BMG Rights to buy Bug Music for $300 million (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – BMG Rights Management said on Monday it would pay around $300 million to buy Bug Music, a Los Angeles song publisher whose catalog includes hits such as "What a Wonderful World" and "Under The Boardwalk."

BMG Rights reached the deal with Bug Music's owner, private equity firm Spectrum Equity Investors. The deal values Bug Music at around $300 million, according to two people familiar with the process.

With a catalog of more than 250,000 songs the auction for Bug Music had attracted interest from a range of bidders including "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller, Ole Music and Sony/ATV, a joint venture between Sony Corp and the estate of late pop star Michael Jackson.

BMG Rights is a joint venture of giant German media company Bertelsmann and private equity firm KKR. The deal is expected to close in October.

Even as global recorded music sales have tumbled in recent years, song catalogs have kept or increased their value because they can earn revenue from a wider variety of licensing sources than record sales.

Fund managers and investors like pension funds and private equity firms have been attracted by song publishers' relatively stable cash flows.

Earlier this year, Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik paid $3.3 billion to take control of Warner Music Group, whose assets include the music publisher Warner/Chappell.

Blavatnik is now among contenders for EMI Music's recording and publishing assets with final bids due by the end of this month, according to several sources.

BMG Rights and Sony/ATV are also known to be interested in EMI, but are more focused on EMI's publishing catalog.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Maureen Bavdek)

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Rihanna sues over leaks at $7 million LA-area home (AP)

LOS ANGELES – Rihanna is suing over a hillside home that she claims has serious structural defects that rendered in uninhabitable.

The pop singer on Wednesday sued Prudential California Realty and several companies that designed and inspected the home.

The "S&M" singer's lawsuit claims she would not have paid $6.9 million for the home in 2009 if she had known about the problems. She claims water leaked into several rooms of the house from a balcony that lacks the proper slope and drainage after a rainstorm in early 2010. The suit states the damage left the home "uninhabitable."

She claims Landmark Design Group, which remodeled the home, has failed to make necessary repairs.

Landmark could not be reached for comment. Prudential spokeswoman Wendy Durand says the company does not comment on pending lawsuits.

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MTV music awards gets record 12.4 million viewers (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The buzz-heavy 2011 Video Music Awards scored the biggest audience in MTV's history, MTV said on Monday.

MTV, owned by Viacom, said that a record-breaking 12.4 million people watched Sunday's live performance and awards ceremony from Los Angeles, where Beyonce revealed she was pregnant with her first child, Lady Gaga appeared in drag, and the late British singer Amy Winehouse was remembered in a moving tribute.

Last year's MTV Video Music Awards ceremony -- where Gaga appeared in a dress made of raw meat -- drew 11.4 million viewers -- the biggest audience since 2002.

MTV said that 8.5 million of those watching Sunday's show were 12-34 year-olds, making it the most watched telecast of all time in that age group.

Katy Perry and Adele were the biggest winners, taking home three awards each, but it was Beyonce who was the story of the night.

"Beyonce stole everyone's thunder by revealing she was pregnant," said Billboard. Entertainment Weekly said the singer's baby bump was the "one defining moment" of the evening.

Other reviewers and online fans highlighted the salute by Bruno Mars, Tony Bennett and Russell Brand to Winehouse, 27, who died of still to be determined causes in London in July, and a simple, effects-free performance by Britain's Adele.

The Los Angeles Times said Chris Brown's "career rehab" performance -- following his 2009 conviction for assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna -- was also a strong moment in what was "a wildly inconsistent evening."

The VMA show was broadcast on Sunday without a traditional host linking the various acts and presentations, but few critics seemed to lament the omission.

MTV said its pre-show, featuring red carpet arrivals and celebrity interviews, also fared well with audiences, drawing 7.3 million viewers -- a 16 percent increase on last year.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Zorianna Kit)

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Geldof's Africa private equity fund nears $200 million (Reuters)

ZURICH (Reuters Life!) – Bob Geldof, the former Boomtown Rats singer and Live Aid front man, said a private equity fund he agreed to front last year to invest in Africa was nearing its first close, having raised nearly $200 million.

