eMusic, or “the indie iTunes” as Rolling Stone called the digital music service in 2006, is about to go a little more mainstream: the service has struck a deal to add Sony Music’s massive back catalog to its roster. The service, long-regarded as the subscription-based hub for music fans interested into DRM-free independent releases, will add the Sony labels Arista, Columbia, Epic, Jive, LaFace, Legacy Recordings and RCA, bringing with them artists like Bruce Springsteen, the Clash, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, OutKast and thousands more. The Sony tracks will be integrated into the service in the third quarter of 2009, according to a press release.

Under the terms of the agreement, eMusic will be allowed to sell MP3s of the Sony catalog that are two years old or older, meaning new releases still won’t be available. Still, Top 40 tracks aren’t the service’s bread and butter, as eMusic has gained a following for being the destination of music seekers 25 and older thanks to its deep independent catalog and its low-cost, listener-friendly subscription model. According to the New York Times, eMusic currently boasts 400,000 subscribers. The Times reports that eMusic will slightly raise prices on some of its monthly download plans, something indie labels have been asking them to do, according to chief executive Danny Stein. Stein added that eMusic is still in talks with EMI, Universal and Warner Music. (more…)

As Rock Daily reported earlier this year, iTunes price changes went into affect today, April 7th, on the digital music service. Whereas all songs used to carry a 99¢ fee, the new arrangement allows record companies to choose whether they want to price the song at $1.29, 99¢ or even 69¢. The price change is most prevalent on songs in the Top 100 charts. Of those songs, 38 of them now carry a $1.29 charge, including the Top Three, the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow,” Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” and Flo Rida’s “Right Round.” However, the fourth and fifth song on the chart, Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” and Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘n’ Night,” currently retain their 99¢ charge.

However, with the 30¢ increase comes the abolition of the MP3s’ DRM, or digital rights management, technology. As part of Apple’s deal with the record labels, iTunes is in the process of making its entire library DRM-free, much like the Amazon MP3 Store. Outside of the Top Songs, it seems like the pricing of an artist’s catalog is being done almost at random. Take for instance, Alice In Chains: The band’s entire iTunes catalog is priced at 99¢ except “Man In the Box,” which is priced at $1.29. It’s not just one anomaly, however. “Man in the Box” shows up three times on iTunes, on Facelift and two Best-Of comps, and all three times its priced at $1.29. A search to find songs priced at 69¢ has thus far produced no results. (more…)

The ongoing saga of the Zune has reached another sad chapter as Microsoft revealed that sales of their digital-music player were down 54 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the same time period in 2007. According to an analysis on industry blog Coolfer, Zune revenues amounted to approximately $117 million in Q4, down $100 million from the ‘07 total. Meanwhile, over the same period, iPod sales were up. While Zune held on to four percent of the market share for portable digital-music players, iPod maintained a whopping 71 percent.

In recent weeks, Microsoft has been ready to kill off the Zune and “deeply committed” to the Zune. Confusing, no? Like most other companies during this recession, Microsoft has had their fair share of problems, including an 11 percent drop in second quarter earnings and the company’s first ever round of significant layoffs. So it seems likely that the company would want to unburden themselves of their dead weight, which given its 4th quarter numbers might be the Zune.

Another problem facing the Zune is the device’s reliance on an outdated $15-per-month subscription fee. Given the economic situation, plus the widespread nature of illegal downloading, consumers seem less willing to pay a monthly rate for the service. Yet fans of the Zune cite its wireless-sharing capabilities and interface as reasons to right for their player. Perhaps the crushing financial figures will be the wake-up call Microsoft needs to make adjustments and deliver an even stronger product, rather than simply hand the category over to Apple. (more…)

YouTube has refurbished the click-to-buy links that help sell music on their video site, Coolfer reports. The site’s new, cleaner overlay makes it easier for users to purchase music via iTunes or Amazon MP3. As evidenced by the still image from Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” above, the link pops up around the bottom of the video, but only for about 15-20 seconds. The new click-to-buy link is both less intrusive and more visible and “should help even more people take advantage of this program,” YouTube said in a blog entry.

