Here we go everybody, it's time for the CMU Track Of The Year vote to really get going. Thanks for all the votes that have been submitted already. We'll be featuring some of your votes so far here in the Daily each day until w/c 15 December, when we'll announce the overall top ten and let you vote a second time, for your favourite from that list. Here's today's votes...

Elbow - Starlings
It's the musical representation of exactly what falling in love feels like. All the anticipation and gentle blissful calm and breath-taking, crashing surprise and light-headed swooping and unadulterated JOY of it.
Marsha Shandur, Presenter, Xfm

Tony Christie - Louise
Mmmm, had to think about this one. Do you go for 'Sex On Fire' as, although I've heard it several hundred times, I'm still not bored of it yet? 'One Day Like This' for it's pure brilliantness? I think I'm going to go a bit leftfield and go for... 'Louise' by Tony Christie. Why? Because it's an amazing interpretation of what would otherwise only ever be remembered as a second rate electronic Human League song. A beautiful rendition that provokes vivid imagination within myself; I can see Mr Christie himself being the man in question in the song. Awesome! Also; the album 'Made In Sheffield' deserves massive kudos. It's brilliant...
Simon Pursehouse, Head Of Industry Liason, Sentric Music

If you haven't already, get your vote in. Just email us your favourite track released this year and a couple of sentences saying why you love it to [email protected].

PINNACLE IS IN ADMINISTRATION
So, the whole of distributor Pinnacle has, indeed, gone into administration. A notice was posted on the website of parent company Windsong Holdings yesterday lunchtime reading: "David Harry Gilbert and William Matthew Humphries Tait were appointed Joint Administrators of Windsong Holding Ltd and Pinnacle Entertainment Ltd on 3rd December 2008. Please note that the joint administrators act as agents of companies and without personal liability".

The company reportedly told their 94 staff of the situation yesterday morning, and senior executives were expected to meet in the afternoon to decide what to do next. Unlike when eUK went into administration last week - which threatened the supply of mainstream releases to the supermarkets and high street stores like Zavvi and WH Smith - the collapse of Pinnacle will impact more on the bigger independent record companies because it specialised in the indie sector.

This fact could make the collapse of Pinnacle more devastating, depending on how much money the company owes the record companies for which it distributes - certainly it's not unknown for the collapse of larger indie distributors to lead to the closure of some of the labels they work for. A number of UK indies came close to the brink (and at least one went over it) when distributor 3MV went under in 2004.

With this in mind the Association Of Independent Music was due to hold an emergency meeting for its members at its Chiswick HQ this morning. The trade body said legal and insolvency experts would be on hand to offer free advice to affected labels. AIM have also sent their members a template letter which they recommend labels who used Pinnacle send to the distributor's administrators without delay in order to lay claim to any stock currently sitting in the firm's warehouse.

Pinnacle also handled some physical distribution on behalf of other distribution companies, so they too could feel the effect of the company's collapse, though one, Kudos, emailed its client labels yesterday to assure them they'd be OK. Their message said: "Pinnacle accounts for no more than 20% of our overall turnover. The rest of our business is export, digital, and those key accounts who we service directly. Pinnacle was also up to date with us, having only missed the most recent payment (balance of September and 50% of October billing)".

Pinnacle is a long established name in independent music distribution, though it's not the first time the company has collapsed, it went into liquidation in 1984. It was then that Windsong Exports bought the outfit, transforming it into one of the UK's most successful indie distributors. It was subsequently bought by record company Zomba in 1996, and became part of a major record company when BMG acquired complete ownership of Zomba in 2002. After taking over Zomba, BMG owners Bertelsmann shifted Pinnacle into its media services business Arvato, where it stayed until the start of the year when a management buyout led to the distributor becoming an independent entity again.

At the time top man Sean Sullivan said: "The team at Windsong/Pinnacle has worked hard to build and retain its unique position in the marketplace handling an enormous range of music, DVD and games. We are excited at the prospect of returning to independence and operating a business that is nimble enough to respond to increasingly complex market conditions and client needs".

But Sullivan et al probably didn't anticipate just how hard market conditions would be by the end of the year. Confirming the company was in administration yesterday, administrator Matthew Tait told reporters: "Unfortunately the company has been affected by the sudden and steep downturn in the UK economy. We are looking at how best we may be able to handle the trading assets and work with the company to achieve the most favourable outcome".

