The talks come as Apple is separately racing to offer a portable, full-featured, tablet-sized computer in time for the Christmas shopping season, in what the entertainment industry hopes will be a new revolution. The device could be launched alongside the new content deals, including those aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music, according to people briefed on the project.

Apple is working with EMI, SonyMusic, Warner Music and Universal Music Group, on a project the company has codenamed "Cocktail", according to four people familiar with the situation.

The Financial Times' sources point out that the device will have a 10-inch touchscreen and run iPhone OS. The tablet will be able to connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi like the iPod touch, and—according to publishers—it will also have a book marketplace. Yes, that's Jeff Bezos' worst nightmare.

Like always, remember our rule about rumors: Don't trust them—although secretly I hope they are right. Or else:

[Financial Times via 9to5]

While EMI is already offering DRM-free music on iTunes, they represent only 10% of the music market. With "the big three" on board, a majority of iTunes' music could be DRM-free. But the new pricing options may be the real cost of it all to consumers. While catalog titles will now start at 79 cents, the studios will be able to price music above 99 cents (to undisclosed amounts)—though CNET's source says that all music will eventually return to 79 cents.

So while it sounds like Apple finally caved to the music industry, at least consumers may get something decent out of it. Hopefully we'll hear about it all today at the keynote. [CNET]

Michael Arrington points out that a $5 tax—besides essentially turning music into a service requiring us to perpetually suck on the industry's teat—would double its size, from $10 billion to $20 billion. So of course the labels are all for it. It's guaranteed revenue that would flood their coffers like never before. Warner's plan calls for the cash stream to flow into a pool that'll be split between copyright holders and artists. But we all know how hard labels want to screw artists.

And as Arrington points out, it would basically freeze innovation in the industry, meaning labels would be able to ream them that much harder. Not to mention, thanks to the fine print, we'd probably no longer own our music. But that's the whole point. [Portfolio via TechCrunch]

Don't expect the entire Warner catalog to be up this instant. (Though Led Zeppelin, a longtime digital holdout totally is.) It's a pretty massive one, so Amazon is rolling it out over the next couple of days, and with new content going up every ten minutes. Don't expect everything to be the same price, either—as you probably guessed, variable pricing is in play.

Despite Warner being one of the more reluctant labels to jump on the DRM-free MP3 bandwagon, unlike Universal, Amazon's director of digital music Pete Baltaxe told us that Warner is "not treating this as a test, they are making their entire catalog available." Universal has offered its DRM-free tracks to some retailers as an experiment. Regardless of how dissimilar the Warner and Universal deals sound, we don't think we'll see tracks from either of them popping up on iTunes anytime soon.

Well, what about that other MP3 wallflower, Sony? Predictably they "can't comment on any particular discussions with Sony," though they "talk to all the labels all the time." Our prediction? With every other major label at the party, we doubt Sony's going to cry alone in the corner for too long. [Gizmodo]

AMAZON MP3 ADDS MUSIC AUDIO DOWNLOADS FROM WARNER MUSIC GROUP

Customers can now choose from more than 2.9 million MP3 songs on Amazon MP3, including music from Warner Music's renowned catalog of artists

SEATTLE AND NEW YORK—December 27, 2007—Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) today announced that DRM-free music audio downloads from Warner Music Group are now available to customers on Amazon MP3, Amazon's a la carte MP3 digital music store where every song and album is playable on virtually any personal digital music capable device. Beginning today, songs from WMG's digital audio catalog will be available for purchase and download from Amazon MP3. In addition, Amazon and WMG will make available to consumers digital music products such as album bundles containing exclusive tracks.

"Our customers are delighted with our DRM-free MP3 service. We have received thousands of emails from our customers since our September launch thanking us for offering the biggest selection of high-quality, MP3 audio downloads which play on virtually any music device they own today or will own in the future," said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President of Digital Music. "With the addition of great Warner Music Group content, our customers will discover even more of the music they love on Amazon MP3."

"Consumers want flexibility with respect to what they can do with music once they purchase it, and we want them to have that flexibility, which is why we're pleased to offer our artists' music on Amazon MP3," said Michael Nash, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development for Warner Music Group. "We believe that giving consumers the assurance that the music they purchase can be played on any device they own will only encourage more sales of music. Amazon shares our vision with respect to offering feature-rich music based digital products, and we look forward to making available an array of exciting new digital products over time that will transform the relationship between and among consumers, labels and artists."

