Last.fm has launched of Presents, a series of exclusive video interviews with artists including Moby, Santogold and Spoon. This marks the first time that the site has ventured into original video programming,
Moby discusses his musical inspirations and Santogold shares a story of writing her first song at the age of nine.Other interviews include Neon Neon with Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) and Josh Radin. More interviews will be added in the coming week.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled late Wednesday that AOL, Yahoo and RealNetworks must pay higher licensing fees to ASCAP. The net companies had asked the court to set the rate based on revenue directly attributable to music uses. Instead, the decision sets a formula based on gross website revenue multiplied by the portion of website activity that is music-intensive. Some estimates put the back payments due as high as $100 Million.
The executive director of DiMA, a trade group representing the net broadcasters, Jonathan Potter, issued a statement:
"DiMA agrees that Internet portals and multi-faceted online services should pay fair royalties to songwriters and music publishers. We are disappointed, however, that the court ruled that online services' royalties should be based in part on service-wide revenue, not simply on revenue directly attributable to music usage."
"DiMA is studying the 153-page decision, and at this point the only certainty is that the court's complex rate formula will require several weeks of additional consideration, including perhaps additional court hearings, before its impact on the parties (Yahoo!, AOL and RealNetworks) and other ASCAP licensees is known.”
A copy of the ruling can be found here.
Last.fm has named F. Scott Woods SVP and Managing Director, Germany. Woods, who joins Last.fm from Google where he served as Head of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development, Northern & Central Europe, will oversee the expansion of the Last.fm presence in Germany, the country with the second largest Last.fm userbase after the US. Woods will help set up a Last.fm office in Hamburg, where he will manage marketing, advertising sales and business development partnerships in Northern Europe.
Live mobile video and social networking site Kyte has grabbed an impressive $21.1 million in second round financing ed by Steamboat Ventures (Disney) and Intellect Capital Ventures.
50 Cent, Prodigy and others acts are creating channels online where they broadcast photo slide shows, videos, webcams and other content to
fans who can also create their own channels. While content can be viewed online like at MySpace, etc. including via a
super widget, Kyte content is also optimized for mobile phone viewing.
"It's a quid pro quo. The fans get inside information about their favorite bands and in exchange the fans provide marketing access and critical data about themselves," said Michael Goodman, an analyst with Yankee Group told Red Herring. "It's a variation on the old fan club."
Pitchfork will launch Pitchfork.tv on April 7th as a visual extension of the leading indie music web site. The online channel will offer mini-documentaries, secret rooftop and basement sessions, full concerts, exclusive interviews, and a "carefully curated" selection of music videos.
Pitchfork.tv will also screen full-length feature films, vintage concerts, and music DVDs free of charge. Promised content includes the Pixies' 2004 reunion tour film LoudQuietLoud, Todd Phillips' GG Allin documentary Hated and the acid-drenched visual art piece Ultimate Reality. Pitchfork.tv will highlight a different film each week. Promising "the web's largest, crispest, and highest-resolution displays, Pitchfork.tv is designed for full-screen viewing with all content available on-demand.
MORE EXPANSION AHEAD
Last.fm has launched a new section build.last.fm designed to showcase third party applications and widgets for the music discovery and social networking site. The apps extend the Last.fm experience across the web.
Examples include apps for Realtime, Skype and the BBC.com. All were developed using the site's open platform architecture and free webservice tools which have been available since 2003. The company estimates third-party apps on other sites (Facebook, bebo, etc.) added 19 million music fans to its user base in January in addition to the 21 million on the the Last.fm site itself.
Last.fm promises more expansion in 2008. “Our web services will be massively expanded in 2008, and Build.last.fm is the cornerstone of that strategy. The developer community is an integral part of the Last.fm experience and is really what makes the Last.fm platform so strong."
Last.FM has added a new on demand song streaming service with the support from all four major labels and 150,000 indie labels and artists from distributors including The Orchard, CD Baby, IODA, Naxos. Users can listen to a track free up to three times, after which they are pointed iTunes, Amazon or 7Digital for purchase.
The free on demand service launched Wednesday in the US, UK and Germany and is scheduled to roll out globally in the coming months
The site also launched a new program for artists not signed with a label. They can upload their music to Last.fm and will receive payment every time a tracks is played. This allows acts without a traditional recording or publishing deal to offer their music free while still generating revenue.
Continue reading "Last.FM Adds On Demand Song Streams, Indie Artist Program" »
Watch out broadcasters...
Pandora founder Tim Westergren testified today on behalf of the Digital Music Asscoiation before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Westergren emphasized the range of radio on the net and noted that independent musicians are benefiting from services like Pandora that promote diverse playlists and enable immediate purchase of music or concert tickets.
Westergren’s testimony also focused on the threat facing Pandora and all of net radio as a result of the Copyright Royalty Board's decision to raise sound recording royalties 30%. This rate – which effectively requires some internet radio so pay royalties equaling 50-300% of revenue – is unsustainable for most webcasters and is in contrast to royalties paid by broadcast radio (no sound recording royalties), satellite radio (less than 3% of revenue), and cable radio (7.25% of revenue).
Continue reading "Pandora Westergren Speaks For DiMA Before Congress" »
The fight over internet broadcast royalty rates seems to finally reaching a conclusion. 
Yesterday, SoundExchange agreed to cap "per channel" fees for larger internet radio companies at $50,000 a year thus saving Pandora and others who offer tens of thousands of streams. In return the DiMA says broadcasters will begin better recording practices within 6 months.
“That $500 per channel minimum was kind of absurd and the truth is everybody knew that. But the real meat of this is the (royalty) rate, which has not been figured out yet," said Pandora Founder Tim Westergren.
Earlier this week SoundExchange dropped a demand to end mp3 streaming and offered smaller broadcasters a percentage of profits royalty rate deal through 2010. Some stations expressed dissatisfaction with the rate increase and a provision that would seemingly "double tax" a broadcaster who grew above a $1.25 million cap within a reporting period. But at least both sides appear to be getting closer to a resolution.
Recent Comments