Geldof helped organize the 1985 Live Aid concert, which reached an estimated 1.5 billion people and did much to raise the profile of those suffering from poverty, starvation and disease in Africa.

Geldof said the private equity fund, called 8 Miles, which represents the shortest distance between Europe and North Africa, had attracted increasing attention because of what he called an existential fiscal crisis in the euro zone.

"It's all about globalization. Without Africa, this whole game stops," Geldof told delegates at a Julius Baer investor conference in Zurich, focusing on growth. "Last month, of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world, six were African."

Private equity funds often close to new investors as they deploy the money already gathered, because holding on to large amounts of idle cash while they choose their investments can create a drag on performance.

Geldof said he agreed to help raise money for the fund late last year after discussions with Phillip Pritchard, Chief Executive of CLSA, an Asian brokerage and investment company arm formerly called Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia.

He said that while Africa was currently seeing huge investment from China and other nations anxious to access its raw materials, the continent had the chance to become a productive global powerhouse.

"Currently 80 percent of exports from Africa are unprocessed raw materials. There's your opportunity: they need manufacturing," Geldof said.

"We need their brains and their muscle power, because we're growing older," he said, adding that by 2020, Africa will have a larger young working population than China or India.

"They are connected (to the global economy) now and cannot be disconnected," he said.

(Reporting by Martin de Sa'Pinto; Editing by Will Waterman)

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Film producer ordered to pay $3 million in sex scandal (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A jury found movie producer Jon Peters was guilty on Friday of sexual harassment and ordered the man behind films such as "Batman" to pay more than $3 million to a former personal assistant.

The nine-woman, three-man panel awarded Shelly Morita $822,000 in compensatory damages. They found that Peters created a hostile work environment and acted with malice, which led to a second phase of the trial in which they awarded the Morita an additional $2.5 million.

Peters, a onetime hairdresser turned movie mogul whose producing credits include "The Color Purple," "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and "Superman Returns," was not present for the verdicts. Along with former business partner Peter Guber, he also ran Sony Pictures movie studio for a time.

Morita, a 44-year-old single mother, sued Peters and his company, J.P. Organization Inc., in December 2006.

She claimed he inappropriately touched her and alleged that he crawled into bed with her when they were in Australia during the filming of "Superman Returns."

In his testimony, Peters, 66, denied any wrongdoing. His attorney said the verdicts will be appealed.

(Reporting and writing by Sheri Linden; Edited by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Rapper Lil Wayne slapped with $15 million lawsuit (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rapper Lil Wayne has been slapped with a $15 million lawsuit by a Georgia company that claims he stole the song "BedRock," according to a lawsuit filed in New York.

Georgia-based production company Done Deal Enterprises accuses the rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, of copyright infringement for the song that Done Deal claims it created in 2009.

The lawsuit, filed in District Court for the Southern District of New York on July 29, also names Universal Music Group, Cash Money Records and Young Money Entertainment as defendants.

"BedRock" also features singers Drake, Nicki Minaj and Lloyd, and it reached No. 2 on Billboard's charts in 2010.

Lil Wayne, who was released from jail in November last year after serving time on a gun possession charge, has been ordered to appear in court on October12.

(Reporting and writing by Carly Mayberry; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Katharine Hepburn's former estate on sale for $28 million (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The former estate of legendary actress Katharine Hepburn who died in 2003, is up for sale with a $28 million asking price.

The large six-bedroom house in the shoreline community of Old Saybrook in Connecticut was sold by Hepburn's estate for $6 million and has undergone significant renovation and updating since 2005, listing agent Colette Harron said on Monday.

Hepburn, who died at age 96, spent her final years at the house, which was built in 1939 after the Hepburn family home was destroyed during the 1938 hurricane that devastated large sections of the southern New England coastline.

The three-story, 15-room brick Colonial features seven full bathrooms, a two-car garage, a dock and beach, and 680 feet of waterfront on Long Island Sound.

