By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford hopes to rejoin his bandmates early next month after a head injury prevented him from playing on their newly launched tour, fellow guitarist Joe Perry said on Sunday.

Whitford, 57, is recovering from surgery for internal bleeding after he apparently banged his head while getting out of his Ferrari about a week before the tour began last Wednesday in St. Louis.

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - British cable TV operator Virgin Media is to launch an unlimited music download subscription service through a partnership with the world's largest music company, Universal.

The music industry has been desperate to boost digital sales in recent years to overcome online piracy, and the agreement comes a day before a British report sets out how the creative and telecoms industries should tackle the problem.

By Ray Waddell, Nashville

Phish wrapped Bonnaroo 2009 last night (with a sit-in from Bruce Springsteen), drawing the curtain on what producers feel was their most successful event ever on many levels.

Aside from thunderstorms on Thursday that brought mud on Friday, and sometimes oppressive heat, the event came off well in terms of operations and financials. "We've got a great team out here and I feel like we're as prepared as any team possibly could be for whatever comes our way," said Ashley Capps, president of A.C. Entertainment, co-producers of Bonnaroo with Superfly Presents.

By Mitchell Peters, L.A.

Artists like the Eagles and Christina Aguilera can now play DJ, at least online.

Clear Channel Radio and Front Line Management are creating artist personal experience (a.p.e.) radio, a stand-alone company that will allow musicians to produce their own online radio shows, Billboard can exclusively reveal.

The channels will run 24 hours a day and play songs chosen by the artist, interviews and commentary. The program will launch in July with the Eagles, Aguilera and Weezer.

By Paul Bond, L.A.

Economic uncertainty that is hampering most media won’t stop the growth in video games.

Revenue generated in the U.S. and Canada by the video game industry, minus hardware sales, will grow at an average clip of 5.8% annually over the next five years, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis due out today.

Such growth prospects exceed that of other media with notable exceptions being online advertising and Internet access, the latter being driven by a continuing shift from dial-up to more expensive broadband.

By Katy Bachman, N.Y.

Radio advertising revenue will continue its decline, while satellite radio and out-of-home media, like billboards, will continue to grow, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers media outlook released Tuesday (June 16). In general, all three media will be significantly impacted by the stalled economy in 2009, and less so in 2010, with growth returning in 2011 as the economy improves.

By Associated Press

MySpace said Tuesday it is cutting nearly 30 percent of its work force in a bid to become more efficient, bringing its staffing level more in line with its more popular rival, Facebook.

The move comes less than two months after MySpace, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., hired former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta, 39, as its new chief executive.

It also comes a day after data from tracking firm comScore show Facebook has caught up with MySpace in monthly U.S. visitors for the first time.

LONDON (Reuters) - British rocker Pete Doherty has been arrested in western England on suspicion of drink-driving and possession of drugs, police sources said on Thursday.
The incident comes only a week after the Babyshambles singer, 30, was fined by Swiss authorities for what sources said was a drugs offence.
"At approximately 12:30 a.m. on June 11, officers on patrol in Eastgate Street, Gloucester saw a car being driven erratically," a police spokeswoman said.
The car stopped in a nearby street and a man and woman found in the vehicle were arrested.

By David J. Prince
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Spin magazine is going crazy with its July issue, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Prince's "Purple Rain" with a comprehensive oral history of the film and album and a free downloadable tribute that features nine bands doing song-for-song covers of the record's classic tracks.

Reuters

Nathan Barr has scored horror films such as "Hostel" and the HBO vampire series "True Blood," but what really keeps the composer up at night is fear he will not get paid for music distributed online.

"'True Blood' is my first big show for TV, and it's definitely going to see a lot of play on the Internet. It's a big issue for me," Barr told Reuters. "I don't understand why composers don't get paid if someone downloads it."