snapshot 8/8/07

Music companies seek new money in old partners
The world's leading music companies, hit by falling sales of CDs, are switching to a new groove -- buying merchandising, management and other companies to diversify and boost profits. Just this week, Universal Music and Warner Music Group (WMG.N) announced investments in companies specializing in artist management or Web networking, segments they might not have considered part of their core operations in the past.

"While the overall music business, including management, touring, sponsorship, merchandising ..., is growing, the recording business at present is not," Bronfman said.


Microsoft TV Group Eyes New Market
Microsoft Corp. has described its Mediaroom IPTV offering as a way for the software giant to expand its reach into the living room but now the company also says IPTV is a chance for it to gain a new market in telecommunications operators.


Cash Machines In The Material World - Police Tour Grosses $107,592,002
The Police reunion tour has grossed a whopping $107,592,002 from 38 shows that drew 929,941 people. And this is only the first leg…The figures do not include dates at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in June, or the V Fest last weekend. The highest gross of the first leg was July 5-6 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, which took in $9,494,248 from an attendance of 79,458. The Police start up again Aug. 28 in Stockholm and play Europe through Oct. 20. The band returns to North America Halloween night for a sellout at Madison Square Garden in New York, will play three more weeks in the U.S. and then head to Latin America.


SpiralFrog launches first ad-supported music site
Founder Joe Mohen confirmed on Tuesday to CNET News.com that SpiralFrog has quietly invited a select number of users to test a beta version of the site. Mohen said SpiralFrog will offer 700,000 songs at launch and be the first ad-supported site to offer video for download. He estimated that SpiralFrog will be ready for a public launch sometime before the end of the year.

The company plans to advertise to consumers in an unobtrusive way, Mohen said. Downloads take about 90 seconds and during that time, users will see a range of content where ads will be included. SpiralFrog users can play songs on their PCs or any Windows Media compatible player, Mohen said. The site's music is not compatible with iPods, though. Another shortfall of the site is the relatively small music library. Only Universal Music Group, the largest of the six top record labels, has agreed to a licensing deal with SpiralFrog.


Will Amazon's Music Service Embrace Variable Pricing?
In a recent statement related to his company's investment in Aimee Street (a new artist site that utilizes dynamic pricing), Amazon SVP of Business Development Jeff Blackburn said allowing customers to directly influence song pricing “is an interesting and novel approach to selling digital music.” With Amazon due to launch its own download store this year some are speculating that dynamic pricing will be part of the equation.


PassAlong Networks to Offer Video Content for Digital Download Stores
Music distribution developer PassAlong Networks™ today announced that it will add video content to its expansive digital catalog which it currently offers to clients who build their own digital download stores. Through an agreement with CinemaNow, Inc. (www.cinemanow.com), the premier online destination for downloadable movies, select content from its catalog of more than 7,000 movies and music videos will be made available to PassAlong clients who are interested in offering downloadable videos to their own customers.


The Future Of Copyright Protection Is Here And It Costs $11 An Hour
There are a lot of startups offering technological means of keeping their noses clean. Most of the solutions function as digital detectives, comparing the video fingerprints of copyrighted content with uploaded content for a match. Some of these companies include Audible Magic, Advestigo, Gracenote, MotionDSP , Philips, and iPharo.

However, while computers are great for solving well defined problems at a dizzying pace, they don’t always do that well when the rules become murkier. Judgments need to be made about whether playing a song or video constitutes “fair use” and simply changing a few characters of the title can fool more basic filters. That’s why 5-year-old BayTSP has decided to keep humans in the loop. The WSJ takes an in depth look at the company.