News Corp owned MySpace has a deal to purchase independent online music service Imeem, in a deal which is reported to be $1million in cash. Imeem has been in financial trouble for a while, and has run through an estimated $30million in investor dollars.

Among the investors, all four major record labels, although earlier this year Warner Music wrote off its investment in the service. In 2007, Imeem became the first ad supported on-demand online music service to negotiate deals with all four major labels. Those deals included equity which made partners of the four major labels. MySpace also has partnership deals in place with the four major labels.

A few months ago MySpace acquired online music service iLike, with 50 million registered listeners, for a reported $20million. Comscore estimated that Imeem had 16 million unique visitors in September. It’s impossible to compare these two numbers except to say that it doesn’t sound like Imeem is a lot smaller than iLike to me.

MySpace now owns two of the five online music services that announced partnerships with Google’s new music platform. The way that works is that Google drives traffic to partner sites who play the music and pay the royalties.

Recently Spotify delayed their US launch due to problems negotiating a license for ad supported on demand streaming with the record companies. Plug that info into the fact that Imeem was about to get acquired by MySpace for so little, and it’s easy to understand why Spotify is meeting with some opposition. Seems like the record companies want to limit their exposure on the ad supported revenue model…

MySpace, rumored to be on the verge of purchasing the free music streaming site imeem, is struggling to keep up with its own payments to music copyright holders, according to a top News Corp executive — a problem that has plagued every other licensed free music service.

The digital music doubters could be right with the contention that advertising revenue can’t cover the costs of licensing music. Meanwhile, illegitimate free music sources continue to proliferate, rendering paid music subscriptions irrelevant for most music fans.

Advertising was supposed to be music’s magic bullet, enabling fans to get the free music they’re going to find anyway while contributing at least something to copyright holder coffers. That dream is fading fast. As legitimate sources for free on-demand music dry up, fans will likely head back to file sharing networks, which is bad news for everyone involved in music — except for, perhaps, hard drive manufacturers. [read]

so imeem has been bought by myspace (rupert murdoch). there has to be some humour in that (i cant see it right now though). most interestingly though is how this space is developing in regards to copyright law. it appears that if you let people know what song is coming up next you could be in a different licensing regime..

http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2009/11/8tracks-to-launch-playback-api.php#more

The rumors that MySpace is acquiring music streaming service iMeem for a bargain-basement price have gotten some more weight behind them and a deal looks pretty much certain at this point. The deal doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the music streaming business and it remains to be seen if MySpace has better luck with the teams of talented people it has been amassing

lately. In any case, it now looks like MySpace will pay just $1 million in cash, though on the whole, the deal is worth at about $8 million plus considerable earnouts for the employees that stay with MySpace.

There still isn’t anything official from any of the companies, but multiple sources confirm that the two sides have reached an agreement and that the negotiations are over for now. It isn’t exactly a done deal yet, but it’s very close to it. MySpace won’t completely assimilate iMeem – the company – but the social network turned media hub will get its hands on most of iMeem’s assets.

Some assets along with the good chunk of the money involved in the deal will be used to pay off some of iMeem’s debt which amounts to as much as $10 million. MySpace will also lose the licensing deals iMeem has signed with music labels as they become void as soon as the company changes hands. What the social network will be getting, though, is the service itself, the intellectual property and about half of the company’s 55 or so employees, both in the engineering and in the sales departments.

It’s unclear at the moment if the service lives on, but even if it does, it’s safe to say that iMeem as a company has failed big time thanks in large part to outrageous license fees from the music labels. News of the deal might raise interest from other parties and someone might make a better offer for the company. However, seeing as how iMeem has gotten as much as $75 million from investors and loans any sort of exit at around the sum currently speculated is a huge disappointment.

from www.paidcontent.org

Le site Billboard.biz a annoncé dans un bulletin publié mercredi 18 novembre, que le célèbre réseau communautaire Myspace était sur le point d’acheter le site internet Imeem.

Pour ceux d’entre vous qui ne le connaitraient pas, ce site, dont l’activité est basée sur des revenus publicitaires, propose aux internautes la possibilité d’écouter en streaming les titres de leurs choix mais aussi de les compiler sous forme de playlists grâce à un compte qu’ils auront créé gratuitement. Ses membres peuvent aussi alimenter leur page de vidéos et de photos, ainsi que poster des articles à la manière d’un véritable blog.

