Estelle was riding high in the US charts with her album Shine, and the best-selling single from it, American Boy, and her career seemed to be heading in just one direction: up. Then her record company, Warner Music, decided to remove her material from Apple iTunes, and it’s all gone horribly wrong.

The short-sightedness of record companies continues to astound me. They are wholly failing to embrace the Internet and the related technologies that are changing the face of music distribution. This unwillingness to evolve is now affecting one British artist directly and unequivocally.

American Boy has been a huge hit all around the world, and transformed Estelle from a struggling artist to a diva who is loved on both sides of the Atlantic. The single was sitting at number 11 in the US Billboard charts before Warner decided to remove it from iTunes. It then fell to number 37.

They also did the same to the Album it came from, Shine, which has been nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize. Shine had peaked at number 39 on the US Billboard before plummeting to number 159 when it was removed in its entirety from market leader Apple iTunes.

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The members of the Rolling Stones may all be in their sixties, but they are still one of the most commercially-viable bands around at the moment. Which makes their defection from EMI to Universal a big blow to the former, and a massive boost to the latter.

The Rolling Stones have become the third big British act to leave EMI in the last year, following fellow sixties artist Paul McCartney, and alternative indie rockers Radiohead out of the door. The Rolling Stones have moved to the Universal Music Group, the biggest record label in the world, and have signed a deal covering three new albums, and the worldwide rights for the band’s back catalogue from 1971 onwards.

Radiohead were first to jump ship from EMI after the company was taken over by Terra Firma. They blamed a lack of direction, and knowledge of the music industry, particularly from their new boss, Guy Hands. There was also the fact that EMI refused to meet their contract demands. The band first released In Rainbows on the Internet, before signing a deal with indie label XL Recordings to release the album physically on CD and vinyl.

Then came Paul McCartney, who left EMI after 45 years, to join Hear Music, a new record label owned by American coffee shop chain Starbucks. He accused EMI and its executives of becoming boring, and claimed that working for the record label was like being on a mind-numbing treadmill.

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It’s a long way from being a contestant on a Simon Cowell produced reality show to becoming a number one artist on the US Billboard charts, but that is exactly what Leona Lewis has achieved, and oh, how she deserves her success.

Lewis, from Hackney, in East London, entered The X-Factor competition in 2006, and instantly blew the judges away with her beautiful voice, and subtle way of changing classic songs and making them her own.

She went on to beat Ray Quinn in the final, and what a good result that has turned out to be.

Bleeding Love has already topped the British charts, spending seven weeks there at the end of 2007, and becoming the best selling single of the year with 1 million copies sold.

It has also topped charts around the world, but it’s taken North America a little time to catch on to the phenomenal talent Lewis possesses.

The song had been at the top of the US iTunes chart for two weeks, and finally made it to the top of the big one this week.

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Ah The Beatles, they were great weren’t they? Probably the best band in the world ever, and the inspiration for a ton of music which has come and gone since.

So you’d think life would be pretty sweet for the former members of the group, well Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at least, seeing as the other two are dead and all.

But it seems only one of the two is happy to be a former Beatle right now, and with all the gossip swilling around at the moment, it’s probably not the one you think it is.

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Led Zeppelin have finally decided to join the 21st Century and are to make their full back catalogue available online for the first time.

The band’s albums have been unavailable to download until now, but come November 13th, fans will be able to download the whole lot from services such as iTunes.

Like The Beatles, the legendary British rock band have not previously agreed to allow their music to be made available for digital purchase, but since they’ve reformed for their one off gig at the London 02 Arena next month, they’ve changed that decision.

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