ARTISTdirect will make an extended, unreleased version of Neil Young [ tickets ]'s song "Razor Love" available for download over a 24-hour period beginning on Thursday (9/14).

From the Federal Trade Commission's report, "Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Review of Self-Regulation and Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries:"

Music: Of the 55 music recordings with explicit content labels the Commission selected for its review, the Commission found that all were targeted to children under 17. Marketing plans for 15, or 27 percent, expressly identified children under 17 as part of their target audience. The documents for the remaining 40 explicit-content labeled recordings did not expressly state the age of the target audience, but detailed plans indicating they were targeting that age group, including placing advertising in media that would reach a majority or substantial percentage of children under 17. ...

Self-regulation is especially critical in this area, given the First Amendment protections that prohibit government regulation of these products' content. While the industries reviewed have taken positive steps to address some of these concerns over the last year, the Commission believes that all three industries should do more to enhance their self-regulatory efforts. ...

According to the Commission ... "Self-regulatory programs can work only if the concerned industry associations monitor compliance and ensure that violations have consequences."

Variety reported that New York police raided two CD counterfeiting operations that were making bootlegs of artists such as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Ricky Martin and allegedly selling them through street vendors.

The Secure Digital Music Initiative, a consortium of music and technology companies, is inviting hackers to try to breach 12 recently developed systems for keeping digital music secure, Webnoize reported.

Capitol is set to release "Frank Sinatra--Concepts" on Sept. 26. The box set contains the 16 albums that Sinatra made for Capitol Concepts.

John Lennon's albums "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" and "Double Fantasy" are to mark his 60th birthday by being re-released in the U.K. on October 9. "Double Fantasy" will also include "Walking On Thin Ice", the track he was working on the night he died.

On Tuesday (9/12), Joan Osborne [ tickets ] will launch Heroine, a webzine devoted to "stories of extraordinary females."

From staff reports, compiled by James Woster.