Following the groundbreaking signings with Madonna, U2, and Jay-Z, Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) is rumored to be courting The Rolling Stones away from privately held EMI Group, according to British music newspaper NME. The newspaper quotes a report from the print edition of The Observer, that the band is going to sign a deal with Live Nation that would allow the live music events company to "take over the marketing of the group's back catalogue, worth over £3 million (roughly $6 million) a year," in addition to typical touring and merchandising rights.

The Rolling Stones have been with EMI in the UK since the band started its own label in 1970, although initially only in a distribution agreement before the band shifted to EMI's Virgin Records by 1976. The band's contract with EMI expired earlier this year and they signed a one album deal with Universal Music Group to release the soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese-helmed live film Shine A Light. In late 2005, the band also released a special compilation through Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX).

Assuming the band does not return to EMI, as this report indicates and the band has strongly denied, the band follows Paul McCartney and Radiohead, among others, on their way out of the troubled music company. However, though EMI is troubled, Live Nation has lured artists from other music companies as well. For The Rolling Stones, signing with Live Nation would be natural since the band consistently has long and successful tours, with and without the release of albums with new material. The soundtrack to Shine A Light has also sold well, with more copies sold than previous live albums from the band.

Privately-held EMI Group is just not having a very good week, what with announcing painful changes in the works, and the prospect of several big name artists threatening to withhold new albums until certain assurances from the label are met. Now comes news that longtime EMI act The Rolling Stones will be leaving the label at the end of the band's current contract in May to join industry giant Universal Music Group, owned by Vivendi.

The difference in a big name like The Rolling Stones leaving EMI and say, Radiohead (who have also left since Terra Firma's takeover) leaving, is that the Stones departure follows the company's decision to eliminate 2,000 jobs worldwide.

Any real connection between the Stones' decision and EMI's layoffs is likely limited, since a new deal with another label has likely been in the works for a few weeks or months. However, the band was likely aware of the treatment other artists seemed to be encountering and the difficulties that were arriving after the Terra Firma buyout in August. The band has been signed to EMI since 2003, in a deal estimated at £14 million, but released just one album of new material in the time period, A Bigger Bang. The remainder of the deal involved several compilations and live releases, including an exclusive B-sides disc with Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX).

Billboard.biz announced this morning that the Rolling Stones are set to make their EMI (OTC: EMIPY) catalog available digitally without Digital Rights Management technology. 7digital, a London-based online store, will be the first to offer the catalog, which includes 24 albums between 1971 and 2005 at the "high-quality 320 kbps rate." The band's pre-1971 catalog is managed by Universal Music Group, and the same announcement cites that the company does not intend to offer its part despite the DRM-free testing the company has begun.

7digital will offer the albums for a lowered price for four weeks, before the price returns to normal and the exclusivity ends presumably, though a few of the albums are already available in Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Plus store. The tracks from 7digital will also be playable on a number of devices, not simply iPods, but other MP3 players, cell phones and even PDAs according to Billboard's report.

The catalog from EMI opens one of the largest the company holds, and the Rolling Stones will certainly find old and new listeners cheering as their successful Bigger Bang tour closes with three nights at London's 02 Arena. The tour has already sparked an exclusive DVD set from Best Buy (NYSE: BBY). All that is left to wonder now is whether a new live album is in the works, a la 2004's Live Licks, which peaked at #50 in the Billboard 200. Another deal with Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) would certainly hit well; 2005's Rarities peaked at a nice #76.

Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) continues to make the partnerships with music artists that customers respond to, and there is none bigger than The Rolling Stones. The band's The Biggest Bang is the best-selling concert tour of all time, and the nation's leading consumer electronics retailer just sat down and inked a deal to be the exclusive distributor of what could be considered a heckuva music DVD from all respects.

A full concert tour DVD of The Biggest Bang will be a four-DVD set featuring seven hours of content (with two full length concerts). And, it will only be available at Best Buy starting June 12 for a price of $29.99 (as well at at the Best Buy website). The DVD set will be released in Canadian Best Buys stores, as well, and will launch in international markets sometime this summer.

This is classic Best Buy it seems -- form an exclusive release partnership with what could be considered the best rock act of all time and drive those customers into stores and to its website. Oh, and while you are there, you might want to consider that new flat-panel TV to watch this new concert DVD on, as well as some home theater speakers. Heck, maybe even upgrade that Dolby Digital home theater receiver. That's the magic here -- exclusive partnerships are not meant to drive single product sales but to capture peripheral product sales inside what I think of as an "ecosystem" merchandising strategy. Best Buy gets it.

Yesterday afternoon, I noted that The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) had been suspiciously silent on the whole Keith-Richards-snorting-dear-old-Dad scandal. Today, officials with the Mouse emerged to say that the Rolling Stones guitarist will not be involved with promoting Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, despite his highly publicized cameo in the movie. Studio executives have concluded that Richards is simply "too unpredictable" to participate in publicity for the film.

Mr. Richards has since declared that his controversial comments were simply a joke, noting on the Rolling Stones' official website that: "The complete story was lost in the usual slanting." Richards went on to insist that his late father's ashes were used to fortify a newly planted oak tree, and declared that "I wouldn't take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide."

I'm not sure if I exactly believe this new spin, and it seems pretty clear that family-friendly DIS is trying to distance itself from a potential loose cannon. The fallout from Richards' bizarre confession could be a tip, however, for any jaded Hollywood types who are tired of doing the publicity circuit.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

First of all, I can't believe I just typed that headline. Actually, of course I can. Keith Richards - storied guitarist, half of the venerable song-writing team that brought us "Satisfaction" and "Start Me Up," and perpetual name on the celebrity death pool lists - has admitted to snorting cocaine laced with his father's ashes. Since the senior Richards didn't die until 2002, this unconventional use of human remains didn't occur when Keith was in his young-and-stupid heyday, but obviously transpired sometime during the past five years.

Richards, who perhaps thought the move was a touching tribute to his passed-on paternal figure, told this tidbit to British music magazine NME, adding "My dad wouldn't have cared ... it went down pretty well, and I'm still alive." In a rush for damage control, the Rolling Stones' manager brushed it off as an April Fool's joke, calling it an "off-the-cuff remark."

Keith is known for decades of wild living and excess, so this latest detail, if true, isn't even really that shocking. No word yet on Walt Disney's (NYSE: DIS) official reaction, however. May 25 marks the release of the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series and will feature Keith Richards in the role of Teague Sparrow, Captain Jack Sparrow's (Johnny Depp's character's) father.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.