It's not clear whether Gilbert and Tait will try to sell the company as a going concern or wind it up. It's also not clear whether Pinnacle will continue to operate while the administration goes into effect. Some reports suggest they will, though others say all 94 staff have already been made redundant.

2008 has not been a good year for music distribution, of course, as a sector already struggling on the back of slumping CD sales felt the full force of an economy in decline. Smaller distributors like Amato and Goya bit the dust at the end of last year, and last week major player eUK called in the administrators (though its collapse was arguably caused by problems at sister company Woolworths). And problems in the sector aren't limited to the UK. Yesterday it was also announced German based vinyl distributor Neuton had declared insolvency, while there is speculation about Canadian distributor Fusion 3 after it reportedly laid off most of its label managers and sales reps.

To conclude, now is not a good time to be in music distribution. And with Pinnacle's collapse coinciding with eUK's administration, the next few months are going to be a challenge for the UK record industry at large.

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LIL WAYNE LEADS GRAMMY NOMINATIONS
The Grammy nominations are out, and it's the ubiquitous Lil Wayne who is up for the most awards this year. He's nominated for eight gongs in total, including Album Of The Year for his best selling 'Tha Carter III'. Not far behind, however, are Coldplay, with seven nods, who are also up for the best album award for their recent record 'Viva La Vida'. Kanye West, Jay-Z and Ne-Yo are all up for six awards.

Ne-Yo's 'Year Of The Gentleman' is also in the running for the Album Of The Year award, as is Radiohead's 'In Rainbows', and the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss collaboration 'Raising Sand'. The nominees for record of the year are Coldplay, with 'Vida La Vida', the aforementioned Plant and Krauss with 'Please Read The Letter', Leona Lewis with 'Bleeding Love', Adele with 'Chasing Pavement' and MIA with 'Paper Planes'.

Other British nominees include Duffy, nominated in the newcomer category alongside the likes of Adele and The Jonas Brothers, Rufus Wainwright, and Neil Young.

The nominations were announced for the first time via a special live concert on US TV network CBS, which featured performances from Celine Dion and Christina Aguilera, apparently in a bid to make The Grammys stand out a bit from all the other millions of awards shows, after the viewing figures for last year's show were disappointing. The actual awards take place on 8 Feb.

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DR PEPPER WON'T APOLOGISE OVER GNR PROMOTION
Drinks company Dr Pepper have said that they will not issue an apology over that much reported promotion, in which they offered a free can of the drink to everyone in America if Guns N Roses released their long-awaited album, 'Chinese Democracy', before the end of 2008.

When the record was released, Dr Pepper stuck to their word and invited everyone in America to come to their website and download a voucher to claim their drink on the day of the album's release. Unfortunately, America did so and crashed the company's servers. The promotion was extended for another day, but many were still left without their free drink.

As previously reported, Axl Rose's lawyers said in a letter to the company last week that the promotion had been an "unmitigated disaster which defrauded customers" and that it "brazenly violated my clients' rights". He added that the band would be seeking "appropriate payment" for the "unauthorised use and abuse of Guns N Roses publicity and intellectual property rights" and demanded that the company take full page adverts in The New York Times, LA Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal to apologise for the crashing servers.

A statement from Dr Pepper issued yesterday said: "We are disappointed that GNR's lawyers are turning a fun giveaway into a legal dispute. We simply commented on the delayed release of 'Chinese Democracy' and openly encouraged the band to release it before the end of the year. Axl even expressed support for our efforts earlier in the year. This was one of the largest responses we have ever received for a giveaway, and we're happy we were able to satisfy the thirst of so many Dr Pepper fans. We wish Guns N Roses the best with their album".

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ODETTA HOLMES DIES
Odetta, the iconic African American singer regarded as the voice of the US civil rights movement, has died at the age of 77 from heart disease. Born Odetta Holmes, but known generally just as 'Odetta', the vocalist sang 'I'm On My Way' at the march on Washington in Aug 1963 where Martin Luther King gave his famous 'I have a dream' speech, and it was widely suggested that she was set to perform again in Washington next month at Barack Obama's presidential inauguration.

