“New Music Fridays” is the promotional name of a global campaign to release new music content to consumers on the same day throughout the world, said the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which is coordinating the campaign, in a Thursday announcement. The campaign was to kick off Friday and features new music released weekly in about 45 countries at 12:01 a.m. local time each Friday, IFPI said. “Until now, tracks and albums have been released on different days of the week in different countries -- from Mondays in markets such as France and the U.K., through Tuesdays in the US and Canada and to Fridays in markets such as Australia and Germany,” IFPI said. “The change means that fans can now get new music on the same day worldwide rather than having to wait for their own national release day. It replaces the patchwork of national release days, which meant fans were frustrated and unable to access music in their own country when it was legally available elsewhere.”

Autonomic announced its upcoming 5.2 software release, which adds performance boosts and support for streaming service Murfie. Murfie customers can send their CDs and LPs to the company’s headquarters, where they're digitized and stored in the cloud for playback on music players. CDs are ripped to native 16-bit/44 kHz resolution, while Murfie rips vinyl recordings to 24-bit/192 free lossless audio codec (FLAC) that can either be streamed from the cloud or downloaded and added to a user’s personal music collection, it said. Consumers who activate a new Murfie account through an Autonomic dealer are eligible for a free year of Murfie HiFi, which includes lossless and high-res streaming, a $99 value, said Autonomic. Autonomic’s Mirage music players give users access to Murfie’s online marketplace of over 160,000 CDs that they can buy and download in MP3, FLAC, Apple Lossless or advanced audio coding formats, it said.

LG Electronics has sold its 10 millionth Bluetooth headset globally under the “LG TONE” series since launching the line in October 2010, the company said in a Thursday announcement. LG is the top-selling wireless Bluetooth headset brand in the U.S. in units sold, and has maintained more than 40 percent market share in the segment since 2013, LG said, citing NPD data.

Bowers & Wilkins began selling a wireless version of its P5 headphones, the company said Wednesday. The Bluetooth aptX headphones have controls for answer, play/pause and skip features and have two microphones for enhanced voice quality, said B&W. Battery life is given as 17 hours per charge. The $399 P5 Wireless headphones will begin shipping to dealers July 15, it said.

SoundHound announced Apple Music integration with its music app Tuesday. An “Apple Music -- Listen Now” option, available on the home page and within song pages, links to Apple Music, where users can stream music of artists discovered through SoundHound features including music identification, personalized history, top charts and music maps, said SoundHound. Users will also be able to stream Beats 1 Radio from within song pages, said the company.

Soundfreaq is shipping a $99 water-resistant Bluetooth speaker, it said Tuesday. Sound Kick 2 adds a passive radiator to boost bass over its previous model, it said. The Sound Kick 2 features a pair of 2.3-inch custom drivers with the company’s UQ3 spatial enhancement. The built-in rechargeable battery is rated at up to 8 hours, and the unit includes a USB charging port and line-in headphone jack, said the company. Soundfreaq also introduced a blue version of its Pocket Kick Bluetooth speaker for $79.

Marantz launched one full-size and two slimline AV receivers Monday. The NR1506 ($499) packs Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios. It comes with streaming music sources Pandora, SiriusXM and Spotify Connect, along with AirPlay, Internet radio and the ability to stream content from a NAS drive DLNA. Decoding includes FLAC HD, ALAC, WAV 192/24 and DSD. The front-panel USB input is iPod-compatible, said Marantz. Video features include 4K Ultra HD video support via HDMI 2.0a with 4K 60Hz pass-through and it supports HDCP 2.2, HDR and wide color gamut compatibility, said the company. Six HDMI inputs, including one on the front-panel, are included. The step-up NR1606 ($699) adds Dolby Atmos decoding and will support DTS:X via a firmware update later this year, Marantz said. An advanced video section upscales analog and digital source material to 4K Ultra HD, the company said. The NR1606 sports eight HDMI 2.0a inputs and second-zone audio, it said. The top-end full-size 100-watt-by-seven SR5010 7.2ch AVR ($899) doubles the power output of the slimline receivers, Marantz said. Delivery is over July and August.

Sunfire bowed a new family of XTEQ powered subwoofers for home theaters that's designed to deliver powerful bass from compact enclosures. The three models use Sunfire’s Tracking Down Converter amplifiers and asymmetrical cardioid surround design to accommodate the longer throw of the XTEQ woofers, said the company. The largest sub measures 13.5 inches on each side. Sunfire’s auto equalization technology compensates for acoustic anomalies in a room, it said. Suggested retail prices are $1,500 for the 1,800-watt XTEQ8, $1,750 for the 2,700 XTEQ10 and $2,000 for the 3,000-watt XTEQ12.

A petition drive to block renovations to a home in North London on grounds it would threaten the livelihood of Air Studios next door had collected nearly 7,000 signatures through early Thursday, said 38 Degrees, the London advocacy group that organized the drive. Beatles producer George Martin founded Air Studios in 1969 and sold it to two entrepreneurs when he retired in 2006, the group said on its website. It described Air Studios as “Britain’s premier scoring facility attracting some of the world’s biggest movies scores, as well as maintaining its popularity with major classical labels and high profile recording artists.” Artists such as Coldplay and Paul McCartney “are regulars” there, it said. The owner of the home next door, Andrew Jeffreys, applied to local authorities “for planning permission for major redevelopment which involves a substantial basement under most of this imposing site,” the group said. The studios are “extremely noise sensitive,” and if construction work “of this nature and length were to be granted the go ahead it would render the studios inoperable for a long period of time,” it said. The studios would need to shut down for at least six months and “may never re-open.” it said. Opponents also fear that “the structural risk is serious,” it said. “The basement, whose construction would devastate the site, is far too big.” There are not enough "alternate facilities available in London or the UK” to suit the many musicians who would be displaced, the group said. Efforts to reach for comment homeowner Jeffreys or Thomas Croft Architects, the London firm listed as his agent, were unsuccessful.

As part of its effort to ramp up distribution overseas, multiroom audio company Casa Tunes signed Vancouver-based LVZ as its international manufacturer’s rep. LVZ, specializing in the custom integration channel, will manage sales and customer support in all of Casa Tunes’ markets outside of the U.S. including Australia, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K., said Casa Tunes.