Hypebot’s New Music Industry Briefing For Thursday September 14th, 2006

– Microsoft is set to unveil the Zune player and store to the press at 9AM PST today. The Seattle Weekly looks inside the team whose job it is to make Zune and Microsoft cool and why Zune may actually succeed. (here)

– Virgin’s Richard Branson is eying the growing importance of live performances to an artist or music company’s balance sheet and expanding in Virgin Festival concept. (Reuters)

– Subscription music services may get a boost a Sonos upgrades it’s players to stream without the PC being on thus allowing much greater flexibility. (AP)

– We’ve been told that Sonific’s SongSpots public beta launch of it’s customizable player widget is just a few days away.

– The Orchard has announced that it has signed digital distribution and marketing agreements with four more independent labels: Dim Mak Records, Norton Records, CornerstoneRAS/Park the Van, and Surfdog Records. The calogues include albums by The Ramones, Ben Lee, Brian Setzer, Public Enemy and more.