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CBS buys music recommendation service Last.fm for $280M

2007-05-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

CBS has bought music recommendation website Last.fm for $280 million, the extremely popular London-based company that lets users search for and listen to music based on their past preferences and recommendations of other users.

Detail:http://venturebeat.com/2007/05/30/cbs-buys-music-recommendation-service-lastfm-for-280m/

News:Last.fm Adds Video,Wants to Become the Web's MTV !

2007-05-10T00:51:00.000-07:00

Users will be able to create personalized video channels based on their music preferences much the same way they currently do with their radio stations.

Initial video content will come from independent labels such as Ninja Tune, Nettwerk Music Group, Domino, Warp Atlantic and Mute. Featured artists from the labels will include the Artic Monkeys, Moby and Aphex Twin.

Last.fm has also struck deals with major labels like EMI and Warner as well as 20,000 independent labels. The company is currently in talks with two other big labels, Universal and Sony Music Group.

With their partnerships the company says," Last.fm will soon be able to offer its users personalized channels from the largest legal catalogue of music videos on the web."

Detail:http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/05/09/last-fm-adds-video

News:Last.fm and Channel 4 Radio to create global chart show

2007-05-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

ndependent internet music station Last.fm and Channel 4 Radio have partnered to create a global music chart show.

The Worldwide Chart will showcase the top tracks from Last.fm’s European, Asian and US charts. The station currently has 20m active users from over 232 countries and is available in 11 languages.

Channel 4 Radio DJs will also begin ‘scrobbling’ their playlists, allowing Last.fm users to track and share their selected music.

News:Pandora shuts box on users outside US

2007-05-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

Pandora.com, the popular net radio station that helps users discover new music and build custom playlists, will block most people outside the US from accessing its service because of legal pressure being exerted by record labels.

Launched in 2005, Pandora has always billed itself as a service for US listeners only, but until now it never enforced that policy. Beginning Thursday, people accessing Pandora from most IP addresses originating outside the US will be prevented from accessing streaming services.

"It's devastating for us to have to do that," Pandora founder Tim Westergren told The Register. "We're terribly disappointed and frustrated, but the existing law right now is such that we can't legally," stream to most users outside the US.

Detail:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/03/pandora_block/

Interview with Pandora Founder, Tim Westergren

2007-04-26T00:20:00.000-07:00

Interview with Pandora Founder, Tim Westergren

What are the details of this recent ruling?

The foundation of the ruling was set about five years ago, when the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) was amended. Among other things, language was inserted into the bill as the legal framework for determining the rates for Internet radio. It's different from the language that governs both terrestrial radio and satellite radio. It's different and unequal, by a standard that's called, "willing buyer, willing seller." It puts Internet radio at a significant disadvantage, compared with satellite and terrestrial radio, for reasons that really I think have to do with some of the lobbying power of the record industry, and the what was back then an almost non-existent Internet radio industry.

It doesn't seem surprising that there there's a line being drawn between Internet and terrestrial radios, but it's a bit more interesting that this kind of line is being drawn between Internet and satellite radios.

Yeah, although it kind of depends on your perspective on it. In terms of the kind of benefits and impact that Internet radio has, it's just like terrestrial. It's a promotional mechanism—in terms of promotions, it's actual more immediate, because you can click to buy stuff. I think there's a good argument to be made that it should be treated the same way. I think the consequence of this language is that it makes Internet radio uneconomic. It's just not possible to deliver a business at those rates. And at Pandora, we have 15 full-time sales people cranking on this thing, and with all that we could muster, we could make it work on the old rates, but these new rates make it impossible.

Detail: Interview with Pandora Founder, Tim Westergren

News: Viacom in Talks to Acquire Last.fm for $450 Million

2007-04-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

London - Viacom is currently in talks to acquire London-based online social music network Last.fm for a rumored purchase price of $450 million, DealBreaker.com reported, citing "a music business source familiar with the negotiations."

Last.fm adds 800,000 tracks to online offering

2007-04-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

All 800,000 tracks in IODA's catalogue will now be available for free on-demand streaming and download on Last.fm.

Last.fm, a London-based online social music networking site and intelligent music recommendation engine, has inked a licensing and promotional partnership deal with digital distributor Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA). Under the agreement, IODA's IODA's full catalogue of 800,000 tracks will be available as part of Last.fm's customizable radio service, while IODA's library of over 24,000 pre-cleared PromoTracks will be available for free on-demand streaming and download beginning 1 May.

Detail:http://www.digitalmediaasia.com/default.asp?ArticleID=23724

Social Music Discovery Service iLike Hits One Million Users

2007-04-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

Seattle - Social music discovery service iLike announced on Tuesday that it has surpassed one million registered users. The service includes an iTunesplug-in that monitors what users are listening to and provides personalized recommendations, as well as alerts on local concerts. The company said it is now processing over 200 million monthly track plays by its users. Seattle-based iLike also operates the indie music community GarageBand.com and personal broadcasting service Gcast.com.

Social Music News :Pandora Founder Appeals For Help To "Save Internet Radio"

2007-04-18T02:21:00.000-07:00

Pandora Founder Appeals For Help To "Save Internet Radio"

"Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder) "

Top 10 places to get music info on the web

2007-04-08T23:36:00.000-07:00

cooming soon

Top 10 Places to download free Music Online

2007-04-08T23:32:00.000-07:00

coming soon

Jobs:One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

2007-04-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

After doing a little more reading, I realized that the superior sound quality songs will only be available on the DRM-free tracks. Well, that doesn’t seem too bad. Oh, did I mention that DRM-free now is a premium service according to Apple and EMI? That’s right, if you want no DRM and that and 256k quality (why didn’t we have 256k to begin with?), you have to pay an extra .30 cents per download. So, for a mere $1.29 per song, you can actually own your music. Really? That’s like a car dealership calling wheels and tires a “premium,” and charging $300 dollars for them.

continue reading click here

90% of YouTube’s Content is Legal-music,mtv ok?

2007-04-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

A recent survey by Vidmeter says that “more than 90 percent of videos on YouTube are not infringing of copyright.” but how about mtv and music video?

This is interesting news, because it means YouTube has a lot of content out there that is not infringing on the likes of Viacom, etc., and this could help them in a court case. However, this might be the 80/20 rule (well, 90/10) where YouTube is relying on 10 percent of its illegal content to be …profitable.

We’re all keeping our eye on the Google vs. Viacom case and hoping for the best.

Top 3 social music service

2007-03-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

1.pandora:

Pandora is the granddaddy of social music . Pandora uses the Music Genome Project to generate a stream of songs that you’ll like based on how you rate previous tracks. You create stations around artists, songs or albums and you can provide feedback (thumbs up or thumbs down) on the songs Pandora chooses.

2.last.fm:

last.fm is another Web 2.0 veteran and is more socially-slanted than the others. Tagging is a big part of the last.fm experience and you can tag any song that comes along in addition to being able to listen to “user tag radio” which is based on tracks that users have tagged with a specific genera. last.fm has a separate desktop application that “scrobbles” the songs you listen to and generates a music profile that you can share with friends.

3.finetune:

Finetune is a relatively new application written in Flash.What makes Finetune stand out is that in addition to the standard “artist radio”, it allows users to build playlists of specific songs. The minimum playlist is 45 songs and you can have up to three songs per artist. With custom playlists, you can make sure you’re only listening to songs you want. Finetune also gets points because in addition to the web version, it runs on the Wii and there is an Apollo-based desktop client.

more see techcrunch:social music overview