“We are excited to be able to deliver our music through this new ‘Music Unlimited’ service,” said Naoki Kitagawa, CEO, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. “Innovative technologies have changed and diversified people’s lifestyles as well as the way they enjoy music. We hope that even more people can enjoy our music in novel ways through new offerings like ‘Music Unlimited.’”

The price of the service will be 1,480 yen for 30 days with new users getting 30 days for free when they sign up. There are about 5 really great things about this new service.

- A variety of preset music channels Users can enjoy 57 music channels categorized by genre, era, Premium channels with various Top 100 channels, as well as mood (“Relax,” “Morning,” and more) based on SensMe, Sony’s proprietary 12 Tone Analysis technology to evaluate music tracks. Furthermore, users can use My Channel to create artist-inspired channels to enjoy music from that artist and other similar artists.

- Personalization By studying users’ ‘like/dislike’ song ratings, “Music Unlimited” adapts to users’ music preferences to offer the most compatible and enjoyable songs from the cloud. Therefore, the more users use the service, the more opportunities they have to discover new songs and artists.

- Synchronized music experience across all devices Users can easily build their My Library and create playlists with their favorite music which can be enjoyed across all compatible devices without the need to transfer music files.

- Offline playback In addition to online streaming, users can also listen to their playlists and music channels in subways or airplanes where they cannot access the network, through offline playback on their PlayStation Vita, Android smartphones including Xperia, and Android Walkman.

- Music Sync Furthermore, by scanning and matching their existing music files on their personal computers with the “Music Unlimited” catalog through MusicSync, users’ music and playlists from other media players including iTunes automatically appear in their “Music Unlimited” My Library for them to enjoy at any time across all compatible devices.

According to CNET, Amazon has already hammered out agreements with UMG, EMI, and Sony. It will soon complete negotiations with Warner on a similar agreement.

Why Amazon is just now reaching agreements with the record companies is anyone’s guess. The CNET article floats the idea that the company might be trying to match Apple’s iTunes Match service, which, for a subscription fee, will turn a user’s non-iTunes-bought music into a high quality version sitting in their iCloud drive – all without any uploading involved. Currently, Amazon Cloud Drive requires users to upload all of their music before it can be streamed. Amazon certainly has the music library to make an iTunes Match-like service possible.

It’s also possible, though, that Amazon is planning a subscription service similar to Rhapsody or Spotify. The Amazon Cloud Player could be augmented to stream free music with ads, or to give users wide access to Amazon’s catalogue of music for a monthly subscription fee. Whatever Amazon chooses to do with its new music license deals, though, it’s clear that more options and content are headed to customers

As part of the deal, Sony agrees to sell off Virgin Records in the US and Europe and also Famous Music in the UK. In return, European Union regulators will forego the standard in-depth investigation into the acquisition. While this step with the EU is only preliminary as the acquisition will still have to be approved by the US, Australia, and Brazil, many are already in opposition due to the large share of the market Sony would control.

Universal Music has also put up a bid to buy a portion of EMI. In November the French owned media company announced plans to acquire the recorded music portion of EMI which would include artists like the Beatles, Katy Perry, and Cold Play.

EMI was purchased by a private equity firm called Terra Firma in 2007, but the music company was lost after the firm was foreclosed on. Citigroup currently controls the EMI assets. EMI sold to Terra Firma in 2007 for $6.8 billion.

The Sony-EMI will mean downsizing at EMI. Sony/ATV plans to cut the workforce by as much as 60% after it takes control at the music company. We’ll be watching Sony and EMI as this deal makes its way through the various channels and keeping you updated on the progress.

Cnet quotes Grooveshark as responding:

“Grooveshark was recently forced to make the difficult decision to part ways with EMI due to EMI’s currently unsustainable streaming rates and EMI’s pending merger with Universal Music Group, which we consider monopolistic and in violation of antitrust laws,” the company wrote. “To date, Grooveshark has paid over $2.6 million to EMI, but we have yet to find sustainable streaming rates. In spite of this, Grooveshark’s dedication to artists and rights holders remains the same.”

EMI previously sued Grooveshark in January, claiming the site failed to pay it at least $150,000 in royalties.

EMI was the only one of the four major record labels to license its music to Grooveshark. The other three major record labels, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music, are suing Grooveshark for copyright infringement. Grooveshark employees have even been accused of putting up thousands of copyrighted works up on the site themselves.

So it seems Grooveshark got tired of EMI’s shakedown and decided to forego their monthly protection payment. They will let the courts handle it, along with the other lawsuits. I’d be surprised if the website can hold out against the legal might of all of the major record labels for long. Goodbye, Grooveshark. It was nice, wonderful, even, while it lasted. Enjoy Grooveshark (despite their gaudy new ads) while you can at their website.

Chairman Seth Goldstein announced the news today at SXSW, and tweeted about it:

excited to announce that we now have licenses in place w all four majors- emi, sony, universal and warner! twitter.com/seth/status/17…

— seth goldstein (@seth) March 13, 2012

Goldstein told Billboard, “This feels like an all-time record speed launch – when we launched we really didn’t come at this from the music industry, it was all new to us. Our model is unique – we’re not a radio service, not an on-demand service. We have interesting aspects that really require some out-of-the-box thinking. We felt that from the get-go the labels were absolutely different from what I’d been led to believe. They gave us a lot of time and attention. Compared to their user base, we’re a tiny service in the broad scheme of things.”

As it is for many startups (and fans of music, for that matter), SXSW has clearly been a fun event for Turntable.fm. Here’s some video the company posted with its avatar DJing at the event:

They certainly do have a lot to celebrate now, as they become more of a competitor to more established services like Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, and all the rest. Rdio, by the way, just launched a new version of its site and apps, as well.

Turntable.fm hasn’t even been around a full year yet.

