FACEBOOK HITS 1 BILLION USERS:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed this morning in a Facebook post that his social networking site hit the 1 billion milestone. He also said that Facebook employees counted down to hitting the milestone, then went back to work. "Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life," he wrote." 

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JUSTIN BIEBER, RIHANNA FAN SITES OPERATOR TO PAY $1 MILLION IN PRIVACY SETTLEMENT:

The FTC filed charges against Warner Music Group division Artist Arena LLC for violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act that forbids websites from collecting personal information from users under 13 years of age without parental consent. 

According to the filing, more than 100,000 users' information was gathered illegally through websites for fans of four pop stars: Rihanna, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. The company is being fined $1 million. 

Wall Street Journal 

Warner-Owned Artist Arena Fined $1 Million By FTC

Warner Music Group-owned company has settled with the Federal Trade Commission for $1 million over charges that it violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act related to websites it operates for Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. 

The FTC had charged Artist Arena with violating the COPPA rule, which requires that website operators notify parents and obtain their consent before collecting and using personal information gathered from children under 13. 

An Artist Arena spokesperson declined to comment on the settlement. The company's settlement with the FTC does not constitute an admission of a law violation. 

According to the FTC's complaint, Artist Arena collected names, addresses, email addresses, birthdates and other information without obtaining the proper parental consent. The FTC claims Artist Arena registered 25,000 children under 13 and collected information from an additional 75,000 children who did not complete the registration process. 

Artist Arena will pay a $1 million civil penalty and will be required to delete information collected in violation of the COPPA rule, among other requirements not disclosed. 

"Marketers need to know that even a bad case of Bieber Fever doesn¹t excuse their legal obligation to get parental consent before collecting personal information from children," said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in a statement issued Thursday. "The FTC is in the process of updating the COPPA Rule to ensure that it continues to protect kids growing up in the digital age." 
  
The FTC's allegations cover a time period when Warner was only an investor in Artist Arena. Warner originally made an investment in Artist Arena in 2007 and purchased the company outright in December 2010. An Artist Arena spokesperson confirmed to Billboard.biz that all four sites involved in the settlement were launched from 2009 or June 2010, at least six months before Warner Music acquired Artist Arena. 

Artist Arena provides a variety of online services for artists. According to the company's website, these services include fan club management and marketing, members-only ticketing, VIP sales, merchandise fulfillment, and website development, management and marketing. 

"These fan-clubs create powerful connections between artists and their fans, laying the foundation for further monetizing that relationship," then-Warner CEO and chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. said when he mentioned Warner's investment in Artist Arena in the February 6, 2008 earnings call.

Jeff Price, Ousted TuneCore Co-Founder, Announces 'Agreement' With SOCAN

Jeff Price - who left TuneCore, the music-distribution upstart he co-founded, in August - announced today that he is now working with SOCAN - the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. 

The announcement doesn't specify whether Price is on staff, and instead calls their arrangement an "agreement … to collaborate on potential new concepts and possibilities that can help the organization's more than 110,000 members." SOCAN represents the Canadian performing rights of more than 3 million Canadian and international music creators and publishers, according to the organization. 

According to the announcement, Price, who has been critical of U.S. collection societies, is an "outspoken fan of SOCAN" saying it is a shining example of how a performing rights organization should work for songwriters. 

"SOCAN always works to represent the needs and rights of our members, and Jeff Price will provide us with exciting new concepts that will help us achieve our vision of raising the bar for music rights," SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste said in a statement. "Jeff Price is a true visionary in the music industry. His philosophy and ethic when it comes to the rights of songwriters, authors and publishers match nicely with our own." 

Price left his position as CEO of TuneCore amid controversy in August, and the owners of that organization have not yet publicly stated who is running the organization in his place. 

"The new music industry is about serving, not exploiting, the artist," Price said in a statement. "SOCAN serves its members by getting them money owed for the public performance of their songs without owning their copyrights. To me, SOCAN is TuneCore on steroids. It has the right vision, philosophy, management, artist base and infrastructure to lead the world on getting musicians, songwriters and publishers back more money, more quickly with transparency."

What A Growing Digital Music Sales Market Really Means

Nielsen announced on Tuesday that digital track and album sales are on track to break new records. 

That's old news if you follow SoundScan numbers on a regular basis. Records in both categories were set in 2011 and both categories are up this year - digital albums are up 15% and tracks are up 6%. 

The fact that digital track sales are up again in 2012 carries a couple of important implications that Nielsen didn't get into.

Business Matters: Mumford & Sons' 'Babel' Smashes Spotify Streaming Record

First, digital music is not a zero-sum game. Digital track and album sales are growing while subscription services and viewership at ad-supported music video services continue to rise. Clearly the free and paid streaming options are not cannibalizing the download options. Mumford and Sons' "Babel" set a record for best debut week in 2012 while besting Spotify's streaming record by over a factor of three. That's only one example, but it's one of many examples that indicate streaming services and download services are managing to coexist with one another.

Second, more people are involved in the digital music market. This ties into the fact that digital music is not a zero-sum game. Consumers now have more options in streaming services, from ad-supported video services (like Vevo) to audio subscription services (such as Spotify) and smart cloud-based music lockers (think iTunes Match).

An NPD Group study found that the number of paid download buyers in the U.S. increased 14% to 45 million in 2011. With the growth of innovative services that expand the size of the digital music market - Cricket's Muve Music, Rhapsody's partnership with MetroPCS, Spotify's freemium model - it's safe to say more consumers will be involved in digital music in a meaningful way in 2012.

But the slowdown didn't last. Track sales picked up near the end of 2010 - around the time LimeWire was shut down - and have steadily grown ever since. A number of factors could have contributed to download growth: a resurgence of pop singles, widespread adoption of song identification apps Shazam and SoundHound, better marketing of digital albums and more competitive pricing are just some of the possible reasons. But there's no denying that digital music sales have continued to rise as digital music has been made more accessible.

Winfrey’s network signs deal with Tyler Perry

NEW YORK — Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network is venturing into scripted programming for the first time through a deal with Tyler Perry.

OWN said Monday that Perry will produce, write and direct two series for the cable network to premiere next year. Perry is the creative force behind movies like Madea’s Family Reunion and the TBS series Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.

Perry credits advice from Winfrey for helping him write his first musical, I Know I’ve Been Changed, in 1992.

After its slow start, OWN has been improving its ratings performance recently — in large part through Winfrey’s more aggressive booking of interviews for her own show.

Fat Joe and 50 Cent reach long-overdue reconciliation at funeral

Hard to believe in the year 2012, but there was a time when a beef between 50 Cent and Fat Joe was at the forefront of hip-hop current events. (Remember how big “Candy Shop” and “Lean Back” were back in the mid-’00s?) It resulted in a couple dis tracks—”Piggy Bank” off 50′s The Massacre being the biggest—and a couple awkward public moments, including Fat Joe joking about feeling safe at the 2005 VMAs “with all the police protection—courtesy of G-Unit.”

Their feud has since faded from the headlines, but simmered behind the scenes, until the two were reunited recently at an occasion that transcended petty hip-hop sparring, the funeral of hip-hop industry titan Chris Lighty, who discovered both rappers. In a radio interview, Joe talked about how the two rappers met at Lighty’s service, and finally did what he always bugged them to do—bury the hate:

While we were there, 50 whispered some things in my ear that was gentleman-like…He just said the right things and a handshake was involved and that was that. It was two grown men that just said, ‘This is for Chris Lighty, this is for hip-hop, let’s move on with our lives.’

Well, cold comfort for the hip-hop world after a loss felt as deeply as Lighty’s, but the late executive would probably be glad to know that he was eventually able to bring the two heavyweights from his home city back together.