• Coldplay's Viva la Vida sold over 700,000 units in its first week if release in the U.S. and about one-third were digital downloads. EMI has treated the album's release like a pop culture event and fans have responded. The band's manager summed it up nicely, "You have to try and be more creative these days to get people’s attention." (New York Times)

• There's a report that Starbucks will remove all music from its stores by September except four slots for CDs. (Alley Insider)

• Brit boy band McFly will have three million copies of its new album bundled with the July 20 edition of a Sunday newspaper. (Reuters)

• The Local Radio Freedom Act, an opposition to the royalties that would be instituted by the Performance Rights Act, now has the support of 219 of the House's 435 members. The wordsmiths at the NAB have come up with a pretty clever term for the royalties: RIAA tax. (Radio Ink)

• Dynamic pricing download store Amie Street inked a deal with digital distributor The Orchard to sell most of the company's catalog. (TechCruch)

• SpiralFrog announced licensing deals with deep.net/mTunes and Innerground Music.

• Good reading on Live Nation's quest for an integrated business model. (The Washington Post)

• Borders will open another concept store in New Orleans, one of 14 cities to get the new store. The concept stores emphasize digital kiosks at which customers can download music, books and other digital items. (Press release)