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DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS – WEEK IN REVIEW

Sprint Nextel made the biggest waves this week by debuting the first over-the-air, mobile music store in the US. Meanwhile, other heavyweights were also making news.

Myspace_7MySpace teamed with Interscope to create MySpace Records, a long-expected move. The first release from the new label will hit retailers on November 15th.

Ipodvideo_3Does a market for music videos exist? Apple quickly hit one million a-la-carte video downloads in less than three weeks, though a large chunk of those belong to popular TV shows "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives". Meanwhile, reports circulated on a possible iTunes competitor from Samsung, though the company denied those claims. And in the podcasting world, NPR crossed its four millionth download, bolstered in part by an iTunes integration.

Xmradio_38In the satellite radio space, automakers continued to increase their commitments. DaimlerChrysler extended its exclusive relationship with Sirius, and Nissan pointed to factory-installed XM receivers 2008. Sirius also released earnings, which showed heavy subscriber and revenue gains, but troublesome net losses.

Also in the earnings category, Napster reported strong revenues, modest subscriber gains, and continued profit declines. The company pointed to an upcoming, web-based music destination.

Sony BMG faced some bad publicity this week over its copy-protected CDs. A sleuthing Cd_10 programmer found out that the company had been using a virus technique to hide various aspects of its technology within a user’s operating system. The major label has since modified the software and opened discussions with various anti-virus companies.

AOL acquired MusicNow from Circuit City, and will phase out its MusicNet subscription service.

From Digital Music News

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