live nation

• Virgin Media, which provides cable TV and broadband services in the UK, is planning a music portal.

Live Nation's stock rose 28% a few weeks ago after the company reported razor-thin profits that actually beat market expectations. That jump increased the company's market cap by $262.5 million. In the days after, the stock rose as much as 8.2% (it has since dropped a bit). Why?

• BMI's revenue for its fiscal year ended June 30 rose 7.4% to $901 million. (Billboard.biz)

• Ticketmaster has broke away from IAC and is now a standalone company. The company's stock rose 13% on its first day of trading yesterday. The company will lose its largest client, Live Nation, at the beginning of 2009. (Wall Street Journal)

• Trans World posted a $19.2 million loss in the second quarter ended August 2. The retail company's attempts to increase non-music sales to hold off music declines are not yet bearing fruit. Comp sales fell 7% and total sales (the company operated 173 fewer stores) dropped 19%. (The Business Review)

360 Deal Conversations with Josh Talley of Oh Boy Records, Pinky Gonzales founder of Artist Media Group & Steve Keller of iV Music Group.

• The soundtrack to "Mama Mia" sold 130,000 units last week and rose to the #1 spot on the album chart. Unit sales were down 10.9% versus the same week last year. (Billboard.biz)

On Friday, Live Nation reported paper thin profits margins in Q2 2008, but they were better than expected. Analysts expected Live Nation to report a loss of 15 cents per share on revenues of $1.1 billion. Instead, the company reported positive earnings of 2 cents per share on revenues of $1.16 billion.

Today they New York Post carried an article about Live Nation's recorded music division and its search for a way to sell its music.

• Rob Wells, Universal Music Group's SVP of digital, has immense faith in bundled subscriptions like the one (with Sky) announced last week. "Universal believes that subscription is the future of music consumption. ...