• A House hearing on the Performance Rights Act has been scheduled for June 11. The bill would require terrestrial radio to pay copyright owners for use of sound recordings. Currently radio stations pay only for the composition. (Radio Ink)

• Madonna's "Hard Candy" single will be pre-loaded or carried alongside Sony Ericsson handsets in 27 countries. Warner Music International has a range of promotions that vary by country. Some include a free CD with the purchase of a handset, others put an album sampler or the entire album onto the handset. WMI feels this promotion "will help drive sales of music-enabled devices and contribute to the uptake of mobile music." Probably for the former, wishful thinking for the latter. (Billboard.biz)

• The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society is calling for the UK to follow the European copyright model and pay authors through fees collected on the sale of such items as DVD players or MP3 players. This was a response to the Gowers Review's recommendation the decriminalization of personal copying of legally acquired content. (Information World Review)

• A very good interview with singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb that covers how she uses technology, marketing as an independent artist and new business models. (Hypebot)

• FanDoodle.com is trumpeting its new sales model that lets fans sell and be rewarded for their sales. After an artist uploads music, text and banners, fans can take those materials and post in web sites, blogs, social networking pages or in emails. Fans keep 20% of each sale. (Press release)

• San Diego is looking at a weak summer for ticket sales. George Michael's show at the Sports Arena, the first date of his U.S. tour, has sold 4,000 tickets (out of 15,000). Stone Temple Pilots and Sheryl Crow shows are selling below expectations as well. One promoter said the overall market is down 20% and believes rising gas and food prices will prevent ticket prices from easing. (San Diego Reader)

• Yahoo Music has been redesigned its UK and Ireland website and has extended its partnerships with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. (Brand Republic)

• Siren Records (in the borough of Doylestown near Philly) wants to host more in-store concerts but has been instructed by borough officials to limit the performances to four per month. (The Intelligence)

• The early beta version of Qbox, a music service that compiles in one place all social network sites' music streams, is said to leave much to desire. "Alas, that's beta software. Take a deep breath. Uninstall. Come back next week and try again." (Digital Noise)