• Bob Morelli has been promoted to president of RED Distribution, Sony BMG's indie distribution arm. He was previous EVP and GM. (Variety)

• The European Commission has brought charges against Apple and record labels, alleging the companies are restricting sales of music in Europe. Different countries have different iTunes stores, which can lead to difference pricing. Apple says it wants a pan-European store but is limited by record labels' requirements. An EMI spokesperson said, "We do not believe we have breached European competition law, and we will be making that case strongly." I can't believe France would really want to share its iTunes with other, non-Johnny Hallyday-loving countries. (Billboard.biz)

• RealNetworks is raising the price for the streaming version of its Rhapsody subscription service, to $12.99 from $9.99. The company rationalized the price increase by pointing out the value-added enhancements it has added, and the constant price of Rhapsody since the service was unveiled. (Digital Music News)

• In a move to facilitate licensing, Sony BMG will partner with a leading online music database to make available its music catalog for advertisers. (The Guardian)

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation found something to complain about in yesterday's move by EMI to drop DRM on its digital downloads: "Unfortunately, the industry is still giving consumers a raw deal. EMI will be charging fans a 30% premium to avoid DRM ($1.29 instead of 99 cents per track, or 30 cents to upgrade an old download) -- effectively a surcharge to buy back your rights." It followed that with its usual proposal of a voluntary collective license for file sharers...pretty much a pipe dream at this point. One thing at a time, and I'd bet labels would first want to promote download store growth before sending a signal that they are supporting P2P. (EFF Deep Links)