Monday’s Music Briefing: MySpace & MTV Partner. EMI Dumping Distribution?, MIDEM & More

HYPEBOT FEATURES:

• Are MP3 Blogs Under Attack?
• Can Broadcast Radio Matter Again? Barak Obama can help.
• SpiralFrog Reaches 3 Million Songs
• Music’s Week In Review

MORE NEWS –

• News Corp’s MySpace will announce today an important deal with Viacom’s MTV Networks and online video technology provider Auditude that enables the automatic identification of video clips uploaded by fans and inserts ads to monetize the content. (FT) "Take it down" has become "Let’s make money." Why not use the technology for audio too?
• 
  Rumors have EMI exploring the outsourcing its US distribution operation. (DMN) Is a major label still a major label if it doesn;t have its own distribution?
• "A federal judge tentatively has set a March 9 retrial date in the Jammie Thomas music file sharing case. Of about 30,000 cases the Recording Industry Association of America has lodged against peer-to-peer users, the Thomas case was the first and only one to go to trial." (Threat Level)
• Opinion: "A word to the stealing generations." (The Age, Australia)
• The 43rd annual MIDEM will launch with a day dedicate to Russia. (press release)
• Expensive smart phones like the iPhone may offer a way to save money, according to a study by comScore. The study says some lower-income households (I’m guessing younger ones.) are buying iPhones because it’s a phone, music player, camera and web surfing device all in one saving $ on  gadgets and a broadband connection. Sales of iPhones to households that earn $25,000 – $52,000 a year were up 48% from June to Aug. vs. an overall rate of 21%. (IBD)