Rick Rubin Finalizing Columbia Position, Staffing Changes Ahead….
More staffing changes are about to happen at Sony BMG, but this time, people will be entering, not exiting, the building. Why the heck would Rick Rubin take this job? Who knows, but they wanted him off the market.

Universal Music Group is close to winning European Union approval to buy Bertelsmann AG’s BMG Music Publishing after EU antitrust officials backed the deal, three people with knowledge of the proposal said. The recommendation by the team reviewing the acquisition follows offers by Universal to sell publishing rights, said the people, who declined to be identified before the decision is made public.

A rift delays Alicia Keys Album. According to the New York Daily News, the Smokin’ Aces star is upset with bosses at Clive Davis’ J Records over the recent departure of promotions director and her loyal friend Ken Wilson.

Is the music industry cracking down on MP3 blogs???
Music label publicists regularly feed tracks to MP3 blogs. Online press from bloggers with quirky tastes and loyal followings can be as useful as college radio spins in breaking new artists or bolstering an established act’s latest release. BUT, The RIAA has been directing hosting providers to remove the infringing blogs because posting mp3’s is technically illegal. Copyright holders can avoid killing off these indie marketing channels by simply asking bloggers to pull disputed tracks. But it seems the RIAA wants to kill the blogosphere by taking them down with no options.

MP3 blogs Country Pinball Machine, Shameless Complacency and Side One, Track One recently had their file-hosting services or entire sites suspended by providers responding to allegations of illegal song posts, Idolator.com reported. (The music gossip site has itself pulled songs at the request of the RIAA.)

“My site got suspended because my host was scared by a standard cease-and-desist e-mail from the RIAA concerning a post on Kings of Leon, who … just had their highest first week of sales ever,” Laird wrote.