MP3.com inks video deal with Warner Music

Online music company MP3.com said Thursday that it has entered a video and audio licensing agreement with Warner Music Group, the record label owned by Time Warner.

The deal will allow MP3.com to feature videos and recordings of Warner Music artists on its Web site. The label will receive technical services from MP3.com, such as artist Web pages and email-list management to promote its acts.

"Both of these agreements will prove valuable to Warner Music artists and the more than 11 million registered users of MP3.com," Robin Richards, president of MP3.com, said in a statement.

Warner Music and MP3.com in June struck a licensing deal that lets the online music company stream the label's songs on its controversial My.MP3.com service, but that agreement did not include features on its artist pages.

My.MP3.com was at the center of a legal storm when the record industry successfully sued MP3.com earlier this year. The company reached out-of-court settlements with four of the five major labels: Warner Music, Sony Music Group, EMI Recorded Music and BMG Entertainment. It also agreed to a consent judgment in which it will pay $53.4 million to the remaining label, Universal Music Group.

MP3.com's legal troubles began when it created a database of some 80,000 songs that could be fed to My.MP3.com members who proved they had purchased the CDs containing those tracks.

The deal comes just days after rival online music company EMusic filed a lawsuit against MP3.com, alleging copyright infringement.