Not that most Americans could care, but Nokia is pushing back the US launch of its DRM-laden Comes with Music service into 2010. CWM, you'll recall, is Nokia's "free" all-you-can-eat music service that bundles the 12-18 month music subscription cost into the inflated handset price -- although like any DRM music scheme, solutions already exist to break the CWM shackles. The delay is probably a wise move considering the weak state of Nokia's US partnerships required to offset consumer costs, lukewarm response to its latest handsets, and the fact that most US consumers share a broad distaste for DRM music. We'd rather see Nokia launch late but with a compelling proposition than launch now in blind adherence to a timeline.

We can't count the number of times we've heard from one random source or another that Apple was about to pull the trigger on a subscription-based / 100% DRM-free music service, and given how those have worked out in the past, we'd highly recommend taking this one with a huge dose of salt. French site ElectronLibre has it that Apple will finally offer up all of its music in DRM-free form starting as early as tomorrow, specifically calling out Sony, Universal and Warner as outfits who would join the protection-free cause. Should this happen, it would obviously be a dream come true for ole Steve, but we're still left to wonder what would happen to bitrates, prices and (potentially most important) all other iTMS content. Something tells us Hollywood isn't quite as ready to release its death grip.

Update: Don't hold your breath -- CNET says that while Apple is in negotiations with the bigs to go DRM-free, nothing's set in stone and changes are unlikely before the end of the year. Amazon it is!

[Via AppleInsider]

By our calculations, December isn't exactly "near" June, but it seems the rumors from long, long ago were at least somewhat factual. Without any fanfare whatsoever, Amazon has quietly fired up its MP3 store over in the UK, marking the first time the e-tailer has sold jams outside of the United States of America. The page doesn't look all that dissimilar to the one we Americans have grown used to, and of course, every one of the three million 256kbps MP3 files are DRM-free. At first glance, we're already seeing some tasty singles for £0.59 ($0.86) and whole albums for £3 ($4.39). Looks like it's about time to open that digital wallet, UKers.

[Via Pocket-lint]

Back by popular demand, it's the Walmart DRM servers! You heard right -- just days after Wally World announced its plans to turn the screw on its digital rights management servers, we're now being shown a big "just kidding." According to an e-mail (posted in full after the break) sent out to previous downloaders, the mega-corp be leaving things as-is for the foreseeable future, and it's all because of "feedback from the customers." In other words, those actions it urged you to take late last month are no longer required, though we'd still back those tracks up on CD just in case. Can't be too careful, you know.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Fresh off an extensive corporate decaffeination downsizing and a scaling back of its foray into music sales, it's a fair question to ask: just how ironclad is Starbucks' commitment to rolling out iTunes WiFi Music Store integration across its entire chain? We just happened to notice that the Starbucks page on Apple's site is now stone-cold gone, redirecting to the standard iTunes 8 stuff. You might say "no big deal, Apple's just playing down an agreement that's now been in place for a full year," but there's some other weirdness, too -- the company's iTunes WiFi Music Store at Starbucks FAQ, for example, still references the dead link. The partnership was kinda ill-conceived to begin with; getting access to the store meant hooking up to AT&T WiFi, which you wouldn't normally have configured unless you actually had an AT&T WiFi account. We haven't heard any official word here that the deal is in danger, but really, would anyone be welling up if it fell apart?

We put "free" in quotes for a reason, and now it seems the dark, nasty truth could be upon us. While pre-order prices on a retailer's website should be taken as pure speculation and nothing more, a couple of notable examples reveal £70 to £85 premiums on the Comes with Music version of two phones. For instance, Expansys offers up Nokia's N95 8GB for £394.99, but the CwM edition is a stiff £479.99. It's hard to say if the prices are jacked up by Nokia's directive, but again, we aren't getting too riled up until these things launch for real.

Take this one for whatever it's worth, but reportedly, Amazon's digital music store is set to open up shop this month. Apparently, the firm has "tentatively set a mid-September target for the launch of its music service," but unsurprisingly, no one from Amazon was available to comment on the hunch. 'Course, it's not like we've got long to wait before this gets proven one way or the other, right?

[Via Reuters]

Part of its new "Ovi" initiative of online mobile services, Nokia has announced its Music Store service today. Offering up a feature that seems like a perfect (if not obvious) use for HSDPA speeds on handsets, Music Store will offer seamless over-the-air music purchases and downloads directly from handsets combined with automatic two-way synchronization to the host PC. Other features include dynamic music recommendations and a "Mix Me" feature for creating playlists of recommended songs based on genre preferences. The192Kbps (DRM protected, only) WMA tracks will run €1 (about $1.36) with entire albums starting at €10 ($13.66); PC streaming will also be available for €10 a month. Look for it in Europe before the year's out, expanding to other markets thereafter.

In case you haven't heard, Nokia's blowing it out tomorrow, London style. We can't be certain what exactly is going to get announced until the curtain drops, but as the date and time draw near, we're hearing whispers from across the 'nets about what we can expect. Latest across our desks is this itinerary from The Nokia Blog, detailing the day's events; from it, we can see that the N81 and 8GB N95 are both on the docket, ensuring that the high end will be well represented. Also up are the rumored music store and the revamped N-Gage platform we've been hearing a solid buzz about recently. Stay tuned, we're just a few hours away now!

