The music business really must be in dire straits. Warner's wants to throw money at Perez Hilton so that he can find them worthy artists to exploit. Jeff Leeds, in the NY Times, dips into the handy pool of anonymous sources:

Mr. Lavandeira has been negotiating a deal that would provide him with his own imprint at Warner Brothers Records, a division of the music giant Warner Music Group, he said. This was confirmed by several other people associated with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal has been made. The talks are preliminary, and an agreement is not certain, but Mr. Lavandeira could receive $100,000 a year as an advance against 50 percent of any profits generated by artists he discovers and releases through Warner Brothers, these people said.

His wildly popular site has mentioned some musicians and the accompanying rush to the accompanying MySpace and iTunes sites got the attention of music executives. But can Perez be fair? Glad you asked:

Mr. Lavandeira enjoys sharing his passion for music with readers, he said, but "can't wait to do it on a larger level." His prospective label venture "is not a vanity project," he said.

Can a LolCatz label be far behind?