Thursday, August 23, 2007

snapshot 8/23/07

Microsoft, Limelight strike online media deal
Limelight Networks Inc and Microsoft Corp said on Thursday that they had entered into a technology agreement in which the Web content delivery company will help improve the reliability of the software maker's online services, such as video, music and games. Limelight will provide media streaming and content delivery services to Microsoft under a multiyear deal. The two companies also agreed to cross-license their technologies.


IPod Rivals At Drawing Board
Other makers of MP3 devices -- the name comes from a digital audio standard compatible with most digital music players -- are still searching for a feature or two that will help them stand out. Creative Technology and San-Disk (NasdaqGS:SNDK - News)have been particularly active. With the fall approaching, the MP3 suppliers are girding for their big Christmas season push with new features and models.

Consumers should expect devices with more network connectivity, lower prices, bigger displays and more support for gaming.


Vringo does video ringtones
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/08/23/vringo-does-video-ringtones/ Vringo offers sharable video ringtones that work with smart phones from Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia (like the affable N73 in the picture). You can choose a "VringForward"--that is a video ringtone--to assign to each person in your phone's buddy list. The cool part is--they'll see the video when you call them. A "VringBack", on the other hand, is a video that one of your buddies has chosen for you to see when they give you a call. What's even more nifty, you can record videos with your phone's camera and share those as VringForwards, too. So, if it's your best friend's birthday, you could create a special birthday greeting just for her. Plus, Vringo offers a slew of licensed video content from big-name music publishers.


One Has The Brains, One Has The Money, But Will Americans Buy Into It?
Rhapsody is the brains of the two. The subscription service is the best in its peer group and has succeeded while MTV's URGE has failed. But subscription services are a game of scale, and Rhapsody drastically needs to increase its numbers of subscribers. Enter MTV. The company has the money and the marketing muscle. MTV will provide a five-year, $230 million note to the joint venture. (In return, RealNetworks has agreed to buy $230 million of advertising on MTV cable channels over the next five years.)

Is America ready for a subscription service like Rhapsody America? It depends on a lot of things. Mainly it depends on Americans' willingness to rent music. Thus far the idea of renting music -- streaming it and/or downloading protected music files to compatible, non-iPod music players -- has not taken off. Subscription services are a niche in this country of downloaders. The word "rent" is fine for movies, but it's been a non-starter for music.

Six years ago, analysts thought subscriptions would soon overtake downloads. In this 2002 PC World article, said Jupiter Media Metrix expected subscription services to generate $1 billion in 2006 while downloads would account for only $600 million. What happened in 2006? According to RIAA figures, subscriptions accounted for $206 million (that would be PC-based subscriptions, not mobile-based) while digital downloads totaled $857 million


uPlayMe raises “multi-millions,” joins pile of music services
uPlayMe, the latest in a ever growing pile of companies offering a desktop application to let you connect with people through shared tastes in music, said it has raised a “multi-million” round of funding. The New York company uses a recommendation engine, looking at the music you’ve played and letting you contact other users who have recently played the same music. I


Archos 605 contains evidence of massive content partnerships?
A couple of lines in a settings file does not a partnership make, but some enterprising hackers at the Archos Community Forums have discovered evidence that Archos is planning at least one large-scale content deal when the super-hot 605 launches in the US. Poking around in the unit's provider.xml file inside the system folder, user Plissken007 discovered pointers to not one, but eight major content partners for wireless media distribution, including some with live holder pages on the Archos website. Notables include Best Buy, Cicuit City, Amazon (for Unbox, probably), MovieLink, Vongo, AOL, and, of course, YouTube. Now, we can't see Best Buy and Circuit City sharing space like this, so Archos is probably hedging their bets a little, but if it's true, it looks like there's finally going to be a major competitor to Apple's iPod / iTunes ecosystem out there, eh?


SpiralFrog: Free Music Alive And Hopping
Songs on SpiralFrog are not ad-supported through interstitial advertising or free in the sense that you can bring them anywhere. Instead, you get DRMed songs (WMA) leased to you for a free 30 day membership (or you can buy on Amazon). You can renew your membership, and the lease to play your songs, by answering survey questions (# concerts per year, how you discover music, etc). All that data helps SpiralFrog know what kind of ads to serve on the site.

To keep the whole system secure, they’ve locked down the download process end to end DRM controls. First you have to get a download manager, and then ensure you have Windows Media Player 9.0 or up. The system is kind of annoying and only works on Windows machines since it uses Microsoft DRM. Although, Microsoft DRM has already been cracked. The DRM requirement also means the songs only play through Windows Media Player, making them unportable. Unlike other DRM setups, though, there doesn’t appear to be a limit to the number of computers you can download to as long as you set SpiralFrog up on them.

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