"The conditions of conquest are always easy. We have but to toil awhile, endure awhile, believe always, and never turn back." Seneca

Chairman John Conyers, Jr will lead the House Judiciary hearing "Competition and the Future of Digital Music" beginning this afternoon at 3 eastern. This is the special Anti-Trust Taskforce created by the Judiciary Committee. Live streaming of the hearing here and here. C-SPAN3 will carry live. NAB CEO David Rehr and pay radio's Mel Karmazin are on the witness panel with others. The topic of discussion is the proposed XM-Sirius merger.

Campaign cash: Mel gave the Democratic Senatorial Committee $26,700 last June and $10,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last March. Representative Eliot L. Engel (D-NY) was given $4,200 by Mel, $4,200 by Mel's wife Terry (Theresa) and $4,200 by Mel's son Craig, all in March of last year. Mr. Engel serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (and the subcommittee on telecommunications and the internet). David Rehr gave $4,500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee last year. Gigi Sohn, another witness, gave Taskforce member representative Mr. Rick Boucher $250 in 2005. Not able to find any political contributions by witness Mark Cooper. Witness Charles E. Biggio does not appear to have made contributions to any national campaign committees nor to any house members or campaigns. These may or may not represent all contributions by witnesses.

Saving Radio in the Satellite Era: NYT Opinion piece by NYU prof Eric Klinenberg here. I'll opine on this writing tomorrow.

Got music? Two cool music sites, now in beta, recently bookmarked. Check out iLike here, and MOG here.