Wednesday, May 16, 2007

snapshot 5/16/07

Amazon store to sell music free of copy protection
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070516/tc_nm/amazon_music_dc_4;_ylt=Auom9APxW63kOxbSIbqt4V1kM3wV
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117932131942204841.html?mod=rss_whats_news_technology
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/05/16/analyst.on.amazon.music/
Amazon.com Inc. said on Wednesday the company will launch a digital music store later in 2007 with millions of songs, free of copy protection technology that limits where consumers can play their music. The Seattle-based company said music company EMI Group Plc, home to artists ranging from Coldplay to Norah Jones to Joss Stone to Pink Floyd, has licensed its digital catalog to Amazon, the second such deal in a month.

Warner Music Group Corp. has said it sees no logic to dropping DRM but is still testing music without it, while Vivendi's Universal Music has said it, too, is still testing tracks without DRM. In its announcement Wednesday, Amazon said it has made deals with "more than 12,000 record labels," though much of the digital music now being sold online without DRM is from lesser known artists.


Web offers backstage look at musicians
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070515/ap_en_ot/on_the_net;_ylt=AgyGJ9T.JExh4i5uGbOCK.xkM3wV
A number of acts have recently developed channels on YouTube to help promote album releases. The first notable forays by professional musicians into the video-sharing site were by P.Diddy and Paris Hilton — if you can indeed call Ms. Hilton a "professional" musician. Their entries drew some anger from YouTube's protective amateur community, but it's now commonplace for well-known acts to post videos.

On R. Kelly's Youtube channel, "R. Kelly TV", you can step into the R&B singer's closet to hear him talk about his new album while getting his hair braided, or see him sing an a cappella version of "Double Up." Most of Kelly's 37 videos are music videos, but these recent entries — which are titled "webisodes" — show the singer is embracing the intimate, raw nature of YouTube.

So has former "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks, who has posted videos of himself at rehearsal and signing T-shirts. Linkin Park has been perhaps the most revealing act on YouTube, where the rock band has posted 11 behind-the-scenes episodes since late March. Those clips were mostly taken from an iTunes "LPTV" series, which sells videos for $1.99 each.


RealNetworks Inks Deal with Vodafone
http://www.betanews.com/article/RealNetworks_Inks_Deal_with_Vodafone/1179325331
A day after Napster secured a deal to power the music services on Motorola's new ROKR handsets, RealNetworks has inked a similar agreement with European wireless carrier Vodafone. But Real had to buy into the partnership. Real says it will further expand the offering with technology it acquired from WiderThan, which provides music services on mobile phones and handles syncing between wireless devices and PCs. The Vodafone agreement is a multiyear deal, but terms were not disclosed.


Sling Media to let users boost net speed
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-05-15T225639Z_01_N15391007_RTRUKOC_0_US-SUMMIT-SLINGMEDIA-1.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2
Gadget maker Sling Media, whose device relays home television programs to laptops and cell phones, plans to resell fast Internet service and may start showing ads later this year. The company's Slingbox connects cable and satellite TV set-top boxes to the Internet. As a result, cell phones and other Web-connect devices can show what's on a customer's living room TV. But viewing quality depends on Internet connection strength, and so later this year Sling Media will add a virtual button to its PC and cell phone software that will boost home broadband service speed.


Coca-Cola to give away iTunes songs again this summer
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/05/16/coca-cola-to-give-away-itunes-songs-again-this-summer/
Following on last summer's massive European iTunes giveaway, Coca Cola has announced they will once again be partnering with iTunes. Between May and August, promotional packs of Coca Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero will offer the chance to win free songs, free iPods, and free tickets to over 100 Coke+iTunes sponsored summer concerts across Europe. Presumably the free music codes will once again be limited to five per customer.


Earnings: Napster Grows Q1 Net Loss As Revenues Rise
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-earnings-napster-narrows-q1-net-loss-as-revenues-rise/
Napster (Nasdaq: NAPS) saw its Q1 net loss double to $8.5 million from its net loss of $4.4 million last year, while revenue was up 9 percent to $29.1 million from $26.8 million. Looking ahead, Chris Gorog, chairman and CEO, said he expects the company to benefit from deals with wireless carriers, such as its deals with Motorola and AT&T, as mobile phone music capabilities become more widely accepted. The subscription music service also alluded to partnership with Circuit City as a deal that should bear fruit shortly. Napster’s total worldwide paid subscriber base was 830,000, including university subscribers, Napster Mobile subscribers, Napster Japan subscribers and the AOL Music Now subscribers who transitioned in March 2007.

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