Joining Sony Ericsson in the growing list of cellphone-related patents unearthed today, it appears that Apple is doing a good bit of work behind the scenes to ensure that future iPhone users will be able to access and purchase tunes (and video?) from the iTunes Store. Apple's recently filed "Configuration of a computing device in a secure manner" patent lays out in a good bit of detail how users of a mobile device (wireless iPod?) could access the iTMS and perform "transactions." It goes on to speak of "digital signatures" that would presumably have to be validated before any unexpected downloads took place, and it also pictures a handset (props to Nokia candybars of days past) communicating with an actual PC, which then contacts the "content and commerce" servers on the other side of the wire. In other details, there's photo evidence that some sort of downloadable upgrades / expansions could be available, probably referring to future firmware updates that could be initiated through the iTunes application. Granted, the whole mess of legal jargon is a bit hard for the layman to truly grasp, and it seems that Apple was simply throwing out as many vague words and possibilities to encompass anything that actually gets decided, but be sure to hit the read link anyway for more textual confusion and pictorial delight.

What do you do when a judge slaps down your case and leaves you no hope whatsoever? Apparently, you just do whatever the heck you want, including ditching that whole "DRM" idea altogether. Yep, as shocking as this may sound to we Americans who are essentially forced to juggle some sort of DRM on a daily basis, the French VirginMega store is planning to offer up quite a few (200,000 to be exact) tunes directly through its online music that are devoid of any DRM whatsoever, and moreover, are encoded as 256kbps MP3 files. Of course, we aren't certain if these tracks are on major or indie record labels (aside from V2Music, who has already signed on), but regardless, this is certainly a move that will elicit smiles on those fed up with proprietary formats not playing nice with a wide variety of DAPs. So if you're not too picky on what tunes you listen to, and you're down with supporting DRM-free music regardless of genre, keep an eye out for the new catalog opening up to French users this March.

[Via DJing]

It wasn't too long ago that ole Steve opened a few of his famed keynotes boasting about just how much money was flowing into the iTunes Music Store, and now we've even got the option to snag feature films and TV shows if our wallet so desires, but it appears that even the streamlined, previously trendy iTMS may be on the decline. It's no secret that folks looking to pick up some new tunes would like to avoid DRM at all costs, but instead of seeing CD sales skyrocket, there's simply been a general decrease across the board in the whole "music buying scene." While digital downloads initially looked to fill the void, that theory seems to have been short lived; since January, the monthly revenue going into Apple's iTMS has fallen by "65-percent," with the average transaction size falling "17-percent." Notably, it's not just Apple suffering the cashflow drought, as Nielsen Soundscan reports that the digital download "industry as a whole" is steadily declining. Additionally, research has shown that the "median household" spent just "three dollars" about six times per year, showing that digital downloads aren't exactly "replacing the CD," but rather complimenting hardcopy sales at best. Interestingly, analysts are theorizing that the DRM-era may actually be winding down in favor of "blanket licensing," which was cast aside just years ago in favor of the "per purchase" approach. Discussions are already taking place in the UK to test the waters of such a bundle package, but we don't realistically expect the business model here to change overnight -- but considering the duties the RIAA wants to toss on anything digital, we wonder just how attractive a new plan will be.

UPDATE: Based on Forrester's reports, the data cited was from the first six months from the previous year, which leaves open the possibility of seasonal swings skewing sales.

We aren't exactly sure who's getting the shorter end of the stick in Universal Music's "deal" with Microsoft to extract a set fee from every Zune sold, but now its oh-so-mettlesome CEO is thinking of putting the same pressure on ole Steve. While Jobs has certainly had a rather sour relationship with the labels over the years, and has flat our refused to boost music prices (twice) at the iTMS, this predicament could be a fair bit stickier. Doug Morris is reportedly considering asking demanding a royalty fee from every iPod sold now that he's already won the war over at Microsoft, touting Universal's massive music collection on iTMS as something fairly essential to the program's continued success. But things aren't as clear cut as the previous deal, as the Zune Marketplace was (and still is) in a position trying to grab any sliver of market share it possibly can, while Apple's rendition basically owns the digital download realm already. While it's easy to assume that both companies will agree on a ridiculously small fee just to save face, it begs the question of other labels trying to cash in at Jobs' expense if this deal goes down -- but hey, what goes around, comes around, right?

Now that Microsoft has semi-abandoned PlaysForSure for their new closed Zune system in a bid to dethrone the iPod, all those puny device manufacturers, music store operators, and retail chains are starting to look rather silly for their commitment to "open standards" and "interoperability." So now SanDisk and Real are teaming up to integrate a special Sansa e200R Rhapsody-edition lineup of the #2 DAP manufacturer's popular Sansa line with the new version 4.0 of the Rhapsody music store, one of the more popular subscription-based services. The respective market shares of both companies pales in comparison to the complete dominance of Apple's iPod/iTunes combo, but the team-up might be necessary to survive in the current market climate. Having Best Buy's weight behind the partnership shouldn't hurt either. They'll be offering their own "Best Buy Digital Music Store," which will be powered by Rhapsody, and will be offering a free two-month unlimited subscription to purchasers of a SanDisk Sansa player, after which users can continue with the service for the same $14.99 Rhapsody To Go price currently charged. The service and players are available now (Best Buy's official launch date is October 15th), and the new Sansa versions will be priced as they are now: $180 for 6GB, $250 for 8GB.

Read - BestBuy to launch music service
Read - Sansa Rhapsody

We know that not everyone shares our need to obsess over every MP3 player to hit the shelves, but anyone who has ever set foot in an electronics store can probably recognize Virgin's Digital Starter Pack as a novelty. Features on the included 256MB player look sparse, consisting of a tiny screen with color-changing backlight, a voice recorder, and the seemingly useless ability to mess with the playback speed of your music. The £30 ($52) package also comes with a booklet explaining how to get started and a coupon code for five "free" song downloads from Virgin's own online music store, but unless you're insistent upon donating to Sir Richard Branson's hot air balloon fund, you'd probably be much better off dropping the same amount of dough on Napster's 1GB player . It might not have a backlight that changes color, but it will hold a lot more than 60 songs and won't get you laughed at by the gadget snobs.

[Via Shiny Shiny]