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Full Story at  msnbc.com

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson was made history by winning four American Music Awards on Sunday night, but he couldn’t beat Taylor Swift as the year’s favorite artist and the evening’s top winner.

The 19-year-old took the evening’s top award, giving Jackson his only loss of the night, and five trophies in all.

The victories came during a performance-filled show that closed with an S&M-themed, sexually charged performance by Adam Lambert (his performance included him shoving a male dancer’s face in his crotch).

Full Story at CNN.com

Los Angeles, California (CNN) — The Internet’s most popular search engine should get smarter about music, as Google updates the algorithms that power its searches this week, a company spokesman said.

“You don’t have to know what you’re looking for,” Google’s Jennie Johnson said.

“If it looks like they’re looking for a song, we’re including in the regular search result links to hear songs from partners,” Johnson said.

Contrary to techie rumors, Google is not launching a music download service, but it will give music searchers a direct link to commercial sites that do offer songs for sale.

Full Story at CNN.com

The band, which released its last full album of original music in 1970, is the focus of the simultaneous Wednesday release of “The Beatles: Rock Band” for the Rock Band video game franchise, as well as the digitally remastered box set of the Beatles 13-album discography by EMI. Analysts expect a spike in video game and CD sales, which have been declining through the year.

For audiophiles the release of the remastered CDs in mono and stereo is the first re-release of the Beatles catalogue since 1987.

“It’s probably the biggest catalogue remaster that has ever happened,” said Paul Bromby, EMI’s senior marketing manager heading the re-release for the London-based company.

Full Story atTech.yahoo.com

BOSTON -

A federal jury on Friday ordered a Boston University graduate student who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online to pay $675,000 to four record labels.

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted in court that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.

Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful. The maximum jurors could have awarded in Tenenbaum’s case was $4.5 million.

Jurors ordered Tenenbaum to pay $22,500 for each incident of copyright infringement, effectively finding that his actions were willful. The attorney for the 25-year-old student had asked the jury earlier Friday to “send a message” to the music industry by awarding only minimal damages.

Full Story at CNN.com

It’s hard to tell what’s legal when once-defunct sites like KaZaA and Napster –former bastions of illegal downloads — crawl out of the grave with legit subscription plans.

And digital music offerings are expanding.

Instead of buying CDs or downloading songs, younger consumers appear to be shifting toward streaming music online and on mobile devices.

That’s partly because music streaming services like Pandora are largely free, and also because younger people aren’t as tied to the idea that music must be owned to be enjoyed, said Russ Crupnick, a senior industry analyst at NPD Entertainment, which conducts market research.

In a survey released earlier this year, NPD Group found the number of teens streaming music online jumped from 34 percent in 2007 to 52 percent in 2008. CD sales and music downloads dropped over the same period.

Full Story at examiner.com

There is no shortage of questions surrounding the death of Michael Jackson.

One of them tonight is the location of his final resting place.

By law, according to the Associated Press report, the casket believed to hold Jackson’s body must be exactly where his death certificate says it is: at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.

The real mystery tonight, however, is one that the Jackson family is noticeably silent about.

Was Michael Jackson secretly cremated?

Full Story at CNN.com

With her brief speech, 11-year-old Paris Jackson also shocked the event’s organizers, who said her appearance was not a planned part of the star-studded tribute to the King of Pop at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Tuesday.

“Ever since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine,” she said, fighting back tears as relatives consoled her.

“And I just want to say that I love him so much,” she said as she burst into tears and sought refuge in the embrace of family members.

For many watching, Paris’ appearance marked a rare glimpse of a child who has spent most of her life shielded from the public.

Born to two mothers — Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe and an unidentified woman who reportedly served as a surrogate — Jackson’s three children lived and traveled the world with him, their faces often covered by veils and masks when appearing in public.

Full Story at CNN.com

Dozens of listings selling vouchers for Jackson tickets appeared Monday on auction site eBay and Craigslist, the classified ads site, prompting complaints from Jackson fans and others who felt the sales were inappropriate.

“You people trying to sell these tickets should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves,” said a Craigslist user in a post Monday morning. “Please flag all of these money-grabbing opportunists…if you’re a true MJ fan you won’t give money to these parasites.”

Organizers of the public memorial service, scheduled for Tuesday morning at the Staples Center arena in downtown Los Angeles, made 8,750 pairs of tickets available through an online lottery. But demand far outstripped supply, as about 1.6 million fans registered for a chance at the tickets.

Full Story At CNN.com

Presley — the daughter of Elvis, the “King of Rock,” and the ex-wife of Jackson, the “King of Pop” — wrote on her MySpace page that she wanted “to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.” Her publicist confirmed Presley wrote the blog.

She said her short marriage to Jackson — from May 1994 until January 1996 — “was not ‘a sham’ as is being reported in the press,” but she divorced him because she was “in over my head in trying” to save Jackson “from the inevitable, which is what has just happened.”

Jackson talked with her about his death during “a deep conversation” 14 years ago about “the circumstances of my father’s death.” Video Watch more from Presley on Jackson »

Full Story At Tech.yahoo.com

MINNEAPOLIS -

A replay of the nation’s only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry.

A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.

Thomas-Rasset’s second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.

The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions.

More at the Listening Post from Wired.com

Thousands of recordings that had been largely consigned to the realm of prehistory in the digital age have gained a new life, thanks to the tireless efforts of one man.

Cliff Bolling didn’t realize what he was getting into when he picked up a copy of the first record he ever owned (Cliff Steward’s “Aba Daba Honeymoon”) and realized soon after that “there’s a whole world of music that you don’t hear anymore, and it’s on 78 RPM records.”