- AP - Some of Britain's biggest music stars announced Saturday they are banding together to demand greater control over their music in the digital age. - Reuters - Kid Rock has ended his resistance to digital music services by granting Rhapsody a four-month exclusive offering of his recordings. - NewsFactor - The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in Washington ruled Thursday that music publishers and artists are entitled to a royalty payment of just more than nine cents for each track sold online. In addition, the CRB established a royalty rate of 24 cents for content used as ringtones. - 
Reuters - Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker, launched its free music package on Thursday, issuing a challenge to Apple Inc's dominance of the digital music market.
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AFP - Apple dodged a potentially deadly financial bullet on when US judges held steady on digital music royalties paid by iTunes online shop.
- Investor's Business Daily - On Thursday, Nokia introduced its first touch-screen cell phone and launched its new music service, pushing into a market that Apple (NasdaqGS:AAPL - News) pioneered with its iPod, iPhone and iTunes. - AP - The federal Copyright Royalty Board on Thursday left the royalty that songwriters receive on sales of CDs and digital downloads at 9.1 cents per song for the next five years. - 
AFP - Nokia will start offering unlimited music through mobile phones in Britain on October 16, the Finnish company said Thursday, as it seeks to muscle in on a market dominated by Apple's iPod.
- NewsFactor - In an eagerly awaited decision, the Copyright Royalty Board announced Thursday that it will not increase the royalties paid by online music stores to members of the National Music Publisher's Association. The decision to keep the royalty rate at nine cents per song is the first ruling by the CRB on digital-music downloads. - Reuters - Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it would launch its new music bundle "Comes with Music" on the world's largest music market, in the United States, next year. - 
Reuters - The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia said on Thursday it has signed up EMI and many smaller labels to offer their tracks as part of Nokia's "free" music bundle "Comes with Music."
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AP - Bertelsmann AG said Thursday that it had completed the sale to Sony Corp. of its 50 percent stake in music venture Sony BMG in a $900 million deal.
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AFP - Japan's Sony Corp. said it completed the acquisition of German media giant Bertelsmann's 50-percent stake in their Sony BMG joint venture, the world's second largest recorded music company.
- CNET - A federal judge has dismissed a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by EMI Group against Michael Robertson, founder of MP3tunes and a , MP3.com and Linspire. - 
NewsFactor - On Thursday, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to vote on a request by the National Music Publishers Association to increase the royalties paid to its members for online music sales. Artists are currently paid a royalty of nine cents and want the CRB to increase it to 15 cents.
