Thursday’s Music Brief: imeem Troubles, The Orchard’s $$’s, Seeqpod Cloning, Coolfer & More

HYPEBOT FEATURES:

• 
  Are The Major Labels Killing Imeem?
• The Orchard Reports Stronger Financials
• Interview Series: Nancy Baym of Online Fandom
• Digital Music B2B Provider 24-7 Ent. Sold
• Video: VP David Eun On Google's Music Strategy
• EMI Joins Sony On Project Playlist
• Daily DIY: Use Free Video Creatively

MORE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEWS:

• 
  Facing Legal Pressure, SeeqPod Plans to Spawn Clones. (Epicenter) I love this strategy and it proves again why the labels need to work with startups rather than sue them.
• The latest release from the Decemberists landed at No. 14 on the album charts
  this week despite a sizable handicap: It wasn't available on CD. (Pop & Hiss)
• 
  Glenn Peoples is the new Senior Editorial Analyst at Billboard Magazine which means that sadly after 5+ years he is shutting down his wonderful Coolfer blog.  I'm sure Glenn will continue his smart and much needed analysis of the music industry for Billboard. Here's his first Billboard.biz article. CONGRATULATIONS GLENN!
• Jim Griffin Explains Choruss (TechDirt)
• The HD Digital Radio Alliance announced two major milestones with 1,000 multicast stations now on-air and 100 different HD Radio receivers now available at retail. (FMQB)
• As announced in January, April 7th appears to be the date that iTunes finally adds variable pricing at $.69 $.99 and $1.29.  (LA Times) One source told Hypebot that surprisingly the majors, who have fought for flexible pricing for several years, are scrambling to set their pricing strategies.
• Worthy Click: New playlist mashup site MixTape.me.