Amazon.com’s greatly hyped music store launched today: Read hear for an in- depth first impression.

Will Album art still have a place in digital marketplace? Fans want digital album art but labels and digital music services are slow making it available because they lack capabilities. Also, the diminishing profit from digital downloads does not motivate the labels to provide fans with extra art due to cost. (Reuters)

‘What’s the Future of the Music Industry’? Check out this post from the writers New York Times’. Steve Gottlieb, president of TVT Records and George Drakoulias, music producer/A&R at American Recordings look at the past, present and future of the music industry….(via coolfer)

Check out the band Fiction Plane. I was listening to G-Rock (106.3) and I thought I heard a new Sting track. My goodness, it sounds like Sting from the Police. In fact, Sting’s son Joe Sumner was on the mic. Dad passed down the vocal genes and the hook-ups as Fiction Plane is the opening act on the current Police Tour.

Giant advertisements set for world’s busiest airport runways: Imagine a photo of Nickelback the size of three football pitches seen by plane passengers coming in to land. Although it would require a bucket-load of marketing dollars, it now remains a possibility.

Upcoming big releases include: Bruce Springsteen, Dashboard Confessional, Matchbox Twenty, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Garth Brooks, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, and Mariah Carey.

Vivendi blasts iTunes Contract: Vivendi chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy pointed to a lopsided iTunes contract, and suggested revamped terms. “The split between Apple and producers is indecent,” Levy said. “Our contracts give too good a share to Apple.” Apple gives roughly 70-cents to majors per 99-cent download, a figure that also includes publishing royalties. “We should have a differentiated price system,” Levy said. (DMN)

Authorities have seized ‘art porn’ owned by Elton John: The image, which featured two young girls one of whom was sitting down with her legs wide apart has been seized by police from a gallery on suspicion it may have breached child pornography laws. Please tell us you’re not shocked…