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
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
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)
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
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
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:
Twitter "setting aside" @earlybird promotions program
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) September 28, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/2ezst33
(TechCrunch)
http://twitter.com/earlybird
San Francisco – The U.S. market for virtual goods will grown
from $1.1 billion last year to $2.1 billion in 2011, according to a report from
market research firm Inside Network.
"If 2010 was the year that virtual
goods made a splash in western markets, 2011 will be the year that these
markets begin to mature as the collective opportunity across social games,
online games, virtual worlds, consoles, and mobile games reaches the $2 billion
dollar mark," said Inside Network’s Justin Smith,
"Disney acquired Playdom for up to $750 million this
year, Electronic Arts acquired Playfish for up to $400 million last fall, and
hundreds of millions of dollars in venture investments have been injected into
virtual goods so far — virtual goods are seriously impacting businesses across
all types of media," added report co-author Charles Hudson.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2baygts
http://www.insidevirtualgoods.com
San Francisco – Confirming multiple reports from yesterday,
AOL (NYSE: AOL) announced on Tuesday that it has acquired technology blog publisher and
events organizer TechCrunch. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The announcement was made by AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong onstage at
TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in San Francisco. Founded in 2005 by Michael
Arrington, TechCrunch operates sites including its flagship TechCrunch.com,
MobileCrunch, CrunchGear, GreenTech and TechCrunchTV.
The company also
organizes events including Disrupt, the Crunchies Awards and various meet-ups
worldwide.
TechCrunch will continue to operate out of San Francisco as part of
the AOL Technology Network, which also includes Engadget, Switched, TUAW and
DownloadSquad.
"Tim Armstrong and his team have an exciting vision for the
future of AOL as a global leader in creating and delivering world-class content
to consumers, be it through original content creation, partnerships or acquisitions,"
said Arrington.
"I look forward to working with everyone at AOL as we
build on our reputation for independent tech journalism and continue to set the
agenda for insight, reviews and collaborative discussion about the future of
the technology industry."
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/33gq6oj
(TechCrunch)
New York – Looking to bolster its Web content, AOL (NYSE: AOL) on
Tuesday said it acquired New York-based 5min Media, the developer of a video
syndication platform, and reportedly could be on the verge of a deal for
influential Silicon Valley blog TechCrunch. Financial terms of the 5min deal
were not disclosed.
"Our acquisition of 5min Media is the latest in a
number of steps we have taken this year to better position AOL to capture the
growing video opportunity on the web," said Tim Armstrong, AOL’s chairman
and CEO.
The company said the move will "significantly expand" the
video offerings across its sites, and should enhance the distribution and
monetization of its original video content.
Founded in 2006, 5min maintains a
library of more than 200,000 categorized, tagged and rated videos from more
than 1,000 media companies and producers.
Separately, The Wall Street Journal
reported that AOL is in talks to acquire TechCrunch, according to a person
familiar with the matter.
The two companies, which also reportedly had
acquisition talks a few years ago, could announce a deal as soon as this week,
according to the blog GigaOM.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/27owu7r
http://tinyurl.com/36jsvoz
(GigaOM)
http://tinyurl.com/2afks5h
(WSJ)
