KOCH Records, a top US independent record label, has signed an agreement with SpiralFrog to make its catalog available for legal downloading worldwide via SpiralFrog’s advertising-supported service. According to SpiralFrog, the agreement, “reinforces SpiralFrog’s belief that offering the broadest possible choice to its target audience, people between the ages of 13 and 34, will benefit […]

Warner Music Group and Brilliant Technologies Corporation today announced an agreement to offer music from Warner artists for streaming and limited download on Brilliant’s Qtrax legal peer-to-peer (P2P) music network. Qtrax is an ad-supported P2P digital content distribution system designed to provide the legal sharing, distribution and intellectual property protection of content while driving new […]

Napster has announced that it’s looking for buyers. “In response to recent third party interest in establishing strategic partnerships or potentially acquiring the company, it has retained UBS Investment Bank to assist the Board and management in its evaluation of strategic alternatives,” the company said in a statement. As recently as a few weeks ago, […]

Despite the issues many tech-savvy music fans have with digital rights management and encrypted media files, it looks like the future of digital music will be based on closed, proprietary systems. Apple’s iTunes/iPod combination has rapidly risen to dominance, a fact that has caused both the music industry and other portable media player vendors a […]

RealNetworks and SanDisk have announced plans to release a portable music player system that will compete with Apple’s iTunes/iPod combination and Microsoft’s Zune. The companies plan to release the Sansa Rhapsody, a portable music player based on SanDisk’s e200. The e200 series is priced starting at about $110 for a 2GB player with a color […]

Melodeo and Cingular today announced a cooperative arrangement, making Melodeo Mobilcast available to Cingular customers for $4.99/month. The two companies tout the service as the first “seamless Web to mobile podcasting service,” allowing customers to sync podcast playlists back and forth from the Melodeo Web site to the phone. It also lets people start listening […]

It didn’t take long for the latest version of iTunes’ encry option to get hacked again. QTFairUse 2.3, a tool for removing digital rights management encryption in order to allow traditional fair use of audio tracks, has been released. The new version can be used to strip the DRM from files downloaded with iTunes 7. […]

UK’s City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has introduced a new podcast, the CBSO Podcast, making it the first major ensemble in the world to launch a regular podcast, according to organizers. The free 30-minute monthly podcast, hosted by music broadcaster Tommy Pearson, includes the latest CBSO news, interviews and discussions with musicians and conductors as […]

eMusic today launched its service in Europe, becoming the first digital music service available throughout the entire European Union. eMusic will offer music lovers in all 25 EU member nations a catalogue of 1.7 million tracks in the universally compatible MP3 format, which works on every digital music hardware and software device including iPods. ‚ÄúThe […]

Apple today introduced the new iPod. While the new iPod features a larger hard drive and brighter screen than earlier models, it doesn’t have the touch-sensitive widescreen display many had anticipated, making it an evolutionary update rather than a revolutionary one. The new iPod features a 60 percent brighter and more vibrant 2.5-inch color display. […]