Twitter Overtakes MySpace as World's No. 3 Social Site

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York – Twitter surpassed News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace to become
the third-largest social networking-type service in the world last month, The Wall
Street Journal reported, citing remarks from Twitter COO Dick Costolo.
According to comScore, Twitter counted nearly 96 million unique visitors in
August — up 76% from a year ago — while MySpace’s traffic dropped 17% from
last August to 95 million unique visitors.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/24skytd
(WSJ)

Hulu Plus TV Subscription Service Coming to Roku, TiVo

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York – Hulu Plus, the $10-per-month TV show subscription
service offering from Hulu, will soon be available on Roku set-top boxes and
TiVo (NASD: TIVO) Premiere digital video recorders. An entry-level Roku streaming player
costs $59 but charges no subscription fee, while a TiVo Premiere annual
subscription costs $129. Hulu Plus is expected to roll out on both services in
coming months.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/28os8j8
(TiVo)

http://tinyurl.com/25jdjdq
(PDF: Roku)

http://www.hulu.com/plus

Amazon Kindle Web Store Brings Embeddable E-book Samples

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Seattle – Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) on Tuesday introduced the beta version
of a new online version of its Kindle e-book store, which will allow users to
discover and sample Kindle books directly through Web browsers. The Kindle for
the Web site will also allow affiliate sites to embed samples of Kindle books
on their websites, and earn referral fees when customers make purchases.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2b29dcg

http://www.amazon.com/kindlefortheweb

Sony Debuts Library E-book Training Program with 30 Libraries

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Diego – Sony (NYSE: SNE) on Tuesday announced the launch of its
Reader Library Program, which will provide training, e-book reader devices and
educational materials to support e-book programs at an initial group of 30
libraries across the country. The program includes an "in-house training
session for participating library staff developed by Sony," covering
"digital reading formats, an overview of sources for digital materials,
and training on Sony’s Reader digital reading devices," as well as
biannual update sessions.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/23myrvb

http://www.sony.com/libraryprogram

Buzzmedia Taps Nic Harcourt to Head New Live Music Site

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Hollywood – Entertainment-focused blog network Buzzmedia on
Tuesday announced the launch of The LiveBuzz, a new music site focusing on live
performances, music and concert news, interviews and features that will be
headed by former KCRW radio host Nic Harcourt. The site aims to produce live
performance video both in-studio and at Los Angeles music venues.

 

Related Links:
http://www.buzz-media.com

http://www.thelivebuzz.com

Sony BMG UK to Shutter Vox A&R Artist Blog Platform

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

London – Sony BMG UK will shutter its online A&R artist
discovery platform, which utilized Six Apart’s Vox blogging platform to let
artists create profiles and upload tracks in the hopes of being found by the
label’s talent scouts, Music Ally reports. The company had hoped the site would
replace the long-standing practice of bands submitting songs on physical CDs
and cassettes for review. Sony BMG is directing artists to export their Vox
blogs to a TypePad account, and their photos and videos to Flickr by Sept. 30.

 

Related Links:
http://www.musically.com

http://closing.vox.com

Appeals Court: Music Downloads Not 'Public Performances'

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York – A federal appeals court rejected the notion that
a music download constitutes a "public performance" of the song in
question, overturning the streaming music royalty rates that Yahoo (NASD:  YHOO) and
RealNetworks (NASD:  RNWK) must pay performing rights organization ASCAP, and ordering a
lower court to re-examine its findings. "In setting the royalty rate, the
district court must follow an approach more tailored to the varying nature and
scope of Yahoo’s music use," the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals said
in its ruling on Tuesday.

"The district court did not adequately support
the reasonableness of the 2.5 percent royalty rate applied to the value of the
Internet companies’ music use," the ruling continues.

The lower court was
also ordered to "conduct a more complete analysis of the various uses of
ASCAP musical works by RealNetworks."

