The last person to leave the current record business won’t be the smartest and he won’t be the most successful, either. Getting out first and staking out the new territory almost always pays off.read more | digg story

10 acts that could possibly follow: Prince, NIN, Courtney Love, Daft Punk, . . . And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Chuck D, Sufjan Stevens, Pearl Jam, Underworld, Depeche Mode

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It’s over. The last major label to hold out on selling DRM-free MP3s, Sony BMG, is “finalizing plans” to sell music not locked down with DRM. It’ll be available sometime in the first quarter, apparently in time to get in on Amazon and Pepsi’s 1 billion song giveaway.read more | digg story

As of 1/2/08,154,449 people chose to download Saul’s new record.28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning:18.3% chose to pay.read more | digg story

You might think, if you didn’t work in the music business, that famous artists stand to make mad cash from popular albums on iTunes and other digital storefronts. Sadly, that’s not the case…read more | digg story

Isn’t giving the book away somewhat counterproductive to that goal? I don’t think so. Here’s why: the biggest challenge most authors face isn’t online piracy. It’s not people out there diabolically copying their works and distributing them for free. In fact most authors (including yours truly) suffer from a different problem entirely — no one has ever heard of them.read more | digg story

Warner is making all of its music available as MP3 files for sale at Amazon’s music store.

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We all know the music industry is transforming. Rumors leaking from the Radiohead camp say that their album was downloaded over 1 million times. The pay-what-you-want model works better for fans and artists alike.read more | digg story

“In terms of digital income, we’ve made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever — in terms of anything on the Net. And that’s nuts. It’s partly due to the fact that EMI wasn’t giving us any money for digital sales. All the contracts signed in a certain era have none of that stuff,” Thom Yorke Read more | digg story

Former Talking Head’s frontman gives his take on how emerging artists should look at the music industry situation.read more | digg story