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Apple ® today announced that EMI Music’s entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes ® Store (www.itunes.com) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over… Read more »

What’s up with all the different versions of Avril in her new video? Or, for that matter, Christina, Ciara and Beyoncé? Everywhere you look, it seems some pop diva has replicated herself so she’s the star of her clip several times over. Multiple versions are nothing new – Mariah and Madonna are old pros by now – but the idea has been spreading like a video virus, with Avril and others just the latest to be infected. It got us to thinking – are they copying themselves or someone else? Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” Avril Lavigne gets to have it both… Read more »

If you’re expecting some huge sob story from New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert about his band’s recent departure from Geffen Records, well, you can pretty much stop reading right here. Because, as he told MTV News late Wednesday, NFG’s split with the label – the break was announced via a press release earlier this week – was completely mutual, completely painless and, well, completely expected. “It wasn’t a shock to us, because it’s been in the back of our minds for a while. And we were all sort of thinking, ‘What’s going to be our next move?’ ” Gilbert said.… Read more »

After Rich Cronin’s initial battle with leukemia in 2005, the former LFO singer made it his mission to educate the world on the importance of donating blood and stem cells. Cronin had not yet undergone a stem-cell transplant – “And hopefully I never do,” he told MTV News in January 2006 – but donated blood had saved his life. Now, a year later, the same can be said for those stem cells. “After I was in remission for a year, I relapsed and they told me my only shot was a stem-cell transplant,” Cronin explained. “Neither my brother nor my… Read more »

A Vietnamese court reduced former British rocker Gary Glitter’s child molestation sentence today (Feb. 7), cutting his three-year term by three months as part of a nationwide Lunar New Year prison amnesty, a judge said. Glitter, convicted of molesting two Vietnamese girls, will now be released in August 2008, said Tran Thi Thien Huong, a judge on the deciding panel. Vietnam traditionally reduces the sentences of inmates with good prison records just before Tet, as the Lunar New Year is known in Vietnam. The 62-year-old Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted in March 2006 of committing… Read more »

The Australian singer Kylie Minogue and her boyfriend of four years have announced their separation. Minogue recently resumed performing after treatment for breast cancer diagnosed in 2005. In November, the 38-year-old singer told Elle magazine that her boyfriend, Olivier Martinez, had been an “incredible” support during her illness. She and Martinez, a 41-year-old French actor who was in “Before Night Falls” and the recently released “Blood and Chocolate,” confirmed the split in a statement late Friday. “They have made it clear that the decision to go their separate ways was mutual and amicable,” the statement said, adding that the pair… Read more »

Russell Simmons’ drive to make people from different backgrounds more racially aware is picking up steam – with Brooklyn act the Beastie Boys next on his list of star speakers. The rap mogul wants the veteran three-piece act to help sway the Jewish vote, in the same way Jay-Z’s involvement has established a voice in predominantly black New York districts. “I am looking for Beastie Boys to join other prominent Jews in the entertainment industry to film a PSA (Public Service Announcement) confronting racism, (Specifically) Islamophobia,” He tells AllHipHop.com. “The only way to end the madness is to have people… Read more »

A new bill introduced in the US Senate this week would force satellite, digital, and Internet radio providers (but not over-the-air radio) to implement measures designed to restrict the ability of listeners to record audio from the services. Called the “Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act” (PERFORM), the bill is sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). If the name of the bill sounds familiar, it should. The bill was originally introduced in April 2006 with the support of the RIAA. It died in committee, but the… Read more »

The final curtain has fallen on this very public affair. Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey have settled the division of their assets, according to court documents. While the ex-Newlyweds have technically been singletons and free to marry others since June, with great success comes great responsibility. For their lawyers and accountants, that is. Details of the settlement were not disclosed and each has agreed not to discuss the other’s financial holdings, but we can remember that Simpson, while we wouldn’t compare her situation to Britney’s, was reportedly raking in more money than her hubby during their three-year marriage. The comely… Read more »