Selon TechCrunch.com, Myspace serait prêt à débourser un million de dollars pour faire l’acquisition de ce site.

Source : Billboard.biz

GT.

ดูท่าบริการเครือข่ายสังคมออนไลน์อย่างมายสเปส (MySpace) กำลังหาทางขยายอาณาจักรด้วยการนำเพลงมาเป็นอาวุธ ล่าสุดสื่อต่างประเทศระบุว่า มายสเปส กำลังอยู่ระหว่างการเจรจาซื้อเว็บไซต์สตรีมมิ่งเพลงออนไลน์แบบไม่คิดค่าบริการนาม”ไอมีม (imeem)” ซึ่งได้รับความนิยมไม่น้อยในกลุ่มวัยรุ่นต่างประเทศ

เอพีเป็นหนึ่งในสื่อที่ตีพิมพ์ข่าวครั้งนี้ โดยอ้างข้อมูลจากแหล่งข่าววงในไม่ประสงค์เผยนาม คาดว่าข่าวการซื้อขายจะถูกเปิดเผยต่อสื่อในช่วงหลายสัปดาห์นับจากนี้ เนื่องจากทั้งสองยังไม่สามารถบรรลุข้อตกลงในรายละเอียดปลีกย่อยที่ผ่านมา มายสเปสแสดงทิศทางของตัวเองอย่างเปิดเผยว่ากำลังอยู่ระหว่างการปรับโฉม บริการครั้งใหญ่ และได้ประกาศความร่วมทุนกับค่ายเพลงยักษ์ใหญ่ของโลกหลายค่ายในการทำโครงการ MySpace Music แล้ว ซึ่งหากการซื้อเว็บสตรีมมิ่งเพลงเกิดขึ้นจริง โครงการดังกล่าวก็จะยิ่งเป็นรูปเป็นร่างขึ้นอีก

นักวิเคราะห์เชื่อว่า จำนวนสมาชิกแฟนไอมีมจำนวนกว่า 4.5 ล้านคนทั่วโลกจะเป็นพลังหนุน มายสเปส ซึ่งเป็นหน่วยธุรกิจเครือข่ายสังคมของสื่อยักษ์อเมริกันอย่าง News Corp. ได้ โดยนอกจากไอมีม มานสเปสนั้นได้ซื้อบริการแนะนำเพลงอย่าง”ไอไลค์ (iLike)”แล้วในราคา 20 ล้านเหรียญสหรัฐ

ไอมีมนั้นเป็นบริการเพลงออนไลน์ที่ให้บริการฟรีมาตั้งแต่ปี 2007 สมาชิกสามารถสร้างประวัติส่วนตัวบนไอมีมและแนะนำเพลงที่ชอบให้เพื่อน รวมถึงสามารถรับรู้ว่าเพื่อนกำลังฟังเพลงอะไรในขณะนั้น ซึ่งทั้งหมดเป็นลักษณะการทำงานของ MySpace Music

รายได้จากไอมีมคือค่าโฆษณา ซึ่งยังต้องรอความชัดเจนต่อไปว่ารูปแบบธุรกิจที่มายสเปสวางไว้หลังการซื้อไอมีมจะเป็นเช่นไร

โดย ASTVผู้จัดการออนไลน์

Good morning.  Epix is about to take the stage at this the last day of Streaming Media West.  Watch the keynote live at:  www.livestream.com/streamingmedialive/beta. Presentations this weekend at streamingmedia.com/west.  We’ll be posting the remarks here along with a summary of what was said this week by other content distributors and producers:

Emil Rensing, Epix
Epix is a joint venture of Paramount/Lionsgate/MGM that launched three week ago as a FiOS Pay TV cable channel that for $10/month makes its content available to subscribers on any platform :  on TV, on demand, and online.  Epix owns the multiplatform rights for all their titles in the PayTV window of 9-10 months after theatrical release for at least 2y and doesn’t have restrictions on their content like legacy cable providers who signed deals 10 years ago and now have to renegotiate rights for TV Everywhere.   Currently offering 180 first run blockbuster movies and classics, Epix seeks to grow it’s library to 3,000 titles as well as offer outstanding original and event-based programming similar to the HBO, Starz, Showtime model.  Programming like Madonna and Kings of Leon concerts, Sam Shepard’s  Tough Trade and Charlize Theron’s Atlas Shrugged.  Seeking to become home to original storytellers….original programming builds brand for the network.  In terms of the size of the Epix acquisition budget, having just launched they are small now 62 staff, a third focused on digital, wondering whether sponsored star-studded sitcoms like Easy to Assemble and Justine Bateman’s FM78.tv then become an attractive option. Emil Rensing, founder of Next New Networks, shares space with Boxee in New York, is a digital guy agnostic about formats, hoping to see Epix on that toaster we’ve been talking about.  A media business, Epix is proud of its technology partners who provide a seamless playback experience: Akamai, Adobe, ClipSync. Amazing friending feature allows you to invite up to four friends to sit in a virtual screening room, watch the movie together, and chat via pop up speech bubbles.  The friends do not need to be an Epix subscriber. You can check out Epix this weekend.  Three day passes are available at www.epixhd.com/invite.   Watch Iron Man, Cloverfield, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, all four Indie Jones movies, even Scorsese’s Mick Jagger doc, Shine a Light.  Epix will be the first to run the Star Trek movie in the new year, so stay tuned.
(per SMW remarks)

Anthony Soohoo, CBS
CBS distribution strategy online, on mobile, in the connected home has been open, non-exclusive hyperdistribution to AOL, Yahoo!, Google, MSN. CBS.com watch full shows. TV.com nexgen navigation with integrated TiVo functionality and online personalized guide watchlists for the 20mm users of TV.com (2mm iPhone app downloads).  TV shows now, movies in the pipeline.  CBS Web Originals believes there are different ways to tell stories in terms of byte size text format, take about 3-4 different shows on a quarterly basis, on a project finance basis, find a sponsor working with the creators, then distribute across CBS properties and CBS Audience Network, bring expertise on sales side, largest video sales force out there, CBS Interactive is the 4th largest video player in the world, reach on a monthly basis 120mm.  Offer content creators sales and distribution piece mixed up with the TheInsider.com, TV.com, Chow.com, CBS.com.  300 syndicated partners.  A combination of having limited resources and it being early stage for the connected devices, focusing more on mobile right now.  TV Everywhere great for consumer, but only 52% of broadcast nets making content available, 10% cable nets, no economic model/measurement.
(per Commonwealth Club SmarterTV remarks)

Tom Gorke, MTV
Tasked with monetizing content off owned and operated 300 websites worldwide, goal is multiplatform, to stay close to consumer, drive awareness and traffic.  MTV is the largest provider of content to Xbox and iTunes.  The biggest driver of paid download to own is the need for portability, take it with you on the flight.  The need to aggregate a library of content has matured.  Done well on Hulu, Fancast, Atom, GameTrailers, DailyMotion, Veoh.  MTV is all about automation, too much content, it wouldn’t scale if had to customize, even putting a flag in a feed is tough.  Have close relationship with syndication partners, provide exclusive one off promotional content, lots of assets, art work, graphics.  Syndication partners care most about reliability and regularity of delivery, and standards of quality of content.  FB pulls a lot of content from MTV.  Really saw the power of Twitter during the VMAs with Kanye West.  MTV integrates Twitter into sites, audience of engaged folks.  Leading provider of mobile content, sold over 1mm of the 16 iPhone apps, VCast.  Live streaming tentpoles like Kids Choice Awards, VMAs. Live streaming is completely different technology (Ustream, Justin.TV, Kyte, Livestream).  When Ashton Kutcher did his Fantasy Football Show on Ustream viewership went from 100,000 to 1mm viewers, it had a watercoolers effect and was played everywhere all at once.  For the experiment, bought ad unit and inserted Ustream player – was expensive.
(per SMW remarks)

Vanessa Pappas, Next New Networks
500mm streams online in 3 years, 30mm views/month, believe in super-syndication concept, be where the audience is.  Yahoo! has been great for family entertainment, long form does well on iTunes.  TubeMogul is integrated in content management system but do a manual refresh to optimize sites that perform for you.  Recently hired category manager from YouTube.  Know your syndicated partner’s audience.  On Twitter you can’t just post and pray, need to have dialogue with engaged community.  Share office with Boxee, getting on Boxee, Roku..
(per SMW remarks)