The four-time Oscar-winning actress once entertained Howard Hughes at the home, a scene that was dramatized in the 2004 film "The Aviator." Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Hepburn won the actress a best supporting actress Oscar.

"It's a great work of art," Harron said, adding that the seller, Frank Sciame, has loved living in the house for the past eight years but it has become too much for him.

Sciame, a New York builder whose firm has worked on restoring such landmarks as the New York Public Library and Guggenheim art museum, has great respect for the property's historic value, she said.

Those with more modest budgets might consider the house alone, which along with its property has an $18 million price tag. For $28 million two adjacent parcels are included, more than doubling the acreage.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; editing by Patricia Reaney)

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Cash-strapped Lohan hit with $1 million lawsuit (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Lindsay Lohan on Thursday added financial woes to four years of legal problems when she was slapped with a $1 million assault lawsuit and a court heard she was having problems paying for private counseling.

Lohan, 25, whose Hollywood career has been derailed since 2007 by drug and alcohol problems and repeated trips to jail, was ordered to undergo psychological counseling earlier this year as part of her sentence for stealing a gold necklace in January.

But her lawyer told a court hearing on Thursday that the "Mean Girls" actress had not yet enrolled in therapy because finding low-cost, individual treatment was proving a challenge.

"I find it hard to believe that she can't afford counseling," responded Melanie Chavira, the prosecutor at the Los Angeles City Attorney's office who is overseeing Lohan's case.

Judge Stephanie Sautner replied that she did not wish to speculate on Lohan's finances, but added:

"She needs to get into counseling. I am going to give her 21 days (to enroll).

"I don't know whether she is working or what she is doing to get an income...If she doesn't have the means, maybe she knows someone who can help out."

Lohan's lawyer Shawn Holley said Lohan indicated that finding financial aid would not be necessary.

Thursday's hearing came the same day that a former employee of a California rehab center filed a $1 million lawsuit against Lohan.

Dawn Bradley claimed in the civil lawsuit that Lohan yelled at her, threw a phone, grabbed her wrist and twisted it when asked to submit to a breathalyzer test in December at the Betty Ford Center near Palm Springs.

Bradley claimed she suffered "significant injury" to her wrist as well as "post-traumatic stress syndrome requiring several therapy sessions." Bradley is seeking damages of $1 million as well as medical expenses.

Prosecutors in Riverside County decided earlier this year not to file criminal charges against Lohan over Bradley's allegations, citing insufficient evidence.

Lohan has been to rehab and jail multiple times since a 2007 drunk driving and cocaine possession case. She also served 35 days house arrest in Los Angeles earlier this summer for stealing the gold necklace from a jewelry store.

The child star of "The Parent Trap" and later "Freaky Friday", "Herbie Fully Loaded" and "Bobby", has not made a feature film since the 2010 low-budget action thriller "Machete".

However, she is due to start work in the fall on a major movie about New York crime boss John Gotti with co-stars John Travolta and Al Pacino.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Jerry Seinfeld selling Colo. home for $18 million (AP)

TELLURIDE, Colo. – Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has a deal for you.

Seinfeld is selling his home in Telluride for $18 million.

The 14,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom, contemporary ranch home is fully furnished. It sits on almost 27 acres in a subdivision.

According to KMGH-TV, the home features four fireplaces, a 5,000-square-foot deck, a guest house and a private road.

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Information from: KMGH-TV, http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_en_ot/storytext/us_people_jerry_seinfeld/42208478/SIG=1113hqhl5/*http://www.thedenverchannel.com

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Reluctant heiress leaves million to arts, nurse (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A reclusive American heiress, who for decades chose to live in hospitals instead of lavish homes in New York and California, bequeathed her fortune to the arts, a hired nurse and a handful of close associates.

Huguette Clark, 104, died last month. Married briefly in 1928, the heir to a copper, timber and railroad fortune had no children, shunned the social limelight and the trappings of wealth, preferring to tend to her extensive doll collection said to be worth millions.

Clark's estate was valued at about $400 million when she died, according to the law firm Holland & Knight.

