MCA announced via YouTube yesterday that he’s been diagnosed with cancer of his salivary gland. Joined in what appears to be an impromptu video by Ad-Rock announcing the cancellation of all tour dates, and the postponement of their album release. The good news is that the cancer is localized, and MCA should be fine after medical treatment.

Best wishes to Adam Yauch and the Beasties during what will hopefully become just a tiny footnote in their Wikipedia pages.

Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 was due in stores September 15th.

Beastie Boys feat. Nas – Too Many Rappers

Pandora seems to have saved from an incertain future by a recent resolution to the two year-old debate over Internet radio fees. The new agreement sees Pandora paying either 25% of it’s US revenue to SoundExchange (the nnnn of the US recording industry) or a greatly reduced plays-per-user rate – whichever is higher. Overall, it’s a win-win for both sides.

High-volume users (those who listen to over 40 hours a month) would end up paying just $0.99 to continue listening unlimited for the rest of the month- a paltry sum if you’re already using the service that much anyway.

Get more details of the Pandora deal at Tech Crunch.

Personally, I only rarely use Pandora, but am happy for its existance. It exposes so many to new music, much of it from indie artists. My new Palm Pre has a Pandora app on it, maybe I’ll start using it now.

Although it’s the biggest entertainment & music story of the year, I’m not really going to cover this. The Internet and media in general will be saturated with stories, so I’ll leave it to them. I’m not cold hearted, just on vacation. I’m a child of the 80′s and will always remember Jackson as he was when I was seven, and he was cementing his solo place in music history. The Thriller release, the ground-breaking video for the title track (that I had to watch at a neighbors because we didn’t even get Mtv), the glove… Rest peacefully in your Neverland Michael Jackson.

A Norwegian study found that P2P music downloaders also tend to be the largest consumers of legal, purchased downloads as well. Conducted by BI Norwegian School of Management, followed the downloading habits of more than 1,900 Internet users over the age of 15, and found that illegal music downloaders are also more likely to purchase music downloads.

The music biz isn’t exactly buying the study’s findings though. While I can see a connection, and get the conclusions they come to, I’m not entirely convinced either. It’s an intersting read either way- full article on Ars Technica.

20-year-old Adrian Mann, of Pareora, New Zealand has built (by hand, on his own) the world’s largest piano. It’s pretty amazing really- when I was 20, I was trying to figure out how to sneak beer into my dorm room, not build a piano.

Mann built the massive instrument in a barn, using some pretty basic tools and a lot of non-traditional materials. Kid’s pretty much a genius. Seriously.

Read all about Mann, and his piano at www.stuff.co.nz