The new links will show up whenever a record company posts a video on YouTube, but also when uploaders use the Content ID tools to match the song with the appropriate artist. Thus far, EMI artists like Katy Perry and Coldplay have had the most success in terms of adding the click-to-buy links to their videos. The link also pops up for the Killers’ “Human,” so Universal Music Group bands are also in on the act, but the Killers’ new video for “Spaceman,” posted this weekend on YouTube, lacks the click-to-buy option. Songs by artists on the Warner Music Group do not contain the links as the video site and major label have been at odds the past few months.

YouTube is also plotting a way to expand the click-to-buy links to include video games and DVDs after experiencing some success turning Monty Python YouTube views into actual DVD purchases; sales of Monty Python discs were up 23,000 percent after the comic troupe launched their own YouTube channel.

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Apple has signed a deal with three more major labels to bring more DRM-free MP3s to their iTunes digital music store. The announcement of the deal with Sony, Universal and Warner Music was the centerpiece of today’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Apple already had a DRM-free deal in place with EMI, so all four major labels now have terms with Apple for unprotected music files. With the announcement, iTunes significantly strengthens its grasp on the digital music industry. Competitors like the Amazon MP3 Store, Wal-Mart’s digital music store and eMusic all went DRM-free over a year ago but failed to gain traction on Apple’s service.

So why would the three majors, who often complained about iTunes’ 99-cent price lock, agree to a deal with Apple to distribute DRM-free files? As part of the deal, Apple reportedly to be more lax on their strict price fix, breaking MP3s into three tiered pricing: Older catalog tracks will cost in the 69-cent vicinity, and newer songs will retain their 99-cent pricing. (more…)

After suing more than 35,000 people for illegally sharing music online since September 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America has canceled its much-publicized lawsuit campaign. The RIAA will instead work with Internet service providers to identify and contact — and sometimes penalize — users who continue to trade copyrighted music.

“We’re faced with the reality of ‘this shit isn’t working.’ And legally the ground is getting shakier in terms of winning these lawsuits. And it’s costing money,” says a major-label source familiar with the lawsuit discussions. “So, time to move on.”

The RIAA, a trade association that represents the world’s biggest record labels, has made headlines for suing 13-year-old Brianna LaHara as well as a multitude of students, flight attendants, engineers and karaoke DJs over five years. But while the RIAA insisted the lawsuits were crucial for educating customers that file-sharing is illegal, they haven’t reduced piracy, according to BigChampagne.com numbers.

Some at labels have recently been vocal about stopping the lawsuits, notably Warner Music chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. Album sales have dropped from 636 million in 2003 to 585 million last year — and another 14 percent in 2008, according to Nielsen Soundscan. Eventually, the major-label source says, it became obvious even to the most aggressive lawsuit supporters that the lawsuits weren’t worth pursuing. (more…)

A pair of beleaguered torrent heads faced off against the law today. After the October 2007 raid on beloved invitation-only music-sharing site OiNK, U.K. authorities finally levied charges on its founder, Alan Ellis, after extending his bail four times because of lack of evidence. Ellis has been charged with conspiracy to defraud and will face trial starting September 24th. Four OiNK uploaders who were arrested in the shutdown, dubbed “Operation Ark Royal,” will soon learn whether they too will face legal action. Daniel Dove, the administrator of EliteTorrents, was found guilty of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement in Washington, DC. Dove was sentenced to 18 months in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $20,000. The site, which specialized in movies, was shut down in 2005. Eight other Elite admins and uploaders were previously convicted on conspiracy charges.

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Photo: Getty

The next big digital step for albums may arrive this October, when U.K. rockers Snow Patrol release their new LP A Million Hundred Suns packed with interactive applications for iPod Touch and iPhone. Whereas most iPod-bound albums just include the music and cover photo, Suns‘ “interactive album art” will also boast additional photos, lyrics, extra artwork and other downloadable content — a special liner-notes package and then some. While Snow Patrol’s album extras aren’t expected to make their physical CD unnecessary due to its smaller target audience of iPhone and iPod Touch users, it does reflect the potential and the possible future of the digital medium. Apple users have already proven they’re willing to watch movies on an iPod video, so reading lyrics and interacting with the artwork seems like a logical next step.

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After a year in the works and countless debates over what albums and tracks should make the cut, Universal Music Catalog has launched Lost Tunes, a U.K. download store with a seemingly bottomless catalog and rare, exclusive and “overlooked” tracks (one caveat: people in the U.S. won’t be able to purchase anything until later 2008). The site will tap into artists on the Trojan, Fiction, Decca, Verve, A&M, Motown and Stax labels. Individual tracks are priced at $1.96, with albums starting at $11.85.