"Despite her substantial wealth stemming from the same gilded age that produced the Rockefellers, Astors and Vanderbilts, Huguette Clark lived a remarkably quiet and understated life," said John D. Dadakis, the New York Chair of Holland & Knight Private Wealth Services group.

"Her final will reflects that modesty, as well as her great generosity and empathy for those who took care of her in her later decades," he added in a statement.

In the will Clark stipulated the establishment of a foundation to promote and foster the arts, to be called the Bellosguardo Foundation after her 24-acre oceanfront home in Santa Barbara.

Clark had not been to the home since 1963 when her mother died, but kept it well-maintained for nearly 50 years.

The estate, estimated to be worth over $100 million, will become a museum, housing her collection of art, which included Renoirs, books, musical instruments and other fine objects.

Clark left nothing to any members of her family. Instead she lbequeathed more than $30 million to Hadassah Peri, a nurse assigned to her in 1991 who became Clark's closest companion.

Beth Israel Hospital in New York, where Clark was described as having been a "semi-permanent resident" for 20 years after leaving her lavish, 42-room New York apartment, received $1 million.

She also made bequests of $500,000 to her lawyer and accountant, both of whom are being investigated by Manhattan's district attorney over the handling of her financial affairs.

Monet's seminal "Water Lilies", unseen publicly since 1925 and valued at about $25 million, will go to Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art, where a gallery bears the name of her father, U.S. Sen. William A. Clark, who died in 1925.

Another home in Connecticut, exquisitely maintained and unseen by its owner for decades, is on the market for $24 million.

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UK royal wedding fund raises 1 million pounds (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – More than one million pounds ($1.62 million) has been contributed to a gift fund set up by Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton ahead of their wedding, the couple's office said on Wednesday.

The Royal Wedding Charitable Gift Fund was set up to allow well-wishers to donate money to the couple's 26 chosen charities instead of sending a wedding gift. About half was donated by members of the public and wedding guests, and a quarter paid directly to the charities concerned.

The remaining quarter came from revenues raised via a television interview with the couple, sales of the Royal Wedding Album and sales of the Mario Testino photograph printed in the wedding brochure.

The 26 charities to benefit were chosen because they were "close to their hearts and reflect the experiences, passions and values of their lives so far," the fund's website said at the time of its launch.

The fund focuses on five causes: Changing Lives through Arts and Sport; Children Fulfilling Their Potential; Help and Care at Home; Support for Service Personnel and Their Families and Conservation for Future Generations.

Some of the charities are based in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which Prince William's office said reflected the close ties he had established during past trips.

William and Kate, who married in a glittering ceremony on April 29th, are due to fly to Canada at the end of the month in their first official tour abroad. They will then travel to Los Angeles.

The funds will be distributed by the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry.

(Writing by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Shazam raises $32 million to expand music, TV services (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shazam, whose technology lets people use their cell phones to learn the names of catchy songs, has raised $32 million in funding to bolster expansion plans and move the company closer to a potential public stock offering.

The new funding, led by venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Institutional Venture Partners, will allow Shazam to double its 100-person staff and accelerate product development as it steps up efforts to expand into the television market.

The company would not disclose the valuation it received in the funding round, but Chief Executive Andrew Fisher told Reuters that it was in the "hundreds of millions of dollars."

Valuations of Internet companies have soared in recent months, as investors snap up shares of privately held companies that are developing fast-growing social networking and mobile computing services.

LinkedIn Corp, a professional social networking website, and online music service Pandora Music Inc had splashy initial public offerings in recent weeks. LinkedIn's shares more than doubled on their first day of trading, while shares of Pandora gained as much as 30 percent on the first day, but have both since sunk below the opening price.

Fisher said the recent IPO activity has had no influence on his views about going public and he said that Shazam has made no decision about whether to list its shares on the public market. But he said that Shazam, which has nearly 150 million users, was on track to be considered an "IPO candidate" in 18 months as the company makes progress developing its business and its financial performance.

Shazam, which is based in London, does not disclose its revenue, but the company has been profitable for two years.

