The Collapse of Music Journalism: Rapper Nas was shocked when Maxim gave his new album, “N – – – – r,” a 21/2-star review – because it isn’t even finished yet. “I’m finishing the album now, and it will be out April 22,” Nas told Page Six.

Study Sees Digital Music Shakeout: “There are too many online and mobile shops around,” says Point Topic analyst Oliver Johnson. Many music players will collapse and others will be bought out.

American Idol Has Dibs on Beatles Songs: Sony/ATV Music Publishing that controls the Beatles’ mega hits has given Idol the go-ahead to lets its contestants sing and torture “Yesterday”, “Let It Be” among others. “It’s something we’ve waited for for seven seasons now,” Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe told Seacrest. “Sony has agreed to release the Lennon and McCartney songbook to us.”

Music 1.0 Is Dead: Five hundred top members of the music business gathered today in New York to hear that “music 1.0 is dead.” Ted Cohen, a former EMI exec who used the phrase, opened the Digital Music Forum East by pleading with the industry to be wildly creative with new business models but not to “be desperate” during this transitional period. Check out the full article here.

Face The Music: Facebook has launched its music section today.Â

China Has No Music Industry: The Music Copyright Society of China and China’s largest digital music distributor, R2G, have filed suit against Baidu.com in Beijing. The Chinese music industry has seen its hellish days – no respect for artists, no respect for copyrights; all in the name of FREEDOM.

Guys Hands Feels The Strain of EMI Takeover: Guy Hands first 100 days at the group has not gone to plan according to the Telegraph. “What we are doing is taking the power away from the A&R guys and putting it with the suits – the guys who have to work out how to sell music. Trying to persuade 260 people to give up their power has been hard.”

“We had labels at EMI that were spending five times as much on marketing as their gross revenues. We told them you could stick a £50 note on the cover of a CD and have the same effect, and we also wouldn’t have to pay them. Those sorts of comments don’t go down too well.”

Recommended Listening:

Baby You by Made In Hollywood