London – The Filter, the developer of a content
recommendation engine, has raised an undisclosed amount of third round funding,
according to PaidContent, which estimated the investment amount at $1.3
million.

Backers included existing investors Peter Gabriel and Eden Ventures,
and four new angel investors, CEO David Maher Roberts told PaidContent.

The
U.K.-based company’s recommendation engine is used by NBC, Dailymotion and others.

The Filter will use the funds for expansion of its U.S. operations and further
product development.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/49atc75
(PaidContent)

http://www.thefilter.com

Chicago – Groupon, the group buying service and chief rival
of LivingSocial, could be valued as high as $25 billion when it prices its
initial public offering (IPO), which could happen later this year, Bloomberg
reported. Citing two people with knowledge of the situation, the news service
said the two-year-old company would likely be valued at a minimum of $15
billion.

The news comes three months after Google ended its pursuit of Groupon,
after offering a reported $6 billion for the company.

Chicago-based Groupon now
operates its daily discount email service in more than 500 markets, with more
than 70 million users.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4olxo3x
(Bloomberg)

http://www.groupon.com 

McLean, Va. – USA Today publisher Gannett (NYSE: GCI) on Wednesday named
former CNN executive David Payne as its senior vice president and chief digital
officer. Payne most recently served as the president and CEO of video ad
technology start-up ShortTail Media, and before that was the senior vice
president and general manager of CNN.com. Gannett said its digital business has
grown 44% over the past two years and, now sporting annual revenue of nearly $1
billion — about 18% of its total revenue.

 
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/45lr7by

San Francisco – Twitter has added the ability for users to
utilize HTTPS secure connections when accessing Twitter.com, following similar
steps taken by Facebook and other sites. "This will improve the security
of your account and better protect your information if you’re using Twitter
over an unsecured Internet connection, like a public WiFi network, where
someone may be able to eavesdrop on your site activity," Twitter said. The
company hopes in the future to make HTTPS the default setting for all.

Related Links:
http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/making-twitter-more-secure-https.html

Austin, Texas – In a bid to return to its musical roots,
Viacom’s MTV is launching The Hive, a new website that will offer music news,
reviews, opinion writing and multimedia features. The site will also serve as a
database of 30 years of music videos, and as a portal for other music-related
MTV projects like the Music Meter and Live in NYC.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4zfqzed
(PaidContent)

http://www.mtvhive.com

New York – Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) said on Wednesday that, due to
"overwhelming" demand for the ‘TV Everywhere’ app it released
yesterday that lets subscribers watch live programming online, the company has
temporarily reduced the number of channels available on the iPad app to 15
channels. The company said the move will "ease strain on the
authentication process," adding the full 30 channel line-up will be
restored as quickly as possible.

Related Links:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110316006269/en

Santa Monica, Calif. – Film studio Lionsgate said it has
launched the first move ticket deal with social shopping service Groupon.
During a two-day promotion, Groupon will offer tickets to Lionsgate’s and
Lakeshore Entertainment’s "The Lincoln Lawyer" for $6, through online
ticketing service Fandango.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4n9sbdk

http://www.groupon.com

Seoul, Korea – Electronics firm Samsung has launched a 3D
video-on-demand service in its home country of South Korea, CNET reports. At
launch, the service includes 3D features from DreamWorks, and will also offer
trailers, children’s content and music videos. The new service is being made
available via the company’s Samsung Apps marketplace.

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20043702-17.html

http://www.samsung.com

I’m
happy to bring my list of the hottest buzz acts of SXSW Music Festival back to DMW again for 2011 (this year it takes place March 15-20). I took a sampling mainly exposing the newer artists, rather than highlight the tried and true. Combing through the several hundreds of bands at this year’s SXSW was a real challenge. I say that just because the selection of official shows is incredible. No wonder being ‘official’ this year was a difficult task – Celebrating 25 years they picked the creme! With that said – here’s my "Sick 65"!

In no particular order.

Alpha Consumer
The Just Desserts
The Lytics
Rebel Diaz
Pink Nasty
Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!
Acrylics
The Airborne Toxic Event
Alcholic Faith Mission
Apollo 18
Araab Muzik
Azealia Banks
Baths
Bikini
Black Cherry
Black Top Demon
Bliss N Eso
The Boat People
Bombay Bicycle Club
Bosco Del Rey
Brodinski
I got you on tape
De JuePuchas
Chico Mann
Casio Kids
Calvin Harris
Chikita Violenta
Class Actress
Cubic Zirconia
Da Punto Beat
Dinosaur Pile- up
Dirty Ghosts
Gold Panda
Hadag Nahash
The Funeral Suits
Flip Ron
Xene Cervenka
Gustavo Galindo
Electra
Dominique Young Unique
Injured Ninja
Human Eye
The Honeymoon Thrillers
Jackie Chain
Homeboy Sandman
J*Davey
King Kapisi
Lamin Fofana
Trouble Andrew
Marz Lovejoy
Naki
Telephunken
Theophilus London
Voxhaul Broadcast
Rebel Diaz
Outtasight
Pink Shot Riot
Queens of the Stone Age
Ruby Jane
Scars on 45
Sex w/ Strangers
The White Eyes
Starfucker
The Sway Machinery
Valerie June
Zoroaster

Had to end it with a metal act from Atlanta.

Also- wanted to highlight 2 films during the music fest.

Punk in Africa- Documentary
The Furious Force of Rhymes-  first film about Hip Hop both in and outside
the U.S.

Fiona Bloom

With over 15+ years in the entertainment industry, The Bloom Effect is
a unique one stop shop for artists, labels, and lifestyle marketers.
Created by music industry maven Fiona Bloom, The Bloom Effect brings a
huge rolodex of global contacts from around the world to its clients
providing a wealth of insight/knowledge and consultation for getting
your project seen and heard. For frequent updates from Fiona on music and lifestyle, check out The Bloom Effect Blog here.

http://www.twitter.com/fionabloom
http://www.thebloomeffect.com/blog
http://www.thebloomeffect.com
http://www.youtube.com/fionab12
http://www.linkedin.com/fionabloom

New York – The Orchard, a digital distributor of independent
music and video, on Wednesday launched Artist Builder, a software dashboard
that helps labels and artists update multiple social profiles simultaneously
from one location. Tour dates, news, links, video and photos may be uploaded
through Artist Builder, and then published to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and
artist sites. The artist and release information captured will also be
available to developers via the The Orachard API.

Related Links:
http://www.theorchard.com/artistbuilder