While the company is best known for its music-recognition software, which runs on cell phones and analyzes the sound waves of music played on the radio or in restaurants, Shazam is increasingly focusing on the television market.

As a result of deals that Shazam has struck with TV networks including Comcast Corp's NBC Universal and with advertisers, consumers can point their cell phones to their TV sets during certain television shows and commercials to access perks such as special offers and additional videos.

Fisher said he expects revenue from the TV business to account for 50 percent of Shazam's revenue in two years. And the company said it is on track to have 250 million users within two years.

DN Capital, an existing Shazam investor, is also participating in the company's latest funding round.

(With additional reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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Marilyn Monroe dress is auctioned for $4.6 million (AP)

LOS ANGELES – The Marilyn Monroe dress that flirted revealingly with a gust of New York subway air in "The Seven Year Itch" fetched $4.6 million at an auction of film memorabilia.

A more sedate outfit worn by Audrey Hepburn in the Ascot race scene of "My Fair Lady" drew a $3.7 million bid at the sale of nearly 600 Hollywood costumes and props collected by film star Debbie Reynolds.

The buyers, who were not identified, also paid a sum to the auction house and other fees, according to auction publicity firm Nancy Seltzer & Associates. That brought the total price to more than $5.6 million for the Monroe costume and $4.5 million for the black-and-white gown worn by Hepburn.

The auction house, Profiles in History, was calculating the sale's final tally Monday.

In filmmaker Billy Wilder's "The Seven Year Itch," Monroe's character cooled off by standing over a subway grate to catch the breeze as a train sped underneath — which sent her dress north and exposed a shocking amount of leg and undergarment for a 1955 movie.

Modest but still impressive bids at Saturday's auction in Beverly Hills and online included $140,000 for a guitar used by Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" and $100,000 for a "Cleopatra" headdress that adorned Elizabeth Taylor.

Reynolds, 79, started collecting four decades ago at auctions held by major film studios, including MGM and Fox, and eventually acquired 3,500-plus items.

The auction meant the end of a dream for Reynolds, who starred as a teenager with Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain" and was an Oscar nominee for "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."

Reynolds' combined casino-hotel and memorabilia museum in Las Vegas closed and she had planned to relocate the museum to Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Last year, Reynolds' son, Todd Fisher, said the project had to file for bankruptcy protection and the collection would be sold to satisfy creditors.

Reynolds, who still performs in nightclubs and theaters and remains the petite, pretty blonde who captured Kelly's heart in their 1952 musical, expressed regret in an interview last week. But she looked on the bright side as well.

"I won't have so many children to take care of," she said, "so I won't have quite so much responsibility and I can rest a little more."

More items are to be auctioned in December.

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Iconic Marilyn Monroe dress sells for $4.6 million (AFP)

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The legendary white dress seen billowing under Marilyn Monroe in an iconic image of 1950s Hollywood has sold at auction for $4.6 million, shattering estimates.

The dress, worn by the star in the 1955 film "The Seven Year Itch," had been expected to fetch between one and two million dollars.

But the sale Saturday, part of a collection of Hollywood memorabilia held by actress Debbie Reynolds, saw Monroe's "subway" dress -- now cream colored from age -- sold for $4.6 million (or $5,520,000, with added fees).

The entire sale, which included other Monroe garbs, was valued at $22.8 million, Nancy Seltzer, a spokeswoman for auction house Profiles in History, told AFP in an email.

Signed by the American designer William Travilla, the pleated ivory dress contributed in part to Monroe's enduring image as a 20th Century sex symbol.

It was the highest value feature of the auction that also some 700 pieces go under the hammer.

Among them were dresses Monroe wore in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) and "The River of No Return" (1954), as well as costumes from other classic Hollywood staples "Gone With the Wind," "The Sound of Music," "Cleopatra," "Ben-Hur," "The Wizard of Oz," and "My Fair Lady."

Reynolds, a singer, dancer and actress whose greatest role came in "Singin' in the Rain," began collecting Hollywood memorabilia in the 1970s when MGM Studios liquidated its assets. Her immense collection includes over 3,500 costumes, 20,000 photographs and hundreds of props and other decorations.

