• EMI launched its new EMI.com "learning lab." Frankly, I'm worried EMI will learn nobody wants to visit EMI.com to learn about music. As for this being a big step in the right direction, a comment about the Mars Pathfinder comes to mind. When the rover made it to the Martian surface, some pundit said something like, "If you told me 25 years ago that the best we could do by now would be to put a glorified skateboard on the Martian surface, I would have thought you were crazy." Yeah, I'm underwhelmed to say the least (OK, the site has been up for less than a day and it will change over time). But if insight into consumer behavior is the goal (or at least an excuse to fall back on) this could eventually be considered a success. (Music Week)

• For EMI.com, EMI is working with 7Digital. (Music Ally)

• The presentation from Sirius XM's annual shareholders meeting. The company expects subscriber growth rate to be 10% at the end of 2008. Revenue is projected to be up 17% in 2008 (and 13% in 2009) with no increase in total cash operational expenses. Expected EBITDA (excluding merger costs) was downgraded to $200 million from $300 million. After the merger, the company has 67 music channels compared with 147 talk or sports channels. (SEC filing)

• Commentary on Live Nation's equity deal with U2 that involved a $19 million hit to buy back the band's stock. Said one analyst, "It's smart for Live Nation to include equity, but they shouldn't include puts like this anymore, obviously." Not a good idea for a company in a volatile industry and with so little profit that a band's put options could make the difference between black and red. (Forbes.com)

• Mixwit has announced it is shutting down. (Mixwit blog)

• An analyst with Citi Investment Research cut his target price for Ticketmaster Entertainment to $6.50 from $9. In addition to the impact of the company's debt load, increased competition is expected to be a factor. "While we believe the addition of Front Line is a net positive for Ticketmaster's competitive offering, we see few near-term catalysts for the stock and the Live Nation overhang will likely remain a material issue throughout 2009." (AP)