New York - Apple (NASD: AAPL) plans to begin selling its iPhone at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) stores as early as next week, Bloomberg reported, citing store employees at five locations in California.

Dallas - Expanding distribution for its nascent broadband and digital TV service, AT&T (NYSE: T) announced on Tuesday that it will begin offering U-verse at more than 600 Circuit City and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) retail locations this month. The deals are the first major national retail partnerships for U-verse, which AT&T expects to be in more than 1 million homes by the end of 2008.

Los Angeles - Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has apparently backtracked, and will continue to provide access to DRM-laden tracks consumers purchased at its digital music store before the company decided to begin selling DRM-free MP3s, Engadget reports.

San Francisco - After similar moves were made by Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has announced plans to shut down servers that provide continued access for consumers to songs they purchased from its digital music store that were wrapped in digital rights management (DRM) security -- which the company has since abandoned in favor of MP3s.

Los Angeles - The four major record labels, along with leading U.S. retailers and memory card maker SanDisk on Monday introduced a new music format, where microSD cards will come pre-loaded with DRM-free MP3 albums from top artists. The "slotMusic" cards will be playable in mobile phones and MP3 players that support microSD cards -- which excludes Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iPod -- as well as on any computer with a USB port and a number of in-car systems.

Port Washington, N.Y. - Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store retained its position as the op U.S. music retailer during the first half of 2008, followed by Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Amazon (NASD: AMZN) and Target (NYSE: TGT), according to a report from market research firm NPD Group. Apple overtook Amazon for third place in the first quarter of 2007, then hurdled Best Buy and Target in February of this year before toppling Wal-Mart to enter the lead in April.

Bentonville, Ark. - Retail giant Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) announced on Wednesday that veteran rock band Journey's new 3-disc CD/DVD album "Revelation" sold more than 104,000 copies in its first week on sale exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in North America, and via the retailers' websites. Wal-Mart has also been the exclusive retailer for the Eagles, and recently signed a similar deal for AC/DC's forthcoming album on Columbia Records.

New York - Veteran rock band AC/DC will sell its forthcoming Columbia Records album "Stiff Upper Lip" exclusively through retail giant Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) stores, the Wall Street Journal reported. "Columbia's decision to sell a major new release at only one retail chain has the potential to alienate retailers left out," the Journal noted. Wal-Mart has done similar exclusive CD releases with other artists including the Eagles and Journey.

New York - CBS (NYSE: CBS) announced on Wednesday that Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) has joined its CBS Audience Network, a group of over 300 website partners that distributes full TV episodes and other programming from CBS for free, supported by advertising. With the addition of Yahoo, CBS claims its network's unduplicated total reach is now 92% of the U.S.-based Web audience.

Los Angeles - Retail giant Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has launched a beta test of an online classified ads listing service powered by Oodle, which aggregates listings from over 80,000 sites and counts over 40 million listings.

Los Angeles - Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) has added DRM-free songs to Wal-Mart's online music store, which dropped songs from Warner as well as Sony BMG and Universal Music when it decided to offer only MP3s, Hypebot reports. Wal-Mart's MP3 store now offers Warner Music MP3s alongside tracks from EMI and independent labels.

Washington - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has levied a total of $6 million in fines against many of the top electronics retailers in the U.S., for violating rules on labeling analog televisions they sell to inform consumers the devices will not be able to receive digital signals after the switch to digital broadcasting next February. The FCC levied fines against retailers including Sears ($1.1 million), Wal-Mart ($992,000), Circuit City ($712,000), Target ($296,000) and Best Buy ($280,000).

Los Angeles - Following the switch to MP3 format at retail giant Wal-Mart's digital music store, songs from artists on major labels Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG and Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) have disappeared from the site, Digital Music News reported. Wal-Mart announced last August that it would migrate from Windows Media Audio to the unprotected MP3 format, saying at the time that EMI and Universal Music were on board.

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store has surpassed Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) to become the No. 1 music retailer in the U.S., according to new figures from market research firm NPD Group. iTunes surpassed the retail giant based on the amount of music sold during January and February.

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.

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.

New York - The former drummer of legendary punk band the Ramones has filed suit against his music publisher, as well as online retailers iTunes, Wal-Mart and RealNetworks, over the alleged unauthorized distribution of six Ramones songs he wrote between 1983 and 1987, Billboard reported.

Brisbane, Calif. - Retail giant Wal-Mart on Tuesday announced the launch of DRM-free MP3 song and album downloads from its online store, initially featuring hundreds of thousands of tracks from Universal Music and EMI Music.

Bentonville, Ark. - Retail giant Wal-Mart announced on Monday that it will provide a free MP3 download of the Eagles' new single, "How Long," to fans who pre-order the band's forthcoming first new studio album in 28 years from its website. The "Long Road Out of Eden" CD and digital album will be sold in the U.S. exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, for $10.88 and $11.88, respectively.

New York - Apple's iTunes Store has become the third-largest overall retailer of music in the U.S., behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group.