Brett Wislon, TubeMogul
Free supersyndication service to Blip.tv, Break, Brightcove, DailyMotion, eBaum’s World, Facebook, Graspr, Grind TV, Howcast, i2TV, Imeem, Metacafe, MSN Video, Myspace, Revver, Sclipo, Sevenload, Streetfire, Twitter, StupidVideos, Veoh, VideoJug, Y! Video, YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, 5min, Zoopy.  Best campaigns are hybrid like the recent intentionally lame Windows 7 videos.  Got 5.5mm views in September, impressive for a brand.  http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/video-windows-7-launch-party-parody-is-bleeping-genius/3.  Most have given up on trying to make money in online video.  Although YouTube is 50% of the game, study found that those that also syndicated to niche sites saw a 100x increase in viewership than those just on YouTube.  Greater success with vertical focus.  Analytics allow you to see where video is most embedded, can see if a specific mommy blog is an important outlet and starting feeding them exclusive content which they love because content drives traffic.  Moving from super-syndication (content everywhere blast) to hyper-syndication (content to engaged fans fast).  FB has no video strategy but is a top ten video site.  Study found most engaged viewers came from Twitter.
(per SMW remarks)

Brandon White, FUNimation
License anime content, aim to meet the needs of the licensors in Japan.  Syndicated via ad-supported video, iTunes, Xbox/Zune, PS3.  Use YouTube for fingerprinting.  Plan to syndicated across all CE devices – mobile, Blu-ray, web-enabled tvs.
(per SMW remarks)

Jim Louderback, Revision 3
Syndicates 20 shows including Diggnation broadly anywhere, anytime, any device, want to be where our audience millennial men live.  Auto-syndicates with Tubemogul but still need to manually refresh metadata at each site.
(per SMW remarks)

Dominik Rausch, Eleven Minutes Production, Easy To Assemble
EasytoAssembleSeries.com is a sponsored star-studded sitcom that has garnered 4.2mm+ views between its Season I & II on MyDamnChannel, YouTube, Ikeafans.com, KoldKastTV, Hulu.  Also distributed on iTunes.  In talks with DVD sales, releasing on hotel networks, subtitles for 10-15 additional countries in Europe & Asia.  Innovative series where in addition to celebrities like Illeana Douglas, Justine Bateman, Tom Arnold…IKEA is a co-star.  Web series same premium quality as film, all 10 episodes of second season strings together as a movie.  Production company is thinking of new ways to make content adapting to fragmented time-shifting society.  As traditional TV distribution disappears, new media will take over distribution for all platforms.
(per Commonwealth Club SmarterTV remarks)

Brent Friedman, Electric Farm
Production budget for Crackle’s Woke Up Dead is over $1mm, high for a web production but has talent attached which attracted integrated sponsors like Kodak.   (Premise of show is friend trying to monetize fact that friend is a living zombie, sub-plot pitching to brands for sponsorship).  Sometimes you have to take a risk to get a bigger payoff just like more marketing dollars equals more views.  Kodak also cross-promoted on their own site which over a million monthly uniques.  Valemont is a success with an engaged community of 25,000.
(per SMW remarks)

Thom Woodley, Dinosuar Diorama
All-For-Nots co-produced with Eisner’s Vuguru.  Doesn’t like sponsor integration, hurts show creatively, prefer ad-insertion, and smaller more engaged audiences of 50-100,000, hasn’t quit his day job as ad agency exec yet. Show All’s Faire about the Renaissance Faire reaches 20,000 Renaissance Faire fans plus sci fi, comics and comedy buffs.
(per SMW remarks)

The latest news is that MySpace is looking to purchase imeem. I’m not exactly sure what the thought process is behind MySpace buying up streaming website, they also purchased iLike a few months ago, but it doesn’t seem that the business model of buying more compnaies in debt to get yourself out of debt is a good one. I don’t feel so sorry for MySpace now that I’ve learned that it is owned my Rupert Murdoch.

It’s no secret that the music industry is struggling with how to take advantage of all the new technology that is available to the music listening public. Their shutting down P2P networks left and right and charging websites like imeem, Lala and Hype Machine millions to allow them to stream the labels latest singles and in doing so are putting them out of business as well.

That being said, TechCrunch posted an article last week that quoted and unknown but knowledgeable source from MySpace that said “They are spending $20 million/month on streaming royalties, and that just isn’t sustainable” and must make a decision before the quickly approaching end of the year.

