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.

Los Angeles - Spot Runner, a Web-based advertising service that helps local businesses create ads and place them on TV and radio, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $51 million in new financing.

Burlington, Mass. - Burst Media, a provider of online advertising services and technology, announced on Tuesday the launch of a new online advertising network aimed at independent websites. The network -- called Burst Trendsetters Network -- will focus on brand advertisers who want to reach 15-34 year olds online. Burst Media said its network includes 100 websites that reach 7 million unique visitors and delivers more than 51 million web impressions per month.

New York - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO) has sued the Chicago Transit Authority and sales agent Titan Outdoor for pulling ads for its "Grand Theft Auto IV" game without any explanation, Reuters reports.

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.

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 - 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.

Just over a week ago during lunch at the New Communication Forum, I had a great conversation with Tim Tozer from Radian6 (a social media monitoring service) about the real metrics that marketers are looking for and the increasingly common difficulty of finding metrics that are actually useful and offer actionable insights. Many people who have to contend with web analytics tools today will tell you that it is no longer an issue of having the technology available to measure things online, but rather the analytical ability to hone in on the metrics that really matter.

Shanghai - China’s online video game market is expanding rapidly, with sales forecasted to grow from $1.7 billion in 2007 to $6 billion in 2012, according to a survey released by Niko Partners today.
“This market is attractive because it is leading the way for online games,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners, according to VentureBeat.

New York - Sales of Blu-ray standalone players plummeted 40 percent from January to February, then rose only 2 percent from February to March in spite of winning the high def format war, according to a report by research firm NPD Group. This is bad news for the home entertainment industry, which has put its hopes into a drastic increase in adoption of the next generation high def DVD players after Toshiba dropped its support for the HD DVD format earlier this year in favor of Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Blu-ray format.

Mountain View, CA - CNET reports that Google (NASD: GOOG) announced on its AdWords blog that Google TV Ads, a program that has been in beta since June 2007, is now available to all U.S.-based advertisers. The program allows advertisers to reach over 13 million households nationwide on 94 channels. Like with Google’s AdWords service, which places ads on its Internet search pages, advertisers using Google TV Ads will bid for placement using an online tool that shows estimated costs to run a particular campaign and allows advertisers to increase or decrease their bids before placing them.

Mountain View, Calif. - Confirming earlier reports, Web-based messaging and chat service Meebo announced on Thursday that it has raised $25 million in new financing, led by JAFCO Ventures.

New York - Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) on Wednesday announced a number of new digital initiatives, including a new YouTube channel that will host video submissions for prospective new models, and the creation of a Playboy Audience Network of video sites through which it will distribute content. Along with YouTube, Break, Veoh, Howcast and Metacafe will host video highlights such as the "Playboy Radio Minute," with content from its show on Sirius; and a video blog featuring one of the star's of E!'s "The Girl Next Door." The company said it also partnered with Mixercast to develop ad-supported content and contest widgets.

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 - Virgin Mobile USA on Wednesday announced a ringtone promotion with fast food chain Burger King and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), to create a "Virgin Mobile Ringtone Value Menu" that will offer a selection of ringtones for just $1 each. Artists whose songs are included in the promotion include Flo Rida, Mana, Buckcherry, Estelle and War.