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The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) announced that they have a healthy congressional lead over the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the legislative race to instate a tax on radio stations.

Jelli, the crowd-sourced radio platform, has just gone national.

All you audiophiles should prepare to get loud for a very good cause.

The vile, rubbery sea monster known as Verizon Wireless is going to institute tiered pricing on data plans some time next year.

The Swedish digital music service Spotify is coming to Finland. The company's premium streaming service will be offered exclusively through Scandinavian telecom company TeliaSonera, which will offer consumers the chance to use Spotify "across broadband, mobile, and IPTV services." 

There were 650+ bands booked by Sonicbids to play at SXSW this year. Now, one of those bands is going to get even luckier. Sonic bids announced a competition for a tour of 4 cities and a $4,000 sponsorship to be awarded to the Sonicbids SXSW band that makes the best rockumentary about their road to SXSW.

Here's the video:

The fight over radio tax between record labels and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has just gotten dirtier.

Like “big fat pig” dirtier.

The MusicFirst Coalition recently posted a new ad campaign on their new website which insinuates that the piggish National Association of Broadcasters is acting like a big corporation “expecting a free handout.”

This ad is the latest offensive in a war that goes back to the '80s, when Frank Sinatra made an effort to institute a royalty for over-the-air play. Today, it’s “Why Can’t You Behave?”

If the Beatles Rock Band wasn’t enough, or if you're not completely pumped for Jimi Hendrix, then maybe Lady Gaga’s debut on Rock Band will get you back to standing in front of your television with your plastic guitar.

The International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) released a report yesterday designed to convince musicians that record labels are still vital to their success as artists.

Building on the potential three strike internet disconnection ban being debated in Europe, BBC recently conducted a poll of 27,000 people across 26 countries aimed at gauging the value of the Internet. The BBC found 87% of those polled across the world believe that Internet access should be “the fundamental right of all people.” This comes as no surprise, as last week we announced that the European Union has officially declared themselves staunchly against cutting Internet access to repeat piracy offenders.

Here are a couple more interesting facts from the poll:

The British Phonographic Institute, a three-strike-friendly record label trade group (whom we've already mentioned today), is lobbying for British ISPs to bundle music subscriptions into their broadband packages. The tactic is meant to spur ISPs on to more wholehearted support for the three-strikes policy currently under consideration in Parliament.

In the words of BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor:

"It's increasingly clear that it isn't smart [for an ISP to just] be a 'dumb pipe'… ISPs such as Virgin Media have recognized that legal digital music services offer a more exciting and profitable future than continued widespread piracy.”