A second sale from the Reynolds collection is planned for December.

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"Green Lantern" on track to earn $20 million on Friday (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Warner Bros. Pictures' 3D superhero film "Green Lantern" -- starring Ryan Reynolds -- is on track to cross $20 million at the Friday box office, giving it a shot at a $57 million to $60 million debut over Father's Day weekend, according to early estimates.

Friday's total includes $3.4 million in midnight grosses.

Even rival studios are impressed by the strong business "Green Lantern" is doing, and credit an aggressive marketing campaign.

The other new entry over Father's Day weekend is 20th Century Fox's family film "Mr. Popper's Penguins," starring Jim Carrey.

In recent days, Fox lowered its expectations for the movie because of soft tracking. Based on Friday business, "Popper's Penguins" is looking at a weekend gross of $17 million to $19 million.

That's better than Fox's estimate of $10 million to $15 million, but still less than what the studio originally hoped for.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

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'Oprah Winfrey' finale seen by 16 million viewers (AP)

NEW YORK – When Oprah Winfrey told her daytime viewers farewell last month, more than 16 million were watching.

The Nielsen Co. reported Wednesday that the May 25 finale of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" drew 16.4 million viewers. This made the finale the show's most-watched episode in more than 18 years, since the February 1993 airing of its "Why I Love Older Women" episode, which was seen by 17.3 million viewers.

Nielsen says the audience for the surprise farewell episode that aired May 23 drew 12.3 million viewers. The second part of that gala event attracted 13 million viewers when it aired May 24.

"The Oprah Winfrey Show" averaged 8.2 million viewers during May.

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Warren Buffett lunch bids already top $2 million (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Double-dip recession or not, people will still pay any price to have lunch with Warren Buffett.

The annual charity auction for lunch with the legendary 80-year-old investor began on Sunday night, and by midday on Monday, bids already topped $2 million. The six bids placed thus far have come from two anonymous bidders.

Last year's winner paid $2.63 million for the right to dine with Buffett at the Manhattan steakhouse Smith & Wollensky. The price nearly tripled on the last day, as nine qualified bidders made 77 bids.

Proceeds of the auction benefit the San Francisco charity GLIDE, which runs programs including meals and healthcare for the poor and homeless.

Buffett, chief executive officer of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway and often called the "Oracle of Omaha," was introduced to GLIDE by his late first wife Susan.

The auction began at 10:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday and runs through the same time this Friday. Bidders can qualify and bid through the website www.LunchWithWarrenBuffett.com.

(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz, editing by Maureen Bavdek and Lisa Von Ahn)

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Apple reportedly pays $100 million to music companies (Appolicious)

Apple reportedly has cut a deal with the largest of the four major music companies, securing the rights to its songs for Apple’s coming iCloud music streaming service.

According to a story from CNet, making a deal with Universal Music was the last of the obstacles Apple (AAPL) needed to clear for iCloud, and it can now offer music on the service from all four of the companies. A separate story from The New York Post states that sources claim Apple will make somewhere between $100 and $150 million in advance payments to the music companies as part of the deal. That shakes out to $25 million to $50 million for each company as an incentive to get them on-board with iCloud before it is released.

Apple is set to announce the details of its iCloud service on Monday at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. So far, the company hasn’t released any details – including remaining mum on whether a music service is part of the iCloud deal – but it has become common knowledge that Apple managers have been negotiating with music companies and attempting to bring a music-streaming component to the company’s services. Two major Apple rivals, Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN), also just released streaming music services, and neither sought the approval of the music companies.

CNet’s sources had few details about the music company deals, but those anonymous sources did explain the revenue split for iCloud: 58 percent will go to the labels and another 12 percent to music publishers. Apple gets the remaining 30 percent – its standard rate, it seems. The New York Post writes that Apple is considering a $25-per-year subscription fee, with an initial free offering to customers who purchased their music through iTunes (not unlike Amazon’s current freebie model).

