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| =================================================== DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- October 16, 2000 =================================================== To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com o Future of Music Coalition Urges Independent Body For Royalty Collection o Red Herring: "The Sorry State of Digital Hollywood" o Comedy World Raises $20.5 Million Second Round o Virtgame.com To Offer Online Betting For Nevada Residents o Digital Distribution Technology Firm Metapa Raises $15 Million o Scour May Face $250 Billion In Legal Liabilities o Broadband Media Search Site Rampt Closes Second Round o MP3 Player Manufacturer S3 Rio Invests In ETC Music o Briefly Noted: "Entertainment Online 2000," Red Herring, Eveo.com - Farmclub.com, SegaNet - Limp Bizkit, EviewThis.com, Ticketmaster.com - Farmclub.com, TV.TV, ZapMedia.com - MediaX, iBEAM - DSLnetworks, Bottle Rocket - Falcon's Wing Wireless, TheFeedRoom.com - Journal Broadcast Group, Egreetings.com - Universal Music _____________________________________________ o Future of Music Coalition Urges Independent Body For Royalty Collection Washington, D.C. -- The Future of Music Coalition (FMC), an artists' rights organization concerned with digital music, issued a statement on Monday urging the U.S. Copyright Office to be wary of efforts by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to establish themselves as the exclusive collection agent for online music royalties. The FMC argued that an independent body should collect royalty payments on behalf of artists for digital music. The FMC said that the RIAA, which is backed by the major labels, will have a conflict of interest because they do not represent independent artists and labels. The organization argued that the RIAA-controlled payment organization could give preferential treatment to the major labels. "We propose the establishment of a system that will include independent arbitration for dispute resolution, democratic voting procedures for all members, open and transparent accounting and payment systems, inclusive board membership and a technologically advanced tracking system that will provide the most accurate database for royalty payment," said Walter F. McDonough of the Future of Music Coalition. The FMC was started by a group of musicians and independent record label and Internet executives wanting to ensure that the interests of independent musicians and labels are represented on digital music issues. http://www.futureofmusic.org http://www.riaa.org _____________________________________________ o Red Herring: "The Sorry State of Digital Hollywood" Los Angeles -- The cover story of the most recent edition of Red Herring magazine, titled "The Sorry State of Digital Hollywood," reports that digital media companies are experiencing increasingly difficult business conditions -- just as consumers are finally beginning to embrace many new digital media technologies. "After years of promise, technology is finally transforming show business: personal video recorders like TiVo and ReplayTV threaten to destroy the business of broadcast commercials once and for all; Napster and its peer-to-peer distribution competitors are challenging the power of major music labels; and a crop of Internet content studios like Icebox, Shockwave.com and The Romp are offering Hollywood a revolutionary approach to the packaging of the industry's particular brand of fantasy," the article said. "Yet, as businesses, the technology-loving challengers to traditional Hollywood have seldom seemed more troubled than now." http://www.redherring.com _____________________________________________ o Comedy World Raises $20.5 Million Second Round San Francisco -- Comedy World, an entertainment site, announced on Monday that it has raised $20.5 million in its second round of venture financing. Moore Capital Management led the investment round; Attractor, a previous investor, also contributed. San Francisco-based Comedy World offers content including web radio shows hosted by comedians and daily jokes. The company said it will use the funds to develop new content distribution models and to pursue radio, television and cable syndication opportunities. http://www.comedyworld.com _____________________________________________ o Virtgame.com To Offer Online Betting For Nevada Residents Los Angeles -- Virtgame.com, a software provider for online gaming, has announced that the Nevada Gaming Control Board has approved its software for use by Nevada residents to place bets using their home computers, according to a Reuters report. The system will not be available to residents outside of Nevada, and will not use the Internet. Instead, users will connect their home computers to casino operator Coast Resort's Nevada casinos through a closed connection. Before wagering, Nevada residents will have to first set up an account with Coast Resorts, make a deposit to cover their bets, then load software from Virtgame.com that connects their PC to the casino's online betting service. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/514426l.htm http://www.virtgame.com _____________________________________________ o Digital Distribution Technology Firm Metapa Raises $15 Million New York -- Metapa, a provider of distribution technology for digital media, announced on Monday that it has raised $15 million in its first round of venture financing. Wit SoundView Ventures, Impact Venture Partners and Primedia Ventures led the investment round. New York-based Metapa develops technology that simplifies the distribution of digital media across applications, networks and devices. The company said that it will soon make its technology commercially available. http://www.metapa.com _____________________________________________ o Scour May Face $250 Billion In Legal Liabilities Los Angeles -- Scour.com, an entertainment site that last week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in California court, said that its liability for providing allegedly illegal copyrighted files through its Scour Exchange could total $250 billion, according to company spokeswoman Dawn Rusalov, in a Reuters report. Entertainment companies including 20th Century Fox, Disney and MGM sued the company for allowing users to swap video files of their films. Like Napster, the company was also sued by the RIAA for allowing copyrighted songs to be traded. Scour has listed its current assets at $1.2 million. The company's Chapter 11 filing halted all litigation against the company during the bankruptcy process. