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Warner Music Group–a company that originally took Apple and its iTunes service to task for not allowing it to sell music at a premium–has changed its entire outlook on the music downloading business and has praised Apple for knowing what is best for everyone involved.

“You need to look no further than Apple’s iPhone to see how fast brilliantly written software presented on a beautifully designed device with a spectacular user interface will throw all the accepted notions about pricing, billing platforms and brand loyalty right out the window.

And let me remind you, the genesis of the iPhone is the iPod and iTunes–a music device and music service that consumers love,” Warner Music Group’s CEO Edgar Bronfman gushed, according to a blog post by Simon Aughton on MacUser.

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Puddlegum.net-As consumers, we seem to feel entitled to have full access to music, and we wince at the thought of paying for it. But when you consider the costs that fall onto the shoulders of artists and record labels, it’s understandable why bit BitTorrent sites are caught in litigation.

Imagine spending twelve months working on your new album. You shape the song structures a certain way to convey the emotion of each song, everything is precise.

Your independent label pays for you to record the album at a professional studio, costing them $30,000, with a contract saying that you will repay the recording and reproduction costs if the album doesn’t sell fifteen thousands copies.

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Blabbermouth.net-New York Post’s Page Six reports that former JANE’S ADDICTION guitarist Dave Navarro is biting the hand that fed him for so many years, dismissing the music industry as shallow and predictable.

In Michael Grecco’s new book, “Naked Ambition: An R-rated Look at an X-rated Industry”, Navarro, who recently directed a feature-length adult movie called “Broken”, says: “Rock and porn exist to break taboos. Rock used to have that rebellious ‘up against the world’ creed . . . That doesn’t exist anymore in the music world — but it’s alive and well in the adult industry.”

He adds: “It’s heartening to feel kin to a group of freewheeling individuals who don’t give a [bleep] about approval.” Navarro, once married to Carmen Electra, also slams music execs as “narrow-sighted dinosaurs,” noting, “Maybe that explains why porn is growing bigger and bigger and rock seems to be getting smaller and smaller.”

stuff.co.nz - Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has slammed his record label and strongly encouraged fans to steal music.

Reznor launched a stinging tirade against Universal Music Australia on Sunday at the group’s concert at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, dismayed at the high price the label charged for CDs.

He called the record label “greedy f**king assholes”. It followed similar diatribes earlier in the year.

“Steal it. Steal away. Steal, steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing,” Reznor, who has been dubbed the Ralph Nader of the music industry, said.

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nytimes.com - Beginning in 1984, when he started Def Jam Recordings, until his more recent occupation as a career-transforming, chart-topping, Grammy Award-winning producer, Rubin has never gone to an office of any kind.

That wasn’t a problem: Columbia didn’t want Rubin to punch a clock. It wanted him to save the company. And just maybe the record business.

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