U2 Remains On Universal: Roger Friedman reported that the band was in talks with the concert industry’s biggest player Live Nation and could walk away from their 28-year relationship with Universal. But in a statement to EW.com, U2 manager Paul McGuinness says, “This is untrue. As I said in my MIDEM speech, U2 has an excellent relationship with Universal. We have recently re-licensed both masters and copyrights to them.”

Next Major Milestone: Microsoft made an unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo, setting the stage for a deal that would shake up the competitive market for online advertising.

Montana Mania: Disney’s Hannah Montana “Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour 3D” a concert tour movie, had an impressive $8.6 million at 683 locations, putting the pic on track to make box office history according to Variety. “Hannah” also owned yesterday’s best theater average of $12,550.

Wired Mag: Read the column ‘Want Better Music? Don’t Stiff the Songwriters‘ that discusses the battle being fought over royalties between songwriters and publishers. The Copyright Royalty Board has begun hearings to determine publishing royalties for CDs, downloads, subscription music services, and ringtones.
“Why should you care? Because music is bad enough already. Cutting songwriters out of the equation not only means that manufactured bands that rely on them will sound worse. It also means bands that do their own songwriting will have a tougher time surviving.”

New Music: listen to the track Hearts and Minds by Ivory Line. Their new record, “There Came A Lion” will be released February 5th through Tooth and Nail.