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.

London - Major label EMI said on Tuesday that the new Coldplay single it began offering as a free download for a week as of yesterday has already been downloaded more than 600,000 times, Billboard reports. The DRM-free song will no longer be available as a free download as of May 6.

New York - Divisions of three of the four major record labels on Monday filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Project Playlist, a site that lets users create playlists from streaming songs served from all over the Internet, Reuters reported. For its part, Project Playlist maintains that it does not host any music files, but instead merely links to files on many third-party sites, including many on record label websites.

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.

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace online social network on Thursday announced details of an anticipated new music service, a spin-off that will be a joint venture with major labels Universal Music, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG and Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) owning minority stakes. The fourth major, EMI, is not party to the deal initially, but people involved in the negotiations told The New York Times it would probably join soon.

London - Major record label EMI announced on Wednesday that it has named former Google (NASD: GOOG) chief information officer Douglas Merrill to lead its digital music business. Merrill will oversee EMI's digital strategy, innovation, business development, supply chain and global technology activities. Prior to joining Google in 2003, Merrill was a SVP at Charles Schwab, and before that worked stints at Price Waterhouse and the RAND Corporation.

Helsinki - Major record label EMI is in talks with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) on licensing its songs for the company's forthcoming "Comes With Music" unlimited mobile music service, Reuters reports. "We want to be part of it. I believe strongly that when it launches we will be there, with a full offering," Wemppa Koivumaki, head of EMI Finland, told a news conference.

London - Major record label EMI, whose new private equity owners had threatened to leave the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) trade group over costs associated with membership and the group's anti-piracy efforts, has decided to stick with the organization after a cost-saving plan was agreed upon.

Los Angeles - The homepage of Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube tomorrow will be taken over by the Icelandic band Sigur Ros, whose feature-length documentary "Heima" will be offered for streaming in its entirety. The rest of the page will feature the band's selections of the 10 best entries in its "Minn Heima" competition, which asked fans to create their own version of the film -- which features the band performing in far-flung locales in their home country of Iceland -- using audio and video clips posted online. The online screening is the first full-length music DVD to be featured by YouTube.

Luxembourg - European music-focused social network MusicMakesFriends.com announced on Wednesday that it has signed licensing deals with major record labels Universal Music, Sony BMG and EMI, to make their entire catalogs available for streaming on its service.

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?

I spent the past week at our Digital Music Forum in New York City with 500 senior industry insiders immersed in two days of high level discussions about the future of the music industry. I don’t often toot our own horn, but this was one heck of a great event.

New York - Managers of top recording artists are considering legal action against major record labels, saying that Universal, Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) and EMI are dragging their feet in distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements from copyright infringement lawsuits against file-sharing firms like Napster and Kazaa, the New York Post reported. "Artist managers and lawyers have been wondering for months when their artists will see money from the copyright settlements and how it will be accounted for," attorney John Branca, who has represented Korn and The Rolling Stones, told the Post. "Some of them are even talking about filing lawsuits if they don't get paid soon."

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace has been pitching a new music service that would offer ad-supported downloads and streaming, according to published reports. PaidContent first reported news of the talks between MySpace and the four major labels, which would reportedly be offered equity in the proposed service in return for use of their copyrighted content.

London - U.K. online media retailer Play.com has begun selling DRM-free music downloads, offering a selection of about 1 million tracks from major label EMI and various independent labels. The PlayDigital store will feature variable pricing, with top sellers to sell for just below the average price of about $1.37 per track. A company spokesman told Guardian.co.uk the company will be looking to undercut pricing at Apple's iTunes Store. Amazon.com, which recently launches an MP3 store with songs from all the major labels, has not announced specific launch plans for a U.K. version.

Barcelona - Mobile content distributor Jamba announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with major record label EMI, to offer DRM-free song downloads to mobile phones and PCs on all Jamba and Jamster-branded portals in Europe.

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 the days following Microsoft’s (NASD: MSFT) announcement of its unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), much of the news focused on the battle between Google and Microsoft to color the other’s motives as anti-competitive. As reports surfaced that Yahoo may try to avoid being acquired by Microsoft by giving control of its search advertising to Google in exchange for a large revenue share (although nothing has made public by either Google or Yahoo on this), Microsoft reportedly began lobbying government officials to block any such deal between the two on antitrust grounds setting the stage for what is likely to be a long and public battle between Google and Microsoft over control of the Internet.

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.

Tokyo - Google (NASD: GOOG) is in talks with Chinese digital music distributor Top100.cn to launch a free music download service in China, and major label Universal Music Group has confirmed its involvement in the negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Fellow major labels Sony BMG (NYSE: SNE), EMI and Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) are also considering joining the venture, people familiar with the matter told The Journal.

Draper, Utah - Sequoia Media Group, whose aVinci Experience product line allows consumers to create slideshows, DVDs and other media from their personal photos and videos, has signed deals that will enable customers to include music from Warner Music, EMI, Sony BMG, Rhino, Walt Disney Records and others. The aVinci service is available as an online service, as a kit with software included on disc, and via media creation kiosks, and creations may be shared via social networks and blogs.

New York - Major record label EMI on Tuesday announced a promotion with The New York Daily News, whereby readers will find a code redeemable for three free song downloads via NYDailyNews.com. Scheduled for inclusion on this upcoming Sunday, and again on Feb. 10, the promotion will allow users to choose from a catalog of over 120,000 songs, including an exclusive track from Ringo Starr's "Liverpool 8" album.