Seattle - Online retail giant Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) announced on Monday that it will begin selling out-of-print albums from major labels Sony BMG and EMI on-demand through its CreateSpace service.

New York - The digital music market may be bigger than previously thought, as a new report from market research firm NPD Group found that only 10% of customers at Amazon.com's (NASD: AMZN) new MP3 store had also purchased songs from Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store. "The fact that Amazon's early growth does not appear to be at the expense of Apple iTunes is a healthy indication that the digital music customer pool can expand into new consumer groups who have not yet joined the iTunes community," NPD analyst Russ Crupnick.

New York - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO) will allow players of its forthcoming "Grand Theft Auto IV" to download any of the over 150 songs they hear within the game from Amazon's (NASD: AMZN) MP3 store. Players will use an in-game cell phone to text a number and receive a "text" back with the artist and song title. Those signed up for the Rockstar Games Social Club will also receive an e-mail with links to purchase tagged songs from Amazon. The game is slated for release on April 29.

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple (NASD: AAPL) announced on Tuesday that its iTunes Store is now the second-largest music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), having leapfrogged retail chain Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) in the latest figures from market research firm NPD Group. The company pulled ahead of then third-place U.S. music retailer Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) last June, according to NPD's rankings.

Los Angeles - Universal and Paramount (NYSE: VIA) have become the last of the major Hollywood movie studios to pledge support for Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Blu-ray next-generation DVD format, after Toshiba decided earlier this week to abandon its rival HD DVD format, ending a costly battle between the two companies to establish their respective format as the standard. "We are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer," Paramount Home Entertainment told The Hollywood Reporter.

Luxembourg - Online retail giant Amazon.com announced on Monday that it will sell its (NASD: AMZN) Amazon Europe unit's DVD rental business in the U.K. and Germany to Lovefilm.

DMW’s CEO & Publisher provides a wrap-up of the top stories of the week. Who’s hot, who’s not and what’s the industry buzz?

In my column last week, I predicted that there may be a silver lining in Yahoo’s recent troubles and low share price in the form of a possible takeover bid from rival Microsoft. Voilà! In a bold move that sent ripples through Silicon Valley before sunrise on Friday, Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) announced that it has made an unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid

Seattle - Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) on Friday launched its new Indie & Art House store, which features a range of over 25,000 independent films as well as a place where users can preview, review and discuss them. Many of the films are available via Amazon's CreateSpace DVD on Demand service. The company said actor, director and producer John Favreau will be the first curator of the site's "Independent Voices" section.

Seattle - Amazon.com's (NASD: AMZN) Internet Movie Database (IMDB) unit announced on Thursday that it has acquired Without A Box, a provider of online festival submission and promotional services for independent filmmakers. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Purchase, N.Y. - Pepsi (NYSE: PEP) and online retailer Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) on Monday confirmed plans for their $1 billion giveaway, which includes redeemable points on four billion Pepsi products that consumers can spend on MP3 downloads, as well as Amazon Unbox TV downloads, electronics, apparel, DVDs and CDs. The promotion will be unveiled in advertising during the Super Bowl broadcast, and commence on Feb. 1.

New York - Major label Sony BMG (NYSE: SNE) is planning to start selling songs without digital rights management (DRM) software some time in the first quarter, making it the last major to begin in earnest to offer at least some of its catalog in the MP3 format, BusinessWeek.com reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Seattle - Amazon.com has added DRM-free songs from major label Warner Music Group to its Amazon MP3 store. The move marks the first major foray for Warner into selling music in the MP3 format, without digital restrictions. "We believe that giving consumers the assurance that the music they purchase can be played on any device they own will only encourage more sales of music," said Michael Nash, senior vice president, digital strategy and business development for Warner Music Group.

Little Rock, Arkansas – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has shuttered its online movie download service, the AP reports. The company launched the service in February with 3,000 titles, but customers could not watch them on an Apple Inc. device.

There a just a few shopping days left before Christmas and many people – most of them men - will be panicking about those last minute gifts. Vouchers are always a popular option and more people are searching for them than ever before. Whereas the earlier post focused on viral discount vouchers, the aim here is to understand search trends for more traditional gift vouchers.

Do you have a Kindle yet? All the buzz about the Wii aside, the most lusted after gift this holiday season for media pros may just be Amazon's new digital content reader called the Kindle (which sold out within 5.5 hours upon first release a few weeks ago). The device may not have an Apple-esque level of sex appeal, but it does represent a huge shift in thinking that may just propel portable digital content and ebooks in particular to the kind of widespread adoption that digital music has already enjoyed.

We came across this interesting claim from John Lewis that it expects to sell more electrical goods to women than men for the first time this Christmas. In order to test their prediction, I looked at the demographics of our Shopping and Classifieds – Appliances and Electronics category for the last 4 weeks, as well as the same period over the last 4 years.

Today Amazon announced its foray into selling hardware with a data service. The device is called “Kindle,” and it represents a daring move for an “online bookstore.” You’re going to see two kinds of reviews: bad ones from people who haven’t used it and good ones from people who have. It’s that kind of product—plus Jeff Bezos’s reality-distortion field isn’t as large as Steve Jobs’s. I have used it and if someone gave me a choice of receiving an iPhone or a Kindle, I’d pick the Kindle. Here are the reasons I like it so much:

Seattle - Online retail giant Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) plans to launch its long-awaited e-book reader device, the "Kindle," in New York on Monday, CNET News.com reported. Expected to sell for $399, the Kindle will feature a Wi-Fi connection for purchasing content from Amazon's e-book store, and will also reportedly offer broadband wireless access through Sprint.