Grooveshark’s lengthy legal battle with several of the world’s major recording labels, who accused the popular music streaming service of mass-copyright infringement, may soon come to an end. Several of the company’s (former) employees have agreed to a “consent judgment” which prohibits them from infringing the major labels’ copyrights or working with similar services in future. No settlement has been reached with the parent company yet, but the recent developments cast doubt over Grooveshark’s future.

How was Google able to secure deals for All Access, which was unveiled at Google I/O on Wednesday, while Apple has been stymied? For starters, Google chose to offer a standard subscription music service very similar to those built by Spotify and Rdio, and that meant the terms had largely been established, according to multiple sources close to the talks. Apple, on the other hand, is pioneering a hybrid web and radio service — one that resembles Pandora but melds it with some on-demand features, the sources said. The licensing agreement had to be created from scratch.

Dhingana is stepping up its efforts to monetize its streaming service for Indian music after it introduced video-roll advertising, initially for its iOS app only. The company — which has offices in Pune, India, and Sunnyvale, California – launched its advertising platform in August 2012 and it also offer a paid-for subscription for those who prefer an ad-free experience. The company says that its new ‘Premium Video Advertising’ feature is targeted at brands looking to reach its music-loving users with “TV quality commercials”.

What is this highly publicized battle between GEMA and Germany's nightclubs really about? How did a conflict about music licensing fees become an existential threat to large swathes of German nightlife? What the hell is GEMA, anyway? Even if you live in Germany and you know all about GEMA, you might have been surprised at the intensity of the anti-GEMA protest movement as it coalesced over the summer of 2012. Nobody took to the streets when similar changes in fee structure were introduced for live concerts a year ago. And there was only a mild media buzz two years ago when clubs across Berlin ran into trouble with Berlin's tax authorities. What made the GEMA-Tarifreform such an emotional issue? Throughout 2012 and early 2013, there was a lot of confusion, distortion, misinformation and partisan rhetoric surrounding GEMA and its new licensing fees. And so, it seems like the time is right to look back and set the record straight.

Google held a session today at I/O 2013 about how to make money on Android, and in the initial few minutes it shared some updated stats around Google Play revenues and how those are progressing. Not surprisingly, the big growth is coming with in-app purchases, though Google’s recently launched subscription model is also making headway. Google said that its in-app revenues through Play are up 700 percent since the same time last year, which is reflected in the top apps as listed by highest grossing titles in the Play rankings. Subscriptions, which just launched around 12 months ago, is also making headway, doubling inbound revenue each quarter according to Google. Some apps which use subscription as their exclusive revenue model are now cracking the top grossing list, like Pandora.

Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer thinks that what Blogger did for Google, Tumblr could do for her aging Internet company — make it relevant and a major player on the modern web. And for that she is willing to spend a billion dollars (or perhaps higher) in order to buy New York-based social publishing and sharing platform. The news of the pending deal was first reported by AllThingsD and later Adweek reported rumors of their deal as well. At least a couple of our own sources say that the talks are serious. We have also learnt that the deal is being championed by CEO Mayer who according to Kara Swisher, has met with the team from Tumblr. We have learned that Yahoo’s New York-based corporate development team is leading the process, though like all deals, talks could fall apart.

iTunes has received a small yet noteworthy update in the form of version 11.0.3 on both the Mac and PC, featuring a new MiniPlayer, the ability to view album art while in the Songs view, and a condensed view of multi-disc albums for those that still use CDs. Apple shares that the new MiniPlayer includes a “beautiful new view” which displays the album artwork related to whatever song you’re playing. The MiniPlayer also now includes a song progress bar. In addition to the above updates, Apple details that this version offers “performance improvements when searching and sorting large iTunes libraries” — surely a welcome change.

There is nothing worse than going to a gig and having to watch it through the smartphone screen of the guy in front of you. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's know this (and banned smartphone cameras from their latest tour), I know this, you know this, we all know this. So don't do it. An app launched today in beta -- soundhalo -- might just convince you to hold off on blocking the views of others by offering downloads of high-quality gig footage straight to your phone as the gig is actually happening. It's being premiered at Brixton Academy tonight and tomorrow for two shows by hip young hitmakers Alt-J, winners of the latest Mercury Music Prize. Video and audio feeds at the venue will stream to soundhalo's database -- as soon as each track finishes, it'll appear in the app for download.

So far, all this amazing stuff has happened in a closed private beta, available to just 1000 fans in London, but the ethos of Detour is that of openness. A more direct and open channel between artists, promoters, and fans benefits everyone and we have been working like crazy to get Detour ready for many more fans and artists to join. I’m excited to say that today we are coming out of private beta and opening up to any fan in London. Very soon we’ll launch Detour across the UK and have been thrilled at the emails we’ve been getting from fans and promoters across the world asking when Detour would come to their city.

Over 92% of Merlin's labels had streaming revenue growth in 2012. Over half of the labels increased streaming revenues between 50% and 100%. Seven percent of labels said streaming revenue remained flat and less than 1% said streaming revenue decreased. The labels’ digital download revenue also increased in 2012, although to a lesser degree. Nearly 64% of labels reported gains in download revenue while download revenue remained unchanged for about 23% of labels. Nearly 14% of labels experienced a decrease in download growth. The digital growth fueled overall business growth: 73% of labels had an increase in total revenue and 21% saw their total revenues grow by over 50%.