Study finds kids justify illegal downloads…according to a major European Commission survey, children in Europe are aware of the risks of illegal downloading, but often rationalize their act by saying that everyone — including their parents — is doing it. Almost all of the children surveyed in the 27 European Union member countries as well as in Norway and Iceland said they expect to continue downloading. They also said the risk of downloading a virus was far more dissuasive than the risk of legal proceedings.

Speaking about illegal downloading, KOAR recently posted “Songs at Stake on Myspace“. Why aren’t the artists, major music labels, and myspace fuming over myspacemp3.org? Myspacemp3.org is an illegal website that allows users to hack into myspace and convert song streams into mp3’s. This is theft ladies and gentlemen in its purist form. If these problems aren’t solved, its only time when the United States Government will regulate the internet because of criminal abuse.

Virgin Megastore flexes it’s creative muscles: The Virgin Megastore chain will host its first annual Battle of the Bands contest.Submissions can be made at all 11 Virgin Megastores from Aug. 20 – Aug. 31, and the winners will battle it out with live performances in seven of the stores, including the New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco locations. Fans will be able to vote on the contestants at the Virgin Megastores and online at virginmegamashup.com from Sept. 10 – 21. The grand prize winner, which will be announced Oct. 1, will win travel and accommodations to meet with A&R representatives from Immergent Records and an evening with Virgin executives. (Billboard)

Universal Music Group will incorporate watermarks into its upcoming, DRM-free download experiment. Watermarks will be used to track the path of files after a transactional purchase

Check out the new act on The Last Goodnight. Their new release titled ‘Poison Kiss’ will be released August 28th on Virgin Records. Check out the track Poison Kiss.

Artists to check out: Alternative band My Favorite Highway has sold 4500 more singles on iTunes.  26,000 + for the year to date.  Also, Making April will be playing at Pianos (NYC) for Atlantic Records on Wednesday at 9 and Suburban Legends will be performing at the Knitting Factory on Thursday night. For more information contact Dan Friedman.