Big news last week in the music industry Chairman Donnie Ienner and President Michele Anthony exiting Sony Music Group. Its also heavily rumored that President Steve Greenberg has exited Columbia Records. Same news all over again, nothing changes with the constant executive shuffle; the old proverb says it best, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” According to sources the fact is “The Sony labels’ acts are not selling records at the moment. “The company is pretty cold, and the BMG side isn’t,”(HR 2/13). Don’t forget to mix some politics into the equation, and with that said…welcome to Disney World ladies!

The market is still talking about XM Satellite and its recent troubles. It appears that Sirius Satellite Radio is making some right decisions as XM is making all the wrong moves. During the month of May, Sirius’ stock price declined only 5 percent to $4.41 while XM’s dropped a more precipitous 21.5 percent to $14.69. Quoting from the NY Post “We think the market has lost faith, and unfortunately, what used to be XM’s premium over Sirius (confidence in its management) has been eroded,” adds Peck. If the divergent path of Sirius stock continues, XM’s share price premium may soon be eroded as well.

Believe it or not, there is a Russian web site that allows visitors download albums for less than $1 US. Supposedly it’s a smash with music buyers — but not with U.S. trade and music industry officials.

Viral video sharing is the new nemesis for the music biz. YouTube, MySpace, Google Video and iFilm have sparked a new revolution. The distribution taking place is happening without the approval of record companies. According to reports the Recording Industry Association of America has been stepping up its efforts to stop sharing of popular videos on such sites, particularly on the rapidly expanding YouTube, which now claims more than 6 million visitors and 40 million streams daily. “The RIAA recently issued cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users sharing videos from the likes of Nelly Furtado, Beyonce and Rihanna.” “The RIAA estimates that sales of music videos topped $3.7 million in three months, after being introduced in October. Meanwhile, the major labels also are sharing in the profits of ad-supported video-on-demand offerings from AOL, Yahoo, Music Choice and others”