Holmes was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but grew up in Los Angeles, and studied music at the LA City College. Her classical training led her to start her career in musical theatre, but whilst on a national tour in 1949 she fell in with some folk musicians in San Francisco, and after 1950 concentrated entirely on her folk singing. She is credited with influencing those who drove the subsequent folk boom that saw artists such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Harry Belafonte rise to fame. Dylan said in a 1978 Playboy interview that "the first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta... Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar".

Odetta herself never claimed to be a folk star, however, telling The Washington Post in 1983: "I'm not a real folk singer. I don't mind people calling me that, but I'm a musical historian. I'm a city kid who has admired an area and who got into it. I've been fortunate. With folk music, I can do my teaching and preaching, my propagandising."

In a prolific recording career, she released more than thirty five albums, and guested on many more. She was nominated for a number of Grammys over the years, and in 1999 she received a National Medal Of The Arts, when then-President Bill Clinton said that her work showed "us all that songs have the power to change the heart and change the world". She toured prolifically, and despite her failing health, still managed sixty tour dates in the last two years before her death. Her last gig was on 26 Oct in Toronto.

Odetta is survived by a daughter and a son. A memorial service is expected to take place next month.

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CHRIS MARTIN BACKS OUT OF COLDPLAY SPLIT PROMISE
Chris Martin recently said that people shouldn't be in rock bands past the age of 33, which could have meant the end of Coldplay as early as next year. But now he's changed his tune, which just isn't fair. In fact, he reckons Coldplay will go on forever.

The singer told Rolling Stone: "We're proceeding as if [this tour's] our last, because it's the only way to proceed. You've got to have deadlines, you know. What that means is we're going to pour everything we can into next year and not think beyond that. We always say that and we always mean it. But every time we say it, someone writes that it's over. I don't think we'll ever split up, but we have to do a lot before we're 33".

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HIP HOP IS OVER, CLAIMS WEST
Kanye West has said that he will never go back to hip hop, after chosing to sing on his new album, '808s & Heartbreaks', because hip hop is too clichéd, whereas making your voice sound like Cher's is brand new and exciting.

West said: "[My new album] is not hip-hop music. Taking a sample, looping it and doing all that 'throw your hands up in the sky' thing has become such a cliché. Hip-hop is over for me. I sing, not rap, on this album. I now want to be grouped among those musicians you see in those old black-and-white photos - the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles. And I'm not going to get there by doing just another rap album full of samples. I've had to create a whole new musical genre to describe what I'm doing now and I'm calling it 'pop-art' - which is not to be confused with the visual art movement".

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RIHANNA AND CHRIS BROWN SUED FOR $1 MILLION
Rihanna and Chris Brown have been slapped with a $1million lawsuit by photographer Luis Santana after he was knocked to the ground during a scuffle outside a club in Florida which was hosting Brown's 19th birthday party on 6 May this year.

Santana claims that he had snapped the pair getting out of a limousine outside the Vintage Ultra Lounge in St Petersburg, Miami but he was knocked to the ground by the stars' security people as he did so. In the resulting confusion, he claims his camera, and a lucrative photo of Rihanna and Brown together, was stolen, for which he is now claiming compensation from the stars.

Jonathan Hay, Rihanna's spokesman, dismissed the case, saying: "I do believe that this matter is completely blown out of proportion and I strongly believe that we need to focus on the positive things in the world, not the negative things. Sadly, we are living in a full-blown recession during this holiday season of giving - so let us try to give attention to the positive things in the world and focus on God and our families".

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SINGLE REVIEW: Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop (FatCat)
Well, I reckon I must have been cryogenically frozen, or maybe abducted by aliens because somehow, 'tis the season already. Commercialism aside, that's no bad thing what with all the twinkly lights, ice skates and general goodwill amongst men. At least I share my obliviousness to the passing seasons with good company. It snuck up so fast on Frightened Rabbit that they haven't had time to pen a new festive tune, instead they have re-released a reworked version of last year's bleak yet magical 'It's Christmas So We'll Stop'. The addition of some strings and a brass section by Oregon's David Karsten Daniels adds some welcome sparkle to the track. This should delight the legions of fans, both the old and the new ones that chief Rabbit Scott Hutchinson and co have collected during the hectic touring schedule that they have been following throughout the year. The new arrangement sticks this track somewhere between The Pogues 'Fairytale Of New York' and festive miserablist Malcolm Middleton's 'We're All Going To Die'. Its message of sheer realism is a welcome antidote to the tinselitis so easily contracted from all the premature merriment that we are so overly burdened with at this time of the year. MB
Release Date: 15 Dec
Press Contact: FatCat IH [all]

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TINA TURNER LEAVES HOSPITAL TO PLAY GIG
Tina Turner played a two and a half hour show in New York's Madison Square Garden on Sunday, despite being hospitalised earlier that day with a severe fever. The singer reportedly couldn't bear to let down her fans and insisted on going ahead with the show. She even did a meet and greet with VIP guests, including Anne Hathaway, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, before going on stage. Although, the celebrities were apparently told that "no one is to shake her hand, and she cannot talk before performing. She's very shy".

