Reston, Va. - Despite a well-documented downturn in the economy, U.S. online retail spending in during the first quarter remained essentially the same as the prior year, according to new figures from Internet audience measurement firm comScore. [more..]

Seattle - RealNetworks this week posted a net loss for the first quarter, hampered by fluctuating exchange rates and RealDVD litigation costs, amid results that saw a 16% jump in music sales and a 3% rise from its games business. [more..]

Port Washington, N.Y. - Sales of Blu-ray players were up 72% in the first quarter, to more than 400,000 units, indicating more mainstream adoption of the new format, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - A judge has issued a preliminary injunction against Activision's 7 Studios, and ordered the game studio to turn over all source code related to "Scratch: The Ultimate DJ" game to Scratch DJ Game LLC, a joint venture between Genius Products and audio equipment maker Numark Industries. [more..]

Los Angeles - Live Nation, the concert promotion giant awaiting antitrust approval of its proposed $2.5 billion merger with Ticketmaster, said this week that attendance at its North American events was down 22.6% in the first quarter, compared to a year ago, while reporting a loss of $102.7 million, or $1.29 a share. [more..]

New York - OLX, a free online classifieds site popular outside of the U.S., where Craigslist is the most-popular provider, has raised $5 million in new funding from Nexus Capital India, TechCrunch reported.
[more..]

Los Angeles - Online auction giant eBay plans to launch an MP3 download store in Spain, Billboard reported. [more..]

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple has allowed a previously-rejected update to the Nine Inch Nails iPhone application to be issued, CNET News.com reports. [more..]

Reston, Va. - SonicGleek Productions, a startup founded by Rick Robinson, the former vice president of social products at AOL, has launched Twitchamp.com, a site that lets Twitter users go head to head in a test of popularity on the microblogging network. [more..]

Englewood, Colo. - DISH Network on Friday launched a new service that allows subscribers with a broadband-connected ViP Series DVR to program their DVR remotely from any Internet connection. [more..]