Thursday, December 13, 2007

snapshot 12/13/07

Indie filmmakers can score Moby freebies online
Dance musician Moby has launched a Web site that gives his music away -- to the right people, of course. He is licensing his music for free via mobygratis.com to help out indie and student filmmakers.


PlaysForSure officially dead
Today, one of my colleagues pointed out that Microsoft's no longer maintaining the facade: PlaysForSure has officially been rolled into another logo program, Certified for Windows Vista. The old compatibility guidelines and tests for device partners are still in place, but the brand will quietly disappear into the annals of market failures.


Select XM Original Programming Available On XMradio.Com and Itunes as Podcast Downloads Beginning Today
XM, the nation's leading satellite radio service with more than 8.5 million subscribers, announced today that select XM original music, news and sports series are now available as free podcasts for download through xmradio.com and Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store (http://www.itunes.com/). Beginning today, consumers can download XM content hosted by Bob Edwards, James Carville, Luke Russert, Mike Krzyzewski, Barry Switzer and Opie & Anthony, as well as exclusive XM music and comedy programming.


Digital music player makers to aggressively launch Windows CE 6.0-based products
Digital music player makers are competing to launch new products based on Windows Embedded CE 6.0 (WinCE) technology, according to makers. Apple's launch of the iPod touch has stimulated demand for devices featuring touch panels and as such has increased the desirability of the WinCE platform to digital music player chip suppliers and assemblers.

In the past, Texas Instruments (TI), Freescale and ADI all pushed chips that support the WinCE platform, according to makers. However, as production costs are high, the technology is still mainly limited to PDA, GPS and other portable devices, said the makers. Nevertheless, with improved software integration and reduced development time for the products to two to three months, many digital music player makers have been developing WinCE-based digital music, and digital video players since the second half of 2007. The price for a traditional digital music system-on-chip (SoC) solution is around US$3-4 while chips that support WinCE are around US$7-8. Thus, the new digital media players will still target the mid-range and high-end markets, said the makers.


Wal-Mart Enjoys Eagles Multi-Platinum Moment
The Eagles have now gone triple-platinum on their latest release, Long Road Out of Eden, according to figures released by the RIAA. That is a significant accomplishment for the group, and a validation of a Wal-Mart exclusive distribution strategy. "The album surpassed our expectations in sales from the very first week," said Gary Severson, senior vice president of Entertainment at Wal-Mart. The album was released on October 30th, and scored sales of 711,000 during its debut week.


Another extended outage at Rhapsody locks out some users
An extended outage at RealNetworks' Rhapsody music service has locked out an unknown number of users for the second time since March. While the earlier problem prevented some customers from accessing the site for up to two weeks, this time executives don't know when the problem will be corrected. A handful of Rhapsody users complained on the company's message boards this week that they haven't been able to log on since Friday.

"It's a known issue," said Justine Navaja, a company spokesperson. "We don't know yet when it will be fixed, but it's only affecting a small group of users. We're doing what we can to make sure it gets fixed as soon as possible."


Viacom Looks for a Web Kick
In an experiment that tests consumer appetite for online movies, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures movie, "Jackass 2.5," is skipping traditional theatrical release in favor of online distribution. The movie, from Paramount and MTV New Media, is the second sequel in a franchise based on the MTV program that features violent, often stomach-churning stunts. On Dec. 19, "Jackass 2.5" will be available exclusively on Blockbuster's Web site for free streaming, meaning viewers can watch but not keep the movie. Starting Dec. 26, the movie will be available for purchase on DVD at all major DVD retailers, but for rentals the DVD will be available only at Blockbuster.


Will iLike users like Thumbplay's ringtones too?
Thumbplay announced on Thursday a deal it just wrapped up with iLike, a music recommendation service big on Facebook, to exclusively stock iLike's virtual shelves with ringtones. Thumbplay's ringtones are disguised on iLike.com by the generic command to "get ringtones," and placed alongside iTunes links. They'll also be sprinkled throughout the iLike Challenge game on iLike's site and will be available for purchase through the iLike Facebook app.


Simplify Media extends to iPhone, gets funding
When we wrote about Simplify Media in July, we pointed out the company’s ability to tie together the libraries of iTunes users, allowing them to stream music to their friends or to themselves, when away from their home computer. The Redwood City, Calif. company has now added support for Winamp, iPhone and iPod Touch. Users can hop onto a WiFi connection with their iPhone, hook up to their home computer and listen to their full collection remotely.

Simplify is interesting because, while iTunes includes native support for streaming, the program restricts sharing to a limited number of authorized computers. The Simplify add-on instead opens your collection to up to 30 other devices on your list, providing full access as long as your computer remains on. And because it’s built in to other existing applications, Simplify’s app doesn’t require users to learn a new system for sharing. The company’s end-goal is to work across every program, opening up friends’ playlists to each other even when they all have different music players.

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