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GALLOWS PREVIEW NEW STUFF, HIT GROPER
Gallows previewed some new album material at the Old Blue Last in London this week, but became involved in an altercation with an audience member accused of groping frontman Frank Carter.

According to the NME, Carter crowdsurfed from the stage to the bar during the first song, breaking a chandelier along the way, and, returning to the stage, told the crowd to destroy the venue. "What I wanna see is people diving off the bar, diving off the stage. I wanna see fucking carnage", he's quoted as saying. "I've already taken out that chandelier and now I've got my eye on that one over there."

Which seems somewhat irresponsible, but anyway, on to this alleged groping thing. Later on in the set, halfway through a song, Carter apparently dropped his microphone, jumped into the crowd and hit a gig-goer several times on the head. The man in question headed to the back of the venue, but was followed by Carter, who was seen whispering in his ear and pushing him towards the venue's exit.

Carter climbed back up on stage and told his audience: "If it was a girl on stage getting groped I think she'd have a problem with it. And just because I'm a boy does not mean that I like getting my dick felt. I don't really appreciate that! I'm here to play a show - not to be someone's fucking sex toy. That shit winds me up. Be it girl or boy, I don't like getting touched. Do I look the kind of guy that likes to be approached like that? I mean, most girls won't talk to me because of that reason!"

I'd recommend not crowd-surfing if you don't like getting touched, to be honest. But what I don't get is when the alleged groping happened. Because it sounds like Carter just suddenly jumped into the crowd to hit this guy. When did the guy grope him? How did Carter know it was him that did it, whenever he did it? Answers on a postcard, please.

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FULL TAKE THAT REUNION WOULDN'T BE PLANNED, SAYS OWEN
Take That's Mark Owen has said that if Robbie Williams does ever join them again for a live performance, it would most likely be a last minute, unplanned kind of thing.

Owen said: "With Rob, it would be an unannounced thing. You might get a phone call one afternoon saying he was going to come along and see the show that night, or to hang out. I've got a feeling that halfway through the show we might get a message on stage to say that he wanted to come on stage and sing a song. I don't think it would ever be a prepared, organised thing".

He added: "I don't want this tour to be about 'Will he, won't he?', you know. The nice thing for me is that we're seeing Rob, and it's nice that we're all in contact with each other. I don't want people turning up each night thinking 'Is tonight the night?'. If he does turn up, it'll be a nice surprise, but I don't want to build on that".

Elsewhere, the normally rather nice members of Take That have been getting a bit nasty. Speaking about Britney Spears' performance on 'X Factor' last Saturday, Gary Barlow said: "I don't see the point of Britney anymore, she was rubbish on the show. I think she's more famous than she deserves to be now. The truth is all the contestants on 'X Factor' are so talented and were able to sing and dance live, so why couldn't Britney do it?"

Howard Donald added: "It's the whole point of the show and her miming looked stupid".

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BRAKES SIGN TO FATCAT
Brakes have announced that they have set up home at FatCat records. The label will release the band's third album, ' Touchdown', the follow-up to 2006's 'Beatific Visions', on 20 Apr. The album will be preceded by two singles, 'Hey Hey' and 'Don't Take Me To Space (Man)'.

For a brief period, a track from the new album, entitled Crystal Tunings', is being made available as a free download. Get it here.

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TORI AMOS SIGNS TO REPUBLIC
Universal's Republic Records has entered into an interesting deal with Tori Amos which, I think, will have elements of the old 360 degree model to it. Well, label chief Monte Lipman said he and Amos would "jointly navigate [her] next release, as well as correlate other ventures in tandem with [her] prolific creative output", and I think that's what he meant. As part of the deal Republic will release Amos' new album next spring, every track on which will come with a "visualette", which may or may not be another way of saying a pop promo video.

