• USA Today, Tuesday, October 12, 2010 11:41 AM

Demonstrating a new-found willingness to work with online distributors, Universal Music has agreed to license its catalog to online music service eMusic. From U2 and Jay-Z to Smokey Robinson and the Four Tops, eMusic users should soon be able to buy songs from Universal's catalog -- "typically tunes that have been out at least 18 months," according to USAToday.com. The deal represents a major victory for eMusic, which has long been shunned by top music labels for selling music as easily-pirated MP3 files.

"Adding the largest slug of (tunes) that we've ever added, 250,000 new tracks, is huge," eMusic CEO Adam Klein tells USAToday. The labels also took issue with eMusic's policy of charging the same price for most songs. Fortunately for eMusic, however, the labels are now singing a different tune as traditional sales channels have continued to disappear. eMusic plans to parlay the Universal deal into a larger rebranding effort and relaunch, which is expected to take two years and include various new features and services.

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