Friday Have a Seat on the Lanai for Music News Day

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This is big. Mother Jones just merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting, and this is the first time we’re asking for the donations we rely on. So we lay it all out for you in “Less Dreading, More Doing,” and we need to raise the First $500,000 in online donations by June 22. It won’t be easy. Please help if you can.

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Music News

The iTunes year-end charts should have been a warning: Billboard‘s official tally of the year’s biggest-selling albums is out, and ladies and gentlemen, your #1 album of 2007 is: Daughtry. The “American Idol” guy. Rolling Stone points out that “in what has to be further proof that the recording industry had a terrible year,” the top seven best-selling albums of 2007 were all released in 2006.

Perhaps due to this terrible year for the music industry, there’s been a bit of a shakedown at major record labels, with Geffen and Interscope (both subsidiaries of Universal Music) laying off 15 employees yesterday; the last few weeks saw layoffs at Sony BMG and Island Def Jam as well. Rumors had been circulating that Geffen was about to close its doors but CMJ says now “that seems unlikely.”

In an investigation into the still-unsolved murder of Jam Master Jay, MTV News uncovers a mystery about a missing security camera tape that might show the identity of the assailant or assailants; Jay’s friend Randy Allen hinted in an interview that he knows the whereabouts of the tape but isn’t talking.

Singer Tori Amos (or an alter ego?) had a bit of a fit at a gig in San Diego on Wednesday night, evicting two fans from the venue. “Get the f*** out of my show,” Amos shouted, reportedly because the two women had been repeatedly getting up and down from their seats in the front row. “It’s a privilege to sit in the front row and I reserve those seats for people who appreciate music,” continued Amos. Ulp! Watch the excitement here: