99-cent tunes

The price holds. After a long negotiation, "Apple Computer and four major record labels have renewed their deals to sell songs on iTunes for 99 cents," CNET reports. "Record labels would like to charge different prices for more popular or newer songs," CNET says, but "a New York investigation into whether record labels have worked together to set the prices for digital music is expected to keep the 99-cent model intact for the foreseeable future." On the illegal side, the RIAA is targeting 12 "hot spots" (e.g., Austin, Chicago, Miami) where "multi-state criminal operations are producing and selling bogus CDs," Internet News reports . On the file-sharing front, the RIAA and MPAA have sent letters to 40 US universities saying "they want the colleges to filter traffic to stop what they describe [the] an 'ever-evolving problem'" of the illegal sharing of music and movies, the BBC reports. In other music news, British music producer Mark Vidler may be taking mashups mainstream, the Christian Science Monitor reports. "One of Mr. Vidler's recipes goes like this: Take a dash of Lionel Richie's piano from 'Hello,' sprinkle in the vocal from The Police's 'Wrapped Around Your Finger,' pour in the melody line of Elvis Costello's 'Watching the Detectives,' add a slither of Peggy Lee singing 'Fever,' and garnish with a pinch of back-up vocals from The Hollies and Led Zeppelin." Meanwhile, two popular '70s and '80s bands – the Allman Brothers Band and Cheap Trick – are suing Sony BMG for a bigger piece of the royalties pie, the Wall Street Journal reports.