Monday’s Music 2.0 Briefing: Guy Hands Speaks, Yahoo Music Changes, Kids Rule & More

> An extensive interview with EMI’s Guy Hands. (Telegraph UK) My favorite revelation is that the EMI bands and managers skeptical of the reorganization plans have organized in a loose knit group dubbed The Black Hands Gang. Only the English could do this with a sense of humor. In LA they wouldn’t be able to afraid of our own position to organize under any banner.

> An official Yahoo blog post reveals some details of the planned shift in strategy at
Yahoo! Music (Next.Yahoo) that we reported more than a week ago were in the works.

> Len Blavatnik has resigned from Warner Music Group’s Board of Directors effective immediately. Blavatnik is founder and Chairman of Access Industries, a U.S.-based industrial group that owns 2% of WMG’s stock. (WMG) That stock is now worth 1/3rd of the $17 per share that Access bought in at in 2004. Track WMG’s stock here.

> Observers expect a smaller iPod sales growth report during Apple’s earnings call on Tuesday. (MarketWatch)

> MTV’s Rock Band logs a whopping 2.5 million song downloads. (press release)

> Why music marketers should care about consumers under the age of 10. (Ad Age) One California school district delcares kid friendly BusRadio on school buses a success . (NC Times)

> Mark Cuban declares the album dead. (Blog Maverick) I think Cuban is a bit late to this party, but agree 100% Artists and labels need to realize this and start releasing in 1-3 song digital download clusters compiling them into albums with bonus content periodically.  It’s the reality of current fan behavior and great ongoing market research.

> Indiedrive.c
om offers indie releases only USB drives loaded with music, videos and more.

> Quickly review last week’s top stories with our Music 2.0 Week In Review.

> R.I.P. – John Stewart, founder of The Kingston trio and writer of such hits as "Daydream Believer"