snapshot 6/12/07

YouTube to test video ID with Time Warner, Disney
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070612/tc_nm/google_youtube_dc_3;_ylt=ApPg2X3Ljhr8azVRDNz295pkM3wV
Top online video service YouTube will soon test a new video identification technology with two of the world's largest media companies, Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co.

The technology, developed by engineers at YouTube-owner Google Inc, will help content owners such as movie and TV studios identify videos uploaded to the site without the copyright owner's permission, legal, marketing and strategy executives at YouTube told Reuters in an interview on Monday.


Blockbuster lowers prices for online subscription plan
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/biz/nm/tc_nm/storytext/google_youtube_dc/23354525/*http:/biz.yahoo.com/n/g/goog.html
No. 1 U.S. video rental chain Blockbuster Inc. said it lowered prices for its online movie subscription plans. The company said new and existing mail subscription plans will now start from $4.99 per month. Blockbuster added that the new subscription plans will include the three-out unlimited movie plan, which will now be offered at $16.99 for subscribers.


CinemaNow to relaunch music video site
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070612/wr_nm/blockbuster_prices_dc_1;_ylt=Avg87mGt6YtZf7Xz_uYQyidkM3wV
Online movie download site CinemaNow Inc. will revive its 2-year-old effort to sell music videos, hoping to fill a demand for content to be viewed on portable devices by increasing its inventory. With Apple Inc.'s iTunes music store finding some success in selling music videos and the increased number of portable media players, CinemaNow has decided to beef up its offerings and will relaunch by featuring videos from the Warner Music Group.

The new site will offer videos for $1.99. The files are just below DVD quality. Only one file needs to be downloaded. It can be transferred to a total of three devices, such as a desktop computer, a laptop and a portable device running Windows Media software. The videos will not play on the popular iPod video players or the upcoming iPhone from Apple.


Who in Their Right Mind Would Run Safari on Windows?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070612/ap_on_hi_te/online_music_videos;_ylt=AinzuS0xVQbuuutHS.ruLcZkM3wV
It makes perfect sense for Apple to release its Safari web browser for Windows, but the question is: What right-thinking Windows user would want it? But the initiative seems to rely on a domino theory fueled by infatuation. Apple is hoping there are Windows users so in love with their iPods and iTunes that they will also download Safari. Then they'll fall in love with that, and the next thing you know they'll be down at the Apple Store fishing for their credit cards.

There's only one problem with that scenario -- Safari sucks. A lot of Mac users won't run the browser (I'm one of them), so why would anyone run it on Windows?


BitTorrent To Unveil Self-Publishing Platform For Video And Music
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2007/06/cultofmac_0612
It’s being reported that BitTorrent will be taking the wraps off a new self-publishing platform sometime in July. The feature will be unveiled on BitTorrent.com and allow any artist to present their content to the BitTorrent community and then have the opportunity to sell that content via their distribution and ecommerce platform.

The Self-Publishing platform is just one facet of BitTorrent’s new revenue strategy and pulls the curtain back on yet another distribution avenue for unsigned and independent artists.


Free Whitepaper: 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online
http://futuremusic.com/blog/?p=1539
Andrew Dubber is a UK college professor, author and blogger at NewMusicStrategies.com. He's also just published a 96 page how to eBook "20 Things You Must Know About Music Online" that we're offering to Hypebot readers free here.

• Don’t believe the hype: Sandi Thom, the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen are not super famous, rich and successful because of MySpace, and nor because they miraculously drew a crowd of thousands to their homegrown webcast. PR, traditional media, record labels and money were all involved.
• Web 2.0: Forget being a destination — become an environment. Let your customers tag and sort your catalogue. Open up for user-generated content. Your website is not a brochure — it’s a place where people gather and connect with you and with each other.
• Cross-promote: Your online stuff is not a replacement for your offline stuff, and nor does it exist independently of it. Figure out how to make the two genuinely intersect.
• Forget product — sell relationship: The old model of music business is dominated by the sale of an individual artefact for a set sum of money. iTunes is still completely old school. The new model is about starting an ongoing economic relationship with a community of fans.

With country sales down, labels explore new roads
http://newmusicstrategies.com/ebook/download/
But even as Music City bustles in the heat, country sales are sluggish and chilly. Forthcoming releases from superstar acts Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Brooks & Dunn and Toby Keith have label executives hoping for a strong second half to 2007, a year that — according to Nielsen SoundScan — has experienced a sales dip of more than 30 percent, as of June 3.

Taylor Swift is something of a Prius. The 17-year-old Hendersonville-based singer-songwriter is signed to independent Big Machine Records and is 2007's breakout act. Swift is the year's fourth-best-selling country artist, outpacing everyone except Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw and Rascal Flatts and besting Keith Urban's latest album (the albums were released within two weeks of each other in 2006) by more than 140,000 units so far this year. A child of the Internet who appeals to other computer-savvy youths, Swift personally interacts with fans on the Web. She shouted out to her MySpace friends in accepting a CMT Music Award in April.


Hollywood balks at Apple online movie rentals
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007706100362
Sources inside and outside the major movie studios confirmed news reports the maker of computers and iPods is considering online film rentals to complement digital movie downloads that are already sold at Apple's iTunes web site.But the sources, who declined to be named because film licensing talks are preliminary, questioned Apple's desire to fight copy piracy and the reported $2.99 price per rental.


White Stripes album sold on thumb drive
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070611/tc_nm/apple_movies_dc
For just $99, you can get the new White Stripes album on a cute anthropomorphic thumb drive. Limited edition USB flash drives containing The White Stripes new album, Icky Thump.
These figures have removable hats that reveal a USB port. Each USB 2.0 flash drive has a 512-megabyte capacity and are Windows and Mac compatible. The Jack and Meg figures are available separately, or you can purchase the set at a discount. They are produced in a limited edition of 3,333 Meg drives and 3,333 Jack drives. Each drive contains the complete Icky Thump album in the Apple Lossless format.


iTunes account will be required for iPhone use
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/12/white_stripes_album_.html
Apple today revealed a little bit more of its iPhone business strategy in an e-mail sent from its public relations department. The main revelation: "To set up your iPhone, you'll need an account with Apple's iTunes Store." In other words, Apple will require a separate billing relationship (probably a credit card) from every iPhone user, and will not have to rely on AT&T to play go-between.


Apple serving up 1 million copies of iTunes each day
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/06/12/apple_serving_up_1_million_copies_of_itunes_each_day.html
Apple Inc.'s iTunes digital jukebox software is downloaded 1 million times per day and has an active user base of 500 million users, the company said during annual developers conference on Monday.