March 31 - 9:05am EDT   Mireth Technology has released an update to its audio file converter, burner, and player software for Mac, Music Man 2.7. Music Man is completely integrated digital media application for ripping, burning, and playing CD tracks. This release adds a number of improvements including enhanced WMA support (WMA, WMA Pro, and WMA Lossless codecs), and the ability to burn audio to DVD. Compatibility with Leopard has also been addressed. The update is free for existing users, and priced at $25 for a single license. [full story]

January 7 - 10:25am EST   Online music service Napster, which has for some time only sold tracks in a protected Windows Media Audio format, will soon begin selling music in the form of unprotected MP3s, according to Reuters. Starting in the second quarter of 2008, at least a portion of the files sold or offered via subscription will be unprotected, in what may perhaps be the most significant such announcement since Amazon's digital store launch. Napster claims to have some 750,000 subscribers, who make use of both plans and permanent downloads. [full story]

January 4 - 9:40am EST   Apple has become a monopoly, a recent lawsuit against the company alleges. The case was filed by one Stacie Somers, who says that the company's dominance in media players, and online music and video, violates the Sherman Antitrust Act; specifically, the Somers complaint revolves around Windows Media Audio, which is notably unsupported by both the iPod and iTunes, despite the fact that it is one of the most common music formats for sale, and it is said that Apple could easily afford a license from Microsoft. Somers estiamtes the maximum cost of a license at $800,000. Some vendors of WMA tracks include Best Buy, Yahoo, Napster and Virgin Digital. [full story]