While some music labels are fighting free music downloads all over the net, other labels are working on establishing free download platforms that will serve their interests

Is the wind of change blowing through the music industry? Some of the biggest music labels announced that the unrestricted MP3 file format will be used for the distribution of particular songs

The 2006 American Music Awards were held last week in the Shrine Auditorium Los Angeles, California and the audience was treated to great music the entire evening.

The World Music Awards in London was supposed to be Michael Jackson?s sendoff into the entertainment world after several years of recluse. For months, the media have been speculating about Jackson?s part in the show and fans used every means they had to buy tickets for the awards that were held at Earl?s Court.

With Microsoft`s personal media player, Zune, hitting the market on November 14th, the software giant plans to aggressively takeover the portable music world.

If you are even vaguely familiar with the Internet, then you are aware of the fact that the most popular search engine out there is Google. Millions of users utilize this tool daily and are very satisfied with its services.

The hit musical "Les Mis?rables" has surpassed "Cats", as the longest running musical worldwide and now holds the world record in that category, as it marks the 21st anniversary of its October 1985 debut.

The music industry is changing constantly, trying to adjust itself to the public`s needs, and nothing has been supporting this change as much as the digital era we are living in for the past few years.

To compete with Apple Computer, Napster launched an online song distribution site in Japan. The company, a cooperation between Tower Records Japan and America`s Napster, will provide a service that allows users to download an infinite number of songs from the given database of 1.5 million songs.

Calling it the next big step in mobile music enjoyment, Mercora, a privately owned company, will launch "M", the first wireless, over the air mobile media application for smart phones.

A new service by Mercora, Mercora M, turns mobile phones into portable music players, making available for users to access digital libraries stored on their computer.

Sony Ericsson, the successful mobile phone maker stated it plans to launch a new service on its phones that would allow full music downloading.

User generated content sites are the fastest growing field on the Internet. YouTube, of the innovators and leaders of video sites, has been criticized repeatedly for airing copyrighted material on its site.

The timeless R.EM band gave 1600 spectators a night to remember. On Saturday night, the four original members of the group, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry came together for a rare performance as they were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

Guitar tablature sites where users exchange tips on how to play songs are now facing a copyright lawsuits threat by music publishers. The situation is very much alike to the war between Napster and the music-recording industry, but this time it involves free sites like Olga and GuitarTabs.com, where amateur musicians trade "tabs", music notation especially for guitar.

As it was predicted in spring at the E3 video game convention, music seems to take a major part of the games market. The new games are expected to feature more songs and more user control over them than before.

Software called "Unstructured Data Module" will soon be released by Identity Systems to help media companies from music to movies to identify piracy. The software applies algorithms and analytics and scans for hidden relationships in streams of digital data.

At the annual NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) conference the Internet search giant Google stated they will not sell music, even thought the rumors about Google digital music solution have existed more than a year.

Do you listen to your MP3 player often and at a loud volume? If you answered "yes", you are at risk of loosing your hearing early, Specsavers Hearcare and Deafness Research UK had found.

Microsoft Corporation is preparing to compete with the Apple`s iPod and iTunes and to roll out a portable digital music player later this year. The player will play digital music and video files, as well as carry wireless technology.

The fight against online piracy never ends and now big names are linked with an online piracy case. A group of music companies plan to sue Yahoo China over complaints linking the online search company with promotion online piracy. Yahoo China violates copyrights by linking to websites that offer pirated music.

After the online music community was swept by online services like iTunes and its rivals, it`s time for the new thing in online music consumption. New technology is being used to help you choose music that you`ll like.

There is a new player in the music business and it is located on the internet. The site, called Lala.com is a mix between Wikipedia, Ebay and Napster, and is carrying the burden that Napster faced in its heyday.

The recording industry`s war against online music piracy is not close to over, and major music labels discovered that they have a completely new war to battle ? the war against online music videos.

Competition over the online music industry is becoming fierce, with a new and unexpected rival showing up in Russia. The site is offering downloaded music for much less than $1 for each song.

After hiring top Hollywood producers and directors for the opening ceremonies of the upcoming Beijing 2008 summer Olympics, the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee signed the legendary Quincy Jones to write the music for the opening event.

Tom Cruise`s ex-wife and the Oscar-winning actress, Nicole Kidman, was recently engaged to a country music star named Keith Urban. The announcement came this week from Urban`s representative. This conformation brings months of speculation to an end.

The business of MP3`s is a growing industry, with more and more competitors joining in every year. It all began when the now mega-business Apple, released iTunes for use with it`s incredibly popular iPod.

For the past ten years, the company "Royalty Free Music" has provided affordable, high quality royalty free music to professionals across every industry that can be used as production music for films and television programs, or as background music and music on hold in business offices or at corporate events and seminars.

Innovation Entertainment Group announced this week they will be presenting live musical performances this coming May that will make people want to groove. Thursday, May 4th at Temple Bar will be an evening of world groove music performed by Kwanza Jones and the Global Groove Collective.