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YouTube, EMI signs deal

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emi.jpgYouTube has agreed to a deal with major music label EMI Group to give users of the video-sharing site broad access to music videos by EMI artists.

YouTube users would be allowed not only to watch and play authorized videos and recordings from EMI artists including Coldplay, Norah Jones and David Bowie, but also to incorporate elements of the videos in YouTube users’ own “user generated content.”

“With this deal, all four of the world’s major music companies are now official YouTube partners,” said Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-founder of YouTube. “EMI is a proven leader in the emerging digital music landscape and one of the world’s largest and most respected music companies. We’re excited to add EMI Music’s stellar roster of artists’ content to our site and make it available to our community.”

Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said: “Working with YouTube under this agreement meets EMI’s objectives to offer consumers the best possible entertainment experiences, to create new ways to connect our artists to fans and to enter into innovative business models that will generate revenues for our business and our creators. Through this agreement EMI Music and its artists will be fairly compensated for their work.”

Last year, Warner Music Group Corp., Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Entertainment each signed a content deal with YouTube. As part of the agreements each music company took a small stake in YouTube, prior to it being bought by Google, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Originally posted on May 31, 2007 @ 4:25 pm

PayPlay.FM starts selling 1,300,000 tracks of DRM-free music

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payplay.jpgPayPlay.FM today started selling its 1,300,000-track catalog in unprotected MP3 format at the price of 88 cents per song. The move continues PayPlay’s strategy for uniform support of Mac and UNIX platforms, iPod, Zune and other portable players incompatible with Windows Media DRM, offering customers the ultimate in flexibility.

“On the Day Against DRM last year we committed to provide our customers with the music download freedom of choice. Today we live up to that promise, delivering more than twice the number of tracks pledged in October in DRM-free format,” said Elliot Goykhman, PayPlay CEO. “The new version of PayPlay.FM makes it extremely easy and exciting to buy music. We are proud to be the world’s largest MP3 download store.”

Originally posted on May 29, 2007 @ 5:07 pm

Warner Music putting video archives online for free

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warner.jpgWarner is planning to make its vast archive of videos available for free online after signing a deal with Premium TV, the group behind premier league football websites. The online TV company will create a series of online video sites organized by artist, genre, and label.

Users will be able to log their favourite music and artists and stream video for free from Warner’s catalogue, which includes footage of the Doors, Led Zeppelin and REM as well as newer artists like Hard-Fi. The sites, which are still in development, will also offer previously unseen footage. from Warner artists which include Led Zeppelin, REM, Madonna, among others.

The US giant says the deal will make it the first of the world’s four major music companies to supply its whole video archive online under a new business model that raises money through online advertising.

Originally posted on May 31, 2007 @ 5:06 am

CBS acquires Last.fm for $280 million

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lastfm.jpgCBS Corp. announced its acquisition of Last.fm for $280 million. The social network, organized around musical tastes, leveraging each user’s musical profile to make personalised recommendations, connect users who share similar tastes, provide custom radio streams, among others. The company claims more than 15 million monthly users, including more than 4 million in the U.S.

“Last.fm is one of the most well-established, fastest-growing online community networks out there. Their demographics also play perfectly to CBS’ goal to attract younger viewers and listeners,” CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said.

Originally posted on May 30, 2007 @ 6:58 am

Illegal downloading among youth drops

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The results of a recent nationwide survey released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) show that illegal downloading of digital copyrighted works by youth (ages 8 to 18) has dropped by 24 percent in the last three years. The survey, first conducted in 2004, indicated that 60 percent of survey participants reported downloading software, music, movies, or games without paying for it; in 2006 the percentage of those who downloaded without paying dropped to 43 percent; and in 2007 the percentage decreased to 36 percent. Youth report that parental oversight is a significant motivator and key influencing factor in their online behavior.

When the young survey participants were asked what worries them about downloading digital copyrighted works, such as software, music, movies or games, from the Internet without paying, the top responses were fear of accidentally downloading a computer virus (62 percent), getting into legal trouble (52 percent) and accidentally downloading spyware (51 percent). Fear of getting in trouble with parents ranked fourth at (48 percent), increasing from 40 percent in 2006. [Read more…]

Originally posted on May 23, 2007 @ 10:46 am