Approval by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, would represent a victory for Sony, removing the possibility of a longer review of the deal’s antitrust implications. Such a review could add several months to the process.

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Internet video of the Sunday evening show became an instant sensation on Monday morning. That response is helping push the possibility of a virtual Tupac tour in coming months.

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The agreement represents an effort to resolve a standoff that dates to 2009, when the World Trade Organization ruled that China’s policy of allowing 20 foreign films a year to be shown there violated international trade rules.

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The 94-year-old investor got in and out of the movie business three times over the course of four decades, profiting handsomely as he repeatedly bought and sold Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. studio.

On the sidelines since 2005, Mr. Kerkorian is now on the hunt to buy a film studio, production company or other entertainment business, said Jay Rakow, an executive at Mr. Kerkorian’s investment vehicle, Tracinda Corp., during an interview.

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The music companies, Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment and Access Industries Inc.’s Warner Music Group, joined in an amended complaint to a suit filed last month by Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

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A replacement hasn’t been named, but one is expected before the end of January, according to a person familiar with the matter. Since May, Warner has been owned by Access Industries Inc., controlled by Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik. Stephen Cooper, a corporate turnaround specialist, replaced Mr. Bronfman in August as Warner Music’s chief executive.

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When it starts on Wednesday, the “app finder” is likely to include reviews from magazines and blogs that allow users to listen to albums as they read reviews, the people say. One app will display lyrics as a song plays, while another will generate a list of upcoming concerts by artists in a user’s Spotify playlists and offer links to buy tickets.

Since Stockholm-based Spotify is opening its app platform to any developer, much as Apple does for its iPhone app store, more functions are likely to arrive soon.

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Users of Google Music, as the service is tentatively named, could recommend songs in an online library to Google+ contacts, who in turn would be allowed to listen to those songs once for free. The songs would then be available for sale as MP3 downloads, probably for around the usual 99 cents each.

Digital-music services from Spotify AB and Research In Motion Ltd., too, have recently begun using social networking as a word-of-mouth marketing vehicle. It is too early to know how successful these efforts are at recruiting new customers and retaining existing ones, people in the music industry say, but they add that early signs are encouraging.

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Mr. Iger, 60 years old, will add the additional title of chairman of the board in March 2012, and will remain executive chairman until June 2016, at which time he is to retire from Disney at the age of 65.

The company said a successor had not been chosen.

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Last year, the classical-music charts were dominated by two distribution companies: the world’s largest record label and a five-year-old, Stockholm-based digital company with 43 employees, no performers under contract and virtually no profile in the broader music business.

The contrast between the giant Universal Music Group and the tiny X5 Music Group AB offers insight into the future of music distribution.

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And when word broke yesterday that RIM was working with the music labels to launch yet another music service, it was time to reach — slowly, because at this point who really cares? — for the bat again.

But it’s possible that RIM may not have a half-bad idea here: A scaled-back feature that gives some of its remaining customers something they’d like, and not much more.

As described by The Wall Street Journal’s Ethan Smith, the new service will give users access to a mere 50 songs at a time, and will let them share the songs with their friends via BlackBerry Messenger.

Is that it? For RIM’s sake, I hope so. Because at a certain price, it sort of makes sense: Yes, everyone says they want access to an unlimited world of music. But lots of people listen to the same small group of songs over and over.

And if RIM is smart — I know — they won’t position it as a competitor to Apple’s dominant iTunes, or the subscription services like Spotify that have yet to take off. They’ll sell it as a cool way to show off your favorite few songs of the moment, and tell your friends about it.

Again, if this works, it will depend on pricing — a couple bucks a month would make sense — and execution. And RIM hasn’t given us much reason to think it will get either element right. But the modest scope of RIM’s ambitions — pulling this off sure isn’t as hard as making a credible iPad competitor — gives them a shot here.

And if BBM Music does work, it wouldn’t be a reason to buy a new BlackBerry, but it might make you happier you own one. And that would be a modest win for a company searching for any kind of victory, anywhere.

And now, just because I can, a Rick Rubin Queen remix from back in the days when mobile phones were shoe-sized:

The tentative deal, which would value Warner at around $3.3 billion including assumption of debt, wasn’t finalized, these people cautioned, and could be beaten by a higher last-minute bid.

Spokesmen for Warner Music and Access Industries declined to comment.

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The marketing deal being discussed by San Francisco-based Zynga and the singer involve Lady Gaga’s third studio album “Born This Way,” due to be released May 23, though the exact details of their agreement are still being worked out, these people said. There are more than 250 million active monthly players of Zynga’s online games on Facebook, which include FarmVille and CityVille.

Spokeswomen for Zynga and Lady Gaga declined to comment.

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If such a deal were to come to fruition it would add a new competitor to the television industry by increasing the degree to which Netflix vies with premium-cable television channels like Time Warner Inc.’s HBO.

The discussions for the series–a political drama called “House of Cards” based on a British miniseries–is part of a growing behind-the-scenes push by Netflix to secure from Hollywood production companies more original shows that will run initially on Netflix’s streaming Internet service, according to a person familiar with Netflix’s plans. Original series like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and “True Blood” have been a big part of HBO’s growth over the years.

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Such steep discounts are a cornerstone of Amazon’s strategy to gain traction in a market in which iTunes remains the dominant player. At the same time, a debate has arisen among music labels about whether such discounts risk undermining the value of their products.

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Beatles songs are finally available in Apple’s iTunes store. But ATD’s Peter Kafka says that iTunes is all about apps these days, while digital music sales have flattened out–and even the Fab Four may have a hard time changing that.

The deal was outlined by Jeff Jones, chief executive of the Beatles’ corporate entity, Apple Corps Ltd., and Roger Faxon, CEO of EMI Group Ltd., which owns and distributes the band’s recordings. The meeting took place at EMI’s London headquarters this past July 14, less than a month after Mr. Faxon took the reins at EMI.

Under the terms, Apple Inc.’s digital media store is the Beatles’ exclusive online retailer at least until January, Mr. Faxon said in an interview Tuesday, after the much-awaited deal was announced. It marks the first time that Beatles songs have been available for digital-download sales.

“Jeff and I sat down shortly after I arrived” as CEO of EMI, Mr. Faxon recalled. “We agreed this really was the moment to do this. After that it was very easy to cut a deal.” They code-named the initiative “Bastille,” as it coincided with Bastille Day.

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A federal court has permanently enjoined the New York company from distributing its software, which lets users upload and download free, often illegal, copies of songs and other media. But earlier this week a new version, “LimeWire Pirate Edition,” surfaced online, purportedly created by a “secret” team of software developers.

“We demand that all persons using the LimeWire software, name, or trademark in order to upload or download copyrighted works in any manner cease and desist from doing so,” said a statement on LimeWire.com. The statement also asserted that the company is “taking all steps to comply with the injunction.”

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Irving Azoff, Live Nation Entertainment’s colorful executive chairman, has long been known in the music industry for his short fuse. Now thanks to Twitter, anyone who feels like it can get a taste of Azoff’s legendary temper.

In less than 24 hours, during which he’s posted just eight tweets (and changed his profile picture twice), @irvingazoff has already gotten involved in a series of surreal microblog brawls: with celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, Billboard business columnist Glenn Peoples (”u r a jerk,” Azoff tweeted) and rival concert promoter Randy Phillips, whom Azoff implied was a habitual liar.

Azoff apparently signed up for a Twitter account earlier this summer, but until Tuesday night, he had barely used it. Then, out of the blue, he let loose a tweet that set the music world—industry and fans alike—ablaze: “so if you want ticket prices to go down stop stealing music.”

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The network said that in the 10 days since the iPad’s debut, its TV-show watching app has been downloaded 205,000 times, giving the Walt Disney Co. (DIS) unit a presence on nearly half the 450,000 devices that Apple says it has sold. Moreover, users have watched at least part of 650,000 television episodes using the app, generating “several million” ad impressions, according to an ABC spokesman, although the precise number is still being calculated.

Disney-ABC television President Anne Sweeney says the network is pleased with the initial results.

Advertisers on the iPad so far include Clorox (CLX), Lexus, AT&T (T), Heineken, Sears (SHLD) and Target (TGT). For now, Disney is delivering the same kind of 30-second spots seen on television.

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The key vehicle for the move is Apple’s newly acquired music-streaming service La La Media Inc. for which Apple paid $85 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Where Apple’s iTunes requires users to download music onto a specific computer, Lala.com lets users buy and listen to music through a Web browser, meaning its customers can access purchases from anywhere, as long as they are connected to the Internet.

Apple is considering adopting that same model for songs sold on iTunes, a change that would give consumers more ways to access and manage their iTunes purchases–and wouldn’t require them to download Apple’s software or their purchases.

That new business model extends Apple’s grip on the music business, giving it the ability to sell music through search engines and other Web sites and broaden its reach beyond people who come to its virtual store.

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FoxPop, a technology that makes its debut next month, works like a specialized Twitter feed, offering up a string of trivia, photos and shopping suggestions during selected movies.

Users can run the application on their computers or their iPhones or iPod touches. It syncs with the movie, displaying material that is supposed to be relevant to what is happening on-screen at that moment.

FoxPop is to make its debut Dec. 1 with the home-video release of “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” this year’s sequel to the 2006 Ben Stiller comedy. Fox hired a marketing company to write a string of informational tidbits and quizzes about the movie’s stars, props and setting, which is filled with artworks and artifacts from the museum’s archives.

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London-based EMI on Tuesday filed suit against Bluebeat.com, accusing the online retailer of violating copyright law by offering the British band’s entire catalog without permission.

Also named as defendants in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, were Bluebeat’s parent company, Santa Cruz, Calif.,-based Media Rights Technology Inc., and Media Rights Chief Executive Hank Risan.

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The technology, code-named Keychest, could contribute to a shift in what it means for a consumer to own a movie or a TV show, by redefining ownership as access rights, not physical possession.

The technology would allow consumers to pay a single price for permanent access to a movie or TV show across multiple digital platforms and devices–from the Web, to mobile gadgets like iPhones and cable services that allow on-demand viewing. It could also facilitate other services such as online movie subscriptions.

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Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Zune, is leaving the company to take a position at Universal Music Group, according to people familiar with the matter. One of these people said Mr. Stephenson will become chief marketing officer at Universal’s Interscope Geffen A&M Records after Labor Day, reporting to the label’s chairman Jimmy Iovine.

Reached by phone while on vacation, Mr. Stephenson confirmed his departure from Microsoft and his new job at Interscope, saying he’s looking forward to returning to the entertainment industry. A Microsoft spokeswoman didn’t have an immediate comment.

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A couple of years ago, MySpace was the hottest thing on the Web. But that was a couple of years ago. Now the social network has gone cold: It is losing audience to Facebook and other sites and may well lose a very lucrative search deal from Google (GOOG). Fixing MySpace is the chief priority of Jon Miller, the former AOL boss who was brought on as News Corp.’s (NWS) chief digital officer in March. About a month after that, Miller brought on former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta and a new management team to run MySpace, displacing the site’s founders. Time for Van Natta to tell us just how he intends to save what was once one of the most important sites on the Web. And time for Miller to explain the digital future for the rest of News Corp.–which happens to own the All Things Digital Web site and conference.

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