New York, Jan 31 (TheWrap.com) - Neil Young said Tuesday that he is picking up where Steve Jobs left off, working on a device that can offer digital music without sacrificing quality as iTunes, Amazon and others have done.

"Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music, but when he went home he listened to vinyl," Young told Peter Kafka and Walt Mossberg at AllThingsD's Dive Into Media Conference. "I have to believe if he lived long enough he would have tried to do what I'm trying to do."

The legendary rocker is working on a separate device that downloads each song at the highest possible resolution, but that also takes 30 minutes to complete a single download.

Young said he is trying to make legal music as convenient as possible, but some worried that the long download times would be inconvenient.

Young disagreed.

"While you're sleeping, your device is working for you," he said.

Young did not invoke Jobs' name at random. He said that he had been talking with Jobs about the project, but that since the Apple co-founder died in October there is "not much going on now."

In order for it to hit the market the "rich people out here" --meaning the conference audience-- need to help.

Yet just because Young resents digital music and technology companies for reducing the quality of most audio content, that doesn't mean he takes a backwards approach to illegal music or the Internet.

"I look at Internet as the new radio and radio as gone," Young said. "Piracy is the new radio; it's how music gets around."

What does that mean for record companies?

Young hopes they hang around.

"I like Warner Bros. I like my record company," he told Kafka and Mossberg, the latter of whom asked what record companies can really do for someone of his stature.

"It's not what's for me but for other musicians," Young said. "What I like about record companies is they nurture an artist, they keep encouraging artists to grow. That doesn't exist on iTunes. That doesn't exist on Amazon."

But Young also acknowledged that the record companies make bad business decisions because they are music people who live "in another world from Silicon Valley."

Acknowledging those that proclaim record companies are obsolete, all Young could say was "maybe they are."

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish pop group ABBA are to release a new version of their last album, featuring a previously unreleased track for the first time since 1994, the group's website said on Wednesday.

ABBA remain one of the world's most popular bands and their music got a new lease of life with the "Mamma Mia" stage show and film. The band's website said a deluxe edition of their final album, "The Visitors," would be released in April.

"For ABBA fans, the most sensational inclusion in the package will be the previously unreleased track, 'From A Twinkling Star To A Passing Angel (demos)'," a statement said.

"This is the first time since the 'Thank You For The Music' box set in 1994 that ABBA have opened the doors to the tape vaults to release previously unheard music from the group's heyday," it added.

The release will also feature bonus selections along with a DVD of rare and previously unreleased material from the archives.

The Visitors album was originally released in 1981.

ABBA, made up of Agnetha Faltskog, Anna-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, racked up a string of hits in the 1970s and '80s, and their cult following has transformed them into some of Sweden's most recognizable figures.

(Reporting by Patrick Lannin, editing by Paul Casciato)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) - rapper Nicki Minaj will debut performance Grammy month on, the Foo Fighters, Bruno March and singer Jason Aldean on the list of artists on the stage of the great night of music industry.

Said Grammy organizers on Thursday, that Minaj, who has four nominations at the Grammysat the award ceremony on 12 February, and a sense of the country held Taylor Swiftand Kelly Clarkson.

But there was no official word Thursday on the question of whether Great Britain, whose Album "21" Adele was the biggest seller 2011 is after surgery on his vocal cords in November at Grammys sing.

Adele, the the doctor vocal rest ordered since November, was not among the first list of the performers Grammy. But the singer 23 years was "someone like you" on Thursday, singing to the music of BRIT ceremony in London on 21 February.

Rapper Kanye West, who leads Grammys this year with seven nominations, is continue as interpreter at the map will be directly confirmed price in Los Angeles.

Organizers said that known given additional performers and speakers in the next few weeks.

(Reports by Piya Sinha-Roy: Jill Serjeant Assembly)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Teen idol Justin Bieber turns 18 in March with a long and ambitious to-do list -- to still be around at 30, to be as famous as Michael Jackson, and to avoid singing about sex and drugs.

