Hello Music Gets $4 Million for Web A&R Service

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Cannes, France – Hello Music, a new
Web-based talent discovery service for musical artists, announced on Friday that
it has raised $4 million in funding from KVG Partners.

The company was conceived
and incubated by digital music product design firm Wilshire Media Group, whose
partners include Zack Zalon — former president of Virgin Digital and an early
employee of Farmclub.com.

KVG lead investor and Lyric Opera president and CEO
Dick Kiphart will serve as chairman of Hello Music.

The site lets artists
upload their music and information, which are then screened by the company’s
evaluation team, made up of "industry advisors, songwriters and composers,
world-class musicians, ex-label A&R people, and independent music aficionados."

These screeners provide feedback both to the artists, and to its partners, who
may choose to utilize their songs for various opportunities.

If the artist
decides to capitalize on the offer, Hello Music takes a cut of any revenue
generated.

Initial partners include synchronization services AudioMicro and
Getty Images; booking service GigMaven; LyricFind; analytics firm Next Big
Sound; marketing firm Topspin; Web radio services Slacker and Yahoo Music; and
distributors TuneCore and MediaNet.

"Technology has created infinite
possibilities for musicians to distribute and promote their music, but there
are fewer gatekeepers to identify quality acts and actually help them connect
to the opportunities that power a career," said Zalon.

"Hello Music
believes you need a team of industry professionals — real people — to
evaluate that music to find those artists whose careers will grow."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5rxx

http://www.hellomusic.com

Nokia to Offer Free GPS Navigation on Smartphones

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Espoo, Finland – Nokia (NYSE: NOK) on Thursday
announced that it will offer a new, free satellite navigation service for its
smartphones. The company said that its new Ovi Maps, which offers car and
pedestrian navigation — including turn-by-turn voice guidance — for 74
countries in 46 languages, "has the potential to nearly double the size of
the current mobile navigation market."


 

Related Links:
http://www.nokia.com/press/press-releases/showpressrelease?newsid=1375569

http://snipurl.com/u5ejw
(Reuters)

YouTube Tests Music Discovery and Playlist Creation Tool

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Bruno,
Calif. – Google’s (NASD: GOOG) YouTube has
begun testing a new music discovery and playlist creation tool, NewTeeVee
reports. A user enters an artist or song title, and the tool returns a list of
music videos that are related to the user’s selection in the form of a playlist
— which users may then delete and add to as desired. NewTeeVee reports that,
at least at launch, the YouTube Music Discovery Project and Playlist Creation
Tool is likely to disappoint users of services like Pandora or Last.fm as
lacking in diversity of content.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5eg2
(NewTeeVee)

http://www.youtube.com/disco

Icahn to Nominate Three New Take-Two Board Members

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO) said on Thursday that it will
nominate three new board members, at the request of stockholders that include activist
investor Carl Icahn — who purchased an 11.3% stake in the company a month ago.
The new board member nominees include Icahn’s son Brett; those exiting the
board include Ben Feder, who will retain his position as Take-Two’s chief
executive.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5ek6

http://www.take2games.com

Billboard Names Craig Marks as New Editor

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

New York
– Music industry trade publication Billboard announced that it has named Craig
Marks as its new editor. Marks was previously the founding editor of Blender
magazine, editor-in-chief for music at CNET.com, and executive editor of Spin magazine.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5el7
(Billboard)

Air America

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Air America Ceases Radio Broadcasts, Will Declare Bankruptcy

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
3

New York – Liberal
talk-radio network Air America
unceremoniously announced on Thursday that it would cease broadcasting
immediately and file for bankruptcy. "It is
with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that
Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this
afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the
Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business," the
company said on its website.

"The very difficult economic environment has
had a significant impact on Air America’s
business. This past year has seen a ‘perfect storm’ in the media industry
generally," the company added.

"National and local advertising
revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to
fold or seek bankruptcy protection."

Air America launched in 2004 with
on-air personalities including now-Senator Al Franken, and now-MSNBC host
Rachel Maddow.

The company already filed for Ch. 11 once in 2006, and was sold out
of those proceedings for just $4.25 million.

"In this climate, our
painstaking search for new investors has come close several times right up into
this week, but ultimately fell short of success."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5emc
(Washington Post)

http://airamerica.com

Report: U.S. E-book Reader Market to Hit $2.5 Billion in 2013

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Boston – The U.S. e-book
reader market is set to generate $1.3 billion in revenue in 2010, growing to
$2.5 billion by 2013, according to a report from market research firm Yankee
Group.

U.S.
e-book reader sales are expected to hit 6 million this year, and rise at a compound
annual growth rate of 34% to reach 19.2 million in 2013, when the installed
base will hit over 36 million.

Yankee Group sees $150 as the "sweet spot"
for e-book reader pricing.

"Unlike the iPod, which hooked serious music
buyers in addition to a raft of casual listeners, e-book reader adoption will be
limited to heavy readers only — at least until prices come down," said
Yankee Group analyst Dmitriy Molchanov.

"But we see the average price of
e-book readers declining by roughly 15 percent per year for the next five
years, resulting in 55 percent increase in adoption rate year over year."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5eea

http://www.yankeegroup.com

IFPI Mulling Civil Action Against OiNK P2P Admin

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
2

London – While a U.K. court
recently acquitted the administrator of BitTorrent site OiNK of charges of
"conspiracy to defraud" the recording industry, that industry is now
considering filing civil actions to reclaim what it says are the admin’s
ill-gotten gains from the site, TorrentFreak reported.

International record
label trade group IFPI called that outcome a "hugely disappointing verdict" last week.

Today, IFPI chairman John Kennedy said at a press conference that
the group plans to "find other ways" to seek remedy against OiNK
admin Alan Ellis, for the $300,000 in donations he received from users of the
site.

Ellis told the jury at his trial that the funds were used to rent server
space and to put toward the cost of his own server.

Kennedy said the industry
wants those funds to distribute to the artists whose music was shared without
permission on OiNK, according to TorrentFreak.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5eaz
(TorrentFreak)

http://snipurl.com/u5eb0
(DMW previous coverage)

Comcast in Talks on Streaming Music Service for Cable, ISP

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Palo Alto,
Calif. – Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation’s
largest cable TV provider that recently proposed a merger with NBC Universal,
is in talks to offer a music streaming service to its ISP and cable TV
customers, TechCrunch reports, citing multiple unnamed sources.

The service
would stream songs via a website or to a viewer’s TV set-top box.

Sources
speculated the service would cost an extra at least $5 per month for
subscribers.

 

Related Links:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/comcast-streaming-music

http://www.comcast.com

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