Los Angeles
– News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace has received nearly 28,000 online audition videos from
users hoping to win a casting call for Fox’s musical comedy "Glee,"
in addition to more than 85 million votes on said videos, Mashable reported. As
a result, the company has extended until Thursday the deadline for submissions.
Related Links:
http://mashable.com/2010/04/27/glee-myspace-auditions-2
London
– We7, a U.K.-based streaming music service backed by musician Peter Gabriel, announced
on Wednesday that in the past month it was for the first time able to cover
costs associated with licensing the music it streams from its site through
advertising. The company, which recently signed a display ad deal with Yahoo
and counts some 3 million users, noted that its model has been able to outlast
ad-supported rivals including imeem, SpiralFrog, iLike, Lala and Ruckus —
which have either shuttered or been acquired.
Related Links:
http://www.we7.com/about/press/stories/we7-shows-ad-funded-music
San Diego
– MP3tunes, the digital locker service founded by MP3.com creator Michael
Robertson, announced that it has expanded its free hosting offer from 2GB to
10GB — or enough space to hold about 2,000 MP3 files. The service lets users
upload their song libraries and then stream them from MP3tunes servers to any
Internet-connected device.
Related Links:
http://mp3tunesnews.blogspot.com/2010/04/get-10-gb-for-free.html
Santa Clara,
Calif. – Rovi (NASD: ROVI) (formerly
Macrovision) announced on Wednesday that Wenner Media’s RollingStone.com will
use the Rovi database to add album titles, artwork and information about
tracks, labels and release dates to its directory of artists. Rovi’s database
contains information on more than 1.8 million albums and 16 million tracks.
*Disclosure: Rovi is a
sponsor of Digital Media Wire.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vumy1
Trumbull,
Conn. – MusicRevolution on Wednesday
announced the launch of its new online marketplace for royalty-free production
music, which may be licensed for use in TV, movies, advertising and other
productions. The company was co-founded by former Jupitermedia president Chris
Cardell and Mike Bielenberg, who was general manager of Jupiterimages’ online
music business.
Related Links:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/04/prweb3929254.htm
New York
– MediaNet, a provider of distribution services for music and other digital
media, on Wednesday announced its expansion into the e-book market. The company
said it will make a broad catalog of e-books, including the most popular titles
found in physical and online stores, available in Adobe ePub and PDF formats.
MediaNet currently powers media distribution for more than 100 customers.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vun90
Los Angeles
– TuneCore, a provider of low-cost digital music distribution and promotional
services, on Wednesday announced a discounted rate for artists and labels
registered with the MySpace Music service. MySpace Music artists who sign up to
use TuneCore will also be given a free MyAds credit to market and support
themselves on MySpace.
Related Links:
http://www/tunecore.com/myspacemusic
London
– Worldwide recorded music sales fell 7% in 2009 to $17.03 billion, as sales of
physical products like CDs dropped 12.7% globally, according to a new report
from record label trade group IFPI. Meanwhile, global digital music revenues
were up 9.2% in 2009, to $4.31 billion; 30 countries saw double-digit growth in
digital sales, and 17 markets saw growth of more than 40%.Digital now accounts
for 25.3% of all music sales globally, and 43% of the U.S. recorded
music market.
Overall, the U.S.
and Japan
were said to account for 80% of total industry losses, as the worldwide decline
in revenues outside these two territories was just 3.2% for the year.
The
sharpest declines in revenues were seen in Italy
(-17.4%) and Spain
(-14.3%), which the IFPI said have "some of the world’s weakest legal
defenses against piracy."
IFPI noted that the best-selling album globally
in 2009 was Susan Boyle’s "I Dreamed a Dream," which sold 8.3 million
units.
Despite gains in revenues from live music, songwriters’ music copyrights
and the performance rights market, IFPI found that the broader music industry
— whose definition also includes radio advertising, live performance sales and
the sale of audio equipment — declined 8% to an estimated $140 billion in
2009.
Related Links:
http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20100428.html
http://snipurl.com/vulkr
(Billboard)
Palo Alto,
Calif. – HP (NYSE: HPQ) announced on Wednesday
that it will acquire smartphone maker Palm (NASD: PALM), in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. Under
the terms, HP will pay about $5.70 per share for Palm, whose stock price closed
at $4.64 on Tuesday.
"Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal
platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience
spanning multiple mobile connected devices," said Todd Bradley, executive
vice president of HP’s personal systems group.
"And, Palm possesses
significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is
large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an
integrated device and experience command a higher share."
Other potential
suitors for Palm had been rumored to include Dell and Taiwan’s HTC.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vulm8
London – Following
unsuccessful licensing talks with British broadcasters, video portal Hulu has
shelved plans to launch in the U.K.,
the Telegraph reports. The joint venture between News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and
Disney (NYSE: DIS) has reportedly been in talks with U.K. broadcasters including ITV,
Channel 4 and Five for nearly a year.
Sources told the Telegraph that ITV
believed that providing content to Hulu would conflict with its own on-demand
ITV Player, while neither Channel 4 nor Five are keen on having Hulu sell
advertising inventory alongside their programming.
The Telegraph had reported last
August that ITV was nearing an exclusive deal with Hulu that would include the
broadcaster taking an equity share.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/vulia
(Telegraph)
