New Music Business Briefing: Napster Hides Free Streams, Webby’s Add Conference, 1M iPods & More

>>> Napster has quietly moved one of its more innovative services – free if slightly limited ad supported song streams – off the main Napster site to free.napster.com with no link provided from the main Napster site.  It would appear to be a move to marginalize a service found to be unprofitable or at least not beneficial to Napster’s core earner subscription music.

>>> Sansa has announced a new line of flash memory players designed to compete with some of the new flash iPods and Nanos.

>>> The Webby Awards have announced WebbyConnect industry conference to be held in Long Beach Oct 3-5.

>>> Apple announced that it sold 1 million iPhones in the first 74 days of release.

>>> Brussels based PIAS Group whose labels include Wall Of Sound bought a 50% stake in mobile music distributor and marketer Indie Mobile in a move designed to broaden the services it currently offers.