Kobalt Music Group has added another marquee name to its roster with the signing of smoking-hot Australian artist Gotye to a worldwide music publishing deal. The new pact, inked by Kobalt Music Publishing Australia, does not cover Australia and New Zealand, where independent music firm Alberts represents the artist’s catalog.

TastemakerX is a new music discovery app that allows users to develop an influence score, building a follower base based on music tastes, social graphs and finding the right bands at the right times; CEO Marc Ruxin called it "fantasy sports for music lovers." Elsewhere, CDs remain a valuable commodity, while consumer confidence rose but still lags far behind.

Afo Verde, who since 2009 has been serving as president, Latin Region, for Sony Music Entertainment, has been promoted to the post of Chairman and CEO for the Latin Region, Spain and Portugal.

Colombian star Juanes played MTV Unplugged alongside stars Paula Fernandes and Joaquín Sabina in a taping attended by Universal Music Latin America/Iberian Peninsula Chairman/CEO Jesús López, UML Entertainment President Victor González, and the managers of Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin.

Drake, Feist and Nickelback were some of the big names leading the 2012 Juno Award nominations announced today. Each artist received four nominations, while Dan Mangan, Hedley and City and Colour also received four nods.

Today marks the release of "We Are The Works In Progress," an album to benefit Japanese disaster relief featuring such artists as Terry Riley, Four Tet, Fever Ray, Deerhunter, Interpol and David Sylvain and Ryuchi Sakamototo performing alternate and demo versions of songs. The album was compiled and organized by Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead. 

Fresh of her halftime performance at Super Bowl XLVI comes details of the Madonna 2012 World Tour. The trek will begin May 29 in Tel Aviv, Israel, and will be her most extensive tour ever in terms of number of dates, according to Arthur Fogel, CEO of Live Nation Global Touring, worldwide producers of the tour. The tour will take Madonna to Australia for the first time in 20 years, as well as many markets she has never played before.

Madonna’s performance during halftime of the Super Bowl produced 10,245 tweets per second, one of the busiest moments in Twitter history. The halftime performance topped recent events regarded for their online reaction.

Lana Del Rey’s meteoric worldwide success of her debut album “Born To Die” extended to the U.K. where it debuted at No. 1 with sales of 117,000, more than the rest of the top five combined. DJ David Guetta celebrated his two Grammy and one BRIT Award nominations by climbing 2-1 on the singles chart with “Titanium”  featuring Sia. 

The NFL and NBC are apologizing for British singer/rapper M.I.A.'s extended middle finger during Sunday night's Super Bowl halftime performance of Madonna's new single, "Give Me All Your Luvin.'"

Universal Music Publishing Group executive VP of international Andrew Jenkins has been elected as chair of the International Confederation of Music Publishers at the organization’s general assembly annual meeting, held at MIDEM on Jan. 29, serving a two-year term. Elsewhere, Imagem signed two global publishing deals, and Reel Muzik Werks signed up La Toya Jackson and others.

A New Zealand court today denied an appeal for bail  by the jailed founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload. Kim Dotcom must now remain in jail at least until his first hearing in a U.S. extradition request, scheduled for Feb. 22.

A controversial 2007 paper on P2P’s impact on CD purchases has got a second look -- with conclusions the music industry will like. A new paper based on the same survey data used in that 2007 paper finds clear evidence that P2P has negatively impacted music purchases in Canada. Also, Ticketfly put out some figures showing it too grew mightily last year. And Maybe the outcry over subscription service holdouts will subside a bit now that Coldplay’s “Mylo Xyloto” showed up on Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and Mog on Wednesday.

Martin Mills, founder/CEO of the Britain's Beggars Group, has been awarded the 2011 IMPALA Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of his achievements in independent music. The Beggars Group includes labels XL Recordings, Rough Trade, Matador and 4AD and such artists as Adele, Vampire Weekend, Tyler The Creator and Radiohead. Label Love, an initiative to support labels hurt by the SonyDADC distribution centre fire in Enfield after last summer's London riots, was also recognized.

Edgar Bronfman’s widely reported comments opposing Universal’s purchase of EMI’s recorded-music division are just baseball as usual, sources say, noting that opposition is usually made in private. Besides, the regulatory agencies will probably pay more attention to retailers, artists and indie labels and publishers …

BBC Radio 1 and 2 both saw listener increases of more than 2 percent, while BBC 6 Music recorded its highest ever listening figures in the latest RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) figures, completing a turnaround for the under-fire station.

Sony announced net losses of 159 billion yen ($2.04 billion) for the third quarter, while Sir Howard Stringer defended his record as CEO as he handed over the reins to Kazuo Hirai.

Reading through Facebook’s 188-page IPO filing is like an episode of “This Is Your Life.” This is where you and your artist’s fans spend a good chunk of your lives. This is how you will advertise on the Web. This is where people share their interests in music, videos and games. But now there are usage numbers, financial information and details of growth strategy.

The first round of nominees were announced for the German ECHO Awards with Adele, Lady Gaga and the late Amy Winehouse nominated for Best International Female Artist, Rock/Pop. Lana Del Rey and Gotye are among the ceremony's performers.

The coroner who oversaw the inquest into the death of singer Amy Winehouse has resigned after her qualifications were questioned, her boss said Wednesday — raising the possibility the investigation may have to be held again.