There are a lot of things in this world that I don’t understand. One of them is why record labels are trying to dead end every music source by making them pay for the privilege to advertise a band’s song. This whole thing seems a bit backwards to me. A record label should be more than happy to get a band’s song out to as many ears as possible. If anything the record label should be paying MySpace not the other way around. MySpace is providing a service to these bands by allowing them to take up some of their bandwidth with media. I understand that labels have to make money in order to continue providing music to the public but I for one am not the type of person that will buy an album without hearing at least 4 songs off of it beforehand even if it’s my favorite band. If I don’t hear some tracks I don’t make a purchase.

I don’t know what the ultimate solution is here. If I did then I would be working somewhere else and making a lot more money than I do now. All I know is that there is a solution. This seems as though it should be a symbiotic relationship between websites wanting to get exposure for a musician and the label. A sort of “you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours”. Allow for free streaming, since no one I know uses MySpace or imeem as a virtual radio station and reward the websites that sell the most albums with exclusive new singles and videos. What’s wrong with that “freemium” model?

We like MySpace here at tMiM. We use it regularly as a link for readers to hear the bands that we are listening to without having to buy an album or a membership to a streaming medium like Rhapsody. Could tMiM survive without MySpace? Absolutely. Bands still have their homepages that usually have a few tracks as well as videos available for free streaming.

MySpace can certainly survive without music streaming but they’ll need to find another way to make the site a little more exciting than it is now. The real question is can the music industry survive if they keep shooting themselves in the foot?

This morning news broke that MySpace, the second-largest social network that’s currently reinventing itself as a music destination, was buying imeem, a free online music service that has been remixed (and remade) more times that ’90s dance anthem “Keep on Moving.” TechCrunch, which reported on the news, didn’t reveal what the deal terms were. I have been dialing sources for information, and have found an interesting backstory behind this sale.

First, it was essentially a fire sale. Imeem, which in the past has been threatened into submission by large music labels, was feeling the heat from second-tier music labels wanting to get their pieces of flesh. On Oct. 21, The Orchard Enterprises, one of the largest independent record labels, sued imeem in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. According to the suit, imeem had to pay $150,000 per infringement. On those terms, for multiple infringements, the total could have run into billions of dollars.

Remember the billion-dollar lawsuit filed by Viacom against YouTube? Imeem, I’m pretty sure, knows how painful it is to fight the record labels in the courts. The company fought Warner Brothers, but had to eventually settle by giving up equity in the company. A long, bruising battle is something imeem couldn’t quite afford since it was running low on cash. And it couldn’t pay these guys off. By selling to MySpace, which already has arrangements with The Orchard Enterprises, some of these legal threats might go away. Interestingly, with this deal, record labels that owned a nice chunk of imeem could see their equity in MySpace Music go up as well.

At the same time, founder & CEO Dalton Caldwell hadn’t been able to rustle up more cash. I bet the investors who have pumped in more than $35 million (including $10 million in debt) got tired of putting more cash into what seems like a bottomless pit. Back in September, news emerged that Sequoia Capital, one of the long-time backers of imeem, opted out of funding the company. Back in May, Warner Brothers wrote off a $16 million charge, but gave imeem new money and forgave future royalty payments in exchange for more equity. Fat lot of good that did them.

I have been fairly skeptical if imeem and their ilk, mostly because I felt that they cut bad deals and had painted themselves into a corner. Frankly, I am not that hot on MySpace Music, either. MySpace earlier bought iLike, another free music service, for $10 million — a firesale price – mostly to get hold of the talent. The bargain basement sales of iLike and imeem once again shows that the online music industry remains as risky as walking through a minefield punch-drunk.

Well, I guess when the company had a choice between locking the doors or teaming up with MySpace, it wasn’t a hard decision to make.

*Lists: The 2000’s lists are beginning to come out. According to NPR, these are the 50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade. I didn’t appear on any of them. Though I have recorded a track-for-track remake of “For Emma, Forever Ago.” For personal reasons. In the shower.

*Holidays: Spread the holiday spirit! Santas as H1N1 catalyst. [spin city]

*Life: Will intelligent alien creatures look like us? Dollars to donuts, I am balder than any alien discovered in my lifetime. And I am a man of my word, so please collect if I’m wrong. [marginal revolution]

*Photos: Look at these Re-inhabited Circle Ks. Most of my knowledge of the Circle K franchise comes to me from Bill and Ted’s various cinematic adventures. In a way, that’s a cry for help. [eat me daily]

*Quizzes: I hate quizzes, but I got 10 out of 12 on this one. Is This Music Web Site Real? On a related note, MySpace might now be trying to buy Imeem. (I used to know more about this shit.)

