Denver - In a first for a national political convention, the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) has announced that it has partnered with Comcast (NASD: CMCSA) to provide a live, Spanish-language streaming simulcast of the entire 2008 Democratic National Convention from Denver. "With Spanish as the primary language of approximately 35 million Americans -- not to mention the more than 300 million Spanish-speakers outside the United States -- offering bilingual coverage of the Convention makes more people feel welcome under the Democratic Party's 'big tent'," said Texas State Senator and Convention Co-Chair Leticia Van de Putte.

New York - The major players in contentious negotiations over digital music royalties, which pit music publishers, record labels and digital music services against one another, have reached a settlement on two of five major issues, Billboard reported, citing an account from David Israelite, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA).

New York - A federal judge in New York has created a formula for calculating the royalties that large webcasters AOL (NYSE: TWX), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) must pay songwriters and music publishers for streaming their songs between 2002 and 2009, which could provide just one performing rights organization, ASCAP, as much as $100 million in payments. U.S. District Judge William Conner's ruling stipulates that the webcasters must pay 2.5% of music-related revenue to ASCAP's 320,000 members; by that math, for 2006, AOL owes $5.95 million, and Yahoo owes $6.76 million.

New York - Sirius Satellite Radio (NASD: SIRI) said on Tuesday it has signed a deal with Logitech, to make over 80 Sirius channels available for streaming on the company's Squeezebox line of network music players. The offering includes music channels plus programs featuring Howard Stern, Martha Stewart and NFL Radio.

San Diego - MP3tunes, the digital music locker service started by MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, announced on Thursday that its service will be available on Reciva-powered Internet radio devices, allowing users to listen to both Web radio stations and their own music collections on the same device. Reciva's platform for Internet radio playback in multiple formats is used in products including the Tangent Quattro, Revo Pico Wi-Fi, OXX Digital Classic 600, and Grace Wireless Internet Radio. MP3tunes said access to its service will shortly be enabled on another 40 Reciva devices across the U.K. and Europe.

San Antonio - AT&T has announced that it will provide an exclusive live webcast from the 2008 Coachella music festival this weekend from its broadband AT&T blue room site. On-demand content from the festival will also be available from blue room, AT&T U-verse and via AT&T mobile devices in May.

New York - A rare club performance by Madonna scheduled for April 30 at the Roseland Ballroom in New York will be webcast live by Microsoft's (NASD: MSFT) MSN Music to U.S. users, and to the rest of the world on May 15, Billboard reports. The artist's Icon fan club has also added social networking components, including a $40 platinum membership that offers exclusive concert pre-sales and other goodies.

New York - Thirty-three million Americans age 12 or older -- or 13% of the population -- listen to an Internet radio station during the average week, up from 29 million a year ago, according to a report from Arbitron (NYSE: ARB) and Edison Media Research.

New York - CBS Corp.'s (NYSE: CBS) CBS Radio announced on Friday an agreement with Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL, to power AOL Radio and drive advertising sales for the service's more than 200 streams, in addition to its own more than 150 radio station streams and custom channels.

Amsterdam - Fabchannel.com, a provider of live concert webcasts, announced on Tuesday that it has signed a deal with Universal Music Netherlands, for the rights to offer live recordings of Universal artists performing in Amsterdam. The concerts will be offered for global viewing on the ad-supported Fabchannel.com site, and also offered for sale as video and audio downloads both through the site and Universal Music's own channels.

Chicago - Wilco announced on Thursday that it will offer a live webcast of tonight's final performance of its five-night residency at Chicago's Riviera Theatre. The webcast is slated to begin streaming at 7:30 p.m. Central time, and will be available from a link below.

Salinas, Calif. - Web-based music radio services generated 4.85 billion total listening hours in 2007, a 26% increase over 2006, according to a report from AccuStream iMedia Research.

San Francisco - Following eight years in business, including the past four turning a profit, San Francisco-based Granicus, a provider of government webcasting and public meeting management software and services, said that it has raised $10 million in its first round of funding from JMI Equity.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents the interests of large webcasters including AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo, has hired Greg Barnes, former senior counsel to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, to become the association's legislative counsel and director of government affairs. "We look forward to having Greg on board as we continue to help digital media companies achieve a regulatory and business environment that supports industry growth, creative and technological innovation and greater consumer enjoyment of digital content," DiMA executive director Jonathan Potter.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents large webcasters like Yahoo, (NASD: YHOO) AOL (NYSE: TWX) and Microsoft (NASD: MSFT), has filed a brief asking the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to refer the question of whether or not an interactive music stream needs a separate "reproduction" license, in addition to the performance license they already pay, to the U.S. Copyright Office, Billboard reported. "Digital music services believe that digital performances are like radio and should require a performance license only," DiMA said in a statement, referring to the license that both webcasters and radio broadcasters pay to performing rights organizations ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

Washington - Large Internet radio purveyors AOL (NYSE: TWX), Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK), Pandora and Live365 earlier this week sent a letter to key lawmakers in Washington, asking them to consider performance royalty parity for broadcast, satellite, cable and Internet radio. The letter was addressed to U.S. House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), whose committees are currently re-evaluating the broadcast radio industry's royalty rate exemption.

New York - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) and AOL (NYSE: TW) may shutter their Internet radio services, facing a 38% increase in music royalties at the hands of the Copyright Royalty Board, Bloomberg reports. "We're not going to stay in the business if cost is more than we make long term," Yahoo Music general manager Ian Rogers told Bloomberg. Echoing the same tone, AOL Radio managing director Lisa Namerow told Bloomberg, "If the rates remain as they are, it would be very challenging to sustain a business that is profitable."

Washington - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has released a briefing schedule for the appeal of webcasting royalty rates filed by various webcasters, which will begin in February but is not likely to be resolved until sometime in 2009, according to the Broadcast Law blog.

San Francisco - New York Senator and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton expressed support for continued negotiations between webcasters and SoundExchange over royalty rates for streaming music online, in an e-mail reply sent to constituents who queried her on the issue, Wired News reported. "I will continue to monitor this situation with the hope that they produce a fair and equitable resolution for all sides," reads the e-mail from Clinton, published in full on Wired.com. "Please be assured that I will continue to follow this issue closely and that I will keep your views in mind in the future as the situation plays out."

New York - Slacker, a provider of personalized Web radio and a complementary portable player, said on Wednesday that it has partnered with Spin magazine on a custom radio station for the cover story of its October issue on punk music. The Spin Punk station will include cover art and artist profiles.