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.

Indianapolis, Ind. - Digonex Technologies announced on Monday that major label Warner Music Group will use its technology to test variable pricing on select digital album downloads.

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.

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.

Beijing - A Chinese court has agreed to hear two multi-million dollar copyright infringement claims brought by major record labels against Chinese search engine Baidu, and Web portal Sohu and its Sogou media search engine, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The Beijing Intermediate People's Court will hear a $9 million claim against Baidu brought by Universal Music Group, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG and Warner Music (NYSE: WMG), who will argue that the search engine aids copyright infringement by providing "deep links" to unauthorized downloads on third-party sites.

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.

New York - SpiralFrog, a free, ad-supported music download service, announced on Monday that it has signed a licensing deal with music publishing firm Warner/Chappell Music. In order to offer Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) songs, however, the company will need to secure a separate deal with the label itself.

New York - Major label Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) this week hired Jim Griffin, former head of digital at Geffen and a vocal industry critic, to oversee a plan that would have consumers pay a monthly fee through their Internet service providers for unlimited access to music, Portfolio.com reported. "We're still clinging to the vine of music as a product," Griffin told Portfolio.com, dubbing the state of affairs "Tarzan" economics. "But we're swinging toward the vine of music as a service. We need to get ready to let go and grab the next vine, which is a pool of money and a fair way to split it up, rather than controlling the quantity and destiny of sound recordings."

London - Mobile network operator Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) announced that it has reached a deal with Warner Music International (NYSE: WMG), that will give its subscribers access to tracks from Madonna's forthcoming album "Hard Candy" a week before it goes on sale. Beginning on April 21, one of seven tracks from the album will be released each day, and remain available for download for 24 hours before being replaced by the next track. Vodafone subscribers in Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium additionally get exclusive mobile access to the new single "4 Minutes" immediately.

Los Angeles - The sophomore record from Gnarls Barkley has been posted for sale on iTunes in advance of its April 8 release date, and fellow Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) act the Raconteurs have announced plans to release their new album next Tuesday without offering any advance review copies, according to reports.

Seattle - Warner Bros. Records (NYSE: WMG) recording artists R.E.M. will premiere their upcoming album, "Accelerate," exclusively on the iLike social music discovery service. iLike, which claims 23 million registered users, said the album will begin streaming from its site on March 24, six days before its North American release on April 1. The band will also offer an exclusive video message introducing and discussing the album through iLike.

San Francisco - A number of top music managers say that their artists have not seen any revenue from deals made by their labels to offer their music videos on Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube video site, CNET News.com reported. "I don't know any artist who has gotten a royalty statement (from their label that includes YouTube money)," music attorney Chris Castle told News.com.

London - European music download store 7digital.com on Monday announced a deal with Warner Music Group's (NYSE: WMG) Warner Music International, to sell downloads in MP3 format to its customers in the U.K., Ireland, Spain, France and Germany. The company, which claims 1.2 million registered customers, said the deal makes it the first European download store to offer Warner tracks as MP3s; over 80% of the store's 3.5 million-track catalog is DRM-free.

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 - Gossip blogger Mario Lavandeira (aka Perez Hilton) has been negotiating a deal that would make him an A&R representative with major label Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), complete with his own imprint at Warner Brothers Records, and a $100,000 advance against 50% of any profits generated by artists he brings to the label, people familiar with the prospective deal told The New York Times. Lavandeira's PerezHilton.com, where he sometimes posts album reviews and unreleased songs, attracts some 2.8 million visitors per month, according to comScore.

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.

Los Angeles - Gimado, the operator of a search engine for streaming and downloadable music files, has landed $300,000 in seed funding from an undisclosed investors, Mashable.com reported.

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.