San Francisco – Rdio, the streaming radio service created by
the founders of Skype, said on Thursday that the service is now available on
the Roku streaming media player. The Rdio channel on Roku is available to all
Rdio Unlimited subscribers, which costs $9.99 per month.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4ce6djx
Somerville, Mass. – Major record label Universal Music
Group’s Island Def Jam group on Thursday announced a partnership with music
application developer The Echo Nest, to allow developers to access the Island
Def Jam (IDJ) catalog in their applications. Announced during Digital Media Wire’s Digital Music Forum East event in New York, the deal will give music
application developers access to IDJ songs, without the need to negotiate licenses with Universal.
In return, IDJ becomes the publisher of any resulting
apps, handling any payments to music publishers, and will split any revenues
with the developer, and the Echo Nest.
"This is a bold move on the part of
Island Def Jam, which has become the first major label business department to
embrace an open development ecosystem to attract the best and brightest
developers," said Echo Nest CEO Jim Lucchese.
The Application Programming
Interface (API) for IDJ songs is expected to be released by the Echo Nest soon,
IDJ senior VP of digital and business development Jon Vanhala told Billboard,
which reports the deal took a year to be approved by top executives at
Universal.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4jvqecq
http://tinyurl.com/4jb8pt4
(Billboard)
New York – Courtney Holt is stepping down as the head of
MySpace Music, the joint venture between the News Corp.-owned social network
and the major record labels, All Things D reports.
Holt has led MySpace Music
for the past two years, and previously oversaw digital music initiatives at
MTV.
News Corp. is currently in the process of seeking a buyer for all or part
of its struggling MySpace unit, which was acquired for $580 million in 2005.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4b8zsdz
(All Things D)
New York – Reality TV music juggernaut "American
Idol" has announced that viewers will now be able to vote for their
favorite singers via Facebook.
The Facebook-enabled voting will take place on
AmericanIdol.com, with viewers able to vote up to 50 times via Facebook, aside
from existing telephone and text-message voting options.
"We have been wanting to do online voting for several years, and
now Facebook has offered us a secure solution and we are ready to go,"
said series creator Simon Fuller.
"The show has always involved a high
level of engagement with its viewers through texting and phone voting, and it’s
great to expand on this tradition."
Facebook voting is expected to launch
with the March 1 episode of "American Idol."
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4gqacxw
(Entertainment Weekly)
San Diego – Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com and
MP3tunes, on Thursday announced the "alpha" release of DAR.fm, a
"TiVo for radio" service that lets users record radio programs and
store them in the cloud. The free service requires only a Web browser to
schedule recordings from a listing of 600 stations and show guides.
When a user
clicks "Record," DAR’s servers are instructed to capture the
material, and store it for future playback from a computer, smartphone,
Internet radio or other device.
"I’m very excited because this moves radio into the 21st century making
it what people have come to expect from media: on demand, interactive and
playable everywhere," said Robertson.
Related Links:
http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=338
Los Angeles – The Federal Court in Australia has rejected an
appeal from the motion picture industry, of a ruling from last year that found
Internet service provider iiNet was not responsible for copyright infringements
committed by users of its service, TorrentFreak reports.
The movie studios and local
anti-piracy organization AFACT sued iiNet in 2008, alleging the ISP was not
preventing its subscribers from engaging in online copyright infringement.
In
February 2010, the Federal Court ruled that iiNet was not liable for customers’
infringements, and an appeal of that ruling by AFACT and the studios has now
been rejected.
"I do not think [iiNet] could reasonably be expected to
issue warnings, or to terminate or suspend particular accounts, in reliance
upon any such notice in circumstances where it has been told nothing at all
about the methods used to obtain the information which lead to the issue of the
notice," the ruling reads.
"It cannot be right that, in effect, the
ISP, who has the power to prevent copyright infringement online and admitted
they were taking place, does not share the responsibility to stop them,"
said AFACT head Neil Gane.
The case is likely to be appealed to Australia’s
High Court.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4k6ptgw
(TorrentFreak)
http://tinyurl.com/4sj7h3m
(DMW previous coverage)
New York – Viacom’s (NYSE: VIA) MTV Music Group on Thursday announced
the launch of a new awards show for digital music, the OMAs. The inaugural "O
Music Awards" will take place on April 28 across multiple platforms and
screens, "with the direction of the show taking its cues from the digital
realm and will be lo-fi, highly lean-forward and interactive."
The event’s
categories and nominees will be announced in the coming weeks via the Web and
social media.
"Music is the fastest growing category in the digital space,
but currently lacks an event that truly celebrates and rewards the innovation
happening every day," said Van Toffler, president of MTV Music & Logo
Group.
"MTV has redefined the concept of the traditional award show and
we’re set to flip it on its head again with the launch of the OMAs."
Regarding
the awards’ name, the company says, "the O preceding the Music Awards in
OMAs will be purposely left unassigned and open for the audience
interpretation."
Related Links:
http://www.omusicawards.com
