San Jose, Calif. - Qtrax, the developer of a free, ad-supported music download service, has reached a deal to license Universal Music Group's catalog, the company's first major label signing.

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 - 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.

New York - Video game publisher Activision (NASD: ATVI) has affirmed plans to extend its wildly popular "Guitar Hero" franchise beyond the guitar and bass to other instruments, a la rival music-based game "Rock Band," Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said in an interview with Portfolio.com. "We'll include a lot of other instruments [and] vocals," said Kotick, while refraining from giving any clues as to when these new elements might appear in the game franchise.

Los Angeles - Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is reportedly paying Universal Music Group $35 per device for the rights to pre-load music from the label's artists on the devices it sells as part of its new "Comes With Music" offering in Europe, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which cited "a well-informed mobile industry executive."

Los Angeles - Confirming earlier reports, Universal Music Group announced on Thursday that it has made an equity investment in Buzznet, the music-focused social media site, and will share revenue with and be directly involved in developing editorial programming for the site. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Los Angeles - Digital civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) earlier this week filed a brief on behalf of an eBay seller who was sued by Universal Music Group for reselling promotional CDs, arguing that the record label is violating copyright law's "first sale" doctrine.

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.

London - Universal Music Group has launched a new Rolling Stones channel on Google's YouTube, that lets fans upload videos of themselves posting questions to the band, with the band to respond personally to some of them, Reuters reported. The new channel will mainly promote "Shine a Light," the new Stones documentary from director Martin Scorsese.

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.

Los Angeles - Universal Music Group announced on Tuesday that it has made a strategic investment in digital music distributor INgrooves, and will partner with the company to distribute music. San Francisco-based INgrooves recently served as the exclusive digital distributor for Dolly Parton's "Backwoods Barbie" album, and also provides distribution and marketing services for partners including ESL Music, VP Records and Stones Throw Records.

Los Angeles - Buzznet, a music-focused social media site, has raised as much as $25 million in its third round of financing, from investors including Universal's Interscope Records, PaidContent reports.

Helsinki - Major record label EMI is in talks with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) on licensing its songs for the company's forthcoming "Comes With Music" unlimited mobile music service, Reuters reports. "We want to be part of it. I believe strongly that when it launches we will be there, with a full offering," Wemppa Koivumaki, head of EMI Finland, told a news conference.

London - Apple (NASD: AAPL) is in talks with the major record labels on possible new models that would see music come pre-loaded, or be available through unlimited subscription plans on its iPod and iPhone devices, the Financial Times reports. While Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which signed a deal with Universal Music for an unlimited "Comes With Music" service, will reportedly pay nearly $80 per handset to music companies, Apple is offering only about $20 per device, two executives familiar with the negotiations told FT.com.

Los Angeles - Former Universal/Interscope recording artists Giant Drag have placed a PayPal button on their MySpace page asking fans for donations to put toward the recording of a new album, in the wake of the band being dropped by their major label, Wired.com reports. "So if you feel like giving up a buck or a million of them I'd be very grateful!" singer Annie Hardy writes on the site. "Even if it's just because you are riddled with guilt from illegally downloading the first album and you feel the need to repent, any reason will do and every penny counts."

London - Accenture, the global management consulting and technology services company, said on Wednesday that it has signed a deal to provide digital supply services for Universal Music Group in all territories outside North America. Under the deal, Accenture will collate and store audio and video content, artwork and metadata to distribute to the music company's mobile and digital business partners.

Luxembourg - European music-focused social network MusicMakesFriends.com announced on Wednesday that it has signed licensing deals with major record labels Universal Music, Sony BMG and EMI, to make their entire catalogs available for streaming on its service.

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."