music labels

In Apple's never-ending negotiations with record labels, iTunes boss Eddy Cue often played the good cop to Steve Jobs' bad cop. But for current CEO Tim Cook, Cue may well be Mr. Fix-It.

In a surprising executive shuffle, Apple announced Monday that Scott Forstall, who runs software development for the iPad and iPhone, would be leaving the company, along with retail chief John Browett. Cue, an Apple employee for 23 years who was chief of iTunes since it launched in 2003, has now absorbed control of the Siri voice recognition service and the disappointing Apple Maps.

For the affable … Read more

Google Play's position among the top destinations for entertainment content, right there alongside Apple and Amazon, can no longer be denied.

Google announced today that it now has the licenses to offer movies and TV shows from News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, which means Google Play can rent and sell material from all the major Hollywood studios. Google also locked up a deal with Time Inc. to distribute the media company's top magazine titles such as People, InStyle, and Time.

Perhaps most telling for Google is the deal it struck with Warner Music Group, one of the … Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Pandora and the major record labels were busy this week drawing up battle plans and forming alliances in preparation for a coming Capitol Hill fight over the royalty rates Webcasters are required to pay for music.

CNET has learned that representatives from the three largest music-recording companies, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group, plan to meet early next week with some of the industry's top artist managers in New York to discuss strategy about how to block passage of the Internet Radio Fairness Act.

The legislation seeks to reduce the rates … Read more

As it builds out the entertainment offering for the Android operating system, Google is getting closer to obtaining the rights to offer a scan-and-match feature similar to those offered by Apple and Amazon, sources tell CNET.

Google already offers a cloud music service, but it's unlicensed by the major music-recording companies, and thus legally prevented from offering all the functionality now offered by iTunes and Amazon Cloud Player.

But that could change soon. Multiple music industry sources say that Google has signed licensing deals for its cloud music service with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. EMI Music … Read more

Amazon's cloud music service has finally matched Apple's "scan and match" feature.

In June, CNET first reported that Amazon had obtained the licenses from the four major record companies to offer scan and match. The Web's largest retailer made it official this afternoon by announcing that starting today, users of the company's Cloud Player no longer have to suffer through the arduous task of uploading each individual song to their cloud music lockers.

For $25 per year, Amazon premium service will scan a user's hard drive and match the music found there to … Read more

Songwriters and music publishers don't want to get left out of the online music-video boom.

The top sites -- Vevo and YouTube -- are among the sites already paying fees to the major music publishing companies for music videos, but independent publishers have been left out. Today, the National Music Publishers Association announced that it has reached a "new model agreement" with Universal Music Group that ensures indie publishers get paid.

David Israelite, chief executive of the NMPA, told CNET this morning that the deal with Universal calls for the label to pay indie publishers directly and … Read more

Amazon's cloud music service is fully licensed by the top-four record labels, numerous sources have told CNET.

The labels and Amazon aren't talking, but my sources say Amazon is expected to roll out new features for the company's cloud-music offering in the United States sometime in July.

We reported on Tuesday that Amazon had wrapped up cloud deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI, and was in negotiations with Warner Music Group. Information is coming in now that Warner Music Group was actually among the first to sign.

The ways in which the licenses … Read more

Given recent headlines about cloud music, you might be forgiven for thinking that the feature is huge with consumers.

Word came Monday that Apple has finally caught up to Google and Amazon and begun to stream songs from the company's cloud. The following day, CNET broke news that Amazon is very close to reaching agreements with the top four record companies that would let it run a licensed cloud music service. Music industry sources also told CNET that Google and the labels continue to discuss cloud licenses.

Interesting news. Now here's the reality: Consumer adoption of cloud music … Read more

Amazon executives are close to striking license deals with music studios to cover the company's cloud music service, numerous music industry sources told CNET.

Amazon already has reached agreements with Universal Music Group, EMI and Sony Music Entertainment and is in the later stages of negotiations with the other Warner Music Group, the sources said. Amazon could announce the deals within weeks.

Spokesmen for UMG, EMI and Sony declined to comment. An Amazon representative was not immediately available for comment, though I'll update as soon as we hear back.

Details are scarce as to what new features Amazon'… Read more