CNET is reporting that U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan has denied EMI’s attempt to shut down ReDigi while the case goes to court. ReDigi is a Web site that allows users to sell the digital music on their computers.

Judge Sullivan, however, is allowing the case to continue because he is “fascinated” by the numerous technological and legal issues involved.

John Ossenmacher, ReDigi’s CEO, said that they are grateful for the judge’s decision in their favor. “ReDigi is breaking down the barriers that have kept consumers from enjoying their intrinsic and lawful ownership rights to their digital purchases.”

For those who don’t know what ReDigi does, it scans a user’s hard drive to get a copy of the song the user wants to sell. It will then delete the file from the seller’s hard drive.

ReDigi claims that the “First Sale” doctrine applies to their business, just as it does to any physical goods.

The company claims that they discourage the illegal copying of music with a verification system, but they can’t guarantee that users back up their music before they sell it.

EMI claims that ReDigi violates copyright law to run their business. The process of making copies of the file off of a user’s hard drive constitutes as an unauthorized copy in their eyes. They say that they have no “First Sale” rights because they sell songs that have been illegally obtained.

EMI was displeased with the courts not issuing the injunction, but they are confident they will win the case.

This case has the potential to set a powerful precedent. If the judge rules in favor of ReDigi, expect numerous businesses to pop up that allow people to sell digital items including movies and games.

Willie Kavanagh, head of EMI in Ireland, said yesterday that the government had ignored a request from EMI to produce the law it was preparing, and that he suspected that the measure would not “satisfy the music industry’s requirement for injunctive relief.”

EMI filed the suit with Ireland’s High Court. The suit is the second EMI has filed in recent years concerning music piracy in Ireland. In 2010 the High Court shot down an attempt by EMI to enforce a 3 strikes rule on internet service providers in the country.

[Source: Irish Times]

Due to what it claims is a failure to receive any royalty kickbacks, EMI Music Publishing has filed a lawsuit against Grooveshark’s parent company, Escape Media Group. The New York Times explains:

In the suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, EMI seeks unspecified damages. But in a series of recent e-mails and legal correspondence included with the filing as evidence, EMI asks Grooveshark for at least $150,000 in royalties.

Grooveshark says its service is legal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a federal law that protects Internet companies that host third-party material if they comply with take-down notices from copyright holders.

EMI is the fourth corner of the major music label square – the other three being Sony Music, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group – that is suing Grooveshark over licensing and copyrighting issues.

According to a statement provided to The Times, Grooveshark believes that “this is a contract dispute that we expect to resolve.” While that’s an optimistic outlook, this latest legal action against Grooveshark leaves little to look forward to in the future as they’re now involved in litigation battles on four separate fronts. Personally, I don’t like this news and hope Grooveshark can resolve these issues because if they disappear I’m gonna be left without a dealer to get my Philip Glass fix. Having said that, it doesn’t look good for home team.

According to a Bloomberg report, Google is very close to an agreement with Universal Music Group that would allow Google to sell their artists’ music in their new download store. When the Google Music Store was hinted at back in October, the sources said that 4th-largest record label EMI had already signed on. That secured artists like Coldplay, Pink Floyd, Katy Perry and (most of) Radiohead for the Google Music Store.

Making a deal with Universal would be a much bigger content grab than EMI – since they are the largest record label in the American music industry. Coming along with Universal would be artists like Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Rihanna, and Taylor Swift.

The report says that the Google/Universal deal could be finalized as early as Wednesday, November 16th. That date coincides with a Google event in Los Angeles where it’s highly speculated that Google will unveil the new Music Store. Invitations to the event were sent out last Friday on 11/11/11 by “Nigel Tufnel.” The invitations simply said “These Go To Eleven.”

The Google Music Store will work hand in hand with Google Music Beta, allowing for purchased songs to be stored in the cloud and accessed from any enabled device. There have been rumors that the Music Store will be integrated into Google+, allowing users to share songs with friends and preview tracks before purchasing – rumors that this Bloomberg report corroborates.

Google Music Beta launched as a simple cloud storage service without any sort of music downloading functionality due to the inability of Google and the record labels to work out deals. Since Beta’s launch, the launch of a Music Store seemed inevitable, but the specific “when” and “with what music” questions are finally being answered.

Apparently, Google is still unable to work things out with Sony and Warner Music Group, the second and third largest labels.

Last week, deals were reached to break EMI Group in two, and those separate parts be sold to Universal and Sony. According to the WSJ, EMI’s record-music unit will go to Universal and its Music Publishing will so to Sony.

Hopefully we get more details at the Google event tomorrow. If you’re impatient, however, you can check out these supposed leaked images of the Music Store via the Android Market.

EMI joins Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment in what is being called the "Hulu for music videos." So far Vevo has not reached a licensing agreement with Warner Music Group.

EMI will not hold a stake in Vevo unlike Universal and Sony. Users will be able to watch music videos from artists on EMI’s labels including Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol and Virgin, as well as the independent artists and labels represented by EMI Label Services and EMI’ Caroline Distribution unit.

"Our agreement with EMI Music marks a milestone in our mission to provide fans everywhere with the world’s best premium music video programming, when, where and how they want it," stated Rio Caraeff, President & CEO of VEVO.

"We look forward to collaborating with EMI on introducing our users to new professionally-created entertainment products through a truly interactive platform.

Vevo will be powered by YouTube and the content will be made available on the site, on Vevo, and through a special branded embedded player. The video service will also act as a syndication platform for additional sites, expanding the reach of the Vevo brand online.

In October Vevo signed on AT&T as its first major advertiser. The announcement did not include details about ad revenue sharing, but AT&T said it would support Vevo’s services across multiple connected platforms.

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> AT&T Strikes Ad Deal With Vevo