• XM increased its subscriptions to 9.7 million in Q2, a 17% increase over least year. (Radio Ink)

• Nashville-based booking agency Buddy Lee Attractions has acquired Diversified National Artists Agency. (Billboard.biz)

• Alesha Dixon, formerly of the girl band Mis-teeq and more recently a winner on the British TV show "Strictly Come Dancing," has signed a multi-rights deal with Warner Music that covers touring, merchandise and brand partnerships. (Times Online)

• Favtape is sort of like Muxtape but the ten-song playlist, which is given a unique URL, is created from the user's favorite songs on last.fm or Pandora. Looks a lot like Muxtape but has more links, such as to be iTunes and Amazon.com, ring tone and lyrics. (Mashable)

• Here's a proposal (from a blogger/author, not a legislator, so don't give it too excited/worked up) to limit copyright on music to five years with optional five-year renewal terms. Looks to me like the proposal may come mainly from frustrations with orphan works and a lack of compulsory licenses for sampling purposes. Both of those can be fixed without drastically cutting short copyright. The post and many comments make for good reading, if you have some free time. (Andrew Dubber)

• In what may be records for cost per minute and best use of digital distributor TuneCore, Paul Westerberg (ex-Replacements) has unexpectedly released a 44-minute digital track called "49:00" priced at 0.49. Here's the link for the track at Amazon.com, the only retailer that would accept the track at the $0.49 price. (LA Times)