According to CNet’s sources, streaming won’t be available on Monday when iCloud is announced, but will drop “soon” (The New York Post puts the service’s start date in September). It also says that iCloud will include a “digital locker” service that will allow users to upload their music tracks to Apple’s cloud servers to be streamed from anywhere, but the locker will only be available for music purchased on iTunes, which sounds like a compromise worked out with the music companies. From what we’re hearing, with other tracks, iCloud will mirror them on its servers; the service will scan users’ music libraries and then allow them to stream Apple’s versions of files they’ve already purchased.

The New York Times is reporting that Apple has reached solid deals with Universal and with Sony (SNE), the two largest record companies, while negotiations with EMI and Warner/Chappell are still taking place. More licensing deals still have to be made, but it appears that the major hurdles for iCloud are being cleared just in time for Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ big announcement next week.

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Gaga's "Born This Way" seen selling 1 million in first week (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Amazon will get another chance to sell Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" for 99 cents Thursday.

On Monday the demand for the album crashed the download store's servers.

The Amazon MP3 store wrote on Twitter: "We're doing it again and this time we're ready." According to Billboard's prediction, "Born This Way" likely will be No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart next week. The album has already sold more than 300,000 downloads.

Gaga's album will be the first one to hit the 1 million sales mark in a week since Taylor Swift's "Speak Now," with more than a million copies sold in a week in November.

(Editing by Chris Michaud)

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AmfAR gala raises $10 million, Cannes parties wind down (Reuters)

CANNES, France (Reuters) – A glitzy charity gala near Cannes, where the film festival was drawing to a close, raised over $10 million late on Thursday, well up on 2009 as conspicuous consumption returned to the French Riviera.

Stars were out in force at this year's cinema showcase, both on land, where they ran the gauntlet of the world's media to get in, and at sea, where luxury yachts provided a more intimate setting for the pleasures of fine food, wine and music.

It was a marked change from 2010, when the hangover from the global financial crisis kept a lid on late-night revelry.

The annual amfAR "Cinema Against AIDS" dinner is one of the big dates on the party circuit, and was held again this year at the exclusive Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, a short drive from Cannes.

Among those who made the trip were film festival jury president Robert De Niro, Janet Jackson, Brooke Shields, Gwen Stefani, Donatella Versace, Sean Penn and Kanye West.

The event, held in a giant marquee in the grounds of the secluded seaside hotel, was in part a tribute to Elizabeth Taylor, the actress who died earlier this year and who was among the first celebrities to campaign about AIDS and HIV.

"At the very beginning she spoke up when others wouldn't, said things that others hadn't, and she was very bold and brave in stating her conviction," said amfAR chairman Kenneth Cole. "To a large degree we're where we are because of her," he added.

Jackson said Taylor had "lit the flame, and we must carry the torch in the fight against AIDS."

During the auction, hundreds of guests were invited to bid for items ranging from rare luxury items to exclusive holidays.

Top lot on the night was the opportunity to play tennis with Prince Albert II of Monaco, son of the late Hollywood actress Grace Kelly, for which a bidder paid 500,000 euros.

Albert's fiancee, South African former Olympic swimmer and model Charlene Wittstock, raised the same amount with an impromptu offer of a private swimming lesson, taking the couple's total contribution to the night to one million euros.

A limited edition Herb Ritts photograph of Taylor sold for 150,000 euros, and a signed and dated lithograph of Andy Warhol's "Liz" went under the hammer for 400,000 euros.

As well as the auction, actress Milla Jovovich sang "I Want to be Loved by You" and Courtney Love gave an impromptu performance of two numbers.

Elsewhere during the festival, dance music thumped late into the night along the narrow beach in Cannes as the invited jostled with gate grashers to get past stern security guards and PR staff with clipboards and guest lists.

Industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter rated the parties which its reporters attended this year, and top of the pile was the soiree thrown by financing company Red Granite.

West and Jamie Foxx performed a duet on the beach opposite the swanky Carlton hotel, where guests were greeted by young women "dressed in black sheer outfits so snug they left little to the imagination."

The shindig would have earned five out of five stars in the Hollywood Reporter's rating, but was marked down for not one, but two VIP areas which included the only places to sit down.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

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