Thursday’s Music Brief: Music Tech Under Attack, Pirate Bay Day 8, Performance Rights, Isle Of Man & More

HYPEBOT FEATURES:

• 
  iTunes Adds Indie Spotlight
• Music Tech Under Attack: EMI Sues Seeqpod & Favtape Opening New Fronts In Battle With Music Tech
• Kyle Bylin's Digital Native Series
• Taylor Swift Proves A Hit Ain't What It Used To Be
• Daily D.I.Y. – Borrow Someone Else's Fans
• Join The Discussion: Eminem Lawsuit Could Cost Labels Millions And Mean Higher Artist Royalties

MORE INDUSTRY NEWS:

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  Pirate Bay Trial Day #8 – John Kennedy, Chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) took the stand. (ZeroPaid, TorrentFreak) As expected, he said Pirate Bay was was killing the music industry and then was forced to admit he didn't really understand how Pirate Bay or torrents worked. Just sad. 
• Artists and musicFIRST are pushing for The Performance Rights Act which would force briadcast radio stations to pay performance royalties. More key lawmakers are signing on in support. (FMQB)
  
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  Inside the Isle of Man's £1/month unlimited music plan. (ars) The Isle is going to try "an audacious plan that would charge its citizens a small, flat fee for each connection in return for granting them legitimate access to music files, wherever they may be found. The plan would also see ISPs become the gateway to value-added music services".  They had to re-write copywirght law to do it. Should be fun to watch.
• Buzz artist Frankmusik is travelling around the UK on an interactive tour using GPS to track his position on a Google Map with daily video updates on MySpace. Or as UMG describes it to Music Ally, it’s “part Logans Run, part reality TV, part human geocaching and part digital hall of mirrors”.
  
• Nokia will launch in Australia next month.
• Warner/Chappell Music has named Tracy Gershon SVP and Head of A&R, Nashville.
• Two thirds of music consumers are still CD only. (AppScout)
• 
  Tunecore  will give out 26 sales awards to artists who have topped 100,00 to 500,000 tracks sold. The digital distributor says it has paid out over $22 million in two years. Here's a list of the almost 30 artists receiving the sales award.
• PaidContent: MySpace Tries To Move In On Twitter, Facebook With New Mood Settings