"Rock band No Doubt has filed a real-world lawsuit over its virtual role in the just-released Band Hero edition of the Guitar Hero video game series, contending that the game has “transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act,” singing dozens of songs the group neither wrote, popularized nor approved for use in the game. In a suit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the band alleges that Santa Monica-based Activision Publishing Inc., the maker of the game, far exceeded the contractually approved use of likenesses, or avatars, of band members Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont and Adrian Young."

"According to the latest update to the “Entertainment Trends in America” tracking study conducted by The NPD Group, a leading market research company, many consumers expect to be spending the same amount on traditional entertainment categories during the coming holiday season, even as their participation in newer forms of entertainment continues to rise. The most notable increases occurred in social networking and text messaging: More than a third (37 percent) of respondents reported visiting a social networking site over the prior six months, which is an increase of 11 percentage points since last year; 63 percent reported sending and receiving text messages, which is an increase of 7 percentage points over the prior year; while 9 percent used Twitter during the same time period."

"Often hailed as one of the music industry’s bright spots, the licensing of songs to film and television isn’t immune to the recession or the general industry downturn, according to top music supervisors who spoke this morning at an industry conference hosted by Billboard and the Hollywood Reporter. Declining budgets for music, changing fee structures and broad single-artist deals, such as NBC’s recent move to draft Bon Jovi as an “artist in residence,” were cited as examples that could limit licensing opportunities in the year ahead. As physical CD sales have tumbled, major label publishing revenues have experienced an upswing. For the nine-year period beginning in 1999, CD sales dipped 45%, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released at the conference. Meanwhile, Warner Music Group’s publishing arm Warner/Chappell saw a 19% uptake in film , TV and ad licensing revenue for the three-year period beginning in 2006. However, ad spending for the first half of 2009 dipped 15.4%, compared with the same period in 2008, according to conference figures. Music supervisor and KCRW-FM (89.9) deejay Thomas Golubic, speaking on a morning panel about the state of music supervision, noted that music is the first item that will be cut from a production budget."

"Lil Jon, who with his Eastside Boyz released the hit song “Get Low” in 2003, has been working on his upcoming album “Crunk Rock” for the past five years. His progress was interrupted by the 2008 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of his record label, TVT Records, which he told the Associated Press was one of the toughest times of his musical career and led him to go on hiatus from recording. As Bankruptcy Beat has previously reported, Lil Jon (real name: Jonathan Smith) had taken a vocal role in the bankruptcy proceeding, objecting to the label’s asset sale to digital music distributor The Orchard. The buyer’s founder, Richard Goettehrer, told Bankruptcy Beat earlier this year that “the feeling between TVT and Lil Jon was not the best,” leading The Orchard to release him from his contract. According to Billboard, he signed with Universal Republic, under which he’ll be releasing his new album early next year."