MetroPCS is bringing music to subscribers' ears. The Dallas-based no-contract carrier is giving users the ability to top into Rhapsody's 12-million song music catalog through Android-powered headsets. Access to the music streaming service will be available with MetroPCS's $60 monthly rate plan. "Our customers want a rich entertainment experience, and music tops their charts. With the addition of the Rhapsody service, MetroPCS takes yet another step to deliver premium service at an unmatched value," said Tom Keys, president and COO of MetroPCS, in a release. "Rhapsody Unlimited Music service not only delivers 'music for all' but also gives …

Mark Pavia has joined Starcom USA as Executive Vice President-Digital Managing Director. Pavia, who had been Senior Vice President-Director of Innovation at The Martin Agency, will be responsible for "determining the agency's overall digital approach; advanced development and application of digital strategy; management and growth of digital investment activities; and curating digital insights and foresight."

While retailers continue to be jumpy about consumer spending in the months ahead, many are posting solid second quarter results. Target, Staples, and BJ's Wholesale Club were among those putting up strong numbers, as were smaller chains, including Chicos and Abercrombie & Fitch. Target's net earnings rose 3.7% to $704 million for the quarter, compared with $679 million in the same period a year ago, while sales rose 5.1% to $15.9 billion, including a 3.9% increase in same-store sales. "We're very pleased with our second quarter financial results, which benefited from an acceleration in the pace of our comparable-store …

Marketers must start thinking globally similar to those at Marketing Management Analytics, which helps companies optimize marketing investments. The company plans to open a Global Center of Excellence in Bangalore, India, to develop tools in advanced predictive and optimization techniques that draw on behavioral and attitudinal data. The tools aim to solve complex business planning, product innovation, pricing, traditional and digital media measurement and forecasting issues for top brands around the world. It center also will support expansion into the Asia-Pacific region through 2012. SCAnalytics platform will take the lead role for the center, which Marketing Management Analytics acquired …

WPP’s Mindshare has been named media agency of record for Belk, a major department store chain in the Southeast region of the country after a formal review. The client confirmed the win Tuesday. The assignment includes all planning and buying duties for both traditional and digital media. The Charlotte, NC-based client spends about $33 million annually on ads. Mindshare will run the account out of Atlanta. Barbara Mende, a managing director in the shop’s Atlanta office, and who played a key role in the pitch, will serve as client lead on the Belk account.

Aegis Group, the London-based media agency holding company took one step closer to selling off its market research arm today. At a special meeting in London this afternoon, voting shareholders unanimously approved the proposal to sell Synovate, the company reported. Over 1 billion shares, representing 77.7% of issued shares voted in favor of the sale. The deal still has to pass anti-trust hurdles, but if all goes according to plan, the sale, to Ipsos, will close at the end of September.

Media research biggies Nielsen and GfK MRI this afternoon announced they each acquired a 25% stake in the Media Behavior Institute (MBI), which for the past couple of years has been marketing cross-media research services in the U.S. based on Europe's popular TouchPoints method. The deal represents the first time that GfK MRI and Nielsen have invested in the same company, though Nielsen has a long history of being in media research joint ventures with its competitors. MBI said it plans to equip 2,000 U.S. consumers with smartphones containing a special app to record media use every half-hour throughout …

While blaming economic uncertainty for a bigger-than-expected decline in its U.S. sales, Walmart raised its earnings forecast for the full year, and says it is encouraged by sales gains in apparel and hardlines. For the second quarter of its fiscal year, the Bentonville, Ark.-based company says total sales rose to $108.6 billion, an increase of 5.5% from $103 billion in the same period last year. Net income rose 5.1% to $3.94 billion, from $3.75 billion in the year-ago period. But on a same-store basis, sales in its U.S. Walmart stores fell 0.9%, when observers had been expecting a …

Starcom USA CEO Lisa Donohue has been named the 2011 Chicago Advertising Federation's Advertising Woman of the Year. The Chicago ad trade group cited Donohue's dynamic leadership since taking over at the shop in 2009, noting that she has "changed the way [the agency] connects with their clients, renovated their company culture, managed the agency's $9.1 billion in billings and brought a reported $1.7 billion in new business to the company and to the Chicago advertising community." Chicago, of course, is one of the most competitive ad markets in the country. Among the wins the shop has collected under her …

The Interactive Advertising Bureau warned on Monday that a plan to assign new domain names would "cause incalculable financial damage to brand owners." The IAB says it's concerned that outside companies will be able to obtain domain names that end in trademarked terms like .coke, .verizon or .facebook. Such a naming system "would come at an extremely high cost to publishers and advertisers, and would also offer 'cyber squatters' an opportunity to harm a brand's integrity and/or profit greatly from their bad-faith domain registrations," the IAB says. The Association of National Advertisers also recently opposed the plan.