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Yahoo Inc. is partnering with other online music providers as the Internet giant tries a fresh approach to getting an edge in the evolving digital music business. The new version of Yahoo Music unveiled on Monday, aggregates paid and free music services available on the Internet, allowing Yahoo users to access and interact with the services directly from the Yahoo site. Yahoo has struck commercial relationships with digital music retailers like Apple Inc.’s, collecting a fee for every referral, the company said. The move comes a little over a year after Yahoo announced it was shuttering its own paid-music service,… Read more »

Over the last few decades, a veteran music act’s best shot at platinum magic usually consisted of pairing up with younger hitmakers (a la Santana) or covering treasured classics (like Rod Stewart. These days, another kind of vehicle has become a path to best-selling success – teaming up with box store chains. Garth Brooks ‘ started the trend in earnest back in 2005, with an exclusive Wal-Mart deal, and the Eagles and AC/DC had multiplatinum-plus success over the last two years by exclusively selling new CDs at Wal-Mart. Guns ‘N Roses sold about a million copies with a special Best… Read more »

Although Justin Timberlake is “not working” on any new music for himself these days, he has been hitting the studio to work with other artists like Ciara and T.I. “Right now, I like the idea that things can just kind of pop up and if they feel right I can do them,” Timberlake told Entertainment Weekly. “Committing to my own sort of project, that’s like, ‘OK, let me block out two years of my life and do it.’ ” He noted, as he has in the past, that he’ll know when he’s ready to get back in the studio to… Read more »

Miley Cyrus is attempting to teach an adult the Hoedown Throwdown, the big dance number from “Hannah Montana: The Movie” and it’s not going well. “We did it in one day!” she gasps. “We just all kind of made it up as we went along.” It doesn’t help that Cyrus offers this consolation and advice over the phone to a journalist who’s trying to follow along on YouTube — and untangle herself from the phone cord. “Well,” Cyrus patiently explains, “you have to be semi-coordinated to do it.” This is exactly how Cyrus’ legion of preteen female fans must be… Read more »

The average cellphone customer pays more than $3 per minute, according to a report being issued this week by the  Utility Consumers’ Action Network, a San Diego consumer advocacy group. Researchers arrived at the average $3.02-per-minute charge by comparing the average number of minutes charged in more than 700 San Diego consumers’ telecom bills and dividing by the average number of actual minutes used. “We knew it was a myth that wireless costs were going down,” said Michael Shames, UCAN’s executive director. “But we were blown away by the actual costs.” That $3-per-minute figure is skewed by the relatively small… Read more »

Up from the bottom, indeed. Five years after going belly up, Phish resurfaced with a vengeance Friday night, playing the first of three sold-out reunion concerts in Hampton, Va, in a bid to reclaim their position at the top of the jam-band heap. Sharing in the groove at Hampton Coliseum otherwise known as “the Mothership,” 13,000 Phishheads nearly brought the house down with a collective roar as Trey Anastasio keyboardist Page McConnell bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman hit the stage. It was an emotional homecoming, though not everyone was a Phish veteran. “We flew in from Seattle to… Read more »

The Live Nation Ticketmaster merger was brought before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights yesterday, with the Chicago music scene at the epicenter of testimony both for and against the merger. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Windy City was used as an example of how the merger wouldn’t violate antitrust laws, with Live Nation chief executive Michael Rapino citing that his company only put on 16 percent of the concerts in Chicago, compared to the 29 percent staged by Chicago-based concert company Jam Productions. However, Jam’s Jerry Mickelson, testifying against the merger, told the subcommittee that… Read more »

Recording artists may be set to receive a boost in royalty revenues from digital music sales, at least if Eminem has his way. Eminem’s two-year-old lawsuit against Universal Music Group over digital music royalties finally entered a courtroom today, the Wrap reports.  In a trial featuring star witnesses like UMG head Jimmy Iovine and Apple’s Steve Jobs, Slim Shady’s publishing company F.B.T. Productions is seeking more royalties from purchases made using digital music services like Jobs’ iTunes. Eminem is not expected to testify. If the jury sides with F.B.T. Productions, this trial could serve as a landmark case that finds… Read more »

The potential merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster will face off against the Department of Justice tomorrow as the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will decide whether the two concert industry superpowers can join forces or if whether the merger violates monopoly laws. The hearing will be titled “The Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger: What Does it Mean for Consumers and the Future of the Concert Business?” Confirmed witness include Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff, Live Nation president Michael Rapino, JAM Productions chairman Jerry Mickelson and the Center of American Progress’ David A. Balto, Pollstar reports. Live Nation and Ticketmaster… Read more »

A group that collects royalties for music artists and recording companies has agreed to reduce rates for thousands of commercial radio stations that also play songs over the Internet.   Internet radio station operators had complained that rates originally set by the federal Copyright Royalty Board in 2007 could essentially force them to shut down. The new deal lowers those rates by about 16 percent in 2009 and 2010. The stations will now pay $1.50 for every song heard by 1,000 listeners in 2009, rising to $2.50 per 1,000 listeners in 2015. The agreement between the National Assn. of Broadcasters… Read more »