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Rage Against The Machine vs X Factor Christmas Chart Race Is On. Photo: WENN.com The race for the Christmas number one is on with downloads of Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' now eligible for next Sunday's chart. EMI seeks outside investors as fears of debt crisis grow | Busin. Private equity group Terra Firma is looking to bring in outside investors to help prop up music company EMI, which is creaking under £2.6bn of debt. City pension funds, insurance companies and foreign banks have been approached amid fears within Terra Firma that EMI could default on interest repayments to Citigroup, which bankrolled the £4bn buyout of the music group on the eve of the credit crunch in 2007.

But Terra Firma would retain majority control in the event of any restructuring, and its boss, financier Guy Hands, would remain chairman at the company, whose roster of artists include the Beatles, Robbie Williams and Norah Jones. EMI is profitable at the operating level but has been hit hard by borrowing costs that have forced Terra Firma to twice inject equity into the operation in the past 18 months. EMI can meet its debt-servicing liabilities, but there are worries that if its recorded music division loses momentum, it could struggle to fulfil its obligations. Untitled. Simon Cowell has offered Jon and Tracy Morter a job in his record company after their Facebook campaign blocked his X-Factor winner from having the number one song in England this week. The Morters mounted the Facebook campaign to get people to buy Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 hit ‘Killing In The Name’ to stop Cowell’s 4 year monopoly at the top of the Christmas chart.

It worked. ‘Killing In The Name’ by Rage Against The Machine sold 500,000 units in the UK last week, beating Joe McElderry ‘The Climb’ by 50,000 units. Cowell offered the Morters a job at his label but they turned him down. "I offered them jobs at my record company. Rage Against The Machine singer Zack de la Rocha says the band will play a free concert in the UK to say thanks. They will also donate proceeds from the single sales to the homeless charity Shelter. What is next for Spotify? - Crave at CNET UK. The big winner in the music world this year (apart from Rage Against the Machine , obviously) was Spotify.

The music-streaming service signed up millions of users, launched some hugely well-received mobile apps and had the music industry purring at the prospect of a genuinely appealing alternative to piracy. Not to mention making a minor Internet folk hero out of one of its employees, the velvety-voiced Roberta. But what's next for Spotify? 2010 will be a crucial year for the company, with challenges including more competition, global expansion and the need to start, y'know, making more money than it spends. What's top of Spotify's new year's resolutions list? Like many a European rock star before it, Spotify wants to break into the US. What are its plans over here then? The key task will be to persuade more users to switch from the free, ad-supported version to the tenner-a-month premium Spotify.

What kind of new features might we see? What about mobile? Very possibly. But it's not alone? Singles sales soar to record high. MP3 players given as presents have helped boost UK single sales to an all-time high in the week after Christmas. According to Official Charts Company figures, 4.22m singles were sold in the last week of 2009, beating the previous record of 4.03m over Christmas 2008.

And the Christmas chart battle between X Factor and Rage Against the Machine may also have had an effect. "It has opened up people to downloading who may never have done before," said Music Week editor Paul Williams. Lady Gaga was named on Sunday as last week's top-selling singles artist as Bad Romance returned to the number one spot. X Factor winner Joe McElderry's single The Climb went down to number two.

Williams told the BBC that the growth in the download market had changed the way that consumers behaved immediately after Christmas. "It used to be on Christmas Day you'd have your lunch and maybe go for a brisk walk or settle down and watch the afternoon film," Williams said. 'Opposite effect' 5 Superb Social Media Tools for Musicians. Zach supervises social media strategy at Martin|Williams Advertising in Minneapolis, MN and runs 808 Management, a consultancy for independent artists. Follow him on Twitter at @zackolantern. As we roll in to 2010, the selection of band-friendly social media tools is growing. Say goodbye to sporadic MySpace updates and incomplete tour information on Facebook.

There are now more options for sharing your music with fans and empowering them to share it with others. Since MySpace Music has failed to show much staying power, tools on other networking sites have risen to fill the void. However, the clunky music sharing options on sites like Facebook and Twitter did not trump the relative simplicity of sites like MySpace Music, which were built as a destination for streaming audio and promotion. Here are some tools that encourage fan engagement and help you easily manage fan relationships in a new era of social networking. 1. 2. 3. Acquiring new fans is only half of the battle. 4. 5.

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