Los Angeles - Social music service imeem has surpassed Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) to become the top streaming music service, claiming 10.3 million unique visitors in March, Wired.com reported, citing data from analytics firm Compete.

Los Angeles - Microsoft's (NASD: MSFT) Zune digital media player gained a bit of the MP3 player market share in NPD Group's latest rankings, now accounting for 4% of the total market, up from 3% in the first quarter of 2007, Wired.com reported.

Washington - The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) annual undercover sting operation where underage consumers try to buy R-rated movie tickets, DVDs and M-rated video games has found a dramatic improvement at video game retailers, where its secret shoppers were able to buy M-rated games just 20% of the time -- down from 42% in 2007 and 85% in 2000. The video game industry and retail partners also fared better than movie theaters, where secret shoppers gained access to R-rated films 36% of the time, and DVD retailers, where R-rated title purchases were successful 47% of the time.

London - A majority (56%) of senior newspaper executives said in a recent survey that they believe that the majority of news, be it print or online, will be free in the future -- up from 48% who said the same a year ago. Conducted by Zogby International for the World Editors Forum and Reuters, the survey of 704 newspaper executives worldwide also found 86% think newsrooms and digital services should become more integrated, while two in three believed that electronic media like computers and cell phones will be the most common means of news consumption within a decade.

Portland, Ore. - The top-grossing films of 2006-2007 in the U.S., when including box office sales, DVD and VHS sales and rental estimates, and video-on-demand viewing, were "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (Disney), "Transformers" (Paramount) and "Cars" (Disney), according to data compiled by Rentrak. The only R-rated film to crack the top 20 was Warner Bros.' "300," while the majority were either action or family films rated PG-13. Rentak tracks data from 51 million set-top boxes, more than 10,000 retail and 12,000 home video locations, and 35,000 movie screens across North America and other countries around the world.

Los Angeles - While U.S. CD shipments were down 17.5% in 2007, digital formats now account for 23% of U.S. recording revenues, up from 16.1% in 2006 and 9% in 2005, according to year-end shipment data calculated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). A total of 809.9 million digital song downloads were sold in 2007, a 38% increase from 2006, along with 42.5 million digital albums, up 54% from the prior year.

Los Angeles - A new survey of U.S. consumers found that 25% of U.S. households, or 28 million, now have at least one HDTV set, and that 5.5 million households purchased an HDTV set for the first time during the 2007/2008 holiday and Super Bowl season.

Washington - U.S. mobile media and entertainment revenues are expected to more than double over the next five years, but the strongest growth will not occur until after 2010, as the technical and market environment for such services improves, according to a new report from market research firm Analysys.

Port Washington, N.Y. - Thirty-seven percent of Americans believe they will spend less on entertainment products and devices this year, compared to just 18% who anticipate spending more, according to a new survey conducted by market research firm NPD Group. Just under half of respondents (46%) said they thought they would spend about the same amount in 2008 as they did last year.

Arlington, Va. - Venture capitalists invested $7.1 billion in 922 deals during the first quarter, according to a report released on Monday by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

London - Google (NASD: GOOG) once again claimed the top spot in market research firm Millward Brown's annual list of the top 100 most powerful brands, beating out other leading brands like GE/NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), Apple (NASD: AAPL) and Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) for the honor for the third year in a row. The report estimated Google's value at $86 billion, up 30% on a year ago; second-place General Electric's brand value was estimated at $71.4 billion.

Port Washington, N.Y. - Bypassing the current troubles in the overall economy, U.S. video game sales hit $1.7 billion in March, up 57% from a year ago on strong sales of Nintendo's Wii and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl," according to industry sales data compiled by market research firm NPD Group. "You'd never know that the U.S. economy was under distress by looking at the video games industry sales figures," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

San Francisco - The confidence of Silicon Valley venture capitalists sunk to a new four-year low during the first quarter, according to a new survey of 32 Bay Area investors by Mark Cannice, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Business and Management.

Austin, Texas - There are now more than 100 virtual worlds operating or that are in development which target the 18-and-under youth market, according to a report from virtual worlds trade media company Virtual Worlds Management.

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.

Reston, Va. - Platform-A, the online ad unit of AOL (NYSE: TWX) formed last fall through the combination of acquired firms such as Advertising.com, Quigo and Tacoda, ranked as the No. 1 ad network in March, according to a new report from market research firm comScore.

San Francisco - The average salary for a U.S. video game industry employee was $73,600, up slightly from 2006's figure of $73,316, according to the results of Game Developer magazine's seventh annual Game Developer Salary Survey. Programmers made an average of $83,383, while game designers averaged $63,649, artist and animators $66,594, and business and marketing positions in the industry averaged $101,848.

Minneapolis - While a majority of U.S. teens still use illicit file-sharing services to download music, their numbers decreased slightly over the past year, with 61% reporting they download music illegally, compare with 64% a year ago, according to a recent survey from Piper Jaffray.

Scottsdale, Ariz. - Propelled by the global expansion of broadband, expanding music catalogs and mobile music downloads, digital music sales will account for 40% of the total worldwide music market by 2012, up from 10% in 2007 and 6% in 2006, according to a report offered Wednesday by market research firm In-Stat.

New York - U.S. private equity firms raised $58.5 billion during the first quarter -- up nearly 32% over the $44.3 billion raised during the first quarter of 2007 -- according to industry newsletter Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst.