Coldplay has responded to the lawsuit by guitarist Joe Satriani, who claims the band stole his song ‘If I Could Fly’ for their ‘Viva La Vida’.

“With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations. If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him.”

“Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write the song ‘Viva la Vida’. We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavors.”

Coincidence or Premeditated?

Rolling Stone Continues Layoffs: Rolling Stone Mag has laid off more employees including the editor Kyle Anderson. Wenner Media cut online, marketing and advertising jobs, and the entire offices in San Francisco and Detroit.

Another Layoff: Charlie Walk has exited his post as President of Epic Records.

Film Industry Shakeup: The Financial Post posted a column ‘Film industry faces tech wave like one that shook up music, insiders say‘. Read it here.

Rock Band: The latest statistics revealing the sales performance of Rock Band’s downloadable content is quite impressive. “The statistics reveal that over 28 million track downloads have been made to date. There are 345 tracks by 239 artists on the Rock Band store right now. Harmonix added that it has hit the 500 total song mark for the Rock Band games.”

A New Leak: Fall Out Boys new album ‘Folie a Deux’ has now leaked on the net prior to the December 16th street date. The album is available on the Pirate Bay and BitTorrent tracker Mininova according to Digital Music News.

White Lies – (London)

For fans of Joy Division, The Killers, and all your other favorite UK hipster bands – will they achieve the same success as their coharts?

The Oregon rock outfit The Lives Of Famous Men describe themselves as having hints of rock, jazz, and Flamenco. For fans of Head Automatica and The Maine. The band is getting some love from MTV and Alternative Press. Check out the track Annie Taylor.

Next Show Dates:

Dec 17th Chilkoot Charlies – Anchorage, Alaska
Dec 19 Â Â Â The Downstairs -Â Anchorage, Alaska

Rumors of big layoffs at Viacom’s MTV have been circulating for weeks, but reality is setting in. A source claims that 300 people coast to coast will be let go by the end of the week and most of the layoffs will come from the music side of the business – go figure!

MTV’s and Nickelodeons ad revenues have dropped sharply and the company’s profits were down 37 percent in the last quarter.