"Yahoo is pleased with the
court’s decision and looks forward to the establishment of a truly reasonable
royalty license rate that properly accounts for music use on its
services," the company said in a statement.

"We are studying the
decision and will determine what further action is appropriate," ASCAP
said in a statement.

"The Second Circuit remanded the rate calculation
back to the district court with instructions to determine whether there are
‘more precise or practicable’ methods of fixing a rate for the use of our
members’ music.  

"We anticipate that
in the end, the proceeding will result in a fair and favorable license fee to
be paid by commercial online services for the valuable intellectual property
they use to sustain their businesses — the music created and owned by the
songwriters, composers and music publishers ASCAP represents."

 

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/389p27b
(BusinessWeek)

http://tinyurl.com/275dd8h
(WSJ)

http://tinyurl.com/2fh6joe
(DMW previous coverage)

Reports: News Corp. to Fold FAN Into Rubicon Project, Take Stake

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles – News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) is in talks to combine its Fox
Audience Network (FAN) online ad unit with online ad firm The Rubicon Project,
according to reports.

Both PaidContent and The Wall Street Journal cite sources
saying that News Corp. would take an equity stake in the combined entity, after
announcing last month that it instead planned to combine FAN with MySpace.

The
reported deal would see FAN’s technology and a number of employees move to
Rubicon.

Both FAN and Rubicon Project are based in Santa Monica, Calif.

Sources
told PaidContent a prospective deal with Rubicon was more appealing than a
combination of FAN with MySpace to News Corp. because "it gives News Corp.
an instant boost in terms of technology going forward and avoids duplicative
duties within MySpace with respect to staff."

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2ae3eh5
(PaidContent)

http://tinyurl.com/2dj8p8m
(WSJ)

http://www.rubiconproject.com

Apple Gains Mobile Ad Share; Local Mobile Ads to Hit $2B in 2014

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles – Apple is expected to control 21% of the U.S. mobile
advertising market by the end of this year, grabbing share from both Google and
Microsoft, BusinessWeek reported, citing data from market research firm IDC.

Google,
which accounted for 21% of the U.S. mobile ad market last year, is expected to
end the year with 21%, while Microsoft’s share will fall from 10% to 7%.

Yahoo
will see its share drop from 12% to 9%, while Nokia will slip from 5% to 2%.
Independent ad network Jumptap is expected to increase its share to 13% this
year, from 10% a year ago, while Millennial Media will end 2010 with 11% of the
market, up from 9%.

IDC projects the total U.S. ad market may more than double in
2010, to almost $500 million.

Meanwhile, U.S. mobile local advertising revenues
are projected to increase from $213 million in 2009 to $2.02 billion in 2014,
representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56.9%, according to a
newly released update to market researcher BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media
Forecast.

"We expect advertisers will be drawn to mobile marketing as the
overall market shifts to digital ad platforms," said BIA/Kelsey president
Neal Polachek.

"A lack of traffic to fulfill quotas on geotargeted ads
will likely accelerate mobile Web site and application development by
publishers."

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2bkmphw
(BusinessWeek)

http://tinyurl.com/28behxd

Twitter to Set Aside EarlyBird Promoted Deals Program

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco – Twitter will discontinue its EarlyBird
promotional tweets program, at least for the time being, All Things D’s Peter
Kafka reported, citing remarks made by Twitter COO Dick Costolo at an event in
New York.

The EarlyBird program lets advertisers promote offers to Twitter
users via an @EarlyBird Twitter account updated several times weekly.

"We’ve
always said we’d experiment and move quickly. Twitter’s @earlybird account will
no longer be tweeting offers," the company said in a statement.

"We’re
taking the learnings from @earlybird, including feedback from users and
businesses, and investing that knowledge into our Promoted Products platform to
help businesses grow their audience and provide great offers and information to
users."

 

Related Links:

http://tinyurl.com/2ezst33
(TechCrunch)

http://twitter.com/earlybird

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