I signed up today for Spotify. This is a music service that like all the best innovations can be explained in a few words. You download the client (Mac or Windows), which has a Mac-like user interface for searching and playing songs. You type in a search, double-click a song in the result list, and it plays. When it finishes, it plays the next one in the list.

Here is what is going on at CES on Music. The execs are unimpressed with iTunes' 3G downloads raising a question if the mobile is where the new money is at?

Univision Online Inc., the interactive subsidiary of Univision Communications Inc., the nation’s leading Spanish-language media company, and Zune, Microsoft Corp.’s end-to-end music and entertainment service, today announced the launch of an exclusive music download service via Univision.com, to be powered by Zune.

A McAfee advisory warns of fake MP3 / MPG files containing malware, rather than the expected music or video content. The files have been appearing on various file-sharing networks, including Limewire and eDonkey.

The Slip, the latest Nine Inch Nails album, is now available - and 100% free - via the group's website at nin.com.

On Tuesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced that it has sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, saying that Microsoft's plans to shut down the licensing servers for their defunct MSN Music store has "lost the trust" of their customers and that Microsoft's suggestions for workarounds are "insufficient."

Nine Inch Nails have released their new album, Ghosts I-IV, as a free download under a remix-friendly Creative Commons license. The band is selling a selection of collectible, high-margin media with the music on it, and will presumably tour and sell tickets to people who got turned on by the freely copyable music.

A fascinating new paper from the Journal of Consumer Research investigates the seven-year war on music downloading that unfolded among corporate music executives and music downloaders.

Make that song running through your head run instantly through your wireless phone. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced that wireless customers will soon be able to download more than 5 million full-track songs over the

The largest U.S. record companies will bring a suit against illegal downloads to court for the first time Tuesday. Jennifer Pariser, head of litigation and antipiracy at Sony BMG, portrayed the federal copyright trial as a fight for survival.

The launched much-anticipated digital music store with nearly 2.3 million songs is not protected against copying. The store, Amazon MP3, lets shoppers buy and download individual songs or entire albums. The tracks can be copied to multiple computers, burned onto CDs and played on most types of PCs and portable devices, including Apple Inc.'s iPod and Microsoft Corp.'s Zune.