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In its first year, Apple Computer Inc.’s online music store has sold more than 70 million songs and the computer maker is offering a free song to customers for the next eight days to mark the store’s anniversary, the company said Wednesday. Apple, maker of the Macintosh computer and the wildly popular iPod digital music players, also upgraded its iTunes digital jukebox software with new features such as “iMix,” which lets customers publish their playlists on the iTunes online music store which other customers can then purchase. “We’re very, very excited about the results from the first year,” Steve Jobs,… Read more »

Apple Computer apparently doesn’t want to sing the same tune as its Internet music rival RealNetworks. Seattle-based RealNetworks said Thursday that Apple chairman Steve Jobs had rebuffed an offer by RealNetworks’ chief executive Rob Glaser to meet and discuss forming an online music alliance involving Apple’s best-selling iPod portable players. Executives at Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple declined to comment Thursday. In an interview earlier this week with The Wall Street Journal, Jobs said Apple has little incentive to open its popular digital music player to others. “The iPod already works with the No. 1 music service in the world, and the… Read more »

Apple Computer Inc. apparently doesn’t want to sing the same tune as its Internet music rival RealNetworks Inc. Seattle-based RealNetworks said Thursday that Apple chairman Steve Jobs had rebuffed an offer by RealNetworks’ chief executive Rob Glaser to meet and discuss forming an online music alliance involving Apple’s best-selling iPod portable players. “He’s in the neighborhood, but whatever meeting Rob wanted with Steve isn’t happening,” RealNetworks spokesman Greg Chiemingo said Thursday. “Steve just doesn’t want to open the iPod, and we don’t understand that.” Executives at Cupertino-based Apple declined to comment. As first reported in The New York Times, Glaser… Read more »

The Foo Fighters will replace Guns N’ Roses in the May 30 headlining slot at the Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon. Guns N’ Roses last month pulled out of its planned performance at the event, citing the departure of guitarist Buckethead. The performance would have made GNR the first act to perform three times at the festival. Buckethead is already in the midst of a solo tour opening for Particle. Rock in Rio will stretch over two weekends, May 28-30 and June 4-6 in the Portuguese city’s Bela Vista Parque. The Foo Fighters will top a “World Stage” bill… Read more »

Just as sound bites get reworked into tunes that multiply over the Internet – Remember all the songs based on Howard Dean’s yelp? – a widely seen TV ad is getting the hack-and-slash treatment. The target is Pepsi’s current promotion giving away 100 million free song downloads from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. The company promises one in three bottlecaps on certain Pepsi products carries a code for a free iTunes download. Pepsi is airing a 45-second spot featuring 16 crestfallen music downloaders who have been sued by – and settled lawsuits with – the record industry for illegally snagging songs… Read more »

On Jan. 6, San Francisco’s Moscone convention center pulses with all the energy of a rock concert. A crowd sprinkled with hip-hop teenagers, digerati, and aging hippies streams in to hear the annual state-of-the-Mac keynote from Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steven P. Jobs. Every facet of the event bears the fingerprints of the obsessive Jobs – right down to the music that fills the air. This year, it’s the King himself, Elvis Presley. Later, Jobs rolls the tape of Apple’s famous “1984” ad that ran on Super Bowl Sunday that year – and hasn’t been broadcast since. Only this… Read more »

Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Outkast are among the latest performers added to the 46th annual Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy announced Tuesday (January 13). The acts will join previously announced performers the White Stripes at the February 8 ceremony, to be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Former “Mickey Mouse Club” co-stars and 2003 tour mates Justin and Christina will, of course, perform separately, while Andre 3000 and Big Boi will be joined onstage by George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic; Earth, Wind & Fire; and Robert Randolph & the Family Band for a tribute to funk music. Outkast… Read more »

A dispute over royalty rights on copy-protected CDs and other types of music discs is helping to stall the release of some new music technology, and could result in record labels owing tens of millions of dollars in back payments to music publishers. At issue are “double session” CDs that include two versions of each song on a disc, formatted for playback on different kinds of devices. The most widely distributed type are copy-protected discs that prevent CD tracks from being copied to a hard drive, but that also include a digital version of the songs, often in Microsoft’s Windows… Read more »

Paul Simon has signed a worldwide agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) that covers his catalog and future work. The multi-year deal, which went into effect Jan. 1, calls for UMPG to administer his catalog and new songs worldwide except in North America, where the material will continue to be handled by Paul Simon Music. Additionally, UMPG will represent Simon’s work globally, including the U.S. and Canada, for synchronization opportunities in TV, film and advertising. Simon was previously with Warner/Chappell. The 300-song catalog includes many modern-day pop classics penned by Simon as part of Simon & Garfunkel and as… Read more »

It had seemed as though the record labels had seen off the internet revolution with their heads still attached to their shoulders, but it now appears clear that their one concession to the uprising – agreeing licensing deals with Apple – has landed them in an all-new power struggle. While the big five labels (BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal, and Warner) have done a sterling job of wresting back control of the price and distribution of their music from the peer-to-peer networks and the average punter; they lost their focus on the final part of the chain, consumption, and in typical… Read more »