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RADIOHEAD ARTIST LAUNCHES LABEL
Artist Stanley Donwood, or Dan Rickwood if you prefer, best known for his artistic collaborations with Radiohead, is launching his own record label called Six Inch Records. However this will be no normal label. It will release 333 copies of just 3 albums, all of which will come in six inch square packaging and be priced at £6.66. It's all very arty. The releases will be Patrick Bell's 'Travel Notes', Max de Mara's 'Classist' and The Joy Of Living's 'The Beyond Within'. There's more info at 6inchrecords.com.

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UNKLE TO RELEASE CLASSICAL REWORK OF ALBUM
UNKLE have announced that they will release a newly reworked classical version of their last album, 'End Titles... Stories For Film', on 15 Dec. 'End Titles... Redux' will contain seven re-interpreted tracks, as well as two new ones and 'Trouble In Paradise (Variations On A Theme), which appeared on the original album.

The new album will be performed in full at Union Chapel in London on 18 Dec by The Heritage Orchestra as part of a programme of music put together by UNKLE's James Lavelle in aid of the venue's homeless charity, the Margins Project.

More info at www.unionchapel.org.uk

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CRIBS TO RELEASE LIVE DVD
The Cribs are set to release a three disc DVD of their 2007 'Cribmas' shows in Leeds. The collection is entitled 'Live At The Brudenell Social Club', and sees the band performing each of their three albums in its entirety, plus B-sides, so that basically every song they've ever done is on this release. It's out on 15 Dec.

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GOLDIE LOOKIN CHAIN ANNOUNCE FREE ENTRY SHOW
Goldie Lookin Chain have announced details of a free entry show at Metro in London on 14 Jan, which will serve as a warm up for the yet-to-be-announced UK tour in March. The catch, however, is that fans will be asked to pay on their way out. You will be allowed to pay whatever you like, though. So, the band will have to be good if they want to get those big donations in.

Rapper Eggsy says: "The gig is going to be free, which is brilliant. Although it probably will mean we will have to buy our own sandwiches and booze. All donations will be welcome, obviously during these times of credit crunching, just bring some spare change and prepare for a high energy work out. You'd never see Thom Yorke wigglin out on stage and then asking you for money at the end of the show. [Though] it wouldn't surprise me if we inspired him to play Wembley like this".

The band's new album, 'Asbo4Life' will be release next year, preceded by the single, 'By Any Means Necessary'. A track from the album, 'New Day', will be made available as a free download for one month from 1 Jan.

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MADONNA POSTPONES ARGENTINE GIG
According to reports, Madonna has postponed a gig scheduled to take place at Argentina's
River Plate Stadium, the first of four gigs to take place at the same venue this week. It's apparently because of the fact that some sound equipment hadn't arrived because of flight delays.

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GLADE LOOKING FOR NEW HOME
Promoters of the Glade Festival have announced they are looking for a new site after Berkshire Council demanded noise level restrictions on their old site that they just couldn't commit to. The move will end Glade's five year association with the Wasing Estate in Berkshire. Despite the lack of a site, promoters are still confident they will stage a 2009 event on 16-19 Jul. Creative Director Nick Ladd said: "Wasing has been a great home for us for our first five years, but as part of the natural evolution of Glade we have decided to find another beautiful bit of England, in particular somewhere where we can run it later on all nights including Sunday and make some proper noise".

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LIVE REVIEW: Rancid at The Astoria on 14 Nov
It's difficult to find a critic at a Rancid gig. Fans of the California punk rockers are so loyal that tickets for the final leg of their UK tour at London's Astoria sold out months in advance. The closest anyone came to bad-mouthing them was when a few audience members took it as a personal insult when they were told by bar staff that they'd have to drink their beers out of plastic cups at the band's request. But anyone who had the balls to bottle Rancid at one of their own gigs would have been beaten down faster than you can say "revivalist punk's dead". Despite the fact that they've have already toured the UK three times since the release of 'Indestructible' in 2003, fans didn't seem bored when the hour and a half long set comprised mainly of hits from the 1990s albums 'And Out Come The Wolves' and 'Let's Go'. Old time punks and newcomers went mental as a surprisingly cheerful Tim Armstrong gravelled out 'Radio', 'The Way I Feel' and 'Roots Radicals'. The band weren't giving away anything about the much-anticipated new album, allegedly due out on Hellcat Records next year, but it's a testimony to the intensity of their live performances that the same songs can satisfy crowds for three tours in a row. Rancid always tell their fans they'll "see you in the pit", a command that was certainly taken literally at the Astoria. Normally I'd be annoyed about being forced into a mosh pit and drenched in an layer of a fat, bald, leather-clad man's sweat, but for some reason the collective hysteria that engulfed me meant that the topless back of a hairy overweight punk being smeared across my face barely registered. All in all, the only critics were the late night commuters on the 149 bus who didn't appreciate 30 or 40 pissed up punks invading their respectable silence at 10.30pm. Who ends a gig at 10.30pm on a Friday? Cocks. PG

