 |
| events |
|
| about us |
|
| resources |
|
| privacy |
|
| news tips |
|
| contact us |
|
| home |
Sign up for our free daily email briefing
Past Editions
|
=================================================== DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- November 14, 2001 =================================================== To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com o Yahoo to Offer DSL Service Through SBC Communications o Instant Messaging Use At Work Up 110% o Musicians' Group Files Amicus Brief in Support of Napster o Sirius Satellite Radio Service to Launch in Three Cities in February o Liquid Audio Lays Off 15%, Announces Distribution Deal with EMI o Listen.com Licenses Songs From Publishers for Subscription Service o Game Devleoper THQ Commences Stock Offering o Video Delivery Technology Firm Path 1 Raises $3.5 Million o Yahoo, Overture Partner to Provide Paid Search Results > Digital Media Wire Directory Launched o Briefly Noted: Sony Music Entertainment - YourMobile, Club Aimster, Video Pipeline - IDP, Blockbuster - GameCube - Xbox, Muze - Wal-Mart _____________________________________________ > Job Postings: Online Ad Sales Mgr., Web Research Assistant, Web Designer > Events/Services: "Interactive TV Roadshow," "Music Videos and Movie Trailers on CD-ROM," "Avail. for Hire," "Charlottesville Venture Forum," "CATO: 'Intellectual Property in the Digital Age'," "Shortspan Film & Video Festival," "Office Space - L.A.," "Digital Media Revolution in the Americas" Full Job/Event/Services descriptions listed below "Briefly Noted" section or at http://www.digitalmediawire.com/postings.html To Post a Job: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html To Post an Event/Service: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html _____________________________________________ o Yahoo to Offer DSL Service Through SBC Communications Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Yahoo announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with SBC Communications, a provider of local phone and Internet services, to provide high-speed DSL Internet services in the 13 states where SBC operates. The two companies will create a co-branded service that also offers dial-up access. Users will receive a customized Internet browser that highlights services offered by Yahoo and SBC, as well as access to some of Yahoo's premium services. Both companies will promote the DSL services through online and offline marketing. Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo will receive undisclosed monthly per-subscriber payments from SBC, while SBC will get a share of Yahoo's non-subscriber revenue on advertising, e-commerce and broadband-enabled features and services on the Web portal. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011114/140054_1.html http://www.sbc.com _____________________________________________ o Instant Messaging Use At Work Up 110% New York -- The use of instant messaging (IM) software by U.S. workers rose 110 percent over last year, according to research published Wednesday by Internet analyst and measurement firm Jupiter Media Metrix. Users spent 4.9 billion minutes at work on IM services provided by Yahoo, MSN and AOL during September 2001, compared with 2.3 billion minutes last September. At home, instant messaging use increased 48 percent, with users spending a total 13.6 billion minutes using IM services in September, compared with 9.2 billion a year ago. Of the three competing services, AOL was most popular with 8.8 million unique users in September. The report showed that MSN and Yahoo are growing in popularity, though, and that the number of users who accessed more than one service increased to 29 percent in September. The use of IM services is likely to continue to rise as all three of the top services have recently introduced file-sharing features, allowing users to open their hard drives to their "buddy lists" and share music, movies and other media. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011114/nyw032_1.html http://www.jmm.com _____________________________________________ o Musicians' Group Files Amicus Brief in Support of Napster San Francisco -- The Recording Artists Coalition (RAC), a group of musicians including Don Henley which was set up to lobby on behalf of artists' rights, has filed an amicus curiae, or "friend of the court" or brief on behalf of Napster, Reuters reported. The brief addresses the list of songs that the RIAA submitted for Napster to block from its file-sharing service, and asks that the labels not be allowed to offer a "work for hire" classification of the songs as proof of their ownership of the songs' copyrights. "We're contending that the labels should not use the copyright registrations claiming the sound recordings as works for hire to prove ownership in this case," RAC attorney Jay Rosenthal told Reuters. When "work for hire" status is attributed to a song, a record label can pay the artist a flat fee for creating the song while maintaining ownership of the copyright to the song and controlling its future use for 35 years. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7867029.html?tag=mn_hd http://www.artistscoalition.com _____________________________________________ o Sirius Satellite Radio Service to Launch in Three Cities in February New York -- After a number of delays that have prompted several shareholder lawsuits, Sirius Satellite Radio announced on Wednesday that it will launch its satellite-delivered digital radio service on February 14, 2002. The limited launch will offer services in Houston, Denver and Phoenix; Sirius will announce the next phase of its nationwide roll-out at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. New York-based Sirius' service will offer 60 commercial-free music channels and 40 news, sports and other formatted channels to subscribers for $12.95 per month. Last week, several groups of shareholders filed class action lawsuits against the company, saying Sirius misled investors regarding the launch date for its service, which was originally planned for the end of 2000. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011114/nyw120_1.html http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011107/daw067_1.html http://www.siriusradio.com _____________________________________________ o Liquid Audio Lays Off 15%, Announces Distribution Deal with EMI Redwood City, Calif. -- Liquid Audio, a provider of digital music distribution technology, said that it will lay off 15 percent of its staff to cut costs. The layoffs are in addition to the company's laying off of 40 percent of its workforce in May. Separately, Liquid Audio announced that Christian music label EMI Christian Music Group, a subsidiary of major label EMI Recorded Music, will use the company's technology to offer a subscription service that will let users permanently download songs and transfer them onto CDs. Competing services from the major labels such as Pressplay and MusicNet will only allow access to downloaded songs as long as users continue to pay subscription fees. In addition, Redwood City-based Liquid Audio said that EMI has chosen the company as a "preferred provider" for future genre-based subscription services. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011113/130562_1.html http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011114/sfw042_1.html http://www.liquidaudio.com _____________________________________________ o Listen.com Licenses Songs From Publishers for Subscription Service San Francisco -- Listen.com, an online music entertainment site, announced on Wednesday that it has reached an agreement with the Harry Fox Agency (HFA), which licenses music on behalf of songwriter and music publisher members of the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA). The agreement will allow San Francisco-based Listen.com to use any song licensable through HFA for its Rhapsody on-demand subscription service. In lieu of a set royalty rate -- still being negotiated by the U.S. Copyright Office -- for songs used on the service, Listen.com will pay HFA an advance of up to $500,000. If a rate is not set during the next two years, Listen.com will pay monthly advances of up to $31,250 until the rate is set. "We expect to see many similar deals with Internet services in the weeks and months to come," said Edward P. Murphy, president and CEO of NMPA. Listen.com has not yet announced any deals with major record labels for its Rhapsody service, slated to launch on December 3. http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/213182592&ticker= http://rhapsody.listen.com/index_about.html http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7866682.html?tag=cd_mh _____________________________________________ o Game Devleoper THQ Commences Stock Offering Calabasas Hills, Calif. -- THQ, a developer and publisher of video and computer games, announced on Wednesday that it will sell 2.75 million shares at a price of $53.50 each in a public offering. The company announced the offering in August. Calabasas Hills-based THQ's shares closed at $543.96 on the Nasdaq Wednesday. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011114/140156_1.html http://www.thq.com _____________________________________________ o Video Delivery Technology Firm Path 1 Raises $3.5 Million San Diego -- Path 1 Network Technologies, a developer of video delivery technology for Internet-based broadcast and video-on-demand networks, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $3.5 million through a private placement from an undisclosed existing stockholder. San Diego-based Path 1's technology delivers high-quality video for broadcast and video-on-demand over the Internet to entertainment and broadcast companies, as well as to corporate clients for videoconferencing. Path 1 recently conducted a field trial with CNN where live and taped news material was exchanged between CNN affiliated stations using Path 1 technology. The company laid off 10 percent of its staff during the last quarter as part of a restructuring aimed at cost reduction. Path 1 did not announce plans for the new funding. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011114/142068_1.html http://www.path1.net _____________________________________________ o Yahoo, Overture Partner to Provide Paid Search Results Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Yahoo said it will offer website owners the ability to pay to have their sites appear more prominently in search results through a partnership with search technology provider Overture Services. To distinguish between Yahoo's editorial-driven results, the paid placements will appear in "clearly demarcated sections" alongside the regular search results. Pasadena-based Overture, formerly known as GoTo.com, will handle payments for sponsoring search results for Yahoo until April 2002, at which time either the agreement will be extended or else Yahoo will offer the service on its own. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/011113/130618_1.html http://www.overture.com/ _____________________________________________ > Digital Media Wire Directory Launched Dear Digital Media Wire Reader: Digital Media Wire just launched the Digital Media Directory, an online directory and RFP engine that facilitates the search and negotiation process between buyers and sellers. Register as a provider in the Digital Media Directory at http://digitalmediawire.newmediary.com/dmw111301nl _____________________________________________ ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| > Music Videos and Movie Trailers on CD-ROM Arista, Atlantic, Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures are participating in the November launch of BestPreviews - a FREE CD-ROM that contains music videos, movie trailers and software. RFM Broadcasting developed an innovative marketing platform that enables Internet users to view broadcast quality video. The company seeks angel investors. Send Inquiries to andrew@rfmitv.com or visit http://www.rfmitv.com. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| _____________________________________________ o Briefly Noted: (New York) Major record label Sony Music Entertainment announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with wireless services provider YourMobile to offer downloadable ringtones from Sony Music artists through a Sony-branded website. Santa Monica-based YourMobile, a unit of Premium Wireless Services, will provide the platform to distribute ringtones across GSM, TDMA, and CDMA wireless networks. Sony will promote the service -- which offers ringtones based on melodies from songs by artists including Destiny's Child, Michael Jackson and Korn -- through its CDs, websites and email newsletters. http://search.prnmedia.com/servlet/pressroomsrv?pressid=232340&detail=story http://wireless.sonymusic.com http://www.yourmobile.com (Troy, N.Y.) AbovePeer, the company that created the Aimster file-sharing service, is now offering a paid version of the service that offers users faster connections and download times. Club Aimster will be offered for $4.95 per month. New York-based Aimster is currently embroiled in litigation with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which sued the company for copyright infringement. The RIAA claims that Aimster provides essentially the same service as Napster, while Aimster claims it has no centralized servers like Napster to direct users' searches, and that all data transferred on the service is encrypted. http://www.clubaimster.com http://www.riaa.com/aimsterfaq.cfm (Haddonfield, N.J.) Video Pipeline, a provider of streaming movie previews to retail and rental websites, said on Wednesday that it has begun streaming previews for IDP (Independent Distribution Partnership), which markets the films of Samuel Goldwyn, Fireworks Pictures and Stratosphere Entertainment. The previews will be offered alongside Video Pipeline's 15,000 other movie, music and game previews on 35 websites, as well as in rental stores. New Jersey-based Video Pipeline is currently engaged in copyright litigation with Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment over the rights to stream previews of that company's films. http://www.videopipeline.com (Dallas) Video and game rental chain Blockbuster said on Wednesday that it will offer customers who present proof of purchase of a Nintendo GameCube or Microsoft Xbox a free video game rental. "Few people can afford to build an extensive library of games," said Brian Woodrick, director of video game purchasing for Blockbuster. "At Blockbuster stores, we offer an ever-changing selection of titles that allow gaming consumers to try out the latest games before they buy." http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011114/daw026_1.html (New York) Muze, a provider of informational databases on movies, music and games, announced on Wednesday that retail chain Wal-Mart will use its DVD and video informational content on its WalMart.com site. New York-based Muze's database contains information for more than 145,000 video releases and 13,500 DVD releases, including street and pre-order dates, running time information, MPAA ratings, reviews and DVD special features and categorizations. http://www.muze.com http://www.walmart.com =================================================== Job Postings: =================================================== To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html > Internet Advertising Sales Manager, gantthead.com, Fairfax VA Are you passionate about the Internet as a B2B advertising medium? We have too many leads to pursue and need you if: you have 2+ yrs exp. selling Internet advertising (required); BA/S degree; B2B agency/account contacts; you can identify, pursue, and close deals. Creative, autonomous work environment. Generous package: salary, commission, benefits. Please send resume to: gina@gantthead.com. EOE, M/F/V/D. For more information, see http://www.gantthead.com/Gantthead/jobs ______________________ > Katrillion, Web Research Assistant - Fort Lee, New Jersey CityConnect, the first national city event guide for teens available on all web and wireless platforms, is looking for an events-locating super-sleuth to find content for posting on the web. The ideal candidate must be -- able to find current information that may not be readily available, a recent college grad, and possess a passion for pop culture and teen trends. Internet savvy plus strong writing skills are essential. Send resume and salary requirements to: ccstaff@katrillion.com http://www.katrillion.com/cityconnect.com ______________________ > Bookspan, Web Designer - Long Island, New York BOOKSPAN is seeking a Web Designer with preferably 1-2 years experience for a freelance position (possible temp-to-hire). Work with a Sr. Designer on the design of all-new web sites from top to bottom. PhotoShop, Illustrator, hand-code HTML, and aptitude to learn proprietary content-management software are an absolute must. Send resume in plain text with URLs of your work, and list the three best-looking content or e-commerce based sites you can find to: jgiannetti@booksonline.com http://www.booksonline.com =================================================== Events/Services Postings: =================================================== To Post Events/Services: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html > Interactive TV Roadshow, Jan 21st-25th 2002 -- NYC, Calif. Virtual Media Partners LLC has drawn on its extensive Interactive TV experience in the USA and Europe to design this broad based introduction to the amazing potential of Enhanced Interactive Television - "The 4th Dimension". A unique concept held from coast to coast on five separate days. Contact: yaqub@virtualmediapartners.com Info/to register: http://www.virtualmediapartners.com/trainingevent.htm ______________________ > Music Videos and Movie Trailers on CD-ROM Arista, Atlantic, Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures are participating in the November launch of BestPreviews - a FREE CD-ROM that contains music videos, movie trailers and software. RFM Broadcasting developed an innovative marketing platform that enables Internet users to view broadcast quality video. The company seeks angel investors. Send Inquiries to andrew@rfmitv.com or visit http://www.rfmitv.com. ______________________ > Available for Hire - Tech-Experienced Copy Writer/Marketing Manager Marketing professional with over two years high tech experience within a London marketing agency. Moved to DC seven months ago to set up first US branch of UK business - seeking opportunities for full-time, part-time or freelance marketing/communications projects. Contact timdatwilsonharvey@hotmail.com ______________________ > The Charlottesville Venture Forum Join us Nov. 15-16 for 5 investor presentations. Distinguished panel: William Daughtrey, Carilion Biomedical Institute; Charles Hamner, UVA, Patent Foundation; Brandon Price, Goodwin BioTech, Inc; Bart Stephens, Ivanhoe Capital; Keynote address by John May, New Vantage Partners. Thursday cocktail reception, Friday breakfast and lunch. Co-hosts: Charlottesville Venture Group and UVA's Darden Business School. Send Inquiries to info@cville-venture.org or Visit http://www.cville-venture.org/ventureForum2001.htm ______________________ > CATO CONFERENCE: Intellectual Property in the Information Age Join the Cato Institute and Forbes ASAP for a comprehensive look at the future of intellectual property in the digital economy. Speakers include John Perry Barlow, Electronic Frontier Foundation; Rep. Rick Boucher, (D-Va.); and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D Vt.). Wednesday, November 14, 2001 at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information or to register, visit http://www.cato.org/events/futureip ______________________ > SHORTSPAN Film & Video Festival, FINAL DATES SHORT MOVIES! Dreamspan presents the 9TH Annual Short Attention Span Film & Video Festival. Shortspan is a non-stop two hour program of ALL NEW two-minute-or-shorter films, including ultra-short documentaries like "Peekaboo Sunday," a story about raising miniature horses or "Exotic World," an inside look at the lives of some of America's first burlesque performers-- and 57 more shorts! The tour will travel to 30 North American cities. The remaining dates on the tour include: ATLANTA, GA: GSU Cinefest Theatre, Nov. 2-3, 10:00 PM AUSTIN, TX: The Alamo Draft House, Downtown, Nov. 7-8, 9:30 PM PITTSBURGH, PA: Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Nov. 16-18, Time TBA NEW YORK CITY, NY: The Anthology Film Archives, Dec. 7-8, 9:30 PM BIRMINGHAM, AL: WorkPlay, Dec. 20, 9:00 PM More info: http://www.dreamspan.com/shortspan ______________________ > Office Space For Rent - Los Angeles Prime Sunset Boulevard location. Approx. 588 sq ft. Second floor, spacious two + offices with private bathroom. Convenient parking. Recently renovated. Quiet, nice work environment. Other tenants in building are primarily entertainment and new media companies. DSL-ready. Rent is $1,175 per month. For more information, please call 323-822-0344. ______________________ > Digital Media Revolution in the Americas, 11/29-12/01 -- Pasadena, CA Presented by the Institute of the Americas and Annenberg School for Communication, this 2 1/2 day forum will include Sr. Exec. Networking w/ a special focus on Latin Americas & U.S. Hispanic markets, copyright, rights mgmt., dist., infrastructure, digital film, iTV, streaming, device trends, content financing. Early-bird 40% off till 9/30. Keynote Steven Bandel, Pres. - The Cisneros Group. Sponsors: JP Morgan, Motorola, Global Crossing, Walt Disney Company, Digital Media Wire, Cahners International TV, iHollywood, Motion Picture Assoc., National Assoc. of TV Prog. Exec., National Assoc. of Theatre owners. For more information: martin@iamericas.org Register at: http://www.iamericas.org/events ______________________ 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 Copyright 2001 Digital Media Wire |