*Literature: Read Moby Dick online. I once read “Crime and Punishment” on Bartebly over a series of unbearably boring work days. I didn’t feel bad about it, either. (Get it? One of the themes of C&P is undeniable guilt? Hello? Ugh.) [ebert]

*Ideas: Gladwell v. Pinker

*Obits: Wow, Ken Ober (former host of MTV’s “Remote Control”) has died at 52.

*Today’s links: F. Though I almost made it to a D- by not mentioning the Word of the Year.

Imeem is a service that will allow you to stream music on demand. (Screenshot by HowStuffWorks.com)

There’s been a lot of business talk going on this past week. HP acquired 3Com. Intel paid a massive settlement to AMD. Google bought VoIP company Gizmo5. And it’s apparently not over. MySpace is in the process of acquiring Imeem. Peter Kafka at AllThingsD wrote that he’s confirmed the story, which was originally reported by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch.

Imeem, for the uninitiated, is unlike Internet radio services, because not only can you upload and share music, but you can also listen to specific songs in the site’s database on demand. You can also save specific playlists if you prefer. I’ve got an Imeem account, and I like it and Grooveshark (a similar service) a lot.

Though MySpace also acquired another music site, iLike, not too long ago, MySpace’s motives in picking up Imeem may not have as much to do with the site in its current incarnation as it is about the people behind the site. Both Kafka and Arrington said the team and intellectual property — including Snocap, a company Imeem acquired in 2008. Snocap, a wholesale music retailer, had technology that enabled Imeem to see just how many times a particular song was played, according to Arrington. This helps Imeem pay the music labels their due.

That’s important, because as Kafka points out in his article, Imeem is just one of many streaming services that has had problems with music licensing fees. Perhaps the combined service will be able to continue offering free streaming, at least for a little while longer.

For more on some related topics, take a look at these articles:

How Streaming Video and Audio Work
How Internet Radio Works
How MySpace Works

Consolidation appears imminent in the free streaming music sector, as MySpace is on the verge of acquiring social music site Imeem. A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed that negotiations are in process, but no deal is set. If it happens, the buy would be MySpace’s second fire-sale acquisition this year, following its mid-summer deal for iLike at a bargain-basement price. Imeem’s valuation, once reportedly above $200 million, was said to have fallen below $10 million at the time of a recapitalization round earlier this year.

The proposed deal would unite two companies that share the same problem: Rights holders demand royalties for song streams at rates higher than advertising alone can offset. Imeem has been a money drain to its stakeholders, but it does have several assets that could prove valuable to MySpace, which may be mulling a move toward a “freemium” model. Its sales, engineering and leadership teams hold significant value. Imeem acquired Snocap, the music-selling widget provider founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning and seen on many MySpace artist pages, in early 2008, and launched an iPhone app in May 2009.

Although no company has reached profitability providing free ad-supported music streams, Imeem was optimistic about reaching that point next year. The company had renegotiated its royalty rates with at least some of the major labels, reduced its headcount and other expenses, and accepted a round of funding worth about $6 million in spring 2009. But key investor Sequoia Capital bailed out of the recap round, and was largely washed out along with other stakeholders.

What’s more, its brand name is known as a music destination, in contrast with MySpace’s reputation as a broader social network. Imeem is also said to be developing a new user interface, the better to compete with Spotify, and if MySpace is planning to launch a paid service, it could incorporate parts of Imeem’s existing but little-used VIP service. Imeem has put those pieces in place already; for MySpace it’s a chance to buy rather than build them.

Imeem began exploring a sale more than a year ago, retaining Montgomery & Co. to evaluate strategic options, but no buyer emerged. Since that time, the free streaming model has fallen on hard times, and may soon be a thing of the past. If the current deal produces an exit disappointing to Imeem’s stakeholders, at least it will have produced something better than bankruptcy — which would be a small victory.

