Clive Davis is one of those legendary music industry executives who, like some of the artists he has nurtured, is known by just one name, like Miles, Whitney or Santana.

But even legends have off days. Davis, most recently CEO of BMG Label Group - has been bumped up, pushed sideways, demoted, depending on your view - to the position of Chief Creative Officer for Sony BMG Worldwide, the label’s parent company.

Most media outlets and blogs are reading this as a demotion of sorts for the great man, who shaped the careers of acts from Janis Joplin to Alicia Keys.

Writers point to the departure of Davis’ long-time right-hand man Charles Goldstuck, who was president of BMG, as a sign that an era of ‘regime change’ is sweeping through 550 Madison Avenue.

In the meantime Barry Weiss, a long-time Zomba label exec, will fill Davis’ shoes. He most recently has overseen the careers of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and R. Kelly.

But skeptics shouldn’t be too quick to write off the 76-year old, the Wall Street Journal says, reminding readers that King Clive has made more successful comebacks than anyone in music.

(Photo: Reuters)

MySpace has sent out a ‘breaking news’ media advisory for a news conference featuring CEO Chris de Wolfe (left) at 11am ET, which we presume is about the launch of MySpace Music as Reuters reported yesterday to be coming in days.

Silicon Alley Insider reported later yesterday that Universal Music Group had settled with MySpace for $100 million, a figure we also confirmed from our source. The November 2006 lawsuit was the main sticking point for getting MySpace Music off to a flying start. With a third of the recorded music market under its thumb, Universal’s participation was seen as critical to the new service’s success.

MySpace’s parent News Corp. will own the majority stake of MySpace Music while Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group will each have a minority stake proportional to their market size, say our sources. The music companies also have an eye on a possible spin-off of the music company in the future, said one source.

No one knows if EMI, the smallest of the big four, will be on board in the future. This week the company appointed former Google executive Doug Merrill as president of digital.

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