Digital Music

As Yahoo says it will shut down the servers that allow transferring its DRM music, Britain considers a move that would green light unfettered music downloads for a yearly tax.

Yahoo has become the latest company to abandon customers who bought tracks from its music store encoded with DRM, drawing fire...

Creative added yet another entry to its ever-expanding line of Zen media players on Thursday, with the introduction of the Creative Zen Mozaic, flash-based MP3 player. Creative officials said the company plans to bring the Zen Mosaic to the U.S. at the end of the month.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's music and film industries launched a fight back against online piracy on Thursday, persuading the six biggest Internet providers to send warning letters to those suspected of illegal file-sharing.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's six biggest internet providers have backed a government plan to clamp down on rampant music and film piracy, it was reported Thursday .

NEW YORK (Billboard) - The Chrissie Hynde-led rock band the Pretenders will roll out their new album, "Break Up the Concrete," as one MP3 per week leading up to the September 23 release of the CD via Shangri-La Music.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Fears that belt-tightening U.S. consumers will bruise third-quarter earnings for makers of MP3 players, cell phones and other gadgets, pummeled the stocks of consumer electronics companies like Apple Inc and SanDisk Corp on Tuesday, a day after they issued grim forecasts.

InformationWeek - The bug can corrupt files, such as applications, music tracks or digital photos, if they're transferred to a Windows Home Server unit equipped with two or more hard drives.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's largest pay-TV firm BSkyB is to launch an online subscription music service and has signed the world's largest music group Universal as its first partner, in a deal that could challenge Apple.

NEW YORK - The old song had it right: Breaking up is hard to do. But a free new phone service called Slydial might make it easier to get through that and other awkward moments — without actually having to talk to anyone.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc said on Monday its current-quarter earnings would be well below Wall Street targets, sending shares of the iPhone, iPod and Macintosh maker down 10 percent.

The value of ring tines, music and other content sold through cell phones in Japan broke the US$100 billion mark in 2007.

DENVER (Billboard) - When it was unveiled in June, Apple's new iPhone didn't appear to offer anything new for music fans. But thanks to the subsequent launch of the App Store on iTunes, iPhone users can download a host of applications to add new functions to the device. Many of them are music-oriented and all are made specifically for the iPhone.

DENVER (Billboard) - Will the music industry ever get organized?

LONDON/HAMBURG (Billboard) - The clock is quickly ticking down on a process that could see German media giant Bertelsmann sell its 50% stake in Sony BMG Music Entertainment tojoint-venture partner Sony Corp in the coming months.

A new variety of malicious software could pose a danger to those who download music files on peer-to-peer networks.

July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones has a photo of Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone on his wall, and he uses the theme music from ``The Godfather'' as his cell- phone ring tone.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - EU regulators ordered music copyright groups on Wednesday to end a system that makes it difficult for online music stores to buy EU-wide licenses — knocking down a major obstacle to iTunes' rollout across Europe.

DENVER (Billboard) - Every song from Metallica's upcoming album "Death Magnetic" will be available for gamers to download and play on "Guitar Hero III" and its sequel "Guitar Hero World Tour" on the same as-yet-unannounced day it is released to retail, the band said on its Web site.

LOS ANGELES - Movies and music from small, independent creators push the pop-culture envelope with fresh ideas. Now, game developers are set to do the same with a wave of low-priced - and often offbeat - titles on the new online video-game system networks from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian woman described as the world's oldest Internet blogger has died at the age of 108 after posting a final message about singing "a happy song" in her nursing home.

DENVER (Billboard) - There were a lot of questions surrounding the "Guitar Hero" videogame when it first came out. Would gamers agree to pony up extra money for the special guitar-shaped controller needed to play it? Would the music industry agree to license master tracks? Would the addition of downloadable content be successful?

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Professionals and amateurs alike will have the chance to remix the third single from Mariah Carey's platinum-plus album "E=MC2" via a contest hosted on a startup social network Web site for musicians, Billboard has learned.

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Vintage concert performances by such acts as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bob Marley will soon join the nearly 500 recordings already available for download purchase at the music and memorabilia site Wolfgang's Vault.

NEW YORK (Billboard) - During the first week of July, Nas' controversial untitled album leaked onto the Internet ahead of its July 15 release date via Def Jam.

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union's highest court on Thursday threw out a lower court ruling that annulled the European Commission's approval of a merger between the Sony Music and BMG record labels.

TOKYO - Japan will stop pushing for legislation to charge royalties on the sales of iPods and other portable digital music players, giving in to opposition from electronics makers, officials said Thursday.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union's highest court ruled Thursday that a lower court made several mistakes when it overturned regulatory approval for Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG to combine their music units to form the world's second-largest record label.

The programming format for HD Radio: Almost anything goes, including redneck women and obscure rock 'n' rollers. Beyond-the-mainstream country and rock music are just two genres getting more airtime as the nation's stations roll out new, free digital HD Radio channels.