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/513099l.htm _____________________________________________ o Broadband Media Search Site Rampt Closes Second Round Hollywood -- Rampt, a site that provides links to broadband entertainment, announced on Monday that it has closed its second round of funding. Audax Ventures led the round; Intel Capital, Time Warner's Digital Media Investment Fund and LSR Technologies also contributed. The amount of the investment round was not disclosed. Hollywood-based Rampt partners with broadband-based companies such as the Road Runner network to provide users with a list of daily broadband content links. http://www.rampt.com _____________________________________________ o MP3 Player Manufacturer S3 Rio Invests In ETC Music Vancouver, Wash. -- S3, a manufacturer of MP3 players and other digital media devices, announced on Monday that it has invested in ETC Music Inc., a developer of kiosks that provide digital music downloads. S3 will take an approximate 25 percent stake in the company, according to a company spokesperson. S3 manufactures the Rio brand of MP3 players, which consumers will now be able to use to download songs from Boston-based ETC Music's ATM-like Internet kiosks. ETC Music said that it will test its kiosks in the Boston area in November, with plans to distribute them nationally in the coming year. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001016/wa_s3_etc_.html http://www.s3.com http://www.etcmusic.com _____________________________________________ o Briefly Noted: (New York) The World Research Group will present "Entertainment Online 2000," a digital media conference, on Oct. 17-18 at the World Trade Center in New York City. The conference will cover the wired and wireless future of film, TV, music, animation, gaming, publishing and media finance. http://www.worldrg.com (San Francisco) Red Herring Communications, the publisher of Red Herring magazine and redherring.com, announced on Monday that it has named Hillary Schneider as its new CEO. Schneider was previously president and CEO of Times Mirror Interactive. http://www.redherring.com (San Francisco) Eveo.com, a user-generated video site, announced on Monday a deal with Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub.com, to connect aspiring video makers with unsigned musicians to make music videos for the web. San Francisco-based Eveo.com said filmmakers will listen to music on Farmclub.com, and submit their music video ideas for consideration; bands will choose the idea they like best, and Eveo will coordinate the video's production. Successful videos will have the chance of being broadcast on Farmclub.com's weekly television program on the USA Network. http://www.eveo.com http://www.farmclub.com (San Francisco) SegaNet, the online gaming division of Sega of America, announced on Monday that it will sponsor an upcoming tour of rock band Limp Bizkit. As part of the sponsorship, the band will use the SegaNet Internet network to play the Sega Dreamcast game "Ultimate Fighting Championship" against audience members during the concerts. The video game will be projected on a large screen at the concerts. http://www.sega.com (Tampa, Fl.) EviewThis.com, an entertainment site, announced on Monday the launch of its web site. Tampa-based EviewThis.com is a subsidiary of InsiderStreet.com, a provider of financial information for the small cap and bulletin board markets. EviewThis.com provides original music and movie reviews, movie trailers, entertainment news and an online store. http://www.eviewthis.com (Pasadena, Calif.) Ticketmaster.com announced on Monday that it will offer its online ticketing services to Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub.com. Ticketmaster.com will be granted promotional opportunities on Farmclub.com's weekly television show on USA Network as part of the deal. http://www.ticketmaster.com http://www.farmclub.com (Pasadena, Calif.) IDT Corporation, an international phone company and Internet service provider, announced on Monday that is has purchased the tv.tv domain name to launch a broadband television channel called TV.TV. IDT said that it will support its range of entertainment programming through targeted advertising, pay-per-view events and subscription services. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000927/nj_idt.html http://www.tv.tv (Atlanta) Zapmedia.com, a developer of multimedia player hardware as well as an entertainment portal, announced on Monday that it has partnered with MediaX, an Internet design studio and network of entertainment sites. Under the deal, MediaX will provide Zapmedia subscribers with expanded access to its sites, which include amuZnet.com, NSYNC.com and rodstewartlive.com. http://www.zapmedia.com http://www.mediax.com (Las Vegas) iBEAM, a streaming media distributor, announced on Monday that it has partnered with DSLnetworks, a provider of network broadband technology, to speed up the transmission of streaming media content to consumers. Sunnyvale-based iBEAM said that the partnership will allow its content to bypass the bottlenecks of the Internet and use a direct connection to Internet service providers established through DSLnetworks. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001016/nv_dslnetw_2.html http://www.ibeam.com http://www.dslnetworks.com (New York) Bottle Rocket, a developer and distributor of interactive entertainment, announced on Monday that it has partnered with Falcon's Wing Wireless, a provider of entertainment content for wireless devices, to provide its online games to Falcon's Wing's wireless customers. New York-based Bottle Rocket, a subsidiary of ACTV, will provide quiz and trivia games to Falcon's Wing. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001016/ny_bottle__2.html http://www.bottlerocket.com http://www.falconswing.com (New York) TheFeedRoom.com, a broadband television news service, announced on Monday that it has partnered with Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcast Group. Under the deal, New York-based TheFeedRoom.com will stream 24-hour news video from the Journal's stations including WTMJ-TV (Milwaukee), KTNV-TV (Las Vegas), WSYM-TV (Lansing, Mich) and KMIR-TV (Palm Springs, Calif.) http://www.thefeedroom.com (San Francisco) Egreetings.com, a provider of multimedia email greeting cards, announced on Monday that Universal Music Group will feature its artists in music videos created for Egreetings.com's animated music e-cards. Artists currently available from the service include Eminem, Sting and 98 Degrees. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001016/ca_egreeti.html http://www.egreetings.com http://www.universalmusic.com ___________________ To subscribe, go to: http://www.digitalmediawire.com Questions or comments? Send email to: mark@digitalmediawire.com News tips, press releases. Send email to: editorial@digitalmediawire.com |