July 7 - 5:20pm EDT   Owners of Internet radio stations and music label groups struck a deal on Tuesday that should allow online outlets to continue streaming music. The agreement is now a scaling one and will ask larger stations to pay either 25 percent of their revenue or a per-track rate based on the year, ranging from 0.08 cents per song in 2006 through to 0.14 cents per song in 2015, depending on whichever is greater. Those companies that make less than $1.25 million per year will be asked to pay between 12 and 14 percent of their revenues. [full story]

July 3 - 12:20pm EDT   imeem is gradually building its own music store that may afford it independence from Apple's iTunes or Amazon MP3, an investigation has found. Normally, those buying permanent copies of music from the site must go through an Amazon or iTunes link and buy it off-site; quietly, however, the company has been adding direct-download MP3 purchases of its own for certain artists, such as Iron and Wine. The payment system is direct and uses either credit cards or PayPal. [full story]

June 1 - 3:00pm EDT   Microsoft today launched a range of changes to the Xbox 360's video features. Now rebranded as a Zune service, the former Xbox Video Marketplace will now provide videos in full 1080p and promises an "instant-on" feature that starts streaming videos almost immediately on faster connections. The extension will be available in all countries and should come along with an expansion of video rentals and purchases to 18 countries from the current 8. [full story]

April 6 - 2:10pm EDT   Yahoo today unveiled a reworked, public beta version of Yahoo Music that significantly changes the company's philosophy on content. The new version serves as a central hub for third-party music services and will let users buy songs from a number of sources, including Amazon and iTunes. It likewise collects Internet radio streams from Last.fm and Pandora as well as music videos on YouTube. [full story]

March 24 - 5:00pm EDT   Last.fm on Tuesday announced some parts of the world will see changes as to how the service works, as the service will no longer be offered free of charge. Subscribers in the US, UK and Germany are not affected by this change, however. Users in all other countries will now need to pay a €3 (about $4) monthly fee, but all features of the service, including scrobbling, recommendations, charts, biographies, events, videos and others will remain in place. To hook subscribers, Last.fm will offer a 30-track free trial in the affected countries. [full story]

August 28 - 12:20pm EDT   Logitech on Thursday turned its attention to wireless audio courtesy of both a wholly independent Internet radio and speakers built just for notebooks. One of the first fruits of Logitech's buyout of Squeezebox, the Squeezebox Boom can pull and play unprotected music from any recent Mac or Windows PC on a local 802.11g Wi-Fi network but also picks up Internet streaming radio services entirely on its own, including largely free services such as Last.FM, Pandora or Slacker as well as a user's memberships to primarily for-pay services such as Rhapsody and Sirius' Internet streams. [full story]

July 25 - 4:40am EDT   A source close to the internet radio service Slacker alleges that the mobile audio device manufacturer is exploring the iPhone and BlackBerry as viable platforms, with an app "about ready to launch" on the devices. Laptop Magazine writes that the app supposedly will allow users to both stream and cache content for offline playback. The service functions similar to those of Pandora and Last.fm, in that users can hear recommendations based on their interests. [full story]

April 4 - 11:05am EDT   Bitcartel has released the v1.3 update to PandoraJam, its multi-purpose client for the Web-based radio service. Users can stream music wirelessly, record tracks and copy them to iPods, and send track data to the Last.fm social networking site. Program information can be delivered through Growl, as well as instant messaging apps including Adium, iChat and Skype. Owners of Apple Remotes can control Pandora at a distance. [full story]

January 23 - 1:20pm EST   One of the most popular social networking sites for music, Last.fm, says it is now letting users stream any music listed on the site free and legally. This is as a result of deals signed with EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony BMG, as well as "thousands" of independent labels, all of whom will receive a portion of the website's advertising revenue for each time a track plays. Artists, meanwhile, will receive a unique share of the ad revenue, paid directly. Acts can thus earn some money and exposure without being signed to a label. [full story]