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Yahoo! has announced that it will be shutting down it’s DRM (Digital Rights Management) servers on September 30.  As a result, all music purchased from Yahoo! Music will no longer be able to transfer to computers or devices they are currently on.  This all goes with Yahoo’s migration of services to the Rhapsody music service.

The move isn’t all that bad, however.  Yahoo has announced that it will “compensate” anyone who has bought DRM music files though Yahoo! Music.  The company will give reimbursements on a case-by-case basis.  These reimbursements can either be through repayment of the money spent for the files, or through MP3 files without DRM that will play on any computer or device.  It’d be nice if the customer can choose on a file-by-file basis, so you can be refunded for the album you thought you’d like, but hated after finally listening to the full thing a few times.

For customers of Yahoo! Music, the service will be transferred over to Rhapsody which offers “the same service at a similar price.”

Read [Information Week]

Apple’s iTunes Store better watch it’s back, because here comes Napster with not just another online music service, but one that now offers a whooping 6 million DRM-free music tracks. With this number of available tracks Napster has now become the world’s largest major label MP3 catalog and the largest library of independent music worldwide.

Beginning today, all digital music that is downloaded from Napster will be a DRM-free MP3 that is compatible with any MP3 player or music phone, including yes you guessed it right, the iPod and the iPhone. Downloaded music will remain at 99 cents for a single track and $9.95 for most full albums. Most of Napster’s digital music is encoded at a 256kbps bitrate and shall include album art. In addition, users can freely browse Napster’s catalog without any obligation or commitment to purchase. Napster is also offering a web-based on-demand streaming service which users can access from anywhere using computer with Internet connection.

Read [Business Wire]

Because of Microsoft’s undying love for all of its loyal PlaysForSure customers, it recently shot out an email to everyone with some very disturbing news. They will be killing their PlaysForSure licensing servers officially on August 31, 2008. What does this mean? If you’re a happy iPod or Creative MP3 user, nothing much. But for those who were smart enough to purchase music through the MSN Music Store, you’ll be demeaned to kingdom come by the silence of your non-playing tracks on August 31.

Of course, this would only happen if you think of transferring your music files to other devices, such as another computer or music player after August 31. Which would not be unlikely, but could still work well for a few people. Microsoft’s email couldn’t even offer so much as a statement of sympathy, saying “As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers.”

Clearly, a lot of people are not going to like this. But you knew that this would happen when you first signed up for PlaysForSure, right? Right???

Via [Wired]

Just four and half years after its launch, eMusic is reporting that it has already sold around 200 million digital songs through web downloads. What makes it even sweeter for eMusic is that it has achieved the feat without too much tie-up with the major record labels. eMusic managed to sustain sales growth through its cooperation with independent digital music content providers.

eMusic is also attributing the growth of its web-based music service to the launch of rival Amazon MP3 which said to have led to the increased in awareness of eMusic. Amazon MP3 contributed to around 40 million of eMusic’s download statistics. Since Amazon MP3’s launch in September 2007, eMusic has sold around 7 million tracks monthly.

eMusic’s success can also be attributed to the increasing popularity of DRM-free music online. eMusic was among the first online music store which offered DRM free songs. It has been Amazon’s secret and has catapulted it to being the second online music store next to Apple’s iTunes despite higher per-song cost. eMusic would have had higher figures if it had established tie ups with major labels as well.

Via [electronista]

AT&T has announced two new music applications; mSpot’s Make-Ur-Tones and mSpot Remix. Likewise, AT&T also announced its plan of expanding the Napster Mobile service it gives under the AT&T network. All three music applications provide mobile music lovers the freedom to choose the music they want to listen to and use in their AT&T mobile phones.

Available for a monthly subscription of $6.99 for three ringtones, the mSpot Make-UR-Tones allows customers to search for music tracks from the AT&T Media Mall, cut a 30-second part of the song using the a built-in editor, preview the output and then download the personalized ringtone to their phone. Unfortunately, mSpot Make-UR-Tones will only work with the Samsung SYNC, Samsung A737, Samsung A747 and the Motorola V3xx.

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Immediately after USA Today published a report declaring that Amazon’s music store is now the number 2 online seller of digital music, eMusic CEO, David Pakman disputed the report and said that eMusic is the number 2 online music seller and not Amazon.

“This morning I read with some surprise in USA Today that Amazon is “No. 2 in digital [music] sales since opening nearly six months ago.” Amazon’s entry into this market last year was an important milestone in the continuing irrelevance of DRM and the overly restrictive and anti-consumer policies that the music industry has foolishly wielded in this new, digital age. But let’s get one thing straight: outside of iTunes, no one sells more music digitally than eMusic, and we don’t plan on giving up that title anytime soon.”

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After only six months of launching its online music store that sells only DRM-free music, Amazon may very well be on the way to becoming the web’s number one music store. But that is if Apple’s iTunes does not make some drastic moves to counter Amazon’s growing popularity and increasing sales transactions.

It looks like the popularity of Apple’s music store, rest not so much on the iTunes itself nor on its very successful iPod media players. Amazon doesn’t have an online store that automatically connects to media players for quick uploading but what Amazon gives to users is something that Apple doesn’t offer – DRM free music which users can play using any brand of portable media players. And for music lovers and tech gadget users that’s a big thing. 

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SanDisk is releasing DRM-free music of 50 new and emerging artists on microSD cards. This program is part of SanDisk’s campaign to promote its recently announced 8GB Sansa Fuze.

The microSD card will contain a collection of rock, pop, and hip hop songs, music videos and photos from more than 30 record labels. Among those featured artists in the microSD cards are All Time Low Ladytron, Magnet, Nada Surf, Of Montreal and The Coup. All 50 tracks included in Sansa microSD card were selected and licensed by LA-based entertainment and music marketing agency NonStop Riot.

U.S.-based music fans who will purchase the 8GB Sansa Fuse player will receive a promotional coupon that they can use to redeem the Sansa microSD card containing the 50 DRM-free music tracks.

Read [SanDisk]

With a very web friendly release for their latest album, which in turn saw a great amount of success, Nine Inch Nails has taken the Ghosts ‘project’ one step further. In a recent post on the official NIN website, Trent Reznor first begins by thanking everyone for the albums success and then quickly goes on to announce that they are taking another step forward in creating a community around this album.

Today we announce the expansion of the Ghosts project into the visual world. This record began as an experiment with us using sound as a means to describe visuals. Early in the project we thought it would be interesting to see what the community could create / collaborate on as a reaction to the music we were making. We wanted to keep the canvas as blank as possible for you, hence the lack of descriptive song titles and the primarily textural artwork and packaging.

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It seems Trent Reznor was right on with his latest album release for Ghosts I-IV. Based on “confirmed” reports the album has seen sales totaling 800,000 during the first week of its release, which in turn brought in $1.6 million. The 800,000 total included all forms of the album, including the free version which was Ghosts I, along with a combination of the other four available paid options. The paid options ranged in price from $5 for 36 DRM-free downloadable tracks to a $300 limited edition box set.

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