Friday’s Music Briefing: Thumbplay Cuts, Insound Pairs, A Bit Of Humor & More

HYPEBOT FEATURES

• 
  VERIZON Grabs Beyonce AS US O.T.A. Push Intensifies
• Universal Music Having Strong 2008
• Vinyl Collective Cooperative Label: Fun New Model
• Xmas Tears: Circuit City, Best Buy, Stocks & More
• The Rhianna Challenge

MORE NEWS

• Mobile music and content provider Thumbplay lays off 25% of its staff.  (SA Insider) How quickly they tumble. Just back in March the company got $18 million in funding.
• Former FCC Chairman Reed Hunt is on the Obama transition team on trade and economic issues. (ars)
• 
  Online indie retailer Insound is is expanding its offering that pairs a vinyl album with an instant download saying it has caused a spike in vinyl sales. Next up the addition of a t-shirt and other add-ons. (Billboard)
• Sound familiar? In Namibia priacy is hurting CD sales. (allAfrica)
• Humor (kind of): The RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs (The Onion)
• You’ll find useful and interesting info applicable to the music industry on Wired Editor Chris Anderson’s Long Tail blog in the run up to the July release of his new book Free.
• Playcharts.com is a
  music video site featuring five “ready to go” playlists each containing
  the top 100 songs in pop – rock – r&b – hiphop & dance fron
  sources like Billboard. It’s another great example of the web’s content
  mashup capabilities.