Yahoo has renamed its online music service Yahoo Music. The service had been operating under the brand name Launch, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2001. But now, Yahoo wants to showcase all its music products and services under a single brand, the company said. The service already has begun operating with a new logo. …

Fee-based digital music is gaining popularity among downloaders in the United States, according to market research company Ipsos-Insight. Related story The company is putting$30 million in marketingbehind a new Microsoft-backed “portable”subscription service. About 47 percent of people who downloaded music in December and who were age 12 or older paid a fee to do so, the market researcher said. That’s …

Sharman Networks, the parent company of controversial file-sharing service Kazaa, could face the music by the end of the year following an Australian federal court ruling. On Thursday, Justice Murray Wilcox set a tentative trial date of Nov. 29 and said that directed discovery and affidavit proceedings should be completed by October. Wilcox also dismissed a range of procedural matters …

To counter Microsoft’s planned entry into the digital-music market, Apple Computer offered to sign a strategic agreement with Sony, according to a Sept. 2 report in Japanese daily Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, which quotes sources from Sony. According to the sources, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made his offer to Nobuyuki Idei, head of Sony, in January during a golf tournament organized …

Sharman Networks, Australian parent company of the file-sharing software developer Kazaa, is rejoicing at the U.S. court ruling that two similar peer-to-peer programs, Grokster and Morpheus, do not violate copyright law. However, the company concedes that the ruling is unlikely to have any effect on a music copyright-infringement case currently going through the courts in Australia. News.blog Our reporters’ take …

Lawyers were asked on Tuesday to reveal the identity of the owner of Sharman Networks, parent company of file-sharing service Kazaa, as the company faced copyright infringement allegations in Sydney, Australia. Lawyers for Universal Music Australia called on Sharman in Australian federal court to reveal the anonymous figure controlling the corporation in its request for evidential discovery. Justice Murray Wilcox …

MusicMatch, a music software company, announced on Tuesday a new version of its Jukebox with on-demand streaming. Jukebox 9.0 features a search engine for browsing tracks and lets people rank searches by popularity, the company said. The feature is designed to let customers buy and manage music that’s downloaded, recorded from CD or streamed on demand in one place. MusicMatch …

Music downloads could be on an upswing this year. Sales of digital tunes in 2004 in the United States will reach $270 million, more than double the takings from the previous year, according to a report released by JupiterResearch on Monday. That revenue will rise to $1.7 billion, or 12 percent of total consumer spending on music, by 2009, the …

Digital music provider Napster has teamed up with Best Buy to enlist new subscribers. Under the terms of the deal, announced Thursday, Best Buy will promote Napster through in-store marketing and media advertising. It will also launch a co-branded version of the music service to be sold online through Bestbuy.com. In return, Best Buy will get stock of Napster parent …

Commentary: A tougher sell for iTunes By Forrester Research Special to CNET News.com June 15, 2004, 4:30PM PT by Paul Jackson and Rebecca Ulph Jennings, analysts With Apple Computer’s launch of the iTunes Music Store in Britain, France and Germany, many Europeans can now buy songs from the world’s most successful online music service. But times have changed since the …