Showing signs of a music business struggling to adapt to new digital realities, Sony Music and the Bertelsmann Music Group agreed Thursday to create a new joint venture, merging the second- and fifth-largest record labels into a single entity. The deal comes amid reports that EMI Group has secured funds to bid for Warner Music. If both deals were to …

The newly relaunched Napster music service announced a deal with Pennsylvania State University on Thursday to give students access to music funded by student fees, in an attempt to replace campus file swapping with legal listening. The trial project is the first of what will likely be a number of similar efforts over the next year, as colleges work with …

Viacom, whose Internet music efforts have hit a few sour notes along the way, said it was hatching a plan to go after Apple Computer’s successful iTunes service with its MTV brand. The media conglomerate confirmed that it was looking into launching a music download service in the first half of next year. MTV Chief Executive Tom Freston described those …