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. …

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 …

Napster is back, with an inescapable marketing campaign that’s put the familiar kitty-with-earphones logo everywhere, from Yahoo Mail boxes to stickers seen on the streets of San Francisco. Its features having been unveiled early this month, Napster’s introduction to the masses Wednesday contains little in the way of surprises. As announced earlier, the free software provides access to a huge …

The Recording Industry Association of America on Thursday said it filed 80 new lawsuits against alleged file swappers, a move that comes after a wave of letters it sent earlier this month that warned targets of their legal risk. The action marks a second round of suits against computer users who, record label investigators say, have made hundreds or even …

Sharman Networks, maker of peer-to-peer file-sharing software Kazaa, has announced the release of a new beta version of the popular program. Released Wednesday, the new version, 2.6, allows people to run multiple searches at the same time and is designed to let content providers sell their wares over the P2P network, enabling them to save on bandwidth costs. The upgrade, …

Online music retailer Napster unveiled prepaid cards on Monday, so people–particularly teens–could download songs without using credit cards. The $14.85 card, which will offer 15 downloads, is set to go on sale in mid-November at 14,000 retail outlets. It looks like a credit card and has a scratch-off surface concealing a personal identification number to activate the card. The company …

Commentary: Facing the music By Forrester Research Special to CNET News.com October 20, 2003, 12:05PM PT By Josh Bernoff, Principal Analyst Apple Computer’s Windows music store leads its rivals in ease of use and distribution. Together with Musicmatch and Napster, it will catapult legitimate music downloads into the mainstream. Apple last week announced the Windows version of iTunes, which is …

Federal and state regulators have voiced concern that a feature in Windows XP that involves online music purchasing may violate terms of Microsoft’s antitrust settlement. The issue surfaced in a court-mandated briefing filed jointly by Microsoft and federal and state regulators. The compliance update says there are ongoing discussions over the “Shop for Music Online” feature in the operating system. …

Apple heads into new territory with a version of its iTunes service for Windows. But will it make beautiful music on the balance sheet? Windows users jump at the chance to try Apple’s iTunes jukebox software–and reactions range from unabashed praise to complaints of bugs. October 17, 2003 update Stating that “hell froze over,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs expands his …

The Recording Industry Association of America has begun preparing a second round of file-swapping lawsuits, notifying 204 individuals that they are in line to be sued for copyright infringement. Unlike with the previous wave of suits, the record labels’ trade association is giving the lawsuit targets warning this time around, offering them a chance to settle before the suits are …

A small New York company has sued Microsoft, charging that the software giant’s new music download service in Europe infringes on a nearly 20-year-old patent it owns. E-Data, a Long Island-based company that’s focused largely on licensing its patents, contends that Microsoft, Internet service provider Tiscali and digital music company OD2 are collectively trespassing on its rights with their . …

The Recording Industry Association of America is pressing a federal court to ignore cable Internet provider Charter Communications’ attempt to keep private the names of 93 subscribers who allegedly traded songs online illegally. On Friday, the trade organization filed a court memorandum opposing Charter’s “motion to quash” a subpoena request for the names. The RIAA charges that Charter is unlawfully …

The head of file-swapping company Grokster, Wayne Rosso, has resigned from his post and will take the helm of younger Spanish peer-to-peer technology rival Blubster. Rosso has long been one of the most colorfully outspoken executives in the file-trading world, known for comparing recording industry executives to Josef Stalin and the fight over digital file trading to the Vietnam War …

A Los Angeles-area Web designer has emerged as the second person to challenge a recording industry file-swapping lawsuit, saying that the record labels appear to have made a mistake in identifying him. Playa del Rey, Calif., resident Ross Plank has enlisted the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties group that has been a vocal critic of …