Terra Firma & Citi Face Off in NYC Next Week

The long awaited courtroom showdown between private-equity firm Terra Firma and Citigroup is set to begin next week in New York City over Project Dice, codename for the former’s 2007 acquisition of EMI that was heavily financed by the latter. The legal battle is largely being portrayed as a face-off between Guy Hands and Citi’s David Wormsley, with the highly publicized row between the two companies and individuals leaving many to believe that a last minute settlement is unlikely.  If a pact was reached over the weekend, some share that possible scenarios might include a conversion of loans by Citi into equity, giving the bank a minority stake in EMI… Elsewhere, Eminem’s publisher is seeking enforcement of a settlement amount of over $2-million from a previous lawsuit involving Universal Music Group label Aftermath and Apple, over digital sales of the artist’s music on iTunes… Digital music service eMusic has announced its new partnership with UMG, adding an additional 250,000 songs to its catalogue – in a message this morning, presumable directed at those who have patronized the service since the early days when it mainly consisted of music from independent artists, the company tweeted, Our unique approach to music won’t change. We’ll still profile records we find interesting/ important, whether they’ve sold 4 or 4M copies… And the New York Post spotted Google CEO Eric Schmidt dining with former Sony Music executive Lisa Ellis over the weekend, speculating that the two were likely discussing possible candidates for the top spot at the company’s yet-to-be-unveiled music service…

Amazon Buys Amie Street

Among the new features that were not announced last week at Steve Jobs‘ big keynote event, was the lengthening of song sample time in the iTunes store. It was rumored that Jobs would be revealing an extended sample time from 30 seconds to 60 or 90, presumably to further entice a potential buyer.  While it appears that Apple had all the necessary agreements in place with the four major label groups, it had not made any such arrangement with the publishers.  When the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) caught wind of the new sample length, they notified Apple at the eleventh-hour of their legal objections, and the announcement was pulled according to CNET. Publishers don’t see any performance money from the iTunes store, and while the current 30-second sample clip is treated as “promotional,” a longer sample time would most likely result in publishers wanting to get paid… In more iTunes and publishing news, the Ninth Circuit court has ruled in favor of Eminem’s former production company FBT Productions, reversing a 2009 decision from the original lawsuit brought against Universal Music Group. The latest ruling declares that downloads through the iTunes store are in fact “licenses” and not “sales” – entitling the plaintiff to a significantly higher percentage of revenue.  Though with such potential for precedent-setting in the ongoing debate over how downloads should be treated particularly for older artists with older contracts, most expect this case to remain in the legal system for awhile longer… And Amazon has purchased Amie Street, the online music store that it helped fund four years ago, and plans to shutter the service at the end of the month. Due to the unique nature of the digital retailer’s model, the service became mostly a haven for independent and unsigned artists, as negotiating with the larger labels proved difficult.  While certainly a blow to many who use the service, it appears both sides are happy with the deal, and the Amie Street team will now focus on their new project, Songza, a Pandora-like music streaming service…

Warner Music Group brings in MTV Networks for ad-sales

Warner Music Group announced today its new partnership with MTV Networks, in which MTV will sell ads against the music group’s video content.  The arrangement replaces a previous partnership between Warner and Outrigger, a smaller sales company.  The most interesting part of the new deal is that MTV parent Viacom is still in court with Google, yet YouTube (owned by Google) is likely to account for a majority of the ads-sales by MTV. Make sense?… First week sales of Eminem’s Recovery came in at 741,000, making it the biggest release yet for 2010 and the biggest first week since 2008’s AC/DC album Black Ice… Pitchfork has announced it’s launching a sister site dubbed Altered Zones that will act as a blog collective of sorts with 14 different music blogs supplying content… The NY Times technology blog, Bits, has an article on cloud music companies to watch (spoiler, Apple and Google aren’t in there), but a surprise inclusion is eMusic. The piece reveals that the once indie-only subscription service that added both Sony and Warner Music catalogs to its service in the last 12 months, will soon also add Universal Music and is working on a cloud music service that could be introduced early next year… Expect a sold-out crowd at L.A.’s The Echo tomorrow night for the double-down and uber-indie bill featuring Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles.  That latter recently recorded their new album with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence & the Machine, Klaxons) at the famed QOTSA studio Rancho De La Luna (check out “Sleep Forever” from the new album at Stereogum), while Dum Dum Girls, who recently released their debut full-length on Sub Pop, will head out on a North American tour with Vampire Weekend in August followed by a string of MGMT dates in Europe…

Google's Music Plans

Google is headed for the cloud, or so it would seem with further reporting on the search giant’s forthcoming moves into the music space. No concrete details yet, but a download store could launch as early as this year, with a cloud-based service slated for 2011. Should the Apple rival be careful not to move too quickly…? Interscope cleared the release decks this week to make way for the new Eminem album Recovery. The question from many is whether or not the highly-anticipated release that dropped yesterday will live up to its name after the industry’s recent extremely sluggish sales-weeks… Leading up to the Northside Festival in Brooklyn this weekend, Sirius XMU is featuring special artist-hosts starting today including Real Estate, Woods, Au Revoir Simone and Wavves… Jes Hudak is the Los Angeles winner of the Ourstage 2010 Lilith Fair talent search; she will perform at the July 10th festival stop… And tonight at El Cid a Gulf Coast Relief benefit concert for Global Green will feature acoustic performances from local artists Voxhaul Broadcast, Trevor Hall, Heavy Young Heathens and others…

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