NEWS: Clips on Sharing Video, Music, Multimedia

Ed: Apple is music portal. Youtube dominates video uploads. Adobe and Apple control the plug-ins for video, music delivery. Why would multi-media be shared outside of social networks like Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, ...?

Social Net Imeem Buys Struggling Music Service Snocap

As had been rumored for a while, music-based social networking service Imeem has finally bought the assets of trouble digital music services firm Snocap. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. This deal brings in content identification technology and a digital registry for Imeem, besides the team. This will help Imeem offer commerce services to labels and artists. Imeem had previously been working with Snocap.

Snocap was founded by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, and had received about $10 million in funding from had raised at least $25 million from investors including Morgenthaler Ventures, WaldenVC, and Court Square Ventures. The company laid off 60 percent of staff last October. It had changed tracks a few times: started a music ID/registry for P2P distribution, and when the industry didn't take off, moved to a widget-based model to sell music through social networking sites and blogs. Meanwhile, Fanning has moved on, as he usually does after stirring the pot, and has launched Rupture, a virtual social community for online gamers.

Snocap COO Ali Aydar is joining Imeem as its VP of operations, while CEO Rusty Rueff is moving on. Release. 

MeeVee: Someone Please Buy Mee

MeeVee, the struggling online video guide, is looking for a buyer. The well-capitalized site announced in a release that it would do better by "combining with an established player", and it's inviting interested parties to shoot them an email (seriously). It also says it's currently in discussions with other parties. The Burlingame, CA-based site lost its CEO last month, and last summer it laid off 20 percent of its workforce—it appears it may have laid off even more, as the release says it's down to just seven full time employees. Since its founding in 2000, the company has raised nearly $24 million from investors including Bay Area Equity Fund, Defta Partners, FCPR Israel Discovery Fund, Labrador Ventures, Rothschild Ventures, and WaldenVC. Release.

---

Record Labels Seek $9 Million From Baidu, $7.5 Million From Sohu For Piracy Charges

Now that the Beijing Intermediate People's Court has accepted the copyright infringement suits brought by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the major record labels, the amounts of their recent lawsuits against Chinese websites can now been made public: Universal Music Group, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG and Warner are seeking $9 million against Chinese search giant Baidu and $7.5 million against web portal Sohu and its Sogou multimedia search site. The suits were filed in February. The Beijing court said it would allow the suits to go through last week. More details in the IFPI release.

Related

• Baidu, Sohu And Yahoo China Face New Wave Of Music Lawsuits

---

Qik adds RSS feeds

Cool, now you can get my videos that I shoot on my cell phone directly into your iTunes or other RSS readers. Here’s the RSS feeds. Also, the feeds over on http://www.fastcompany.tv have been upgraded to support the same.

---

iTunes Gains Popularity As Online Music Brand, MySpace Wanes  

TechWeb via Yahoo! News - Apr 04 1:50 PM

Study reports MySpace has declined, alongside CD sales, while iTunes has gained strength as the dominant destination for digital music sales.

MySpace CEO on Music Plan  

AdWeek - Apr 06 7:10 PM

NEW YORK To MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, the sprawling social network provides the ideal platform to help the struggling music industry to find its footing in the digital world.

Alltel Wireless and Pandora Team Up to Bring Music Discovery to Customers  

Marketwire via Yahoo! Finance - Mar 19 6:00 AM

Today, Pandora Media, the premier provider of personalized radio service online, and Alltel Wireless, America's largest network, launched an innovative marketing campaign where Pandora users in specific Alltel Wireless markets will be invited to submit their favorite hometown bands on Pandora's website.

MySpace Unveils Music Service, 
Partners With Record Labels

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO and ETHAN SMITH
April 4, 2008; Page B1

MySpace and the music industry unveiled Thursday an online music service to challenge Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, even as the digital retailer announced it has become the top music seller in the country after less than five years in the business.

MySpace has formed partnerships with three major record labels --Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp. and Sony BMG Music Entertainment -- to offer the social-networking giant's members a range of new music-listening and merchandising features. MySpace Music will offer free, ad-supported audio "streaming" and sell digital downloads that will play on a variety of music devices, as well as concert tickets, merchandise, and ring tones and other content for mobile phones...

Digital Sales Will Account for 40% of Music Purchases by 2012

Digital sales of music represented 10% of the total worldwide music market in 2007, up from 6% in 2006, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). By 2012, digital music sales will represent an impressive 40% of all music purchased worldwide, the high-tech market research firm says. Factors contributing to this growth include the global expansion of broadband, continued demand for single-track downloads, and expanding music catalogues. Another key driver is the potential for market growth in full-track downloads to mobile handsets in markets other than Japan, which currently is the primary market for this type of digital music format.

Digital piracy continues to represent the primary challenge to online music service providers. Other obstacles still include the lack of interoperability between services and devices due to differing digital rights management (DRM) technologies, and weak consumer demand for subscription-based services. Another potential market inhibitor is the fact that content owners, cellular service providers and handset manufacturers are increasing the amount of marketing and promotion for mobile music.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Sales for online digital music reached $3.05 billion in 2007, up 48% from 2006.
• Revenue for worldwide full track mobile downloads will reach approximately $4.2 billion by 2012.
• The majority of respondents who accessed online video (72.3%) in 2007 did not pay for the video they saw from the Internet.

Adobe Launches Media Player, Adobe TV

Adobe has launched Adobe Media Player 1.0 and a Adobe TV.

Adobe Media Player is a cross-platform Adobe AIR application that offers content discovery and interaction. Companies that are offering content for the player include CBS, MTV Networks, Universal Music Group, PBS, CondéNet, and Scripps Networks.

Adobe Media Player offers playback of streamed, downloaded or locally-stored video in Adobe Flash and can be viewed in 1080p, 720p or 480i resolutions. iTunes style the player allows users to subscribe to television shows and other content and automatically receive new episodes when they are available.

Adobe TV is available at tv.adobe.com or as a network in Adobe Media Player and offers “expert instruction and original series programming” about Adobe products. Adobe TV offers four channels targeted at Photographers, Designers, Video Professionals, and Developers. Content comes from “Adobe evangelists, leading trainers, subject matter experts, and luminaries.” Over 200 videos are available for the launch.

Yahoo's Flickr Expands Into Online Video

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo Inc. will begin showing homemade videos on its online photo-sharing site, Flickr, in a long-anticipated move that may be too late to lure most people away from the Internet's dominant video channel, Google Inc.'s YouTube.