San Francisco - The U.S. Department of Justice has served major record labels Universal Music and Sony BMG (NYSE: SNE) with notices that seek information on Total Music, a project the majors are jointly working on that would purportedly offer a $5 per month subscription to their catalogs via mobile phones, digital music players and other platforms, Wired.com reported, citing the Music Ally newsletter.

Such a pricing agreement between the major labels -- Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) and EMI are also reportedly interested in the project, and are themselves targets of information requests from the Justice Dept., Music Ally reports -- would likely raise antitrust concerns.

The Justice Dept. previously investigated Universal and Sony Music's Pressplay music subscription service joint venture in 2001.

Related Links:
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/02/report-doj-serv.html

http://snipurl.com/1z7nz (BusinessWeek on Total Music)

http://www.musically.com