New York - Music industry trade publication Billboard announced that it will now publish a chart of the top 25 revenue-generating albums and songs on TuneCore, a service that offers artists 100% of royalties and cheap distribution of their works via iTunes, Amazon and other digital retail platforms. The top-selling albums in April on TuneCore were from Jay-Z, Nine Inch Nails and Katt Williams, while the top songs were from artists State of Shock, Jonathan Coulton & GLaDOS, Michael Giacchino, Crank Squad, Z and MGMT.

New York - "American Idol" winner David Cook saw a record 14 of his songs enter the Billboard Hot Digital Songs chart today, including the No. 1 "The Time of My Life," which sold 236,000 downloads.

New York - Nielsen Business Media, the division of the ratings, publishing and events company that publishes titles including The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Editor & Publisher, Mediaweek and Adweek, has laid off 40-50 staffers, according to reports on Fishbowl NY and Folio.com.

New York - Music industry trade publication Billboard announced on Tuesday that it has teamed with iLike, a social music discovery service and popular Facebook application, to create what they say will be the first social media-based music charts. The iLike application tracks what music users are listening in popular player applications like iTunes, and claims 13 million users. The weekly listening charts will reflect the top 25 "most added" songs to Facebook user profiles, as well as the top 25 songs consumers are adding to their personal music libraries and iPods.

New York - Korean electronics firm LG has partnered with music business magazine Billboard on a contest that will equip teen music fans who are also talented writers with LG enV camera phones and charge them with writing concert reviews on blogs that will be hosted on Billboard.com, The New York Times reported. Thirty or so music bloggers will be selected for the Mobile Beat contest, and submit reviews through September, when visitors to the blogs will choose both three finalists and an ultimate winner, who will get a free trip for two to a Billboard Music Award show.

New York - Nielsen Business Media, which publishes The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Adweek and Backstage, said on Thursday that it has partnered with Mdog.com to create mobile websites for its titles. The sites allow users to access breaking news, story archives, contact directories and casting notices from their mobile phones.

Burbank, Calif. - CenterStaging, the parent company of Rehearsals.com, a site that streams video of artists preparing for tours and recording sessions, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $3 million through a private placement of its shares with two undisclosed investors.