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New Media News Every Morning

The End of Pandora and Last.fm?

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Last.fmWhile I’m not a big fan of Last.fm because their bloody software starts up on my computer without my permission, I am a fan of their concept, as well as a regular listener of Pandora. Both are streaming music recommendation sites, and very popular, if you judge by just Google PageRank and Alexa.

Unfortunately, a panel of copyright judges are ordering Internet radio stations like them to increase the royalties they pay to musicians and record labels. And for relatively young startups like them, the ruling means likely extinction. Pandora founder Tim Westergren, of course, thinks the decision sucks.

I’m inclined to agree but primarily because it means less diversity of music online, and an advantage for terrestrial radio stations. Without getting into too much detail, I’ll say that as a former community radio co-host and producer, I know for a fact that terrestrials don’t always pay all of the royalties an act is due. This is because of the way playlist data is analyzed at royalty payment time. At least in Canada, and at least the last time I checked, about 5 years ago. If this holds true for the United States and other countries, then Internet stations have a disadvantage since it’s relatively easy to determine the entire playlist and thus payable royalties.

If you are a fan of Internet Radio and live in the US, you can sign petition. See Save Net Radio for more details. [Note: Also read Duncan’s article on Vale Internet Radio.]

Originally posted on April 20, 2007 @ 10:46 am

Chicago Tribune gets local with Triblocal

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triblocal.jpgThe Chicago Tribune announced the introduction of Triblocal, a local community publishing service in two portions of Chicago’s western and southwestern suburbs. Beginning today on triblocal.com, community contributors have the ability to post stories, photos and events about their hometowns and comment on postings from other contributors.

Content and photos from the site will be used to develop a print publication that will debut later this year and be distributed with the Chicago Tribune in those communities. Triblocal editorial staff will provide enhanced coverage of these communities both online and in print.

“We’re constantly working to better serve the changing needs of our readers and their communities,” said Owen Youngman, senior vice president/strategy and development of Chicago Tribune Company. “Triblocal is designed to meet the needs of a growing population who want to share news and information that’s truly relevant to their lives, while also delivering a vital, engaged audience to advertisers.”

Originally posted on April 19, 2007 @ 9:14 am

Imus To Blog For Weblogs, Inc.? SplashPress?

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Valleywag, ever ready to create rumor, suggested the other day that Weblogs, Inc., founder Jason Calacanis might be wooing disgraced radio personality Don Imus. Calacanis responded later, in the comments section, that the rumor was 100% false.

The question is, is any blog network owner willing to roll the dice and sign Imus? Could they pay him enough? Would he even make a good blogger? (Aside from his ability to offend people Hey, maybe he could write for Jack of All Blogs, since SplashPress is looking for a blogger.)

But really, why wouldn’t Imus just set up his own site, create a podcast/ vodcast, and carry on as before? Maybe someone would be willing to run their advertising on his site.

On the other hand, I vaguely recall watching an A&E (or similar) special on his life, and seem to remember that he’s quite well off. Maybe it’s just time for him to retire to his ranch and practice saying rude things to his horses.

Originally posted on April 20, 2007 @ 10:34 am

Digging Into Digg and API Contest

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DiggHarry Maugans has been looking into Digg users and dugg sites, and analyzing a mass of collected datasets. The results are discussed in four recently articles: Top 300 hundred Digg users, The most powerful members on Digg, Most powerful sites on Digg – by topics, and Most powerful sites on Digg.

Data junkies and anyone interested in analyses of social bookmarking sites will probably enjoy these articles. They show that certain sites indeed do get on the Digg home page more often than others. What I found ironic but not surprising is that one of the stories got buried even after 100 votes. It just goes to prove that fascinating analyses of human behavior do not necessarily interest the subjects of study, even to Digg users.

In related news, Digg has now publicly released a Digg API along with a Flash application toolkit. The dataset goes back to 2004. There’s now a contest for “the most creative and innovative visualizations and applications” that use the new tools. There are 10 prizes, and entry deadline is 8 pm Wed May 16th, though no time zone is given. Sorry non-Americans, no prizes for you. Seems the Internet may be global, but contests are not, for legal reasons. (That means that the 10+ Digg visualization apps, excluding my Digg mashps, that I have sketched won’t be entered in the contest, but I hope to release them in the future, when they’re complete.)

Originally posted on April 20, 2007 @ 10:59 am

MTV’s University, ROO to bring video to 500 campus papers

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mtvu.jpgMTV’s mtvU, a 24-hour university network, and internet video specialist ROO, announced a partnership to offer a best-in-breed video player and customisable video channels to the more than 500 online US university newspapers in mtvU’s College Publisher network.

Each of the network’s student-run publications will now have free access to a customisable, private-label video player and a wide variety of on-demand content channels – including news, sports and entertainment from leading providers such as The Associated Press, Reuters and many other leading brands. The ROO content team will work closely with mtvU to develop and secure new original video exclusively for this growing network. The ROO player will also enable the online student newspapers to distribute their own video content, or to partner with a university’s TV station to make its programming available worldwide.

“Partnering with ROO reflects our commitment to empower student publications with cutting-edge digital tools that benefit their readers, business and staff,” said Stephen Friedman, GM, mtvU.

Originally posted on April 19, 2007 @ 9:49 am