Woburn, Mass. - Universal Music Group announced on Monday that it has signed a broad license agreement with Gotuit, a provider of metadata technologies. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Under the license, Universal said it will develop a variety of new personalized music offerings that will be available over satellite radio, HD radios and the Internet.

New York - Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails on Monday released yet another album of new material online for free, this time providing no paid options at all -- but rather a range of DRM-free download options for "The Slip." "Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years -- this one's on me," reads a note on the Nine Inch Nails website.

Mountain View, Calif. - Confirming earlier reports, Web-based messaging and chat service Meebo announced on Thursday that it has raised $25 million in new financing, led by JAFCO Ventures.

New York - Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) on Wednesday announced a number of new digital initiatives, including a new YouTube channel that will host video submissions for prospective new models, and the creation of a Playboy Audience Network of video sites through which it will distribute content. Along with YouTube, Break, Veoh, Howcast and Metacafe will host video highlights such as the "Playboy Radio Minute," with content from its show on Sirius; and a video blog featuring one of the star's of E!'s "The Girl Next Door." The company said it also partnered with Mixercast to develop ad-supported content and contest widgets.

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.

Los Angeles - Virgin Mobile USA on Wednesday announced a ringtone promotion with fast food chain Burger King and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), to create a "Virgin Mobile Ringtone Value Menu" that will offer a selection of ringtones for just $1 each. Artists whose songs are included in the promotion include Flo Rida, Mana, Buckcherry, Estelle and War.

San Diego - Eventful, a site that aggregates local event listings, said on Wednesday that it will provide a selection of regional events to The Guide, a new resource on live music, book signings, art galleries, restaurants and other activities offered by the Los Angeles Times. San Diego-based Eventful said The Times is among 1,200 companies using its API to create targeted event listing calendars.

Twitter, the micro-blogging platform, has been in the news quite a bit lately (in particular for VC funding and rescuing a US blogger). This has helped drive US Internet visits up further to the increasingly popular service. Year on year, Internet visits to Twitter.com are up 8 fold. In the past three months, visits have more than doubled and traffic continues to climb, up 60% in the past month.

New York - Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails announced on Monday that the band has secured very limited allotments of "the guaranteed best possible seats" to every headlining show on the band's upcoming tour, and will make them available for sale via NIN.com. Fans must register under their real names for the tickets, which will come personalized with the purchaser's name that matches a photo ID presented at "designated will calls at separate entrances to be used exclusively by NIN.com pre-sale ticket holders."

Los Angeles - Online music community Buzznet, which recently acquired music blogs Stereogum and Idolator, has announced an online promotion for the release of Interscope/Geffen/A&M Records' artists Weezer's new single, "Pork & Beans." The "online food fight" will allow Buzznet users to toss/post pork and beans on one another's profile pages. The band and Buzznet will also make a donation to Conscious Alliance, a non-profit that distributes food and resources to U.S. communities most in need, at the end of the promotion.

Tomorrow April 29, one of the most anticipated video games of the year, Take Two Interactive (NSDQ: TTWO) and Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto IV," will hit store shelves. Analysts predict that it will top last year's record-breaking $300 million first-week sales of Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) and Bungee Studios' first-person shooter "Halo 3", according to the Associated Press.

Digg Dubb: Groove Is In The Heart from Trammell on Vimeo.
A new viral lip dub video has appeared (embedded above). This time courtesy of the staff at Digg. I would say it's a worthy follow-up to the video done at the offices at College Humor and Connected Ventures (see below). Revision3 has also joined the party with a lip bud video of their own (embedded at the bottom, gotta love INXS). Think about it, these videos are not just viral branding for the companies but also smart recruitment tools...

There are two principal ways advertisers are trying to create value for consumers on the web — and they must create value because, you know, consumers are in control. On the web, advertisers can provide entertainment or information. How effective is advertising as information on the web? See Google’s $15B in ad revenue — an $5.19 billion in ad revenue in Q1 2008. The technology of web search enabled advertisers to create value for consumers in a way that was never possible in analogue media.

White Plains, N.Y. - Nokia (NYSE: NOK) on Thursday announced a promotional partnership with filmmaker Spike Lee, who will "direct" a film that utilizes user-submitted camera phone footage and other content.