Moscow prosecutors have declined to press criminal charges against a popular Internet site that sells MP3s for just pennies, according to Russian news reports. Record industry groups in the United States and Europe are trying to close the Russian AllofMP3.com, which offers downloads of MP3s–including songs from The Beatles and other groups that have not …

A new generation of start-ups is taking a page from Apple Computer’s iTunes playbook, allowing Net radio listeners to draw their programming at will from one another’s hard drives. At the head of a movement that could transform online radio, Live365 and start-up Grouper are the latest to blur these lines between Internet radio and online song-swapping, with an alliance …

Record labels have asked an Australian court to block peer-to-peer company Altnet’s ad-revenue-sharing program. Altnet said earlier this week that it would share advertising dollars from Kazaa parent Sharman Networks with any record labels that agreed to sell music through its peer-to-peer networks. Record labels, which are suing Sharman Networks in Australia, are now asking a judge to block distribution …

Napster expects to end its fiscal fourth quarter with more revenue than it had previously forecast, the company said Thursday. The company now predicts that revenue in the quarter ending March 31 will be around $15 million, which is $1 million higher than it had projected earlier. Related story Chris Gorog sold Roxio’ssoftware business so hecould compete with Microsoftin music. …

Snocap, the new company started by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, said Thursday that it struck a deal with SonyBMG Music Entertainment to help distribute the record label’s music through file-swapping networks. Fanning’s company has developed a range of tools that allow songs to be identified as they’re traded online, and lets those trades be turned into sales. Labels see the …

The long, strange trip of acid rock icons the Grateful Dead has made a pit stop in cyberspace, with the band now selling digital downloads of key live recordings. Jerry Garcia, former Grateful Dead front man The band announced Tuesday that digital versions of the recordings are now available through Apple Computer’s iTunes service and the band’s merchandise site, which …

Infinity Broadcasting is the latest radio operator to jump on the Internet bandwagon. The radio company, which tested the waters by launching a Web edition of its all-news station WCBS in December 2004, said Wednesday that 11 news radio stations would follow suit soon. Beginning March 14, Infinity news radio stations, including those in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San …

Comcast is tapping into the frenzy over MP3 players in a push to sign up new high-speed Internet service customers. The company is giving away Nomad MuVo digital music players from Creative Technology to new residential high-speed Internet subscribers who activate the service by March 31. The music player, which costs about $50 at online retail shops, can hold up …

SAUSALITO, Calif.–In a tiny private recording studio on the shore of San Francisco Bay, Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison is systematically giving his old band’s work new sonic life. Newly digitized versions of the band’s recordings glow on a pair of computer monitors–a guitar track here; vocals, bass drum and keyboard there. He and a pair of engineers are recreating …

A Russian digital-music site offering high-quality song downloads for just pennies apiece is the target of a criminal copyright investigation by the local police, recording industry groups said Tuesday. AllofMP3.com has been operating for several years, asking consumers to pay just 2 cents per megabyte of downloads–usually between 4 cents and 10 cents per song. Alongside the catalogue available at …