Mobile music may be claiming a larger share of the overall digital music sector than ever before, but the trend seems to have bypassed Warner Music Group. Amid the results for its second fiscal quarter, which ended March 31, WMG reported that its revenue from mobile music products - ringtones, ringback tones and full-track downloads - fell 17.6% sequentially. According to a MocoNews post on the results, WMG's mobile music revenue dropped from $56.4 million in Q1 to $46.5 million in Q2.

That might all change in the future, though, if Warner keeps doing exclusive deals with the carriers. During the earnings call, WMG chief Edgar Bronfman crowed about the company's recent promotions with Verizon Wireless and Vodafone surrounding the new Madonna album "Hard Candy." As a result of offering the single "Four Minutes" a day before it was available anywhere, the song became Vodafone's best-selling track yet.

MyMusicSite.com is launching a new service that includes an editable ringtone feature that lets users create their own ringtones from music posted on the site by independent artists.

The company sees the service as a new way for up-and-coming bands and artists to interact with fans and market their music. Each time the ringtone plays it will be an opportunity to promote the artist, the company says.

In addition to letting users create unique ringtones from their songs, indie musicians can sell individual songs, albums, production tracks and ringtones on the social network-style site.

Whenever someone launches a countersuit against the RIAA's ridiculous barrage of file sharing lawsuits, the RIAA always tries to dismiss them—but a Florida judge was having none of it. As a result, the RIAA will have to answer the charges of extortion, trespass, conspiracy, unlicensed investigation, and computer fraud and abuse that have been leveled against them there, Slashdot reports:

"The RIAA's unvarying M.O., when hit with counterclaims, is to make a motion to dismiss them. It did just that in one Tampa case... but the judge upheld 5 of the 6 counterclaims. The RIAA quickly settled that one. When a new case came up in the same Tampa courthouse before the very same judge, and the same 5 counterclaims were leveled against the record companies, I opined that 'it is highly unlikely that the RIAA will make a motion to dismiss counterclaims,' since I knew they'd be risking sanctions if they did.

"Well I guess I underestimated the chutzpah—or the propensity for frivolous motion practice—of the RIAA lawyers, as they in essence thumbed their nose at the judge, making the dismissal motion anyway, telling District Judge Richard A. Lazzara that his earlier decision had been wrong. "The judge wasted no time telling the record companies that he did not agree."

Qtrax, the legal P2P music start-up, really has signed a licensing agreement with a major label this time, CNET News reports:

"On Tuesday, the company announced it has inked a deal with Universal Music Group, the largest of the four major record companies. The partnership comes four months after the labels denied the company's claim that they had agreed to supply music for the site."

They were pretty low-key about this announcement, quietly issuing a press release. That's as opposed to the star-studded, gushing party they threw in January to celebrate a bunch of lies.

Mobile content provider Thumbplay has inked a deal with EMI that gives it exclusive rights to offer a remix of "Violet Hill," a new single from Coldplay, as a ringtone, Mobile Entertainment reports.

The ringtone remix is meant to whet the appetites of Coldplay fans as they await the release of the band’s next album, due out this summer.

It's available through most major US carriers.

eMusic, the venerable digital subscription service that's been making a little noise lately about its chief competitor, just announced its launch in Canada.

As Macworld reports, eMusic claims to be the largest retailer of independent music in the world, with more than 33,000 independent labels and more than 3.5 million tracks covering everything from classical to jazz, rock, pop, hip-hop, blues, country and more. It also uses no digital rights management (DRM) encryption for its tracks, making the service hugely desirable for anyone who wants to use their cell phones or brand-agnostic portable MP3 players to buy and listen to music.

The report said that Canadian service to eMusic is priced at CDN$11.99 per month for the Basic rate (30 downloads), $17.99 for the Plus package (50 downloads) and $23.99 for Premium ($23.99). Meanwhile, audio books are priced at CDN$11.99 for one or $22.99 for two.

Back in early March, Nine Inch Nails followed Radiohead into the world of pay-us-if-you-want-to digital downloads when it offered the first volume of a four-volume album for free on various torrent sites and charged incrementally to download the other three volumes.

Unlike Radiohead, which said that "In Rainbows" will be its only freebie, NIN has posted yet another free album online, Billboard reports.

"The Slip" is a 10-track album that's now available as a free download in a number of formats from the band's Web site. "Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me," is the message NIN frontman Trent Reznor posted on the site.

Fans who want to pay for the record can buy it on CD or vinyl in July.

Hastings Entertainment, whose entertainment superstores let consumers rent or buy DVDs, CDs, video games and "boutique" products, is joining the digital revolution - finally. The retailer has inked a deal to launch a music and video download store powered by Neurotic Media's Amplified Stores hosted download service.

The e-store, which is slated to launch in July, will sell major- and indie-label MP3 and WMA files and music videos as well as ringtones and mobile wallpapers. It will also support mobile product text-to-short-code offerings.

MediaPost reports that Web companies AOL, Yahoo and RealNetworks owe ASCAP, the songwriters group, multimillions in royalties for music streamed online, according to a federal court ruling.

"Federal District Court Judge William Connor in White Plains, N.Y. decided this week that the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), which represents more than 320,000 members, is entitled to 2.5% of all music-related revenue from 2002 through 2009. The court still has to determine the precise amount owed, but ASCAP estimates the total could reach $100 million."

The report said that AOL, Yahoo and Real Music had been streaming music without a definitive royalty agreement for years because a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice dating back to 1941 requires ASCAP to grant a license to any company that requests one.

OK, so what's the big deal? It's this: terrestrial radio stations pay only 1.615% of their gross revenue as royalties to ASCAP, but Connor listed several reasons why AOL, Yahoo and RealNetworks should pay more, the article said. Each company "can offer its customers the ability to stream virtually any selected song, music video or individually designed playlist, at any time on-demand," Connor wrote. "Terrestrial radio stations cannot offer the audiovisual programs with feature, theme and background music ... Nor can they offer customizable radio broadcasting, the ability to skip songs, or the ability to stream entire CDs on demand without commercial interruption."

This ruling could have an adverse effect on other Internet radio sites (which are already in trouble) as well as streaming media on cell phones.

Through a partnership with Burger King and Warner Music Group, Virgin Mobile USA is offering select ringtones for a dollar.

The Virgin Mobile Ringtone Value Menu, powered by Burger King, offers ringtones from a wide variety of WMG artists like Buckcherry, Casa De Leones, Danity Kane, Estelle, War and Flo Rida, to name a few. Presumably, the promotion is aimed at Virgin Mobile's target audience of young adults who may have actually heard of more than one of the participating artists.

Virgin Mobile USA customers can download the ringtones from the VirginXL WAP deck on their phone or via the MVNO's Web site.