File Sharing Gets Personal with Share

January 6, 2012

A new service called Share enables people to send files of any size, free and as often as they like, to one or more specified people. It’s being offered to the public in open alpha from its developers, the folks at BitTorrent.

Share cuts through the buzz about cloud storage by using its eponymous peer-to-peer protocol instead of a giant server farm. Due to the very nature of distributed computing, Share users download files directly from the sender, and each additional person sharing the same file increases the transfer speed since the file is disseminated more widely.

Unlike the BitTorrent most people think of, however, Share users define their own private circle of who’s involved.

“Share is the culmination of over a year’s research into personal media sharing,” said BitTorrent chief strategist Shahi Ghanem. “We have always known that BitTorrent is one of the fastest ways to send or receive a large file. [Share] is much faster than traditional ‘cloud’ solutions and easy for anyone.”

He added that sharing via email or over social networks requires people to shrink the file sizes by making concessions, like reducing resolution or cutting bits away from a photo or video, which is doubly unfortunate given the cameras and recording software that have put high quality into the hands of average consumers.

It’s very simple to use. Files to be sent are dragged over into the appropriate pane, just like moving them from folder to another, and the recipients get a notification that it’s there. Share users download a small client for Windows or uTorrent for Macs. Once the service is through with testing and is stable, Share will be integrated into all BitTorrent and µTorrent software clients.

Related links:

http://www.getshareapp.com

BitTorrent blog – Now in Alpha: Fast, Free and Unlimited Personal Media Sharing

TorrentFreak – BitTorrent Releases New “Share” Application

GigaOm – BitTorrent takes on Dropbox with personal file sharing

Photo by Flickr user kalleboo/Karl Baron, used under Creative Commons license

Digital Squeaks Past Physical Music Sales [with charts]

digitalmediawi

January 5, 2012

There are two notable statistics in today’s Nielsen Company & Billboard’s 2011 Music Industry Report. One is that digital music sales accounted for an eyelash over half (50.3 percent) of all sales, marking the first time digital overtook physical. The other is that vinyl album sales grew 36 percent compared to 2010, selling more than any other year in the past two decades.

Taken together, those numbers lend some support to the belief that consumers are losing interest in physical product, but when they do purchase they’re increasingly likely to choose something that they connect with on a personal level.

Total music purchases also reached a new high at $1.6 billion for the year. Digital sales were up 8.4 from the previous year while physical album sales declined 5 percent.

Music executives, meanwhile, should thank their bookshelf stereo systems for Adele (pictured). It has been seven years since an album sold more than 5 million copies in a year, and the soulful British artist’s smash hit 21 sold over 5.8 million units and became the best selling digital album of all time (1.8 million). Adele also became the first to top best-selling artist, album and digital song sales charts in a single year.

Other top honors Adele achieved in 2011 include having the best-selling physical album, digital album, Internet album, digital song (“Rolling in the Deep”), and most played song on the radio with the same sensational recording. She also tops BigChampagne’s Ultimate Chart, which factors in music fans enjoy regardless of whether it was enjoyed via legitimate channels.

Lady Gaga took the number one place when it comes to streaming music, which is appropriate given her embrace of the ephemeral in art, although the most-streamed individual song was Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass.”

Billboard – Adele, Katy Perry Top 2011 Year-End Nielsen BDS Airplay Rankings

CNN Money – Digital music sales top physical sales

Bloomberg – U.S. Music Sales Gained 6.9% in 2011 as Adele Spurs Downloads

Photo by Flickr user AcidPix, used under Creative Commons license

Report: Holiday E-Commerce Spending Jumps 15% [with chart]

digitalmediawi

January 5, 2012

Reston, Va. – E-commerce spending for the 2011 holiday shopping season reached a record $37.2 billion, up 15% from 2010 levels, according to new figures from Reston-based comScore.

All told, 10 individual shopping days surpassed $1 billion in spending, led by Cyber Monday ($1.25 billion), which ranked No.1 for the second consecutive year.

“With brick-and-mortar holiday retail estimated to have grown about 4% this year, it’s clear that e-commerce continues to gain market share from traditional retail due to the attractiveness of the Internet’s convenience and lower prices,” said Gian Fulgoni, the chairman of comScore. “Consumers were especially attracted to the deals and discounts available through digital channels — particularly free shipping, which occurred on well over half of transactions this season.”

This article was also published in Potomac Tech Wire.

Angel Funding Supports Contactually Launch

digitalmediawi

January 5, 2012

Washington, DC – Contactually, a DC-based startup led by Zvi Band, the co-founder of ProudlyMadeinDC and DC Tech Meetup, has launched an online dashboard for managing email contacts, relationships and actions.

