A recent report by the NPD Group shows that Apple iTunes has moved into the 3rd position for music retailers in the U.S., beating Amazon.com out of the #3 spot.

The report surveyed 40,000 people to find that in the first quarter Apple carried a 10% market share trailing Wal-Mart with a 15.8% and Best Buy with 13.8%. Both Wal-Mart and Best Buy sell a majority of their music as physical CD’s, but the study also noted a decline in CD sales while digital music sales overall continues to rise.

Even though Amazon dropped to the 4th position, its music sales actually increased from previous studies, but just not as quickly as its rivals. The music sales competition will be interesting to see for the remaining quarters of 2007 as Amazon has since started selling DRM free digital music through their …

Say you’re a DJ chillin’ out with your crew when the urge to start a rave overtakes you. While our attempt at rhyming may sound as implausible to you as the likelihood of a rave spontaneously occurring within your vicinity, Hercules’ new Mobile DJ MP3 lets you indulge in your fantasy and make it easy to mix your beats.

Visually this baby looks like it fell from the same molded white plastic future presented in “2001: A Space Odyssey” but its main asset is the unit’s lack of cords letting it be totally free from stationary decks and thus makes for easy travel from your place to wherever the party is getting started. The dual mixing deck lets you mix, loop, fade in, distort and insert special audio effects and then plug it in to a computer for later downloading as MP3 or WAV files …

If you’re looking for a device that will allow you to stream wirelessly the songs you have in your phone or digital music player straight into your home entertainment system, Kyocera’s Bluetooth Music Gateway may fit your bill.

Measuring 87 mm x 74 mm x 20 mm and weighing just 3 ounces and about the size of a mobile phone, the Gateway plugs into your system’s RCA port and then plugs into your music player via the headset jack so you can hear your tunes aloud in your home. If you have a MP3 or phone equipped with Stereo Bluetooth, you can stream the songs wirelessly to the Gateway. You can also send the music (or listen to the radio or TV audio too) to any wireless Bluetooth enabled headset speakers and listen that way too, if you’ve got someone else living with …

Today in London EMI CEO Eric Nicoli and Apple CEO Steve Jobs held a press conference to announce that EMI will be offering their entire digital catalog of music to consumers DRM-free. That’s right, DRM-free.

If you’re not familiar with this topic, that does not mean that the music is free, in fact it will cost slightly more, but it does mean that there are no digital rights management rules associated with the songs when you download them, which restrict which devices or how many devices that the songs can reside on. This, according to Jobs, will be no different than buying a CD and ripping it yourself.

This is really big news in the digital music industry. For quite some time now music download services like Apple iTunes have been getting some heat due to the …

Goodness knows how many times you’ve missed your favorite of part of the song because of some loud noise or distraction. Thankfully, the invention of noise canceling headphones has come to our aid.

Recently released by Sennheiser is a brand new line of noise canceling headphones called the PXC 450s. Said to provide a ‘cloak of silence’, this high tech gadget will block out 90% of all that annoying noise around you, allowing you fully concentrate on whatever you may be listening to. The PXC 450s will run off of AAA batteries.

A neat little feature that is included is a TalkThrough button. Basically, you push the button so that you can hear what is being said, speak you mind, press the button and return to your music. In fact, it’s just a fancy way of saying a pause button isn’t it?

There new pair of …

If the theme songs and music that plays during some of your favorite games is not already burned into your subconcious and playing in your mind during all hours, Electronic Arts has now made the music from its best selling games available for purchase and download through the iTunes store so you can take them with you wherever you go.

The new addition to the EA website is at EA Trax which lists featured artists, news, videos, screenshots and of course music from some of the most popular EA games of past and present. Games are listed with links to the download through the Apple iTunes Store with currently listings for games such as Madden NFL , Burnout and Need for Speed to name a few, with specific songs such as Snoop Dogg’s version of “Riders …

Recently released from Makita is the brand new BMR100 FM/AM Job Site Radio. Weighing in at approximately 9.2lbs, this radio delivers “rich stereo sound from two powerful 3.25 side-firing drivers.” Similar to the other Makita tools, the BMR100 is designed with a rugged weather resistance for tough jobsite conditions with a protective bumper design for additional durability. Should you ever happen to drop an anvil on this baby, it should be able to withstand it.

Even against an accidental bucket of water poured on it, the BMR100 should be able to hold its own. The super durable radion runs for “two working days” or 16 hours on a single charge, which in most cases I’m familiar that’s really only one working day but still pretty good nonetheless. It includes volume and tuning dials for easy control and has 10 preset FM/AM buttons.

Although …

Siren of Japan has new MP3 player called the DP100, designed in a compact frame for personal audio on the go. The player comes with a lanyard that fits through a loop hole built into the frame of the player so it’s easy and secure to carry around.