“Think of us as your small local record store run by a team dedicated to helping you find the very best music,” a statement from the store reads. “Alongside the rarities, we’ve also picked what we think are unmissable albums for you to add to your collection, and we’ve pulled together articles and reviews to help you discover music that we know you’ll love.”

In all, Lost Tunes has eight categories including rock, pop, dance, reggae, soul, jazz/blues, roots and spoken work, plus an extensive 28 sub-genres. (more…)

Last year, NBC CEO Jeff Zucker complained that Apple “destroyed the music business in terms of pricing” by sticking to its guns on the 99-cents-per-song model. But now entertainment execs might be landing some payback, in the form of Amazon MP3. This week, the online-shopping powerhouse’s DRM-free download store announced two ongoing discount promotions, called “Daily Deals” and “Friday Five,” and both feature big names at basement prices. But the trade-off for labels sick of iTunes pricing is that some tracks at Amazon MP3 cost more than the standard 89-99 cents (a seven-minute track from Coldplay’s Viva la Vida is going for $1.94).

Amazon MP3’s “Daily Deals” offers popular titles at a hefty discount, while “Friday Five” unloads five classic albums for $5 weekly from Friday to Sunday. (more…)

Nine Inch Nails have unleashed a new, thirty-six-song instrumental album called Ghosts I-IV, which is available for download right now. The album, recorded over a ten-week stretch last fall, is what Trent Reznor calls “a soundtrack for daydreams.” “I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn’t have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective — dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture,” Reznor said on the Ghosts Web site. “I’m very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference.” Reznor parted ways with his Interscope in late 2007.

Much like Radiohead’s novel In Rainbows sales scheme, Ghosts I-IV is available in a multitude of different formats at different costs. (more…)

Moby’s new album Last Night doesn’t come out until April 1st (no fooling!), but he’s providing a taste of the new project via a free DJ mix. The diminutive dance maven has teamed up with online music site RCRD LBL to serve up a gratis download of an eight minute dance mash-up of highlights from the upcoming record. Last Night, a dance-focused four-on-the-floor album, represents something of a return to form for Moby, whose last two albums have been relatively laid back affairs. To get a taste of what’s to come from the mind of Moby, click here.

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Reports that new download service Qtrax has struck deals with the four major record labels to offer their catalogs for free, legal P2P downloading may have been greatly exaggerated.

Qtrax’s program was supposed to launch last night at midnight, but as of 12:30 PM EST, it’s still not available. This morning, reports indicated that three of the four major labels (Universal, EMI, Warner Bros.) denied signing a deal with Qtrax. However, Qtrax music site is still offering up albums by EMI all-stars Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

Qtrax utilizes a program where the labels are paid in ad revenues on a per-download basis, allowing Windows users to download DRM-encoded WMA files, making them playable on some portable music devices—but supposedly not iPods (more…)

Last year at Macworld—the convention that helps consumers figure out how to surround themselves with gadgets stamped with an Apple logo—Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, which created bulges in the pants of technophiles everywhere. At today’s 2008 keynote, entitled “Something in the Air,” Jobs introduced the MacBook Air, an aneroxic laptop that can fit snugly in a manila envelope and is almost half as thin as the already-skinny rivals out there today. There’s no CD drive, but it comes with all the bells and whistles found in a MacBook Pro, weighs three pounds, boasts five hours of battery life, and will be released in two weeks for $1,799. (more…)

Napster will undergo yet another identity change in its tumultuous history, as the digital-music service will return to its MP3 roots by allowing users to purchase songs and albums in DRM-free MP3 format, meaning its tracks will now be compatible with a wide range of portable players, including the iPod. Napster—the program that launched a million illegal-downloading sites, fueled the eventual decline of the record industry and drew the ire of Metallica—has been operating mostly as a subscription music-streaming site since 2002, when Roxio purchased the beleaguered Napster brand. Shawn Fanning’s ex-company plans to unleash their MP3s during the second quarter of 2008. Last week unconfirmed reports indicated that Sony/BMG will be ditching the unpopular DRM model. Amazon’s MP3 store and iTunes Plus are already vending DRM-free.