About Amazon MP3

Launched in September 2007, Amazon MP3 (www.amazon.com/mp3) offers Earth's biggest selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads with more than 2.9 million songs from over 33,000 record labels.

* Every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store is available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software. Amazon's DRM-freeMP3 format enables customers to play their music on virtually any personal digital music capable device—including PCs, Macs , iPods , iPhones , Zunes , Zens —and to burn songs to CDs for these customers' personal use.
* Most songs available on Amazon MP3 are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents, with more than 1 million of the over 2.9 million songs priced at 89 cents. The top 100 best-selling songs are 89 cents, unless marked otherwise. Most albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99. The top 100 best-selling albums are $8.99 or less, unless marked otherwise.*
* Every song on Amazon MP3 is encoded at 256 kilobits per second, which gives customers high audio quality at a manageable file size.
* Buying and downloading MP3s from Amazon MP3 is easy. Customers can purchase downloads using Amazon 1-Click shopping, and with the Amazon MP3 Downloader, seamlessly add their MP3s to their iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries.

* Taxes may apply in certain jurisdictions.

About Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group became the only stand-alone music company to be publicly traded in the United States in May 2005. With its broad roster of new stars and legendary artists, Warner Music Group is home to a collection of the best-known record labels in the music industry including Asylum, Atlantic, Bad Boy, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Lava, Nonesuch, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Rykodisc, Sire, Warner Bros. and Word. Warner Music International, a leading company in national and international repertoire, operates through numerous international affiliates and licensees in more than 50 countries. Warner Music Group also includes Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's leading music publishers, with a catalog of more than one million copyrights worldwide.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc., (Nasdaq: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as health and personal care, jewelry and watches, gourmet food, sports and outdoors, apparel and accessories, books, music, DVDs, electronics and office, toys and baby, and home and garden.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, and the Joyo Amazon websites at www.joyo.cn and www.amazon.cn.

To go all Energizer bunny and keep beating the drum, the only way they're going to right the ship to continuing sailing on oceans of green is take their own CEO's diatribe on the piss-poor state of the industry to heart. His past remarks show he's clearly less clueless than the CEO of the largest record label, and he's managed to keep Warner as the only Big Four label still publicly traded.

On the other hand, for all his acuity, perhaps what he really needs is some common sense and maybe some face-time with us common folk consumers who just wanna be able to buy his product with reasonable terms (no DRM) at decent prices. [Yahoo!/Reuters, Flickr]

We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won."

He then went on to wag his finger at the mobile industry for offering content that's "boring, banal and basic," telling them they need to step up or suffer the same fate as his own realm:

"People want a more interesting form of mobile music content. They want it to be easy to buy with a single click - yes, a single click, not a dozen. And they want access to it, quickly and easily, wherever they are. 24/7. Any player in the mobile value chain who thinks they can provide less than a great experience for consumers and remain competitive is fooling themselves."

Anyways, we totally agree with him up to that point: The music industry should get with the program, open up new avenues of sales with reasonable prices, decent bitrates and no DRM. Tossing "ringtones, videos and other combinations" in with albums isn't really more choice, and it's not going to save your business. If you're so enthralled with the iPhone "throw[ing] all the accepted notions about pricing, billing platforms and brand loyalty right out the window," why don't you follow suit?

And yeah, the mobile industry should offer up content we actually want, without gouging the hell out of us just or locking it down tighter than Maid Marian's knickers in Robin Hood: Men in Tights just because it's on our phone. [Apple Insider, Flickr]

Way to go, guys. We have to hand it to you—every time we think you can't go any lower or give us fresh reasons to hate you, you go exceed all of our expectations. Who's next, an aborted fetus? Thanks for adding more fuel to the boycott fire each and every day, we appreciate it. Though you really could just stop, we'd appreciate that too. – Matt Buchanan

Warner Music sues paralyzed stroke victim [Boing Boing]
RIAA Boycott [Gizmodo]

Just a small heads-up to let you know that if you have a Skype phone, you'll soon be able to buy any of Warner Music Group's songs to use as ringtones. Labels include Atlantic, Asylum and Rhino so get ready for your fave Bjork and Black Sabbath songs to ring in your ears. It's always been a dream, I know. No specific details yet, but we'll keep you updated.

Warner Music to sell ringtones for Skype [Reuters]