plus: James Brown cleared of sexual harassment. Artists reportedly see little money from label-sanctioned download sites. The perfect DJ. Nick Lowe discovers "Poor Side of Town."

From a press release issued by Microsoft on Monday (1/18):

MSN Music today launched a special All Access Web site with Alanis Morissette [ tickets ] as part of a larger effort to give visitors to the MSN network of Internet services exclusive concerts and behind-the-scenes looks at some of the biggest names in the music industry. This event helps artists such as Morissette promote their music online and gain exposure to the 270 million unique users of MSN worldwide. MSN has teamed with Morissette to kick off the first concert in the series and will host an exclusive webcast and behind-the-scenes interview with her beginning today at http://music.msn.com/alanis/ .

London's Sunday Times reported that Paul McCartney has been offered $4 million to perform a single concert at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.

McCartney is expected to open a North American tour in April.

Master P [ tickets ]'s unfinished recording studio in Baton Rouge, La., is scheduled to go on the auction block on Wednesday (2/20), the Baton Rouge Advocate reported. Construction on the studio reportedly was halted in 1999 due to "contracting disputes," and the contractor was awarded $190,165 in July for construction work, materials and equipment.

Jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis [ tickets ] has started his own label, Marsalis Music, the Associated Press reported. The label's first release will reportedly be "Footsteps of Our Fathers," Marsalis' tribute album to John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins and the Modern Jazz Quartet, due later this year.

On Tuesday (1/19), a jury cleared James Brown of charges that he sexually harassed and wrongully fired a female employee, Reuters reported. However, his company, James Brown Enterprise Inc., was found liable for wrongfully firing the woman. Damages weren't immediately determined.

From a New York Times article on online music:

In their bitter battles against Napster and other free music downloading services, record company executives have wielded one moral argument that has placed their position beyond self-interest: the fans take the music without proper permission and don't pay the artists a dime.

Last December, the major record labels responded with two Internet services of their own [Pressplay and MusicNet] where fans pay monthly fees to download songs. Under this arrangement, however, the performers still don't get a dime: for each song downloaded, they stand to get only a fraction of a cent, according to the calculations of disgruntled managers and lawyers.

From a BBC.co.uk story on computer DJs, quoting Chris Csikszentmihalyi, an assistant professor at MIT:

We essentially built a motion-capture system that hooks up to a regular DJ's turntable that allows us to capture whatever sorts of scratches or motions that they do. We can then save that to file and even manipulate them.

"We plan to go out and record the motions of famous DJs for posterity. We'll then be able to combine their signatures--to make the perfect DJ.[The article suggests that he wasn’t being completely serious about making the "perfect DJ."]

From a RollingStone.com interview with Nick Lowe, discussing his cover of Johnny Rivers' "Poor Side of Town" on his latest album "The Convincer" (Yep Roc):

None of us had heard it before, because it was never released in England. Shortly after we recorded it, some American friends of mine came over and I asked, "What do you think of this?" and immediately they said, "Oh Johnny Rivers, 'Poor Side of Town,' not a bad call." And I was kind of pissed off about it, I said, "Wait a minute, this was my undiscovered gem." So I find out now that it's the bloody national anthem and everybody knows it.

The most-played songs on radio for the week of Feb. 11-17, according to Broadcast Data Systems:

POP: "How You Remind Me," Nickelback
ROCK: "Blurry," Puddle of Mudd
ALTERNATIVE: "Blurry," Puddle of Mudd
URBAN: "Nothing in This World," Keke Wyatt
COUNTRY: "Good Morning Beautiful," Steve Holy