The world’s big four record companies are to go head-to-head with Apple with the launch of a new form of album download that will include a digitized version of a record sleeve.

Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI are putting the finishing touches to an album format that will give music fans a computerized version of the sleeve notes that come as standard with a CD, including lyrics and artwork, and videos.

The format, due to be available in November, is aimed at boosting the sales of album downloads, which online buyers have failed to warm to despite a huge surge away from CD sales towards their digital counterparts. Although more than nine out of ten of all singles sales are made in digital form, for albums that figure is reversed.

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from KicksOnFire.com

Joel Tenenbaum admitted to sharing 30 songs with Kazaa back in 2004 (Kazaa! So quaint!) and was originally fined $150,000 per song. He worked that down to "only" $22,500 per song, but that's still $675,000 in total.

This is the second big victory for the RIAA this month, after the even-more-ridiculous decision that filesharer Jammie Thomas should pay $80,000 per song. But unlike Thomas, Tenenbaum hasn't come out and said he will outright refuse to pay the fine, and it looks like this is a more concrete win for the RIAA dirtbags.

The RIAA specified to TorrentFreak that the money won will go to more lawsuits, not to the artists the RIAA supposedly represents. It looks like yet another episode in this long public relations attack in which the organization mercilessly kills any sympathy for their cause that might have existed. [TorrentFreak]

from XXL

[Editor’s Note: These are the outtakes to the edited interview that appears in the July 2009 issue of XXL.]

XXL: While other rappers make self-proclamations, you’ve avoided them. Why?

Fabolous: I think maybe that’s why I probably [get overlooked]. I kinda strayed away from that, maybe that’s needed too, because you have to make your claim sometimes. You have to make your claim where— you know how T.I. said he’s the King of the South, or Lil Wayne said he’s the Greatest Rapper Alive, Jay said something too. Everybody makes their claim.

XXL: So where does Fab fit in?

Fabolous: I dunno, I gotta analyze these statements, because some of them are just self-proclaimed [and] some of them is ones that are lived up to. So, I don’t know because you can call yourself anything. I can say whatever. I can say “I’m the flyest nigga to ever do it.” Certain people would agree with it, certain people would say, “Nah.” It’s really whatever you wanna say that’s why I never hung on those titles either because a nigga can say whatever he wanna say.

Read the rest of the interview here.