"Hopefully by the time I'm 30 people will remember me," the Canadian singer told V Magazine in an lengthy interview. "I don't want people to just think of me as a teen sensation."

But the "Baby" singer said he was determined to maintain the squeaky clean persona that has brought him millions of mostly young female fans, and their mothers.

"I'm never going to make myself so the kids and the parents don't respect me," he said. "I want to be able to do what Michael (Jackson) did -- he always sang clean lyrics...I don't want to start singing about things like sex, drugs, and swearing."

Bieber, who has been dating Disney Channel star Selena Gomez for several months, added that he still had some growing up to do.

"I'm into love, and maybe I'll get more into making love when I'm older. But I want to be someone who is respected by everybody," he told the U.S. fashion magazine.

Bieber released his first album at the age of 15, launching an international career and becoming the most searched person of 2011 on Internet search engine Bing.

But Bieber said he planned on staying around in the music industry for many more years to come.

"It's not a fluke that I am here. I am here for a reason, and I am here for a lifetime," he said. "I also want people to know that I write my stuff. No one writes my stuff for me."

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant)

RABAT (Reuters) - A Moroccan rapper who has become one of the monarchy's boldest critics was freed on Thursday after serving four months for assault, a charge which his lawyers say was a ploy to muzzle the popular singer.

After his release from Casablanca's Oukacha prison, Mouad Belrhouat, known as El-Haqed or "The Sullen One," said he would continue singing rap to protest "against the contempt ordinary Moroccans endure at the hands of the state and politicians."

"I will continue to spread my message and denounce the massive corruption in our country," he told Reuters by phone.

His trial had been seen as a test of the Justice and Development Party's commitment to ensuring full independence for the judiciary. The moderate Islamists are leading a government for the first time - like their Tunisian counterparts - after winning elections in November.

The Arab world's oldest monarchy, seeking to preempt popular revolt, made the judiciary constitutionally independent last year. But the courts retain a reputation for taking cues from the authorities, notably in graft and Islamic militancy cases.

BITTERSWEET VICTORY

Earlier Thursday, a court in Casablanca sentenced 24-year-old Belrouat to four months and three days in jail and fined him 500 dirhams ($57), sources in the court said.

Belrhouat was arrested in September after a brawl with a monarchist. Bail requests by his lawyers were rejected and the trial was adjourned six times.

"It's a bittersweet victory for us," said activist Maria Karim, who has led the campaign for Belrhouat's release.

He has become the singing voice of the movement, inspired by Arab world uprisings, demanding a constitutional monarchy, an independent judiciary and a crackdown on corruption.

Morocco's main human rights group, AMDH, considers him to have been a prisoner of conscience.

His lyrics telling Moroccans to "wise up" have angered many monarchists. In one song he says the king spends so much time giving orders that he has little time to count his money in Switzerland.

Belrhouat has struck a chord with young Moroccans who are disenchanted with the lack of jobs and widespread corruption. One song "Bite just as much as you can chew" has had more than 600,000 hits on Youtube.

($1 = 8.7220 Moroccan dirhams)

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - She's not even a week old, but the baby daughter of Beyonce and Jay-Z has become the youngest person ever to be credited on the U.S. Billboard chart.

The cries and coos of Blue Ivy Carter, who entered the world in New York on January 7, are featured on the new single "Glory" released by proud dad Jay-Z on Monday.

The track made its debut on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart this week at No. 74 -- the chart's highest new entry -- with the newborn credited as "featuring B.I.C.", Billboard said on Wednesday.

For fans old enough to remember Stevie Wonder's 1977 ode to his new daughter Aisha "Isn't She Lovely", which also featured the baby's gurgles, Billboard had a simple explanation.

"Isn't She Lovely" was released almost two years after Aisha was born and she wasn't officially credited on the song, Billboard said.

Jay-Z, 42, released "Glory" just 48 hours after the birth of the music industry power couple's first baby. He also revealed in the lyrics that Beyonce, 30, suffered at least one miscarriage in the past.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing By Zorianna Kit)

LONDON (Reuters) - English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran led the field with four BRIT nominations on Thursday, one ahead of global chart queen Adele who is down to perform at the awards after months out for throat surgery.

