Hypebot’s New Music Industry Briefing For 5.12.06

The French Senate has passed a watered-down version of the bill passed in March by the General Assembly that encourages interoperability between portable music devices and download services and reduces penalties for most track sharing.  Now committee negotiations will attempt to forge a legislative compromise. (Financial Times)

– Universal Music has settled it’s portion of a payola probe by NY Attorney General Elliott Spitzer for $12 million which will distributed to charities. The final report is a scathing critique of the label’s promo practices. Read a full Hypebot report below.

– Bono is back in Africa to assess progress. (Reuters)

– Despite hand-wringing over an advance copy leaked to P2P, The Red Hot Chili Peppers new CD seems destined to debut at  #1 this week with a likely 400,000 or more units sold (Hits)and is #1 at iTunes despite a hefty $19.99 price there.

– A new analysis shows that a booming single track download market is not offsetting the continuing decline in physical CD sales. (Digital Music News)