New Music Industry Briefing For Wednesday July 19, 2006

– The HMV record store chain appoints a new head to lead turnaround. (IrelandOnLine)

– Apple’s much anticipated conference call discussing Q3 – 2006 financial results is today at 2pm PT/5pm ET.  Listen here.

– Real will do it’s quarterly earnings call at 5:00 p.m. ET on July 27th. Listen at http://investor.realnetworks.com/. Call 800-857-5305 or 773-681-5857. Passcode: Second Quarter Earnings.

– MySpace adds a comedy channel as part of plan to widen audience and attract more ads. (Reuters)

– Thanks to the EU review of the Sony BMG merger, the EMI / WMG deal is "on ice". (NY Post)

– More on the upcoming Microsoft vs. Apple portable music and video wars.  (PC Magazine)