18 Million Pumped Into Stiffs: About 60 people lost their jobs at Interscope and Geffen Records on Thursday when both labels merged into one. According to sources, a budget of $18 million was spent in making and promoting the Will.I.Am, Nicole Scherzinger(Pussycat Doll) and Eve albums – all were bombs and two aren’t even out yet.

Is Snocap Melting Away? P2Pnet discusses the possiblity of the mp3 digital retailer Snocap dissolving and offers the gloomier view in monotizing music. The business of selling recorded music is unprofitable for everyone and filling the void are a host of online new companies with enthusiasm but no better economics. Apple can’t even make money selling music, its the ipod that generate revenue. If Apple can’t make money selling music from the major labels, it is suicidal to think that Snocap could make money selling music only from indies. Selling music is like selling gravel. It’s a commodity says p2pnet.

Tickets go on sale at 10:0o a.m., sold out by 10:05 a.m.: Brokers use specialized software to make multiple online purchases of tickets, avoiding the four-ticket-per-customer limit. Kevin McLain, Ticketmaster’s senior director of applications support, estimates that on some days, 80 percent of all ticket requests that arrive at its Web site are generated by bots. For example, Hannah Montana tickets, whose face value is $21 to $66, have been resold on StubHub, on average, for $258, and that is without taking into account StubHub’s 25 percent commission (10 percent paid by the buyer, 15 percent by the seller). Speak about inflation! Do you feel like a sucker? You should. The solution is stop buying tickets for over priced concerts until a settlement is reached between Ticketmaster and RMG Technologies (A company that uses bots). The case is scheduled to go to trial in October 2008.