Starbucks Dumping CD’s and iTunes Gift Cards: As of now, you can still find some new releases on the main counter and nearing racks, but Starbucks will have eliminated nearly all of its music retail offerings by September. The ‘spinner’ racks offering multiple CD’s, gift cards, and promotional giveaways for Apple iTunes will be gone. Starbucks is returning to their core business which is pushing expensive caffein.

Politicians Want Their MTV: After declining political advertising since its inception in 1981, MTV will now accept political ads. Up until recently, MTV has refused all political ads.

Jeannie Kedas, exec VP-communications for MTV’s music networks, said the change is effective immediately and reflects the importance of the youth vote.

Bucking The Trend: Coldplay’s opening week numbers for “Viva La Vida” are roughly equivalent to those of Coldplay’s last album, X&Y which sold 737,000 copies in its first week three years ago. No sign of slow down of the record biz in the Coldplay camp. Radio has also played a big role in the album’s success. In an aggressive but unusual strategy, the band sent two singles to stations in advance of its release, and this week the title song is No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart says The New York Times.

EMI – The Layoffs Begins: EMI pledged to trim 1,500 to 2,000 workers of its 4,500 recorded music workforce around the globe, and the cuts are now on its way, the same day EMI announced that Coldplay would land on top of the Billboard charts. According to sources, Capitol Records has begun to slash marketing and A&R.  What a grueling press release.

Live Nation Newest Signings? Live Nation could be making deals with Nickelback and Shakira according to Fox’s Roger Friedman. Friedman also responds to the negative publicity following Madonna. He suggests that Madonna’s ‘Hard Candy’ is floundering because Warner Music has done nothing to promote it, as retribution for her exit to Live Nation. Good theory for sure, but I still believe in the public, and Madonna’s newest album is nothing special. How many beat driven albums can the public buy? Something has to give…