sony/atv

Apple signs Sony/ATV to iRadio, last major hurdle before WWDC

At this point, Apple is all but certain to unveil iRadio -- or whatever it calls its Internet radio service -- at Monday's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Early Friday, Apple reached a deal with Sony Music, the last of the three major labels it needed to sign up, according to people familiar with the deals. And now Apple has also signed up Sony/ATV/ That deal, first reported by Billboard, was confirmed to CNET by a Sony/ATV spokesperson.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Sony/ATV, the world's largest publishing house, is jointly owned by … Read more

Music publisher blocked iPhone 5 music service, report says

A Pandora-like streaming service could have debuted with last week's iPhone 5 launch if negotiations between Apple and Sony/ATV had not failed, according to a published report.

Sony/ATV, which is owned by Sony and the estate of Michael Jackson, wanted Apple to pay a higher fee for each song played than Apple was willing to shell out, according to the New York Post.

News broke earlier this month that Apple was considering the idea of creating a streaming-music service similar to that of Pandora, the online-radio service. Typically, a music distributor will just pay the statutory rate … Read more

Michael Jackson's death won't affect any Beatles-iTunes deal

This story was corrected at 9:48 a.m. Details are below.

Michael Jackson's position in long-time efforts to make the much-coveted Beatles catalog available digitally is one of the most misunderstood aspects in the very complicated negotiations.

The sudden death of one of the world's best known entertainers on Thursday will have no impact on whether songs from the Fab Four will finally make it to iTunes and other Web music stores. Rumors aside, no deals are imminent, music sources told CNET News.

Jackson bought ATV Music Publishing, the company that owned the words and music to … Read more

Michael Jackson's company denies Beatles coming to iTunes

The company that owns the rights to a vast majority of The Beatles music catalog has questioned reports that the Fab Four have cut a deal with Steve Jobs.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the joint venture owned by Sony and singer Michael Jackson, has thrown cold water on newspaper stories out of London that The Beatles catalog would soon be available on iTunes. A spokeswoman for Sony/ATV Music Publishing told CNET News.com that the reports are "untrue."

Sony/ATV is a pretty good source. While EMI Group owns the recording rights to The Beatles catalog, Sony … Read more