Check out Chamillionaire rebelling against his label’s wishes by making his video embeddable.  Oh, the horror of allowing your indentured servant artist to make a video embeddable.  Oh, the horror of letting a video you’ve just dropped a ton of money on to go viral so it can be seen by its audience!  If I were a record label CEO, I certainly would never want as many people as possible to see my artist’s video.  No, I’d certainly want a music video to make as little impressions as possible…

Good for Chamillionaire.  Those who rebel against the the traditional ideas of the record industry will survive.  It’s past time to break the rules.  I think most of us in the radio and records industry know we have to change; we’re just not sure in which ways me must change in order to survive.  We need rebels to lead the way and prove something works before we come up with it.  (Sorry radio, but it’s true).  We drag our feet at any impending change and react or adapt too late to things such as satellite radio, iPods, or online radio.

The artists know they have to keep their music in front of people and it’s harder than ever.  Nobody cares about the traditional methods of delivery like MTV or radio.  All that matters is reaching the audience, and the delivery methods are many: UStream, Facebook, Twitter, iPod/iPhone apps like Slacker, imeem, or just plain ol’ being on the mailing list for your favorite artist.  (Just love getting those Coldplay & U2 updates in my inbox).

Very rarely do I see a new music video for the first time while watching Vh1 or MTV.  I’d guess 90% of the new music videos I see are online.  Just sayin’.

On the mellower side of metal.

A7X, Pantera, Metallica, Shadows Fall, Opeth, Black Label Society, Dropbox and Godsmack

Enjoy

http://www.imeem.com/people/kiPwgaw/playlist/iSR0HEFj/mellow-metal-music-playlist/

Spotify, the European on-demand music streaming service that has taken Europe by storm, will apparently delay a US launch. For several weeks now there have been reports that the major labels were putting pressure on Spotify to abandon a free, ad-supported streaming model. The New York Times recently reported that major labels, already involved as backers with free ad-supported services like MySpace and Imeem, aren’t eager to license their catalogs to Spotify on that basis.

And they have a lot to say on the matter. “On-demand services have to negotiate private deals with the labels – there is no compulsory license, and the deals are not public.” according to David Oxenford a legal expert in streaming audio licensing.

But how much is the new Google music platform impacting this? Google Music is now driving listeners to Imeem and MySpace/iLike – the two services that are licensed by the record labels to stream on-demand. With that deal in place to support the two services that the record labels are already invested in, would they want to see Spotify come in and disrupt the market for on-demand services? Given some time, and the preference they’re getting from Google Music, Imeem and iLike (owned by MySpace) should be able to build their brands as destination sites for on-demand music.

Instead, the record companies would like to see Spotify offer their service on a premium basis, to those that subscribe. “We like Spotify as our partner in Europe, but we would like them to move more toward a paid subscription environment,” said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business at Sony Music, as reported by the New York Times. Word is, Spotify is not happy about coming to the US with a paid-only model, hence they have delayed their launch.

Google has turned its attention to music with three new services that will benefit both fans and artists alike.

Now when Google users run a search for a music-based topic such as an artist, song title or lyrics, they will receive search results including links to audio previews of songs provided by one of Google’s new partners Lala and MySpace’s iLike. After listening, users can purchase songs through links appearing alongside the song previews.

Have you ever heard a song you liked but did not know its artist? Google has solved this longstanding annoyance by implementing a lyrics search feature, allowing users to type a few lines from a song and receive its song title and artist information along with the aforementioned song previews. As if these new features weren’t great enough already, Google has partnered with Pandora, iMeem and Rhapsody to help users discover new music based on their current favorite artists.

These new services are Google’s attempt to tap into the large market of users searching the web for music-related content, which according to Google, amount to 2 out of the top 10 searches on Google today. And, while each of Google’s new music partners offer great services individually, having them all consolidated and incorporated into Google searches is a more convenient way for users to find and purchase music online. This convenience, along with greater accessibility to legal licensed music, are both paramount when illegal music file sharing continues to be commonplace.

Source

Halloween Costume

The 8-Bit Low-Res Make-Up Is High-Res Clever

Halloween has come and gone this yea and the photos are up. This is definitely my favorite.

Low Resolution by Kindacarsick

Black Friday

It’s November and sooner that you’d like it will be Nov 27th: Black Friday. To help prepare, why not start looking through those sale ads now. Here are some links I’ve come across of leaked Black Friday Ads.

