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Rhapsody launches ‘Music Without Limits’

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Digital music service Rhapsody announced the launch of its “Music Without Limits” initiative. This strategy is designed to turbocharge the digital music industry in three ways, by:

• Accelerating the move away from proprietary Digital Rights Formats by making music from all major labels available in the DRM-free and interoperable MP3 format;

• Empowering music fans to conveniently stream full-length songs, and buy MP3s, anywhere they want including the most popular music sites and social networks on the web;

• Integrating digital music directly with mobile phones through a deep partnership between Rhapsody and Verizon Wireless.

Beginning today, consumers can purchase MP3 music from Rhapsody and its partners that is free of the digital rights management (DRM) software that restricts how and where people can play their music.

The Rhapsody MP3 catalogue will include more than 5 million songs from all four major music labels – Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI – and an extensive number of independent labels. Most albums will sell for $9.99 and tracks for $.99.

Originally posted on June 30, 2008 @ 11:51 am

UMG and Gotuit sign license agreement for personalized digital music services

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Universal Music Group (UMG) and Gotuit, a leading provider of metadata technologies, announced today that UMG has signed a broad license agreement to Gotuit’s intellectual property, which includes six issued patents and numerous patent applications. Under this license, UMG will foster the development of new personalized means for consumers to enjoy their artists’ music via satellite radio, HD radio and over the Internet. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Gotuit delivers personalized media experiences. Its patented technology and software components enable a new layer of metadata which publishers use to improve the presentation, discovery, advertising, and profitability of their content libraries.

Originally posted on May 6, 2008 @ 8:37 am

MySpace releases karaoke feature

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MySpace has launched its karaoke feature two years after acquiring kSolo.com. The new feature allows users to upload audio recordings of them singing everything from R. Kelly to Richie Valens to their profile page.

Recordings can be prominently displayed on one’s MySpace page and receive ratings from friends and fans. The site has between 2,000 and 3,000 songs available, all of them licensed from music publishers.

Originally posted on April 29, 2008 @ 10:38 am