The company, which graduated from the 500 Startups seed fund program, has raised $165,000 in new angel funding from local investors Sean Glass and David Steinberg.

In addition, the company raised $50,000 from 500 Startups. By synchronizing with email accounts and contacts, Contactually helps users manage to-do lists, prioritize relationships, automate follow-ups, and evaluate the context of various relationships.

In addition to Band, the company is co-founded by Tony Cappaert and Jeff Carbonella.

This article was also published in Potomac Tech Wire.

Related links:

http://www.contactually.com

TechCrunch – http://tinyurl.com/6tz3j58

VentureBeat – http://tinyurl.com/7wvnnme

Photo by Flickr user Images_of_Money, used under Creative Commons license

Alloy Digital Extends Young Adult Reach by Acquiring Generate

digitalmediawi

January 5, 2012

Alloy Digital, the online video affiliate of young adult targeter Alloy Inc., has acquired collaborative media company Generate to create what Alloy Inc. chief executive officer Matt Diamond and Generate chief executive officer Jordan Levin described as a “first of its kind, multi-platform, next generation media company.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed in today’s announcement. Generate executives assuming roles in the blended family are Levin, former chief executive officer of The WB; president Peter Aronson, former head of Regency Television and creative affairs for Disney Television; head of Branded Content Jared Hoffman, former CAA literary agent and brand strategist; and talent managers Dave Rath and Kara Welker.

Generate was founded in 2006 to create premium content for all types of distribution platforms using traditional, sponsored and integrated brand business models. It provides individualized development, production, talent and research services to media companies and brands, which the company says enables it to execute ideas –from concept through production – entirely in-house.

Alloy Digital reports reaching over 43 percent of Internet users between 12-34, attracting more than 70 million consumers each month (according to comScore) and achieving annual revenue growth of more than 40 percent.

Strauss Zelnick’s ZelnickMedia led an investor group that acquired Alloy Inc. in 2010. Alloy Inc. owns Alloy Entertainment, an independent producer of books and television series, which will continue to operate independently from Alloy Digital. Even so, there are evident corporate synergies: Alloy Digital operates the official online fan destinations for shows like Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries; other Alloy divisions produce the related hit television series, publish the young adult books, and extend the intellectual property in numerous other ways.

Alloy chairperson Geraldine Laybourne, former chief executive officer of Oxygen and Nickelodeon, said the union combined Alloy Digital’s advertising and distribution might with Generate’s production expertise and talent management business, which she said represents “the logical evolution of our industry.”

Alloy Digital also is readying YouTube channel Smosh Animation for launch in April 2012, an initiative made possible by Alloy Digital’s recent acquisition of pop culture comedy company Smosh.

Levin released the following statement: “We sought to team with a forward-thinking partner that would complement our fundamental strengths, leverage our marketplace position and enhance our ability to engage and reach the influential younger demographic that is driving the advertising, technology and entertainment industries into an increasingly co-dependent relationship.”

He added, “Combining forces with Alloy Digital is the next logical step for both companies. We have every confidence that collectively we will continue to build a powerful, platform agnostic, digital-centric engine designed to meet the creative and economic needs of consumers, brands and talent while, at the same time, driving significant growth and positive financial performance.”

Related links:

http://www.alloydigital.com

http://www.generatela.com

http://www.alloymarketing.com

http://www.smosh.com

Unruly Gets $25 Million for Viral Video Ads [with show reel]

digitalmediawi

January 5, 2012

Unruly, the social video advertising platform, announced a $25 million Series A investment from Amadeus Capital Partners, Van den Ende & Deitmers and Business Growth Fund. The company said the funding will be used to accelerate its international growth.

Since the London-based company was founded in 2006, Unruly has delivered, tracked and audited 1.34 billion user-intended video views and executed over 1,400 social video campaigns, leading it to achieve profitability in 2009.

Unruly has handled many high-profile and viral-friendly video campaigns for global brands, including Evian’s Roller Babies, Coca Cola’s Happiness Factory series and Old Spice’s Man Your Man Could Smell Like campaign.

In the U.K., Unruly delivered a campaign for CompareTheMarket.com that is credited with boosting the entire market for video advertising. The cross-platform ads feature Aleksandr Orlov (pictured), a meerkat with an improbable Russian accent, who became such a cultural phenomenon that he spawned a line of toys and a book was ghostwritten for him.

“With global online ad spend set to reach $110 billion by 2014 and online video ad spend predicted to be the fastest growing category, we believe Unruly is strongly positioned to be the winner in the global social video market,” said Martijn Hamann, partner of Van den Ende & Deitmers.

