Shuffle makes a splash

The iPod shuffle claimed 43 per cent of the worldwide flash player market in February, Apple said yesterday, quoting figures from NPD Techworld. Its success has boosted Apple's share of the market for all portable music players to around 70 per cent; over 90 per cent of all hard drive players sold are iPods Apple sold over five million iPods in the last three months, its best return yet, but declined to give separate figures for the three varieties. The iPod-compatible iTunes Music Store has between 70 and 75 per cent of the global downloads market. ...more

eMusic quashes Amazon sales talk

eMusic has denied that is up for sale. Recent reports suggested that Amazon was interested in buying the DRM-free music service. In an interview with US business magazine Forbes, eMusic's president and chief executive David Pakman acknowledged that he had been approached 'by everyone' but insisted that the company can maintain its position as the number two digital music retailer while remaining independent. ...more

EMI lines up with Zune

EMI has signed a deal to provide music videos to be pre-loaded on Microsoft's forthcoming portable media player, Zune. Along with the other major record companies who have seen Zune prototypes, EMI is said to be impressed by the player's wireless capabilities and a feature that allows some sharing of music between users, features currently absent from the overwhelmingly market-leading iPods. 'Apple has been an important partner in building the digital music market but any well-funded serious entrant has got to be good news for the artists and industry,' Jeff Kempler, executive vice president of EMI unit Virgin Records America, told Reuters. ...more

Google launches AdWords over the airwaves

Google is bringing its AdWords programme to digital radio listeners in the states, offering a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers. The search giant has announced an agreement with XM Satellite Radio - a satellite radio service in the States, with 7 million listeners - to open up advertising slots on non-music channels. The automated system, which has undergone months of trialling, is designed to provide targeted messages to the listeners. ...more

Bagle variations reaching epidemic proportions

The epidemic of email threats that download the Bagle virus continues apace, according to antivirus experts. Maksym Schipka, senior antivirus researcher at MessageLabs, said 'The quantities are huge to be honest .. ...more