Lily Allen is expanding her business empire following the creation of her fashion label with New Look where she is in talks to do a second collection.

Lily isn’t stopping there - she's in talks for a new TV show and has signed a lucrative deal as the face of Braun Satin Hair.

She’s also reportedly looking to expand her brand with her very own record label. The ‘Smile’ singer, is said to hope that the label will launch homegrown talent from around the world. She was one of the first people to help launch Kate Nash into the mainstream.

All these innovations come following the 22-year-old’s recent ditching of her management company after she failed to break into the US or pick up any major awards this year.

Established indie band, The Crimea, is giving away its new album for free on the internet as a way of creating a fan base that could make it easier to make money in the future.

‘Secrets of the witching hour’ is downloadable FREE at www.thecrimea.net .

It is believed The Crimea are one the first established pop acts to offer a whole album for free, the latest example of how the internet is changing the way music is distributed.

Having provided teenagers over the last 40 years with (not so) live music, Top of the Pops (TOTP) was finally laid to rest on Sunday 30 July 2006.

The death of TOTP came because of the growth of music channels, websites and high-speed internet connections that bring the sounds and videos today’s young music lovers want from across the world 24/7.

TV SITES
MTV’s Overdrive channel gives you fast-loading news, studio performances and live footage from pop festivals with a great, wide-ranging archive.

Run from Pete Townshend Twickenham studio, www.intheattic.tv can count on big-name guests such as the Flaming Lips, while www.rocknrolltv.net is a downloadable video show with a distinctly punk-rock ethic.

If you’re looking for something different from around the world try the slick, French-run www.mondomix.com features many artists who will never get anywhere near the Top 400.

LIVE PERFORMANCE SITES
Fab Channel is typical of the new breed of live-music sites with an easy-to-use video library of 400 concerts at Amsterdam’s premier venues.

For live acts visit Tiscali’s Music’s London-based Showcase nights visit www.tiscali.co.uk/music/showcase for the best new bands and record every act for online viewing.

BACKSTAGE SITES
Channel 4’s www.channel4.com/music makes a lot of use of backstage clips and AOL at http://music.aol.com/ has recently opened up a huge vault of live sessions to the public (rather than AOL customers only).

MUSIC VIDEOS
Yahoo!’s Launch site with the need to wait for videos to come round on television. There is a 300,000-strong selection which is heavily chart-focused, in pin-sharp colour.

FAN POWER
At My Space the biggest bands in the world compete with complete unknowns on a level playing field.

Sites such as www.popjustice.com and www.cliptip.blogspot.com deliver a wealth of insider video clips, news and gossip to deeply involved and active audiences.

You can even find the Top 40 from any date you choose at www.everyhit.com — one man’s effort to catalogue every British chart hit since 1952.

After broadcasting concerts from her London basement on the internet, Sandi Thom has landed a million-pound deal with label giants RCA/SonyBMG. Her debut single, ‘I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)’, has entered the national singles chart.
Her sudden rise to fame has led to internet accusations that the webcast sessions were orchestrated by her PR firm Quite Great. It was also claimed that the broadcast figures had been exaggerated with the concerts reportedly watched by more than 100,000 people.
A Quite Great spokesman disputed the claims.

It’s believed that the song will be ‘Swallow Smile’ which was recorded when the group was on tour in Australia last year.

The free track is a thank you to members of their fan club, as the group prepare to release ‘The Fallen’, their official new single.

The new track, released on April 3, has three videos accompanying it not one.

Streaming Tank, the web broadcast company, monitored access to one on-line concert in February and reported it had an audience of 62,138 with 42% of the audience being in Britain and 23% in America.

Sandi’s debut album is to be released in April 2006, although her first single, ‘I wish I was a punk rocker’, didn’t make the Top 40.

The Arctic Monkeys first album, ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not’, is the fastest selling debut album of all time.

The album was released on 23 January and has sold more than 360,000 copies. The record was previously held by Hearsay's debut ‘Popstars’.

The Arctic Monkeys have already sold more albums in one day than the debut efforts from Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand sold in their first week.

The fastest selling British album of all time was the third album by Oasis, 'Be Here Now', that sold 750,000 copies in its first week of release.

The Arctic Monkeys, who built up a massive fan base via the internet, followed up their chart topping single ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, with another number one, ‘When The Sun Goes Down’.The band has four nominations for Best British Band, Best New Band, Best Live Band and Best Track at the next NME Awards.

James Blunt's ‘Back To Bedlam" was the number one album of 2005 in the UK selling 2.37 million copies across the year.

Music Week reported that in second place was ‘X&Y’ by Coldplay, which sold 1.99 million copies.

The top five albums of 2005 were :
1 James Blunt – ‘Back To Bedlam’
2 Coldplay – ‘X&Y’
3 Robbie Williams – ‘Intensive Care’
4 Kaiser Chiefs – Employment’
5 Gorillaz – ‘Demon Days’

The top five singles were:

1 Tony Christie – ‘(Is This The Way To) Amarillo’
2 Shayne Ward – ‘That's My Goal’
3 Crazy Frog – ‘Axel F’
4 James Blunt – ‘You're Beautiful’
5 McFly – ‘All About You’/’You've Got A Friend’