Chicago - Emmis Interactive, the online unit of the radio broadcaster, on Monday announced a licensing agreement with Apple (NASD: AAPL) to market its custom Storefront technology to other radio stations. The technology lets radio stations build a storefront where listeners can purchase songs they hear on-air using their own existing iTunes Store accounts.

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.

Redmond, Wash. - Nintendo of America on Monday debuted its WiiWare service, which allows owners of its Wii game console to download new games over an Internet connection from a range of large and independent publishers.

Richmond, Va. - One month after revealing an unsolicited $1 billion takeover bid from Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI), consumer electronics retailer Circuit City (NYSE: CC) said on Friday that it will open its books to the video rental giant in preparation for a potential acquisition.

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 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 - U.S. consumer electronics and media retail chain Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) announced on Thursday that it paid $2.1 billion to acquire 50% of the Carphone Warehouse, a mobile phone retailer that counts over 2,400 stores in nine European countries.

New York - Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO) announced on Wednesday that its "Grand Theft Auto IV" broke all-time day one and week one sales records, posting 3.6 million global unit sales on April 29, with a retail value of $310 million, and 6 million in sales for its first week, with an estimated retail value of more than $500 million. "Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date," said Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick.

San Francisco - Digital music distributor IODA is set to announce tomorrow the launch of IODA Label Stores, a white label download storefront that will allow labels and artists to sell digital music directly to consumers. The company partnered with DownloadCentric on the offering, which at launch will be used by partners including Six Degrees Records, Paper Bag Records, Om Records, ABB Records, Birdman Records, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. IODA said it will eventually also offer customizable store widgets that can be embedded on any site.

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.

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.

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.

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.

London - Take-Two Interactive's "Grand Theft Auto IV" broke the U.K. single-day video game sales record on Tuesday, selling around 609,000 copies, Reuters reported, citing data from the Entertainment Retailers Association. The previous record was held by an earlier iteration of the game, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," which sold 501,000 units on Oct. 29, 2004.

Los Angeles - Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has called the band's move to let consumers decide how much, if anything, to pay for its new album "In Rainbows" a "one-off," which likely won't be repeated again, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

New York - Digital music service eMusic on Tuesday announced the availability of its service in Canada, offering a catalog of 3.5 million songs from 33,000 labels in the unprotected MP3 format. The company, which recently passed 200 million downloads sold, offers songs from artists on Canadian labels including Nettwerk, Arts & Crafts, Justin Time, Secret City Records, Mint Records and Paper Bag.

Mountain View, Calif. - With one more record due to Warner Music under their current contract, Metallica is considering a Radiohead-style release for future efforts, drummer Lars Ulrich tells Rolling Stone. "We've been observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor and in twenty-seven years or however long it takes for the next record, we'll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the Internet," said Ulrich. Since notably coming out against illegal downloading during the heyday of Napster, the band now offers FLAC and MP3 versions of shows for sale on its website, while older shows can be downloaded for free.

London - U.K. media retail chain HMV has launched a beta test of a new social networking site, which allow users to import music and film files and create their own libraries, then be matched up with other members with similar tastes, The Telegraph reported. The "Get Closer" site, which will be funded with advertising and also feature links to the HMV online store, is currently in beta testing with 1,000 users and is scheduled to launch on Sept. 1.