It’s taken ten years, and a last leg up by way of an acquisition of a competitor, but Rhapsody says that it has finally reached one million subscribers for its music services in the U.S.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek took the stage at Spotify’s first-ever press conference to expand the music streaming service’s Facebook integration to a wider world of social networks and devices, arguing that sharing is the only thing that can save the music industry and stop piracy.

A big bump in business for bricks-and-mortar mobile shopping app Shopkick: the company has signed a significant deal with Old Navy clothing stores to add another 1,000 retail outlets to Shopkick’s network, bringing the total number of stores served today to 4,000.

Best Buy is one of the biggest and most influential retailers of mobile phones and other gadgets in the U.S.—impacting pricing for other retailers and influencing what products people buy—but it has stumbled in its effort to take that formula and repeat it elsewhere. Carphone Warehouse, the UK retailer that…

There were such high hopes for the Motorola (NYSE: MMI) Xoom when it was first unveiled at the beginning of this year: meticulously crafted, souped up with new features and… selling for the princely sum of $799. Up against the best-selling iPad, so full of content and almost half the…

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has been working hard at promoting its new and improved mobile effort, the Windows Phone 7 platform, in the past year. It’s chalked up new device partners, including a veritable biggie, Nokia; (NYSE: NOK) It’s updated the OS to cover initial shortfalls; and it’s made sure the…

Rhapsody yesterday announced the acquisition of long-term rival Napster from U.S. retailer Best Buy.  Rhapsody will retire the Napster brand and migrate the customer base over to its own service, with Best Buy gaining a minority stake in Rhapsody. It is a somewhat poignant end to one of digital music’s…

Even without the added pressure of a very inexpensive Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), the tablet market is bound to see some more contenders fall by the wayside joining HP (NYSE: HPQ) and its TouchPad. And so it came as little surprise today to see a report that…

Growth in sales of mobile devices wasn’t enough to offset declines in television and gaming at Best Buy, whose second-quarter results indicate that U.S. demand for consumer technology is tepid amid broader economic worries.

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q210	Net Inc. vs Q210
Best Buy	Release		Flat	30%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

A short-lived piece of computing history could soon be yours at an aggressive discount. Even though Best Buy continues to put HP’s “dead-tablet walking” TouchPad at the center of its redesigned tablet floor display area, it probably won’t be priced at its current level for much longer.

“Showing your phone to redeem a deal sucks,” said Tristan Walker, Foursquare’s director of business development, today at BIA/Kelsey’s Deals 3D conference. “We wanted to completely fix it and make it completely seamless, frictionless and magical.” Foursquare, Yelp and Shopkick are rolling out new mobile tools and launching new partnerships…

Intellectual Ventures, the world’s biggest patent-holding company, has sued a second set of companies, claiming its giant cache of intellectual property includes patents that give it the right to collect royalty payments on DRAM, the most common type of computer memory. That means IV is attempting to collect licensing fees…

Not to be outdone by Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and the rest of the cloud bandwagon, Best Buy is also expanding its own services up in the sky. Today it has launched a new music streaming offering—appropriately enough called Best Buy Music Cloud. On the…

Lodsys became infamous for demanding patent royalty payments from small app developers, but it’s now become clear that the company is asking for payment from all kinds of companies doing basic business online, big and small. Lodsys sent letters alleging patent infringement to Best Buy, Adidas AG, and WE Energies,…

After selling its streaming media players primarily online for the last three years, Roku will now start selling its set-top boxes in Best Buy stores. This is Roku’s largest retail partnership; it also sells its models through smaller chains BJ’s Wholesale Club, Fry’s Electronics and RadioShack. The deal demonstrates the…

Today Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has launched its newest onslaught to the digital media economy: an Android app store, appropriately branded “appstore”, beginning with nearly 4,000 apps and counting. Why will this latest app store be different from the rest, and what’s next for the giant e-tailer?

Looks like Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is looking to cast its retail net ever wider in the hunt for new Kindle users: the e-reading device is now being sold in the UK by Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy UK, an extension of a retailing deal the two companies started in the…

Hollywood held a coming-out party at CES on Thursday for its digital-content initiative, UltraViolet, complete with toasts from distribution executives at four major studios.

Rovi Corp. declared its intent to acquire Sonic Solutions late Wednesday in a deal worth $720 million. The combined company could have the clout to accelerate the adoption of digital distribution in video entertainment.