London - Global digital music sales nearly doubled in 2006, to $2 billion, and now account for 10% of the music market -- but have not yet become the "holy grail" that will compensate the industry for slumping CD sales, according to a report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a record label trade group. [more..]

Washington - Share prices of the nation's two satellite radio firms -- XM and Sirius -- fell sharply on Wednesday, after FCC chairman Kevin Martin said that a potential blockbuster merger between the companies would be prohibited by FCC rules. [more..]

Los Angeles - Lawyers for Apple have sent cease-and-desist letters to bloggers who reported on a series of skins based on its iPhone user interface, which independent programmers have developed for existing smartphones, Australia's The Age reported. [more..]

San Francisco - A group of hackers has compromised the anti-piracy technology on Toshiba's new HD DVD format, and high-definition copies of several feature films have been uploaded to the BitTorrent file-sharing network, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. [more..]

Washington - President Bush has signed into law a bill that outlaws "pretexting," or the fraudulent or unauthorized acquisition or disclosure of confidential phone records. [more..]

New York - News Corp.'s MySpace online social network plans to offer free software to parents that will allow them to monitor what name, age and location their children post to their profiles on the site, The Wall Street Journal reported. [more..]

New York - mtvU, a unit of Viacom's MTV Networks, announced on Wednesday that it will acquire RateMyProfessors.com, a site with over 6.6 million user-generated ratings on more than 900,000 college professors. [more..]

Beverly Hills, Calif. - UTA Online, the broadband division of Hollywood talent agency United Talent Agency (UTA), announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Internet TV distributor Veoh Networks to launch a site aimed at identifying new talent and showcasing UTA clients. [more..]

New York - While newspaper circulation continues to decline, traffic to newspaper weblogs is skyrocketing, according to a new report from Nielsen/NetRatings. [more..]

Cambridge, Mass. - Brigtcove, a provider of Internet TV distribution services, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $59.5 million in its third round of financing. [more..]

San Francisco - BuzzLogic, a provider of social network analysis software for marketers, announced that it has raised $9.6 million in its first round of venture capital financing. [more..]

Baltimore, Md. - Millennial Media, a developer of mobile advertising technology, announced that it has raised $6.3 million in its first round of venture capital financing. [more..]

New York - Event producer Show Initiative on Wednesday announced plans to host its first annual Virtual Worlds Conference, an event for "Fortune 500 companies seeking to understand and maximize marketing, entertainment and business strategies within virtual worlds." [more..]

San Francisco - Snocap, the digital content registration and distribution service founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with music-focused online social network ReverbNation.com, to enable users to sell digital song downloads on the site. Under the deal, Snocap will handle consumer transactions and royalty payments for songs sold on ReverbNation.com pages through the site's DistroNow module. San Francisco-based Snocap also enables artists to sell songs through their profile pages on MySpace. [more..]

Ann Arbor, Mich. - All Media Guide, a provider of informational databases on music, movies and games, announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with LyricFind to offer lyric search and display capabilities. LyricFind has licensed lyrics from over 1,700 publishers, which will be available to retailers and device manufacturers using All Media Guide's database. The deal also enables AMG to resell LyricFind services to its customers, while LyricFind may provide basic AMG data to its clients. [more..]

New York - Sirius Satellite Radio announced on Wednesday that it has added CNN Online to its website. In addition to radio channels, Sirius offers online streams of all of its channels to subscribers. New York-based Sirius also simulcasts CNN TV programming on its satellite radio service. [more..]

Silver Spring, Md. - WorldSpace, a provider of satellite radio service in more than 130 countries, announced on Wednesday that its Italian unit has partnered with Telecom Italia to deploy a terrestrial repeater network in Italy. The network of "gap filler" repeaters will allow WorldSpace Italia subscribers without a direct line of sight to its satellite to receive broadcasts. [more..]

Valley Stream, N.Y. - Interactive TV applications developer Zodiac Interactive on Wednesday introduced TVLocalSearch, which allows consumers to use their televisions to search for local businesses while still watching TV. The service also includes TVCallME, a feature that lets users click to be connected by phone to local businesses. New York-based Zodiac recently demonstrated TVLocalSearch at the Consumer Electronics Show, powered at the time by Yahoo Local Search listings. [more..]

Seoul, South Korea - Korean online game developer and publisher Gravity announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with China's The9, to license its massively multiplayer game "Emil Chronicle Online" for play in mainland China. Gravity also recently signed an agreement with Infocomm Asia Holdings, to license the game in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Gravity expects total revenue from "Emil Chronicle Online" in the territories to amount to over $6.8 million over the terms of the agreements. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts on Wednesday detailed plans for "Boom Boom Rocket," its first title for Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade digital game distribution service for the Xbox 360. Set to debut on Xbox Live Arcade in the spring of 2007, the rhythm action game was conceived by EA's Pogo.com casual games team and developed by Bizarre Creations. [more..]