interesting comments by Underworld about the statement a physical release makes to consumers. Although the group often releases digital music through its website -- for years it has sold its own downloads -- it can't ignore the value of a physical release. "We really like records, and a physical record is a calling card, and no matter how many downloads we did, until the perception changes significantly, they'd always be seen as the poor cousin to a real album." (MTV.com)

• Rhapsody and Tivo inked a cross-marketing deal that will allow Rhapsody subscribers to use Tivo to stream music over their televisions. The service will cost existing subscribers an additional $12.99 per month. No a la carte downloads can be purchased through Tivo. Tivo subscribers will get a free 30-day sample. I guess it call comes down to how much people like listening to music through their television. (Me? That's the last place I want my music collection.) I foresee a small bump in subscribers but nothing too crazy. Cable subscriptions make sense to consumers. Music subscriptions still won't make sense to consumers. Looks to me like Rhapsody is moving beyond targeting heavy music users and is now attempting to convert less likely users. Conversion rates should be pretty low. (AP)

• Even less success should come fro Time Warner Cable's $13.99-per-month music subscription service. Protected WMA files will get them nowhere. (Broadcast News)

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