Hypebot: Warner Goes DRM-Free, Jay-Z Resigns, Online Marketing Wins, RIAA Propaganda, Shady MP3 Sites

Music industry news from Hypebot:

This may have been a holiday week, but it didn't stop a few major music industry stories from breaking...

The Warner Music family of labels (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic, Rhino and Nonesuch) started selling its catalog as DRM free mp3's on Amazon.com leaving Sony BMG the last major label group adding unpopular copy protection. A Hypebot commentary dug into what this means for the music industry and consumers.

Jay-Z announced he is leaving his executive post at Def-Jam.

A new study showed that marketing online is far more productive than TV or even print.

The RIAA appears to be feeding its own anti-piracy "news" stories to local TV.

OurDigitalMusic has a list of sites that claim to sell legal mp3 downloads cheaply but who have no deals with the major labels.

See ProHipHop's Hypebot Industry News category for past roundups.