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WARNER SHARE PRICE CHATTER
There's been lots of coverage in the US music business press about the share price woes of Warner Music which is, of course, the only major record company to trade directly on a stock exchange. The label's share price slumped to an all time low yesterday, down 2.48% to $2.36 at close of trading. Share prices across the board are struggling, of course, though some commentators have noted Warner slumped as the Dow Jones Index, the US equivalent of the FTSE, achieved overall gains.

In related news, Digital Music News have also reported that Warner Music's VP Of Strategy And Operations Michael Fleischer has sold 25K shares he owned in the company at $2.90 each, earning him $72,000 pre-tax. His employment package with the major gives him the option to buy shares in the major for the fixed price of $2.77. No one knows why Fleischer chose to sell 25K of his Warner shares at this time, and there are many reasons why he might, but conspiracy theorists question why the exec would sell at a time when he'd make very little return on his original investment, unless he knew bad times are ahead for the record company.

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WARNER CANADA BUY MERCHANDISING COMPANY
On a more positive note for Warner, the major's Canadian division has moved into the merchandising domain by acquiring Toronto based Philcos Enterprise Ltd. Confirming the acquisition, Warner Music Canada president Steve Kane said: "Philcos has a long history in the merchandise sector in Canada and their expertise will help us better service the fans of Warner artists". All the majors are looking to expand into areas of the music industry other than recordings, of course, and Warner's Canadian acquisition is the latest in a long line of similar takeovers designed to bring in expertise from outside the CD world into the record companies.

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YAHOO! RADIO SERVICE MERGES WITH CBS RADIO
Yahoo! in the US has entered into a deal with CBS Radio regarding its internet radio operations, which still operate under the Launchcast banner. The Yahoo! deal is similar to one done between CBS and AOL recently, and is a sign that the big internet companies are struggling to make their streaming music services work amid higher-than-anticipated royalty charges and a slumping advertising market.

CBS's interest in acquiring a stake in both AOL and Yahoo!'s internet radio operations seem to be linked to its aims to expand its last.fm service, and word has it those aspects of Launchcast that compete with last.fm - in particular personalised playlists - will disappear from Yahoo! with users directed towards last.fm.

As previously reported, there's a lot of speculation regarding the future of Yahoo!, with most analysts now certain it will have to merge with another net firm to survive.

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MYSPACE LAUNCH MOBILE VIDEO SERVICE
MySpace yesterday started making video clips available via mobile with a new service designed to work with the BlackBerry Bold, Palm Centro, Motorola Q9, LG Voyager, Nokia N95 and Samsung Instinct devices. Users will be able to access video clips posted on their own MySpace page and their friends' pages, as well as programming from the likes of TMZ, National Geographic and The Onion. The free ad funded service is part of MySpace's attempts to gain a hold in the niche but growing mobile content market.

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SECOND-HAND MP3 SITE LAUNCHES
I've often wondered about the possibility of a marketplace for used digital music. There are some key problems with it, though. Not least because it's a ridiculous idea. That doesn't seem to have occurred to the people behind new download store, Bopaboo, though, who are inviting music fans to "stop illegally sharing and start legally selling!"

The site is currently running in beta, and the company behind it claims its goals are to "provide consumers a legal method and marketplace to buy and sell digital music", "to assist recording labels in the quest to decrease interest in peer-to-peer file sharing" and to build a profitable company that enables us to continue to create value for all consumers".

