Digital-music companies and music publishers have reached an impasse in royalty negotiations, clouding the future of online subscription services such as those from Yahoo, RealNetworks and Napster.

The two sides have been negotiating on and off for years over the amount of money that songwriters and music publishers should get from these subscription plans, which allow listeners to download or stream an unlimited amount of music per month.

The services have long since struck agreements with record labels, and download stores such as Apple Computer's iTunes have their royalties settled. Subscription services have been operating under a temporary agreement with the publishers since 2001, however.

"The problem is that it's been four years, and we have not had one penny distributed to songwriters or publishers," said David Israelite, chief executive officer of the National Music Publishers' Association. "The digital subscription market has been inhibited by the lack of certainty."

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A report by Parks & Associates suggests that portable music subscription services will need to drop below $10 dollars, for people to be interested.

The report, which includes data from Parks Associates' multinational consumer study Global Digital LivingT, finds that 41% of MP3 player owners in the U.S. are not willing to spend more than $10 per month for a music service subscription. With comparable service costs presented in local currencies, 62% in the U.K. cap their interest at this amount, with 49% in France, 52% in Germany, and 56% in China expressing similar price inhibitions. Furthermore, on average, one-third of the MP3 player owners across these five nations believe these music services should be free.

Given these findings, the entry of low-cost services such as Yahoo! Music could reshape the marketplace. Currently in the U.S., portable music subscriptions from companies including Napster or Rhapsody cost $14.95 per month.

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Online music fans will for the first time be able to legally share tracks by big names such as Oasis, Beyonce, David Bowie and Elvis Presley after the artists' record label signed a ground-breaking deal with a new internet service provider.

In what some see as signalling a dramatic shift in the way consumers buy music, the provider, Playlouder, has licensed acts from SonyBMG, the world's second largest record label, and is confident that the other two big record labels, Universal and EMI, will follow suit.

Subscribers will be charged £26 a month for a high speed broadband internet connection, similar to the price charged by BT, with the added attraction of being able to share as much music as they want with other subscribers at no extra cost.

Because there will be no restrictions on the format in which the traded music is encoded, users will be free to transfer songs to any type of digital music player, including the market leading Apple iPod, or burn them to CD.

However, not only will consumers have to pay for music which they currently acquire free, albeit illegally, but they will also have to change their internet provider.

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Anyone who has ever run their fingers over the keys of a synthesizer, or danced to pounding electronic music in a nightclub, owes a debt to Robert Moog.

Moog, one of the early pioneers in electronic instruments, died Sunday at the age of 71, after being diagnosed with brain cancer in late April.

An inventor and entrepreneur, Moog came up with an early synthesizer that was among the first electronic instruments to be widely used by musicians, and was ultimately deeply influential in the development of many modern music genres, from rock to electronica.

"Bob shaped music in deep and meaningful ways by changing how music could be produced and ultimately, how it would sound," Michael Adams, president of Moog Music, said in a statement. "He was a musical pioneer for the love of it, and musicians everywhere have had the opportunity to expand their own creative horizons with Bob's inventions."

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Warner Music Group is creating a new music-distribution mechanism that will rely on digital downloads instead of compact discs.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music's chairman and CEO, said Monday that the new mechanism will be called an "e-label," in which artists will release music in clusters of three songs every few months rather than a CD every few years.

"We're trying to experiment with a new business model," he told an audience of about 150 people at a Progress & Freedom Foundation conference here. "We're going to try to see where this goes."

The e-label will permit recording artists to enjoy a "supportive, lower-risk environment" without as much pressure for huge commercial hits, Bronfman said. In addition, artists signed to the e-label will retain copyright and ownership of their master recordings.

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This new CD from Ian McNabb will be available online only, strictly limited to 1,000 copies, from September through Townsend records. All tracks will have annotation by himself, thoughts, explanations etc on each individual track.

"The album "Before All Of This" was written and recorded over a period of two years and was originally intended to be two separate albums. In the end I dropped a few tunes from both albums and made them into one. The music featured on this disc is comprised of what I consider to be the best alternate takes and unreleased songs from the sessions as well as the three tunes that were used as 'B' sides to the dual format "Let The Young Girl Do What She Wants To" single. "They Will Find You Out" makes it's first appearance on CD here, having only previously been available as the 7" 'B' side. I hope you enjoy this "BAOT" supplement, which I believe stands as a strong album in it's own right."

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... In describing his consumption behavior after having got an iPod, he said that his "music metabolism" increased.  Since having his collection digitized and easily available on the iPod, he listened to more 'deep tracks' that he hadn't listened to in a long time (courtesy of the shuffle function).  However, he soon got sick of his library of tracks and wanted to hear new/different music.

I think this is a widespread phenomenon.  Digital music players enable people to listen to more of their existing collection, but they soon get tired of it and want to listen to other stuff.   Music rental services like Rhapsody, Napster & YMU facilitate this.

I believe music rental as a concept is here to stay, that it will become a sizeable segment of the music consumption landscape and that it will increase the music metabolism of its users. One side effect is that indie labels & artists will gain exposure (since people will tire of the stuff they 'know'). If music rental becomes widespread, many artists and labels will make less money from recorded music and will have to rely on performed music and ancillary products, which I believe labels should get a piece of.

What other consequences have I missed from an increase in one's music metabolism?

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The Internet has been described, by enthusiasts, as a global conversation, a giant encyclopedia or a 24-hour news service -- and by detractors as the world's most technologically advanced time waster. What peeves record-company executives, however, is how many people see it as a free music store.

One intriguing alternative is the subscription plan allowing unlimited downloads that is currently offered by Napster, Yahoo and Rhapsody. (Each also maintains a traditional $1-a-song service.) Microsoft, Target, MTV and AOL have also announced plans to get into this subscription business, and even Apple is rumored be interested.

Will any of these approaches be enough to quell the musical thirst of the millions who, at the moment, get their music from free file-swapping services? The trend is shifting, but only infinitesimally. Despite all of Apple's success selling songs online, a recent study by NPD Group, a market research company, says that nearly 10 times as much online music is swapped as is bought.

One thing, though, is already clear: the downloadable-music business is still in its fumbling, bumbling infancy. It may take the music stores several more years of hammering away at their remaining problems -- software complexity, steep pricing and holes in their song catalogs -- before the recording industry can think of the Web without wincing.

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