The annual honors, Britain's top pop awards, will be handed out at London's O2 Arena on February 21, and Adele's live UK comeback is likely to be among the highlights.

The 23-year-old had the world's top-selling album last year with "21", which sold 5.8 million copies in the United States alone, and picked up six Grammy nominations in a triumphant year.

Adding to her list of accolades on Thursday, the "Rolling in the Deep" singer earned three BRIT nods and was bested only by the less familiar face of Sheeran.

The 20-year-old, whose debut album "+" topped the UK charts and has sold nearly a million copies in Britain so far, scooped four nominations, including for the coveted British Album of the Year prize sponsored by Mastercard.

He is also in the running for British male solo artist, British breakthrough act and British single for "The A Team".

Sheeran performed "Give Me Love" at a nominations launch in central London and confirmed he would sing it again at the main awards show.

On the red carpet before the event, he explained why he had featured Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, in his video for the track "Lego House".

"I went to school and was a ginger (haired) kid, so you're obviously going to get the Ron Weasley comments at some point so I just thought I would take the piss out of myself and get him to play me," Sheeran told Reuters.

Just behind him with three nominations apiece were Adele and Jessie J, the 2011 winner of the Critics' Choice award for rising music stars.

Adele is up against Sheeran in the British Album category for "21" and was also nominated for British female solo artist and British single ("Someone Like You").

Jessie J competes in the female solo artist, British breakthrough and single categories, the latter for "Price Tag".

Veteran Kate Bush is also vying for best female act, sealing a remarkable comeback.

Florence & the Machine and Coldplay are each nominated twice, as are Emeli Sande, this year's Critics' Choice winner, and Americans Bon Iver and Aloe Blacc.

Playing at the awards ceremony next month are expected to be Adele, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Sheeran, Florence & the Machine, Rihanna, Noel Gallagher and Blur, recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award, according to a list released by organizers.

Following is a full list of the 2012 nominees:

BRITISH MALE SOLO ARTIST:

Ed Sheeran; James Blake; James Morrison; Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds; Professor Green

BRITISH FEMALE SOLO ARTIST:

Adele; Florence & The Machine; Jessie J; Kate Bush; Laura Marling

BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH ACT:

Anna Calvi; Ed Sheeran; Emeli Sande; Jessie J; The Vaccines

BRITISH GROUP:

Arctic Monkeys; Chase & Status; Coldplay; Elbow; Kasabian

BRITISH SINGLE:

Adele/Someone Like You; Ed Sheeran/The A Team; Example/ Changed The Way You Kiss Me; Jessie J Ft B.o.B./Price Tag; JLS Ft Dev/She Makes Me Wanna; Military Wives and Gareth Malone/Wherever You Are; Olly Murs Ft Rizzle Kicks/Heart Skips A Beat; One Direction/What Makes You Beautiful; Pixie Lott/All About Tonight; The Wanted/Glad You Came

MASTERCARD BRITISH ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

Adele/21; Coldplay/Mylo Xyloto; Ed Sheeran/+; Florence & The Machine/Ceremonials; PJ Harvey/Let England Shake

INTERNATIONAL MALE SOLO ARTIST:

Aloe Blacc; Bon Iver; Bruno Mars; David Guetta; Ryan Adams

INTERNATIONAL FEMALE SOLO ARTIST:

Beyonce; Bjork; Feist; Lady Gaga; Rihanna

INTERNATIONAL GROUP:

Fleet Foxes; Foo Fighters; Jay Z and Kanye West; Lady Antebellum; Maroon 5

INTERNATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH ACT:

Aloe Blacc; Bon Iver; Foster The People; Lana Del Rey; Nicki Minaj

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC AWARD:

Blur

CRITICS' CHOICE:

Emeli Sande

BRITISH PRODUCER:

Paul Epworth; Flood; Ethan Johns

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato and Jill Serjeant)