Washington - SoundExchange, the entity set up by the recording industry to collect and distribute digital royalties, said on Thursday it is in discussions with some webcasters to "explore mutually beneficial business arrangements," in the wake of higher royalty rates announced by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) that many webcasters say will put them out of business. [more..]

Washington - The majority of teens actively restrict the information they post to online profiles, keeping sensitive information like their full names or telephone numbers from strangers, according to a phone survey of 935 teens conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - News Corp.'s MySpace on Thursday launched a test of a news aggregation service, which will cull stories from thousands of websites and blogs and let users vote to determine which are given highest prominence on MySpace. [more..]

Boston - AT&T has confirmed that Apple's iPhone is on target to go on sale at the end of June, but does not yet know how many units will be available at launch, Reuters reported. [more..]

New York - Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., a unit of Lagardere and publisher of titles including Car and Driver and Road & Track, announced on Thursday that it has acquired Jumpstart Automotive Media, an online ad network for the automotive industry. [more..]

London - Experian Group, an Ireland-based provider of analytical and information services to organizations and consumers, announced on Thursday that it has acquired Hitwise, a website ratings and marketing information firm, for about $240 million in cash. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Zazzle, a company that lets online customers create personalized apparel, posters, cards and stamps, said that it has acquired Berkeley, Calif.-based Confego, which partners with large retail brands to offer customizable versions of their products. [more..]

Raleigh, N.C. - Lulu.com, an online marketplace for user-generated digital content, announced on Thursday an agreement with online photo agency Getty Images. Under the deal, authors, creators and organizations will have access to select Getty content to enhance and monetize their original works. When an item containing a licensed Getty image is sold at Lulu.com, the usage fee will be included in the selling price. North Carolina-based Lulu.com claims one million registered members in 80 countries that have published over 200,000 titles. [more..]

New York - MTV Networks' mtvU campus TV network said on Thursday that it has partnered with Internet video distributor ROO Group, to offer a video player and customizable video channels to the more than 500 online college newspapers in mtvU's College Publisher network. The private-label video players have access to news, sports and entertainment content from providers like the Associated Press and Reuters. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - Movielink, a broadband movie and video download service, announced on Thursday a distribution agreement to make content from KOCH Entertainment available on its service. The deal includes the recent Discovery Channel documentary "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," and classic TV series such as "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Beverly Hillbillies." [more..]

Sacramento, Calif. - Digital Music Group, Inc. (DMGI), a digital distributor of independent music and video, said on Thursday that it has acquired the rights to distribute music and video content from artists including Todd Rundgren, The Alarm, Dwight Twilley, Richard Clayderman, and Wayne Newton. In all, the acquisitions add another 3,000 tracks to DMGI's library. [more..]

Los Angeles - Gemstar-TV Guide International, a provider of electronic program guides for digital TV services, on Thursday announced a long-term program guide distribution and advertising agreement with CBS. Under the deal, CBS owned and operated stations, and participating affiliates will transmit TV Guide On Screen data with their digital broadcast signals, allowing viewers to search programming and set recordings. CBS will have access to a portion of the ad inventory on the service. [more..]

San Antonio, Texas - AT&T announced on Thursday that subscribers to its U-verse digital TV service can now schedule TV recordings from their AT&T wireless phones and devices. The company did not say if it would extend the feature to competing wireless networks. U-verse customers can already remotely program their digital video recorders on a PC using the AT&T Yahoo broadband portal. [more..]

Foster City, Calif. - Sony Computer Entertainment America on Thursday announced the roster of more than 100 first- and third-party game titles slated for release in the second quarter of 2007 for its PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation 2 platforms. New PS3 titles include Sony's own "MLB 07 The Show," "Spider-Man 3" (Activision) and "The Darkness" (2K Games). Available for download to the PS3 via the online PlayStation Store will be games such as "Joust" and "Mortal Kombat II." A full list of forthcoming games is available from a link below. [more..]

Geneva - Electronic Arts announced on Thursday that it is expanding its Pogo.com casual games property into Europe, with the launch of U.K. and German-language sites. Pogo will offer players in the U.K. and German-speaking countries including Germany, Austria and Switzerland single and multiplayer online puzzle, word, casino, classic card and board games. [more..]