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iTunes 7.2 was just released and it adds support for DRM free music. Expect some DRM free music to appear on the iTunes music store later on today. Some of Paul McCartney’s back catalogue is also starting to appear on iTunes.

Tags:DRM, iTunes, Music

CNN Money is reporting that Amazon will be starting a DRM free music download service later this year. They will be offering songs from EMI and independents with no copy protection in the MP3 format. No word on pricing or the bit rate the songs will come in.

Tags:DRM, EMI, Music

Billboard
EMI Music also confirmed its Parlophone label has retained the McCartney catalog, terms for which were not disclosed. Through the planned reissue campaign, albums from McCartney and his group, Wings, will be made available across all digital platforms and in physical formats.
The project will cover the singer/songwriter’s post-Beatles legacy, from his first album “McCartney” (1970), [...]

Billboard
McCartney tells Billboard in an exclusive interview to be published tomorrow (May 11) that a deal to finally make the Beatles catalog available for sale online is “virtually settled.”

Tags:Beatles, iTunes, Music

Reuters.com:
British rock band New Order, which arose from the ashes of post-punk band Joy Division in the early 1980s, has broken up, according to a Web posting by the group’s bass player.”I’m relieved really hated carryin on as normal with an awful secret so lets move on shall we?” Peter Hook wrote in a blog [...]

ARS Technica
… sales of Disney movies on iTunes have passed the 2 million mark while TV shows have shot past. Top-selling titles include Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean, while back-catalog titles have been selling at a much slower clip. Sales of Disney TV shows have topped the 23 million mark altogether since they were [...]

BBC NEWS
The digital world has finally caught up with the humble audio cassette as electrical retailer Currys announced it will stop stocking them.
Last year Currys sold just 100,000 tapes compared with 83 million in 1989.
OK …… it’s 2007 and they just figured out the cassette was dead.

Technorati Tags: Music, Cassette

CNN.com:
As a new round of talks ramp up this month, however, Jobs has opened the door to higher prices — as long as music companies let Apple Inc. sell their songs without technology designed to stop unauthorized copying.
Game On!

Tags:DRM, iTunes, Music

Tennessean.com:
Duo Big & Rich has become the first country act to launch a video on iTunes rather than taking traditional music video channel routes.
An agreement with iTunes will keep the video for the new single “Lost in This Moment” available through iTunes through Tuesday, when it will transfer to another online deal with Pepsi.
Expect to [...]

Over at TechCrunch they are reporting Yahoo Photos is closing down over the next few months. I just got my Tivo Series 3 which allows me to view pics from Yahoo Photos and now it looks like it’s gone. Maybe I’ll see Flickr now on my Tivo? But, the most interesting part of the whole [...]

Country Standard Time
Carrie Underwood’s recording of The Pretenders’ classic, “I’ll Stand by You,” became the first iTunes exclusive track to debut in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Entering the chart in 6th for the week ending May 12 in Billboard, “I’ll Stand by You” was recorded by Underwood to accompany footage of [...]

Forbes.com
The highest-paid boss of the 500 companies we tracked: Apple chief Steve Jobs. He drew a nominal $1 salary but realized $647 million from vested restricted stock last year.
Not a bad payday and I don’t think anyone deserves that kind of money, but he’s worth every penny.

Tags:Apple, Steve Jobs

According to CNET News.com the new net radio collection fees have been delayed until July 15th. Gives the netcasters more time to lobby congress and get this ruling overturned.

Technorati Tags: Music, Net Radio

Last week I wrote a post that Net Radio could be on it’s last legs. The other day Congressmen Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Don Manzullo (R-ILL) have introduced a blll in the House that would “vacate the CRB’s March 2 decision and apply the same royalty rate-setting standard to commercial Internet radio, as well as [...]