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.

New York - Former hedge fund operator turned music manager Steven Nowack has launched SOS Records, a record label that promises to offer all of its music as free MP3s at WeLoveFreeMusic.com. The venture was announced at a press event in New York yesterday that featured the support of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who called the idea of an online portal for free music "incredibly powerful" during a chance meeting with Nowack. The label aims to offer one new free song each day, but will also distribute physical products. Initial SOS Records artists include Naomi Striemer, Idrissa Diop and Mario Winans.

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.

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 - 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.

Redmond, Wash. - As a result of Microsoft shuttering its MSN Music store in favor of its Zune Marketplace, the company has told MSN Music customers that the licenses for the songs they purchased can be updated for the last time up until Aug. 31 -- after which time the songs cannot ever again be transferred from the devices on which they are currently stored, according to reports.

London - ERA Digital, an offshoot of the U.K. trade group the Entertainment Retailers Association that includes HMV.com, Play.com, 7digital.com, Orange and Playlouder MSP, has released a five-point plan of reforms its says are "essential to maintain growth in the market."

London - U.K. supermarket chain Tesco on Tuesday announced plans to abandon its current Windows Media-based service and launch an MP3 store in May. Tesco Digital will initially offer 3.3 million variably-priced tracks -- 1.6 million of which will be in MP3 format -- and plans to offer all tracks in MP3 format by the end of the year. The site will also offer over 100 free online games, and eventually expand to include downloadable TV shows and movies, as well as paid game downloads.

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.

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.

San Diego - Social music discovery service mTraks said on Monday that it has received $550,000 in new financing from a group of private angel investors.

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 - Scandinavian telco TDC on Monday announced the launch of a free, unlimited music download service, with all costs to the recording industry to be picked up by the telco.

New York - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO) will allow players of its forthcoming "Grand Theft Auto IV" to download any of the over 150 songs they hear within the game from Amazon's (NASD: AMZN) MP3 store. Players will use an in-game cell phone to text a number and receive a "text" back with the artist and song title. Those signed up for the Rockstar Games Social Club will also receive an e-mail with links to purchase tagged songs from Amazon. The game is slated for release on April 29.

New York - Lime Wire, a provider of peer-to-peer file-sharing software, this week announced an agreement with independent music aggregator and distributor BFM Digital, to sell the company's tracks in its DRM-free LimeWire Store. The deal adds 50,000 tracks from BFM's catalog to the LimeWire Store, which now offers nearly 1 million songs.

Milpitas, Calif. - SanDisk (NASD: SNDK), a maker of Flash-based MP3 players and storage media products, announced on Wednesday that it will offer a promotional microSD card containing DRM-free music from over 50 new and emerging artists. The "Sansa Sessions" microSD card includes songs, music videos and photos from more than 30 labels, and features artists such as Ladytron, Of Montreal and The Coup. The card is being offered as a promotion for the launch of SanDisk's 8GB Sansa Fuze player, and can be acquired via an offer inside the box.

New York - LimeWire, the developers of peer-to-peer software that runs on the Gnutella network, have launched a DRM-free music store that offers both a la carte purchases and a range of subscription plans for its catalog of 500,000 songs. Individual songs -- all of which are independent label tracks -- cost 99 cents, while subscriptions range from $10/month for 25 songs to $20/month for 75 songs. LimeWire plans to eventually implement active links to its new store alongside search results within the LimeWire file-sharing client.

Los Angeles - The Black Crowes have announced that they have partnered with independent music distributor Nugs.net to offer recordings of performances from their 2008 tour, as well as other previously unreleased live and archived materials. Nugs.net, which offers a range of formats and concerts within 96 hours of performance, provides similar services for artists including Metallica, the Grateful Dead, Phish and Dave Matthews. The Black Crowes stated that they will also continue to welcome fan taping at their shows.