Thursday, October 18, 2007

snapshot 10/18/07

Media companies seen in copyright pact
Media companies including CBS Corp. (CBS.N), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O), News Corp.'s (NWSa.N) Fox and MySpace units and others have agreed to a set of guidelines aimed at protecting copyrights online, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The agreement is set to be disclosed today, the paper said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The agreed principles include using technology to eliminate copyright-infringing content uploaded by users to Web sites and blocking any material before it is publicly accessible, the paper said. Viacom (VIAb.N), Walt Disney (DIS.N) and NBC Universal are also part of the agreement, but Google (GOOG.O) is notably absent, it said.


Is Amazon MP3 Store Already #2? Plus Affiliate Program Trumps iTunes.
Just weeks after launch, a number of labels are saying privately that they believe Amazon has jumped to #3 in download sales for their releases. eMusic and iTunes hold the #2 and #1 spots respectively. Amazon could be #2 by year's end for some labels if measured by dollars paid instead of the number of tracks downloaded, according to at least one prediction. Amazon pays labels far more per track downloaded than eMusic's subscription model.


Puretracks, Billboard Form Alliance to Launch Billboard’s Digital Music Redemption Platform for Pre-Paid Music Download Cards
Billboard, the world’s most comprehensive source of music, digital data and events, and Puretracks, a leading North American music download service provider licensed by all major record companies, today announced the launch of the Billboard digital music redemption platform for Billboard-branded pre-paid music download cards available at www.billboardgiftcard.com.

Billboard has granted Puretracks a license to leverage its strong consumer brand in North America to fulfill the digital music prepaid cards. The Billboard-branded music prepaid cards will launch nationally at CVS/pharmacy, giving the U.S. retailer the first-to-market opportunity with the prepaid card product. Approximately 6,200 stores across the United States will be carrying “22 Songs for $20” and “45 Songs for $40” Billboard-branded prepaid card products redeemable at www.billboardgiftcard.com.


Rockers Matchbox Twenty join the USB revolution
The latest: Matchbox Twenty's new album, Exile on Mainstream, is being sold on a USB bracelet. Available exclusively at Best Buy, the $35 item includes all 17 songs from the album (released Oct. 2), music video How Far We've Come, another video with band interviews, a digital booklet with album art and other band items to customize your computer.

Matchbox Twenty's management got the idea from a similar project that lets Willie Nelson concertgoers buy a USB bracelet that contains a downloaded version of that night's concert. (Some are available online at stores.allaccesstoday.com/willie.)

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