The Siren DP100 comes in 3 capacities of 512MB, 1GB and 2GB and has an internal rechargeable battery that allows up to 18 hours of continuous playback. A USB connection allows the transfer of music files, and the DP100 can double as a mass storage device to hold files of any type through a simple drag and drop from Windows. That same USB connection charges the battery, and an AC adapter is included for a straight AC charge if needed.

The OLED display looks to be nothing fancy, showing active file information and the remaining charge on …

Macrovision CEO Fred Amoroso has written an open letter to address his feelings on the letter that Steve Jobs wrote regarding digital rights management (DRM) of Apple iTunes music along with offering his companies services to manage the Fairplay DRM.

In the letter from Jobs last week, he had addressed concerns rising with iTunes consumers about the DRM restrictions on downloaded music, which include the number of devices and computers that a single downloaded music file could be transferred to. While Apple is not the only company that has a DRM that restricts its downloaded music to its own music players, Apple has been under increased ridicule due to the large popularity of iTunes and iPods.

In his letter Jobs had also proposed that they do away with a DRM all together and allow purchased music …

In a speech at the 3GSM World Conference in Barcelona on Wednesday, Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group, spoke out in support of a digital music DRM (digital rights management), most likely in counter attack to the open letter from Steve Jobs of Apple regarding their DRM.

“DRM and interoperability are not the same thing,” said Bronfman. “We believe in interoperability…Consumers want it and should have it. We at Warner, and I hope the rest of the music and content industry, will make it as easy as possible to achieve interoperability.”

Apple has been under some ridicule lately for its music DRM which restricts music downloaded from Apple to be used only on iPods, as well as restricts the number of computers and iPods that the music files can be transferred to.

Some argue that this system is unfair and …

This MP3 player from TASCCAM is designed with the guitar player in mind, housing many features which make it easier for the up and coming talent to jam along with the player.

The MP-GT1 model from TASCAM is an MP3 player small enough to fit into your pocket but large enough to run for 9 hours on one set of batteries and hold 240 songs. Music files can be loaded through a USB connection from your computer straight to the player.

Features of this specialized musicians MP3 player include the ability to slow down the playback without changing pitch, looping playback to hear a particular “riff” repeatedly, and the ability to manually change the pitch of a song to match that of your guitar. Having no ear for pitch whatsoever, I have to assume this is a good feature.

The player also has a …

In a twist on the Comic Book Guy’s famous catch phrase, we are giving praise to some of the best, if not the best, earplug style headphones that we have seen lately. The M-Audio IE-20 XB Reference Earphones are professional grade in-ear style earphones, but they are more than that. They have a large bass driver that makes these earphones really stand out.

Usually earphones lack the low end oomph that larger head phones have. This is not the case with the IE-20 XB, however, as they deliver great bass performance, as well as high-end and mid-range. The XB stands for Extended Bass and M-Audio means it. The IE-20 XB has two dedicated speakers built in, one for low frequencies and one for mid-range and high frequencies. The earphones themselves are …

Napster has been named the exclusive provider of subscriptions for AOL Music. Napster will be replacing AOL Music Now as the only music subscription service integrated into the popular music destination.

The AOL Music Now service currently has 350,000 subscribers. These customers will be notified that their accounts are being migrated to Napster and will be given the option to opt out of the service. The companies expect the migration to be completed within the next 60 days.

Napster, a pioneer of digital music, now offers an expanding portfolio of Web-based music listening and sharing applications, as well as various subscription services.

This is a final move in AOL’s shift away from a fee-based music to focus on free music supported by advertising. AOL will continue promote the Napster service throughout the popular AOL Music site.

A new cold war of sorts is brewing in the online music industry. The Russian music store AllofMP3.com is planning to continue business as usual even as US lawsuits are pending.

The US music industry is claiming that AllofMP3.com is operating illegally. AllofMP3 claims that it is following all Russian laws.

AllofMP3 offers MP3 downloads that are free of DRM (Digital Rights Management) schemes that most US music download sites use. The company also charges much lower rates sometimes by as much as half or lower. For instance, we found Gwen Stefani’s “Wind It Up” for 42 cents on AllofMP3 versus 99 cents on iTunes (www.applie.com/itunes).

In a recent post on its blog AllofMP3 claimed that the court case against AllofMP3 was “imprudent.”

They continued:

“AllofMP3 understands that several US record label

…

Well, this is pretty much exactly how it looks. It is an MP3 music player that looks like a PEZ dispenser. No, you cannot load it with candy since the AAA battery and the tiny 512 MB player are in the way.

This particular version is the “PEZ Pal Boy”, but there are more versions on the way according the the web site. The player will hold about 120 songs, is compatible with USB 2.0, Windows and Mac’s and plays MP3, and WMA files. It can also be used as a a USB drive for files.

If you tip back the head of the MP3 player/dispenser, the on/off switch is where the candy would normally come out. The feet flip open to load the battery, and there is a play button and USB interface on the side next to the raised PEZ lettering. The player …