You’ve got what it takes to download soundtrack

It’s not a great time for movie soundtrack albums -- well, movie soundtrack albums without Eminem, at least.

Even though we’re in the fall blockbuster season, the album from the Eminem-starring “8 Mile” is the only soundtrack in the Top 50 album sales chart compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. And for the week ending Nov. 24, only one other (the score album from “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”) was in the Top 100. As star and producer of the upcoming romance “Two Weeks Notice,” Sandra Bullock believes fans will want to hear some of film’s music at home. Among the selections: the current single featuring Vanessa Carlton with Counting Crows on a version of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”; an on-screen appearance by Norah Jones singing “The Nearness of You”; and such feel-good oldies as the Brook Benton-Dinah Washington duet “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)” (the opening title music).

But Bullock and music supervisor Laura Wasserman couldn’t justify releasing a conventional album in the current climate. Instead, they’ve made a deal to let people download music from the movie and burn their own CDs.

The downloads will be available via Pressplay, the Internet site launched a year ago as a joint venture of Sony Music Entertainment and the Universal Music Group. The pay service allows consumers to either make one-time package buys of 5, 10 or 20 downloads, or subscribe to monthly or yearly plans giving them unlimited downloads with varying numbers of “portable” tracks that can be burned to disc or transferred to digital players.

“This came about because Sandra hated the fact that people go to her movies and enjoy the music and then to hear it go home and have to dig through their CD collections song by song,” says Wasserman. “There is a market for this, an audience that will want these songs.”

Pressplay will give the movie a dedicated section on its site before it opens on Dec. 20, with special related features and artwork that can be downloaded by those who purchase the music. The film producers will share in the revenue and include a plug at the end of the credits noting that the music is available on Pressplay.

The alliance began when Pressplay was pitched to Wasserman simply as a resource for finding songs.

“Laura was approached by one of our board members to turn her on to using the site as a potential source of music for her soundtracks,” says Pressplay CEO Mike Bebel. “I reached out to her and had a conversation and we started talking about unique opportunities. For us, this fits nicely. Some of the tracks they want are already on our service, and others we were able to get clearance. Some of them have been out of print and working with the relationships we have, we cleared them too.”

Lawyers, guns,

money and friends

The album Warren Zevon is working on in the wake of his announcement that he has terminal cancer has turned into an all-star affair. Don Henley and fellow Eagle Timothy B. Schmit have joined a roster including Jackson Browne, Dwight Yoakam, T Bone Burnett, Billy Bob Thornton, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner, as well as Zevon’s son Jordan, who sings some background vocals. Zevon’s longtime friend and associate Jorge Calderon is producing.

And with Bob Dylan performing several Zevon songs in concert recently, Zevon is returning the compliment by recording Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” for the album. So far, the rest of the songs are originals written since he received his diagnosis, with titles including “Numb as a Statue” and “Prison Grove.”

Zevon hopes to finish the album soon for release early next year on Artemis Records.

Hey, hey,

we’re Soluna

If the Monkees had been women and bilingual ... well, it still might not have been like a sitcom starring pop group Soluna. But the L.A. quartet is developing a show for the UPN TV network based on the members’ lives. It doesn’t hurt that the group’s management, Suzanne de Passe and Irene Dreayer, were previously involved in the creation of the WB’s “Sister, Sister” and “Smart Guy.”

Plans for Soluna’s show include episodes based on show-biz experiences of the four members -- America Olivo, T Lopez, Jessica Castellanos and Aurora Rodriguez -- augmented by, of course, musical performances.

Soluna performs on Wednesday at a gala benefit for the youth charity Heart of Los Angeles, part of an evening honoring DreamWorks SKG president of production Mike De Luca.

Small faces

His “Room for Squares” album has passed the 1.5 million sales mark and his reissued debut, “Inside Wants Out,” has reached 500,000. Now John Mayer is putting out his first DVD, “Any Given Thursday,” due in March. Filmed at a September concert in Birmingham, Ala., the disc features the complete performance, plus backstage scenes and a full interview with the singer-guitarist.

Boston-based band Godsmack has, like many New Englanders, gone to Florida for the winter, but it’s a work trip. The group is recording its fifth album in Miami with producer David Bottrill. A March release is the tentative plan.

Freshly married to Jessica Simpson, 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey is working on his first solo album, with Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds producing several tracks in L.A. The project, which started in a rock direction, is now said to have taken a funk turn. 98 Degrees, meanwhile, is planning to make another album at an unspecified time.

An expanded edition of T. Rex’s 1971 glam-rock classic “Electric Warrior” is set for a Feb. 11 release. The original album, featuring “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” and “Jeepster,” will be augmented with five rare tracks that originally were singles or B-sides, plus a full interview with the late Rex himself, Marc Bolan, that was a promotional-only LP released when the album came out.

The reactivated Tom Tom Club is in a holiday spirit, working on two Christmas singles: a version of the traditional French song “Il Est Ne (He Is Born)” and an as-yet-untitled original. The songs are expected to be available soon as free downloads on the band’s Web site, www.tomtomclub.com.