MUSICAL SPAM

Throughout all its legal troubles, MP3.com has proven one thing over and over: that it continues to do business and make deals even when the vultures seem to be circling.

While Seagram's Universal Music Group—the only one of the big five labels not to reach a settlement prior to trial—tries to establish that MP3.com's copyright infringement was "willful," the embattled online music service announced it would start a promotion that sends selected digital music via e-mail to targeted listeners. And the inaugural campaign would be for the band Vast, who is on Elektra, a unit of Time Warner's Warner Music Group.

Dubbed "singleserving," the e-mail campaign will target customers geo- and demographically. The e-mail will include a digital version of the song plus links to either the artist's or the label's Web site. Naturally, since "monetizing" is the buzzword du jour, the e-mail would also include a link to buy the song through a retailer. Of course, if the e-mail is forwarded to 10 people within the first 24 hours, the recipient will receive unheralded good luck.

To make the e-mail campaign more popular, there was some speculation at presstime that the subject line will read "I Love You."