WebProNews

MySpace Music Goes Down Under

Today MySpace announced the launch of MySpace Music in Australia and New Zealand. This release represents the first for MySpace Music outside of the United States. The launch brings a new e-commerce partnership to MySpace Music with iTunes providing the music downloads locally, a MySpace spokesperson tells WebProNews. She also shares the following stats for the US version of MySpace Music: Source: Nielsen Netview / August 2009

iTunes 9 Improves Sharing and Syncing

Apple introduced the newest version of iTunes today in version 9. It has a number of new features including:

Digital Music Sales Closing In On CDs

The majority of music sales still come from CDs, but digital music sales are making up an ever- greater share of the U.S. market, according to NPD MusicWatch. CDs accounted for 65 percent of all music sold in the first half of 2009 compared to paid digital downloads, which comprised 35 percent of music sales. By comparison, paid digital music made up 20 percent of sales in 2007 growing to 30 percent of the music market last year.

Will MicroPayments Work For The Financial Times?

Micropayments have worked for companies like iTunes and even Amazon.com for songs and television episodes. But could they be the solution to the newspaper industry’s pending demise? The Financial Times is ready to find out. They currently use a hybrid paid-free model, where users can access up to 20 stories a month for free, but they’re looking to a pay-per-story or possibly subject or time period model.

Rumors Suggest Apple May Compete with PayPal

Reports have "Wall Street Gossips" talking about Apple working on a "PayPal killer". This would be in the form of the iTunes store turning into a payment system. There's no telling how much truth there is to these rumors, but the world is going to need some more options when PayPal goes down, as it did last night, causing quite a stir across the web. PayPal apologized for this by way of the PayPal blog. SVP, Technology Scott Guilfoyle wrote:

iTunes Activation Server Was Down for Hours

UPDATE: It appears that iTunes is back up and running...we'll let you know if anything changes. The iTunes Activation server is currently down as a result of the iPhone OS 3.0 update. Is the iPhone OS 3.0 worth all of this headache? Tell us.

Sony To Offer eMusic Its Older Catalog

Sony Music Entertainment has struck a deal with eMusic to sell songs from Sony Music's back catalog on the eMusic website. Sony Music is the first of the four major labels to reach an agreement with eMusic to sell songs. Beginning in the third quarter, eMusic will offer its U.S. subscribers classic recordings from all Sony Music labels, such as Arista, Columbia, Epic, Jive, LaFace and RCA. Artists include Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, Leonard Cohen and Outkast.

Tap Tap Revenge Most Popular iPhone App

Tapulous' Tap Tap Revenge was the most popular iPhone application in the Apple App Store in February, with 32 percent of users installing the game, according to the comScore Apple App Store Report. "It's impressive that a game like Tapulous's Tap Tap Revenge can attract a higher penetration among Apple app users than apps for larger and more established brands," said Brian Jurutka, vice president, comScore.

Yahoo Music Makes Peace with iTunes, Amazon, YouTube

Yahoo Music is doing its best "come one, come all" carnival barker imitation.  Starting tomorrow, existing Artist Pages will be customizable with modules from iTunes, Amazon, Last.fm, Rhapsody, Pandora, and YouTube, and more exciting stuff is on the way, too. 

Ballmer Hints At Giving Up On Zune At CES

Recent by comments by Microsoft executives have led to speculation that Microsoft may abandon the Zune.Microsoft CEO Ballmer declared at CES that consumers increasingly were moving away from one task devices like the Zune towards smart phones while at the same time stating flatly that no Zune phone was in the works.