Related links:

http://www.unrulymedia.com

http://www.amadeuscapital.com

http://www.endeit.com

http://www.businessgrowthfund.co.uk

TransGaming Acquires Oberon Media Division in $7 Million Deal

digitalmediawi

January 5, 2012

TransGaming, the Toronto-based company that distributes interactive games for playing via set-top boxes and other platforms, has purchased the Interactive TV & Connected TV division of Oberon Media for about $7 million, which includes $3 million on closing, $2 million in earn-outs based on revenue thresholds and the issuance of 4 million shares of TransGaming.

Oberon Media operates, creates and distributes games for the interactive and connected TV market.TransGaming said the acquisition was strategic, since it will result in the company’s reach extending to over 50 million households. Oberon’s distribution network includes agreements with connected TV manufacturers as well a network of cable, satellite and interactive TV service providers that includes Dish Network and DirecTV in North America, and Reliance Digital TV and AirTel Digital TV in the Indo-Pacific region through third-party distribution agreements.

The agreement also adds Oberon Media’s catalog of more than 100 platform casual games to TransGaming’s GameTree TV portfolio.

“We now have the ability to reach the hundreds of millions of set-top boxes currently deployed in living rooms globally, while also defining a clear migration path for service providers to bring high quality gaming to their subscribers as they deploy next generation devices,” Vikas Gupta, chief executive officer and president of TransGaming, said in a statement. “We have immediately increased our total addressable market for GameTree TV and have created a compelling value proposition unmatched by any other company in this space.”

Bob Hayes, president and chief operating officer of Oberon Media, said his company will continue to distribute games to connected and interactive TVs via TransGaming’s global network, but that it will focus its primary efforts on its recently launched Blaze ecommerce platform.

GameFly Reveals Members' 2011 Top Tens [with lists]

digitalmediawi

January 5, 2012

Video game rental subscription service GameFly Inc. started 2012 by wrapping up the previous 12 months of members’ activity into top ten lists of the titles most popular with gamers.

The data was gathered from members’ GameQs, their personal lists of the games they’d most like to play after returning the ones currently on loan to them, which subscribers maintain on the GameFly website or its mobile app.

Top of the lists, unsurprisingly, are the same action adventure and shooter games that other gamers purchased for $35-$50 each: Batman: Arkham City, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Dead Island. Four of GameFly’s lists are posted below.

“In 2011, game developers continued to push the limits of gaming technology and creativity. These Top 10 lists demonstrate the cream of the crop based on GameFly members’ diverse demand for their favorite titles regardless of genre or platform” said Sean Spector, GameFly co-founder and senior vice president of Business Development and Content.

GameFly also sells new and used video games. Additionally, it recently acquired Direct2Drive.com, a pioneering online retailer for downloading Windows and Mac video games, which is in the process of being integrated.

LockerDome Gets Investment and More from Square Co-Founder

digitalmediawi

January 5, 2012

Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square, has made an undisclosed investment in LockerDome and is joining the social sports community’s board of directors. This comes shortly after LockerDome closed a $750K angel financing round.

LockerDome enables amateur sports teams and leagues to create their own private social networks where athletes, coaches and parents can create profiles, upload photos and video. In a recent expansion, any individual now can create his or her own sports profile. LockerDome also has a celebrity network made up of professional athletes. As with other social networks, members can browse and connect with other members

The company reports having more than 400 LockerDome networks have been created, including more than half of the top 100 U.S. amateur soccer programs and over 25 of the top 50 U.S. amateur baseball programs.

“LockerDome is the real deal. A superb team of dedicated people and a product that grows organically,” McKelvey said. “When I saw the mattresses in the office, I knew this was a great company.”

Related links:

https://squareup.com

http://lockerdome.com

Photo by Flickr user Tom Newby Photography, used under Creative Commons license

DSC Secures $10.3 Million for 3D Facial Recognition

digitalmediawi

January 4, 2012

Chantilly, Va. – Digital Signal Corp. (DSC), a developer of 3D facial recognition technology, has raised $10.3 million in a new round of equity funding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Seven investors took part in the deal, which comes more than eight months after DSC announced $15 million in its third round of funding, led by Columbia Capital. City Light Capital, SilverHaze Partners and previous backers Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Paladin Capital Group also participated in that round.

DSC’s 3D technology is used to identify people from long range.

This article was also published in Potomac Tech Wire.

Related links:

http://www.digitalsignalcorp.com

SEC filing – http://preview.tinyurl.com/77osj3w