New Music Industry Briefing For Thursday June 1, 2006

– Federal antitrust investigators are closely tracking an San Francisco court case reexamining the original Napster’s long-standing claims that major record labels conspired to keep authorized downloads off the Internet. (LA Times)

– Apple is becoming the Microsoft of digital music, and that’s not a good thing for either consumers or the music industry. (Mac News)

– Online advertising soared 38% in the first quarter to a record $3.9 billion in the January-March period compared with $2.8 billion in the same quarter last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. (WSJ Online via RAIN)

– Jason Hirschhorn has exited his post as chief digital officer at MTV. The departure comes immediately after the launch of Urge. He will be replaced by Nick Lehman. (Digital Music News)

– ICM to join CAA in moving from Beverly Hill to a Century City location later this year.