labels

Apple has reached an agreement with Warner Music Group to offer the record label's tracks on iTunes' upcoming cloud-music service, music industry sources said.

In the race to the cloud, Apple is apparently stepping on the gas. All Things Digital reported Thursday that Apple has signed two of the top four record companies and wrote that Apple content chief Eddy Cue was due to be in New York on Friday to try and finalize agreements with the two still unsigned labels.

It's unclear whether Warner was one of the two record companies that had previously licensed Apple or … Read more

Rather than launch its own digital music service, Google is considering whether to partner with an existing service, including the likes of Spotify, to power Google Music.

According to a source with knowledge of the talks, Google has told the labels that it has begun discussions with Spotify in recent weeks, though no agreement is in place. Spotify is the European streaming-music service that also has ambitions of launching in the United States.

The talks with Google and Spotify have coincided with an inability by Google to reach agreements with the four top record labels on licensing a cloud music … Read more

commentary If Google is weary of waiting to license music from the top record companies and wants to wade into digital music without delay, then acquiring Pandora could be the answer.

The online radio service has the kind of brand recognition and audience (80 million registered users) that YouTube had when Google acquired the video-sharing site in 2006. Pandora also possesses an established advertising business, something that YouTube lacked and something Google understands. In the first nine months of 2010, about 85 percent of Pandora's revenue, or about $78 million, came from ad sales. Another $12 million was generated … Read more

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Spotify may cut back on its free music model

Google Music may compete with Amazon's Cloud Drive

Capcom will release Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

AT&T launches the LG Thrive, its first prepaid Android phone

The white iPhone 4 may go on sale by the end of the month

Microsoft enters the local deals business in Sweden

A high school student in England modifies a pair of jeans so that they can double as a drum set

Amazon's new cloud service has generated a lot less angst in Hollywood than it has at the major music labels.

On Monday evening, Amazon announced the Cloud Drive, which enables users to upload e-books, songs, films, and any other digital media to Amazon's servers. Users can then access their content from any Web-connected devices. Among the major Internet companies delivering digital entertainment, Amazon is first to make good on the promise of ubiquitous access to content.

Amazon gave very little notice to the major film studios or record labels that it planned to handle their content this way, … Read more

Amazon's new unlicensed and widely written about cloud service was closely examined by the major record companies yesterday. Within each label there were debates about how to respond.

The first order of business was to determine whether Amazon violated copyright law or the terms of the company's current licensing agreements with the labels, music insiders told CNET.

Amazon spoke to some of the labels and Hollywood studios recently and informed them--some as late as March 24--that on Monday, it planned to launch Cloud Drive, a service that enables users to upload copies of their music, e-books, videos, and … Read more

Amazon has spoken with some of the major record companies and Hollywood film studios about creating a digital locker service for their film and music libraries and could announce the plans as early as next week, sources told CNET.

Sources from both the film and music industries said Amazon is working on creating a cloud locker service that would enable users to store their existing music, film, and book collections, even content not purchased at Amazon, on the company's servers.

The online merchant has yet to obtain all the necessary licenses, but Amazon managers told counterparts at the studios … Read more

Google has begun testing Google Music internally, a sign that the much anticipated service is nearly ready to launch.

Employees at the online behemoth have begun a process commonly referred to in Silicon Valley as dog-fooding, in which employees try out a new service or product, music industry sources told CNET.

Two weeks ago someone writing at the XDA Developers forum claimed to have accidentally discovered Google Music after installing the Honeycomb version of the Android operating system on a phone. Turns out, that was indeed a working version of the service, the music industry insiders said, adding, however, that … Read more

Clear Channel Communications is one of the companies taking a serious look at the assets of Playlist.com, the once promising digital music service that filed for bankruptcy protection last summer, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations.

Details are few, but apparently Clear Channel, the media conglomerate with a large stake in broadcast radio, concert promotion, and billboard advertising, is interested in the user interface and other technology belonging to the defunct Playlist.com, once known as Project Playlist.

Playlist.com, which enabled users to create and share music playlists with friends, filed for bankruptcy protection in … Read more