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Led Zeppelin to enter the digital market next month

The music catalog of heavy metal band Led Zeppelin will become available in all digital stores on November 13, reports Billboard this morning. Following AC/DC, the band has also entered an exclusive agreement with Verizon (NYSE: VZ), making the mobile music provider the first to offer "full-song over-the-air downloads, ring tones, ringback tones, alert tones and wallpapers."

Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) will make the catalog available on the same day that a new career spanning compilation album, Mothership, will be released by Atlantic Records. A week later, a new "remixed and remastered" version of live album The Song Remains the Same will also be released and offer six new songs for the album. Finally, as was previously reported, Led Zeppelin will also play a "one-off" performance at London's O2 Arena on November 26, to honor the memory of Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun.

All told, it seems that November will be a very busy month for the British band. It is quite surprising to see Led Zeppelin have waited so long to offer digital downloads, considering that the remastered versions that will likely be uploaded by Warner Music Group were first released thirteen years ago. The release of the How the West Was Won live album in 2003 seems like a more apt chance to move into the market in retrospect, but here we are four-and-a-half years later.

The only remaining major digital market holdout now is The Beatles, and their move is expected in the new year.

Time Warner opens, David Bowie and Phil Collins merge?

Time Warner Inc. (TWX) opened at 16.87. So far the stock has hit a low of 16.81 and a high of 16.87. TWX is now trading at 16.83, down 0.01 (-0.06%). After hitting a one-year high of 19 in September, the stock has held steady over the past eight months.

Most diversified media stocks were down in yesterday's market. The exception, of course, was Warner Music and EMI, which were up yesterday. Currently, these two media companies are preparing to discuss a possible merger, which would make for a formidable combined competitor in the domination of the media market.

The possibility of this merger makes me worry about the fate of smaller independent labels.

Just think what might happen when the brains behind Phil Collins, who is on Warner's Atlantic Records, is also the brains behind David Bowie, currently on EMI records. Does the merging of "I Can't Dance" and "Let's Dance" hold the secret to cold fusion?

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Last updated: November 11, 2009: 03:06 PM

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