Universal Music Group was early to tap into the whole music gaming phenomenon by partnering with Tapulous to make iPhone apps for artists such as Lady Gaga and Souja Boy Tell ‘Em. Now it’s branching off and working with others to create even more gaming applications. The record label’s latest…

If you were hoping that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek would use his South by Southwest Interactive keynote to announce a launch date for the U.S., no such luck (although Rafat has a source who says possibly end of May). Ek’s biggest bit of news: Spotify now has more than 320,000…

Spotify’s newest carrier partner is… well, actually, it’s an old one. The music service is today announcing it will be carried by Finnish telco TeliaSonera over its broadband, mobile and IPTV services. But this is really just an extension of the deal it announced in October with the telco’s Swedish…

The long-rumored Sony (NYSE: SNE) Playstation phone is now becoming a reality. Sony is developing a new lineup of handheld products, including a smartphone that would be capable of downloading and playing PlayStation games, as well as connecting to Sony’s online media platform, reports the WSJ, which quotes people familiar…

Thumbplay has hired an exec away from Apple’s iPhone ranks to bulk up its team as it attempts to transform the ringtone company to a full-track music download service for the phone and PC. Pablo Calamera, who oversaw the launch of Apple’s MobileMe cloud services, will serve as the company’s…

The BBC unveiled its mobile application strategy today at Mobile World Congress today, saying that it will kick things off with three iPhone applications and then ramp up quickly on all mobile platforms. The news comes as independent developers are already aggregating BBC content into their own Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)…

Social music startup TuneWiki is getting even more backing, this time from DOCOMO Capital, the venture arm of Japanese mobile company NTT DOCOMO. TuneWiki, which said just a week ago that it had raised a second round of funding led by Motorola (NYSE: MOT), says that DOCOMO is making a…

—Shazam: The mobile-music-recognition service provider has launched an interactive ad service. Advertisers using the Shazam Audio Recognition Advertising (SARA) program can put audio “links” into their adverts, which can be accessed by viewers pointing their phones at the ads, sending the audio to Shazam’s service, and getting customised results—for example…

The increasingly popular mobile music app Shazam is further distancing its new paid-for apps from the free version that made its name… It’s introducing new features - tour information for tagged artists and starting Last.fm internet radio stations from those artists’ music - that will only be available in the…

Sprint is taking some another step to up its game in mobile content. A day after saying it would launch an app store powered by GetJar, the mobile operator today announced a deal with RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) to streamline its music services. The deal will see Sprint (NYSE: S) using…

MusiGames, a Brazilian-based mobile games company, said it has raised $1.5 million in capital and grants to develop more music titles for Apple’s App Store. The announcement is being made today at Macworld in San Francisco. Participants in the round include Criatec Fund, a Brazilian seed capital group, and Brazilian…

The groundwork has already been laid and now it’s official: RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) is spinning off music service Rhapsody in the hopes of giving both companies a better chance at success. Real will reduce its interest in the Rhapsody America joint venture to below 50 percent to match Viacom’s, giving…

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Ventures is leading a round of funding in social music startup TuneWiki; HillsVen Capital, Novel TMT, Benchmark Capital and Intellect Capital Ventures (the venture fund of Nordic phone company TeliaSonera) also participated in the funding. TuneWiki, which started out as a desktop app and site nearly two…

—Thumbplay Signs 20 New Content Providers: New York-based Thumbplay now has 8 million tracks licensed for its new music subscription application. It recently added 20 new content partners, including Beggars Group, Merge Records, Redeye Distribution and Tunecore. The app only works on BlackBerrys and is invitation only, but its scheduled…

After Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) unveiled its hotly anticipated tablet computer yesterday, not surprisingly, some of its biggest competitors dismissed the iPad as much of a game-changer. Nintendo has faced steep competition from Apple’s iPhone and iPod, which have turned out to be powerful portable gaming devices much like the Nintendo…

Clarification: The company now says they are only looking to raise $12 million, with the potential to reach $13.8 million if an over-allotment of shares is exercised. The $64.3 million figure in SEC filing, it says, is “because it’s required under the rules, but there’s really not a scenario to…

For some critics, the lack of participation from content companies at yesterday’s iPad launch threw some cold water on predictions for how the new device could help the media business regain revenues lost to the web. But if you looked hard enough, publishers were there and, more importantly, some have…

No single kind of digital service is going to save the music business on its own, but every little helps. Doing its bit, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) came to the Midem music-biz event having totted up the number of paying customers it has for unlimited subscription music - the model that…

iPhone app piracy may have cost Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) an estimated $450 million (really?) - but mobile pirates may also provide app developers with a rich new income stream, according to a fascinating insight from the stage at the Midem music conference in Cannes… Rhythm game Tap Tap Revenge saw…