With partners such as Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and now also EMI Music, it seems like new premium music video and entertainment service Vevo, is off to a good start. Vevo is launching tomorrow and is aiming to capture music fans with professionally created video content.
A new generation of music fans and perhaps those who belong to the MTV generation will be available to enjoy a large selection of premium music content from a wide array of chart-topping artists. Vevo aims to follow the success of YouTube but for premium music content.
Take note, VEVO President and CEO, Rio Caraeff says their premium online music service is much more than just high-quality videos but also an original programming that hopes to strengthen the connection between artists and fans through a dynamic and engaging experience.
Vevo service debuts on this site – http://vevo.com. The site is currently closed and if you try to check it out, you will be redirected to the Vevo blog. In the meantime enjoy the promo gig by 50 Cent smashing up some old TVs. Surely a radical and violent way of promoting its upcoming service. Does this predict how VEVO is going to be once it officially launches? Hope not.
Nokia has officially made available another one of its so called flagship, highly pocketable mobile computer – the N900. Actually when it was announced recently, I had a hard time distinguising it from the rest of the mobile computing devices that are available today.
But anyway, it’s out in the flesh. Just waiting for all of  you Americans looking for your next gadget purchase. Or if you haven’t found that perfect gift for your love ones, the N900 could be it. More →
Hulu, that streaming video site available only in the U.S. and which is consistently gaining some steam since its launch has teamed up with Norah Jones. This will bring Ms. Jones videos of songs from her latest album – the Fall available to all U.S. Hulu users.
Hulu, which is currently running the postscript of their  interview with Nora Jones has also put up a page dedicated to the singer. More →
Shazam, which the company CEO claims to be the most popular music apps in the world has just been updated with Shazam Encore. Promising to make it even easier for iPhone and iPod touch users to learn more about the music they love listening to, Shazam Encore offers several new cool features functionality. More →
As early as nineties, people were already playing music from their browsers instead of traditional media players. Despite its eventual fall from popularity, I brought a client to the top of her local pop charts on MP3.com. Despite its current stagnation as Yahoo Music, I have fond memories of listening to Launch.com at work.
Between services like Imeem and Pandora and Last.fm, music has been going the way of almost every other computing application: to the cloud. Google, of course, wants to be your gateway to the everything in the cloud. That’s why they’ve introduced Google Music Search.
Google’s approach to music stands in stark contrast to their approach to video. With video, they bought the world’s number one video destination site, then used it as a testbed for video search, recommendation, and monetization across the Web. With music, they’re skipping the testbed phase entirely. Given the litigious nature of the RIAA, the relative simplicity of music compared to video, and the preponderance of major music destination sites, perhaps that’s the best approach: let partner sites worry about rights clearing. That way, Google can focus on what it does best: search.
In the meantime, let’s hope Google works its algorithmic magic to take this feature to awesome extremes. Right now, I’m imagining song recommendations, genre searches, and predictive playlists. Now that would rock.
Proposals to cut off people who persistently download files illegally from the Internet have been washing around for several years now, but today Lord Mandelson, the UK government’s secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, laid out plans to introduce tough measures to combat illegal filesharing.
Opposed by leading ISPs, who fear that they will be forced to introduce costly and inconvenient monitoring and recording systems, Lord Mandelson did say that he had “no expectation of mass suspensions”, instead outlining a “three strikes” approach whereby persistent offenders would still have the right to appeal if cut off from the Net. More →
Just when you thought there were no companies left jumping on the music download bandwagon, along comes UK ISP Tiscali with their offering.
Claiming a catalogue of 6.5 million tracks, including artists such as Johnny Cash, Paul Weller, Temper Trap, The White Stripes, and Adele.
It can boast this number of tracks because it has partnered with eMusic. That means you won’t necessarily get all the latest tunes as you might on services like iTunes, but still have access to a decent range of music. More →
U2 has announced that this weekend’s Californian concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl will also be streamed live on YouTube.
Of course, if you’re outside the US you’ll have to watch it at a bizarre time — 3.30am on Monday morning in the UK for example — but manager Paul McGuinness said that, as the gig was being filmed, it made the perfect opportunity to “extend the party beyond the stadium”.
Google-owned YouTube will slap adverts around the video, as well as making highlights available after the concert. In addition, there’ll be links to Twitter streams discussing the concert as well as the opportunity to donate money to Bono’s RED charity. More →
O2 may still be reeling from its recentloss, but it’s not resting on its laurels, and has partnered with the Shazam music discovery service, finding a new way to make money from its impatient customers.
Some smartphones already have Shazam as an application, so no worries for those users who desperately need to know what that song is, but for those on O2 with lesser handsets, they can now call the 2580 short code, hold their cellphone’s microphone to the source of the music for a few seconds, and then have details of the song texted back to them via SMS. More →
American rapper 50 Cent has already stated that piracy is part of music marketing. Now a UK ISP reveals that fighting piracy costs far more than piracy itself.
British music labels claim losses of up to £200 million a year due to piracy. Their lobbying has prompted UK Business Secretary Peter Mandelson to propose forcing ISPs to monitor their networks on behalf of the labels. British Telecom consumer division head John Petter objects that such monitoring would actually cost £365 million a year. BT would have no choice but to pass that expense to consumers, raising everyone’s broadband bill by £24 per month.
Of course, the fact that the labels’ £200 million figure is rubbish makes the added expense of fighting piracy even more ridiculous. As Petter puts it, “Their claims are melodramatic and assume people would buy all the music that is illegally downloaded, which is nonsense.”
Now here’s the question you must answer, dear law-abiding Internet user: are you willing to shell out your hard-earned money to protect the music labels’ dying business models?