Kmart [pdf], Sears [pdf], Lowes, Old Navy [pdf], Harbor Freight [pdf], Toys R Us [pdf],

Office Max asked for there ad to be taken down, but there is a list of items and prices at Gizmodo.

via [bfads, TheBlackFriday.com, and Gizmodo]

Internet News

Internet Finally Getting Non-Latin Domain Names

The address bar at the top of your browser is filled with latin characters. Those who use the latin alphabet, we haven’t thought twice about this. But if you live in a country with a non-latin alphabet then you had to learn new characters to type in a web address. This is going to change soon, as ICANN (the group that decides on ip and addressing regulations) has decided to use native characters in the address.

If this doesn’t make sense, check out this video

Google Making search more musical

Google has partnered with MySpace (which just acquired iLike) and Lala to give you music results when you search for a song, band, or album title. The first results will have links to play the song. There will also be links to purchase the song/album directly through MySpace or Lala services. There will also be links to music discovery sites such as,  Pandora, imeem and Rhapsody.

I tried out the service on their demo site, before the release date, and it looked good. Though I am unable to get any of the same results on my searches today. The demo is down today, and I do not see the results in my regular google searches. I am not sure if I’m missing something or if the service isn’t fully released yet. ???

Google Onebox Fail

MySpace Adds Full Music Video Archives, Deep Artist Analytics

MySpace as a social site seems to continue dying but they are doing some interesting things. Their purchase of iLike seems to have worked out for them (see above post).

I’ve always wanted a video music player so that I can have a video playlist. If that feature is there I may actually use MySpace.

Web Games

Steakhouse or Gay Bar

A local rock radio station plays this game. You just guess if the name of an establishment is for a Steakhouse or a Gay Bar. Sounds simple but it’s amazingly difficult.

Internet Baby

Woman to Stream Her Child’s Birth Live on the Web

You can find just about anything you want on the web. Now you can watch a live birth. A truly amazing event, but live streaming it? Really? I guess it was just a matter of time…

Actually, this isn’t the first time.

Internet TV

BBC Planning To Launch Global iPlayer VOD Service

I am so excited about this. I watch almost all my shows online now and about 1/3 of those shows are from the BBC. It’s always been a pain to find the shows or wrestle with proxies to watch them. I can’t wait to watch the new season of Dr. Who.

Automobile Accesories

AIDA is the love child of your GPS Device and EVE (from Wal-E).

via [Gizmodo]

Arm Accesories

UIST’09: Enabling Always-Available Input with Muscle-Computer Interfaces

Look Ma’ no hands!

Improved arm mounted flame thrower

Hadouken!

THE SONG IS ALREADY UP AND SPREADING ALL OVER THE NET!!

HERE’S THE DOWNLOAD LINK TO THE MP3 OF THE SONG!

CREDTIS TO jenpoo.com FOR THE .RAR FILE.

I uploaded it to Mediafire for those wo don’t have .rar extractros.

Download: 2PM – 기다리다 지친다 (Tired of Waiting).mp3

There you go.

I can SURELY hear Jay’s VOICE. I’m just saddened seeing the album cover. I can only see 6 hands. *sigh*

But then I’ll never get tired of waiting!

EDIT: Here’s a streaming link for the mp3!

2PM – 기다리다 지친다 (Tired of Waiting).mp3 (Imeem)

there you go!

Here are some newer bands that are leading metal in a new direction.

http://www.imeem.com/people/kiPwgaw/playlist/0k7kjSJD/the-new-crowd-music-playlist/

Enjoy!

Photograph – Jamie Cullum

Photograph by Jamie Cullum

Her name was written on the photograph,
right next to her red, sunburnt face,
it all had happened in that long tall grass,
about a mile from her old place,
I can’t remember how it started and if it lasted that day in the sun.

We said that we were going to study hard,
we held our books instead of hands,
she held a blanket over cans of beer,
I can’t deny I was so full of fear.

It’s just another story caught up in another photograph I found.
and it seems like another person lived that life a great many years ago from now,

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.
when I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.

And there’s the first time that I tried that stuff,
I think I look a little green,
I remember throwing up behind a bush,
and I found it hard to use my feet,
and who’s that easily led little boy who’s really off his head?

It was the same night that I kissed that girl,
the tall one with the auburn hair,
I remember laughing coz to kiss me,
she had to sit down on a chair!
she tasted like the schnapps she’d drunk,
and the cigarette she’d stolen from her mum.

And it’s just another story caught up in another photograph I found.

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.
When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.