Last.fm Loses Warner Music on Demand

From Peter Kafka, Silicon Alley Insider:

Warner Music Group (WMG) has pulled its catalog out of Last.fm's "on demand" free streaming service, which the CBS-owned service launched to great fanfare in January. Users can still hear Warner artists via the site's "radio" option, which doesn't allow you to select individual songs. But you can't order up individual songs from WMG artists.

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Pali Research: WMG Upgraded From Sell to Neutral

WMG Acquires Insound.com

From Ed Christman, Billboard:

The Alternative Distribution Alliance, an independent distributor owned by the Warner Music Group, has acquired Insound.com, the only indie music lifestyle store, sources confirm.

ADA apparently will use the Insound digital sales infrastructure as a back-end to allow its labels and indie accounts to open their own online download stores.

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Apple Label Speculation

Cayocosta

Should Apple launch a record company, would the rest of the music industry continue to license content to iTunes - which would then represent a direct competitor's captive retail outlet?

Unlikely.

Such a move makes sense however, if Apple anticipates eventually losing some or all of its current agreements and/or working relationships with the majors.

Actually, Apple buying WMG might make considerable sense in that case.

Amazon Download Service Adds Warner Music

From Reuters:

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc has signed on Warner Music Group to its music download service, which aims to compete with Apple Inc's industry-dominating iTunes online store.

Warner Music songs are available on the Amazon MP3 service, which lets users purchase the tunes and download them to many digital music players, including Apple's iPod, the companies said on Thursday. They will also offer exclusive tracks and special album bundles.

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XM Settles With Warner Over Inno

From Peter Kafka, Silicon Valley Insider:

XM has settled a lawsuit with Warner Music over a portable XM device that lets users record music directly from the satellite radio service. Execs there won't talk about the settlement, but we can tell you that deal requires XM to pay WMG a fee for each "Inno" player it sells. Last week Universal Music Group inked a similar pact, which means that the satellite company still has to come to terms with Sony-BMG and EMI Group before it can extract itself from court proceedings.

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