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Two Fascinating Tidbits, A Baker’s Dozen Of Web Links And A Cloud Of Dust
It's time again for online content that is at least as well-read as the nutritional information on a Pop Tart box.

Press-release-happy SpinRecords.com has appointed Michael Schnapp to the position of Vice President of Rock. The genre specialist—Schnapp spent five years as Director of Metal/Rock Marketing for Epic Records—brings the aspiring music netfit a ton of traditional record-biz experience, while his new title will give Schnapp a way-cool business card that should help him score with chicks…

GetMusic.com announced that it has landed renowned journalist and Grammy-winning writer Anthony DeCurtis to host a new online show, appropriately titled "The A List With Anthony DeCurtis." The interview program will debut on May 24 (8 p.m. EDT), with hippie jam band Phish as DeCurtis' guest. Phish fans can submit questions to the show—www.getmusic.com/alist—for DeCurtis to use, provided they stumble out of their granola- and-patchouli-induced daze by today. The press release for "The A List" calls the show "provocative, relevant and fun," and they wouldn't lie about something like that, would they?...

Rock band They Might Be Giants, in conjunction with EMusic.com, has released an MP3-only EP of new, previously unreleased studio recordings, "Working Undercover For The Man." As a bonus—and to help make music fans more familiar with purchasing downloadable music—the first 10,000 customers who buy the entire eight-song EP from EMusic.com (for $7.99) will have a limited-edition CD of the album shipped to them at no additional cost. Last year, TMBG released an MP3-only album "Long Tall Weekend," also through EMusic. "EMusic shows how a band and their audience can work together to make downloadable music a positive and creative idea for everyone," said TMBG guitarist John Flansburgh. "The Web gives us an immediate link to our audience, and, most importantly, keeps us as far away as possible from record executives."…

Performing rights organization BMI has launched its Digital Licensing Center (DLC), an online, on-demand digital rights management company. The DLC offers a "Klick-Thru" copyright-licensing system, which allows Internet companies to digitally obtain their music performance license through the Web site. BMI holds the copyrights to over 4.5 million works by 250,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. "We believe that by providing developers and dot-com companies with a simple, cost-effective solution for licensing the content on their sites, we can help monetize music copyrights in the digital world," said BMI VP Richard Conlon. "Eventually, some of that money might find its way to the songwriters."…

Vidnet.com will host Lycos TV, an interactive, multi-channel video program. Lycos TV will let users choose what they want to watch, when they want to watch it, from a wide variety of streaming programs, including animation, news, music and comedy. "Vidnet's streaming entertainment-related media will provide our users with genre-specific content in one easy-to-use pop-up player, enhancing their multimedia video experience to the fullest," said Mark Stoever, Lycos VP of Emerging Destinations. As any home-theater enthusiast will tell you, nothing says "full multimedia experience" like a postage stamp-sized image on a 14-inch screen…

Soundbreak.com has linked with Microsoft, joining the behemoth's Windows Media Broadband Jumpstart Initiative. Soundbreak provides 24-hour, global Webcasts with DJs, just like that antiquated beast known as radio. The Jumpstart Initiative seeks to hasten the adoption of high-speed Internet access by consumers, apparently through offering programming that could never be enjoyed at 28.8 kbps…

Rollingstone.com—one of the EMusic sites—announced it will be the premier content provider for the music category on the MSN Entertainment Channel. At presstime, hitsdailydouble.com was still in negotiation to be MSN's official useless-information provider… Speaking of useless info, Britney Spears (#4), the WWF (#7) and Napster (#9) were among the week's most-searched items in the latest tally from just-purchased Lycos.com. Mother's Day came in at #2, right behind the perennial Pokemon. The most short-lived recent searched word, not surprisingly, was "ILOVEYOU," #3 last week, which the Lycos press release described as "a 72-hour bug."

Longtime industry exec Ted Cohen is named VP of New Media for EMI Recorded Music. He was previously VP of Webnoize's DMN consulting unit, VP Artist Development at Warner Bros. and VP Music Philips Media. He will continue to generate more erotic e-mail to Darva Conger than any man alive.

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TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN PLAYLIST
Now 100% unlicensed!
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