Users can upload their unwanted music files to the site and then sell them on for cash (around 25 cents per track). The site will, or course, have to trust that the user then deletes the original file, and that they didn't obtain the file illegally in the first place. Well, files will have to pass through "multi-tier anti-piracy scanning" before they can be sold, but will that work when all files sold have to be DRM-free MP3s?

Like I said, it's a ridiculous idea. Surely it's a joke. It is a joke, right?

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FORCES RADIO TO MAKE JOB CUTS
More possible job cuts in the media, and The British Forces Broadcasting Service, which provides TV and radio programmes to members of the armed forces working abroad, may close down its second radio channel, which carries "laid-back music" and talk radio, causing the loss of up to 30 jobs. Radio Today have reported that a third of the Service's 150 staff have been asked to reapply for their jobs, presumably in preparation for the cuts.

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COMPETITION COMMISSION LISTS KANGAROO CONCERNS
The future of cross-network video-on-demand service Kangaroo, a joint venture between BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4, is in doubt after the Competition Commission expressed concerns.

In provisional findings from its investigation into the proposed service, the Commission said three such big broadcasters collaborating would create a "substantial lessening of competition" in the emerging video-on-demand market. Concessions that would overcome those concerns are proposed in the report - mainly ensuring Kangaroo didn't get exclusive access to any BBC, ITV or C4 programmes - but if the venture won't accept any of those proposals the Commission won't let it launch.

In a statement, the broadcasters behind Kangaroo said: "We will continue to make the case for a service that will be both in vast majority free and non-exclusive, and of great benefit and value to British consumers. These suggested remedies are not an exhaustive list. They represent possible options that the commission has identified as a starting point for discussion. The shareholders remain committed to engaging with the commission and will continue to work towards launching the service next year".

As previously reported, with Project Kangaroo faltering over competition concerns, its CEO, Ashley Highfield, quit the company last month to take a job at Microsoft.

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K-FED: BRITNEY BLINDSIDED ME
Kevin Federline has given his side of the story on his divorce from Britney Spears, saying that the singer refused to attempt to work out their problems.

He told People: "It's hard enough to be in a marriage, and then have a kid, then kids, it changes everything. For me, I'd become more concerned with my children. Not that I ignored Britney, but my kids are always most important ... I mean, we were having complications. I didn't give her an ultimatum, but I was trying to work stuff out with her, and she didn't even talk to me or anything and went behind my back and filed [for divorce]. [I was] completely blindsided".

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PARIS WANTS RONSON
More Paris Hilton album news now. Oh joy. Following the revelation earlier this week that she has recorded a second album, influenced by Kylie Minogue, she is now apparently attempting to get Mark Ronson to rework the tracks so that they have some chance of success.

According to The Daily Star, Hilton has asked Nicole Ritchie to ask Sam Ronson to ask Mark Ronson if he'll do it. I wonder what he'll say. I think he should do it. It'd be funny.

The first song from the album, 'My BFF', was aired on US radio in September. You can listen to it here.. Other track titles were revealed to be 'Paris For President', 'Jailhouse Baby' and 'Platinum Blonde'.

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WEBBE ELIMINATED FROM I'M A CELEBRITY
Former Blue star Simon Webbe has become the eighth contestant to be eliminated from I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here after more than two weeks in the jungle. He told Ant and Dec: "I didn't think I would last this long. It was just nice to actually be a part of it." He says he hopes Martina Navratilova or Joe Swash will win. Who is Joe Swash?

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CHANTELLE AND JADE NEWS
Don't ever let it be said that CMU doesn't keep you up to date with minor celebrity tittle-tattle.

Chantelle Houghton has told the Daily Star (not for the first time, probably) about how she regrets marrying Ordinary Boy Sam Preston, and how it felt like a sham from the start. "I think maybe he just went out with me because of what was going on around us at the time", she said. "It was weird on our wedding day. He was pulling silly faces when we took our vows. He took the pee. After he told me he never wanted to marry me, we did interviews where we told everyone about how happy we were. I lied about being happy".

She also added, with possibly the quote of the week, that she thinks she has it in her to be a bigger celeb than the almighty, globally renowned Jade Goody: "I might not be the brightest star in heaven, but I could be bigger than Jade". All of which leads me nicely on to the news that the former big brother contestant is considering inflicting an album on us, after taking voice lessons to prepare for a role in panto. Goody told The Daily Star: "I don't have a bad voice but it needs toning up a bit. Who knows, I may release an album when the show is over".

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