archives

o Stan Lee Media Founder Indicted on Fraud Charges
o IFilm Changes Focus, Adds Feature Film Coverage
o Digital Music Device Maker Sonicblue Lays Off 30% of Staff
o MP3.com Offers Premium Paid Subscription Service
o FullAudio Licenses Entire BMG Music Publishing Catalog for Service
o Cell Phone-Based Song ID Developer Shazam Raises $7.5 Million
o Music Site Network Vitaminic Acquires French Digital Music Sites
> DMW & socalTECH Seminar: Digital Asia -- June 20 | Los Angeles
> Digital Media Wire Seminar: iTV -- June 27 | San Francisco
o Briefly Noted: Amazon.co.jp, Net4Music - Universal Edition, Archos
Technology - portable real-time MP3 encoding, Featurewell.com reading
series, StudioNotes.com, NBA Commissioner David Stern
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> Job Postings: Dir. of Internet Advertising, Sr. Software Engineer,
Project Manager, Sr. Interactive Web Designer/Art Director,
New Media Designer

> Events/Services: "Wireless 2001," "Loyola Marymount MBA in the Media"

Full Job/Event/Services descriptions listed below "Briefly Noted" section
or at http://www.digitalmediawire.com/postings.html

To Post a Job: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html
To Post an Event/Service: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html
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o Stan Lee Media Founder Indicted on Fraud Charges

New York -- Peter Paul, co-founder of the now bankrupt Web animation firm
Stan Lee Media, has been indicted in New York on charges that he conned
investors out of $25 million in a stock manipulation scheme, according to
a Reuters report. The Wall Street Journal reported that Paul is currently
living in Brazil, but his attorney said he is "cooperating with
prosecutors." Also arrested in connection with the alleged false dealings
were a stock promoter, a Wall Street analyst and Stan Lee Media executive
vice president Stephen M. Gordon. Company co-founder Stan Lee, creator of
Spider-Man and X-Men, was not charged. The charges allege that the analyst
created "false reports" for Stan Lee Media's stock. Paul and Gordon then
borrowed large sums of money from Merrill Lynch against the inflated stock
value. Later, they paid the analyst and broker to sell the overpriced
stock to other investors. When payments stopped, the stock value declined
and investors lost millions.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44491,00.html
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,27108,00.html
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o IFilm Changes Focus, Adds Feature Film Coverage

Hollywood -- In an effort to appeal to a wider audience and more
advertisers, IFilm, a site that offers short films and lets users search
the Web for shorts, announced on Wednesday that it will now become an
informational site for both shorts and feature-length films. The site will
now also offer editorial content for feature films, such as reviews and
links to sites where users can purchase VHS and DVDs. Showtimes for movies
playing in nearby theaters are provided by Yahoo, which is an investor in
Hollywood-based IFilm.
http://www.ifilm.com
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o Digital Music Device Maker Sonicblue Lays Off 30% of Staff

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Sonicblue, a manufacturer of digital music consumer
products including Rio MP3 players, announced that it will lay off 30
percent of its staff, or about 240 employees, as part of cost-cutting
measures designed to help it become profitable in early 2002. The company
will take a $120 million charge for severance, excess inventory and other
asset write-offs. Santa Clara-based Sonicblue said it would monetize half
of its $500 million shares in United Microelectronics. In addition to
manufacturing and selling portable Rio MP3 players, the company also makes
digital music players for cars and home stereos, as well as personal video
recorders through its acquisition of ReplayTV.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010612/0549.html
http://www.sonicblue.com
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o MP3.com Offers Premium Paid Subscription Service

San Diego -- Digital music distributor MP3.com announced a new paid
subscription service that combines many of its services into one offering
that costs consumers $2.99 per month or $29.99 annually. The Premium
Listener Service includes a music player that lets users stream music from
their digital lockers, burn music to CDs and upload MP3s to portable music
players. It also provides access to the company's library of over one
million songs from a combination of unsigned, independent and major label
acts. San Diego-based MP3.com was recently purchased by Vivendi Universal,
which said MP3.com's technology would be integral to its own subscription
service, Pressplay, which it is currently developing with partner Sony
Music Entertainment.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010612/latu085.html
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6261705.html?tag=cd_mh
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o FullAudio Licenses Entire BMG Music Publishing Catalog for Service

Chicago -- FullAudio, a provider of digital music subscription services,
announced on Wednesday that it has obtained a non-exclusive, three-year
license to the entire music catalog of BMG Music Publishing. Terms of the
agreement were not disclosed. The company intends to obtain rights from
all five record labels and publishers to launch its subscription service.
Such services must obtain licenses from both music publishers, which
represent songwriters, and the record labels that own the actual
recordings of the songs. Chicago-based FullAudio's service will allow
users to pick songs they want to listen to and store them on their
computers for as long as they are subscribed to the service.
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/211642087&ticker=
http://www.fullaudio.com
http://www.bmgsong.com
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o Cell Phone-Based Song ID Developer Shazam Raises $7.5 Million

London -- Shazam, a developer of song identification technology for use
with cell phones, said that it has raised $7.5 million in its first round
of funding from investors including IDG Ventures Europe, VentureWire
reported on Wednesday. The company previously raised $1 million in funding
from investors including the former chairmen of EMI Group and BMG
U.K./Ireland, and Liquid Audio co-founder Philip Wiser. London-based
Shazam's technology lets users dial into a service with their cell phone,
hold the phone near a speaker playing music, and find out the name of the
artist and song that is playing.
http://www.shazam.tv
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o Music Site Network Vitaminic Acquires French Digital Music Sites

Milan, Italy -- Vitaminic, a network of music entertainment sites targeted
at the U.S. and several European countries, announced on Wednesday that it
has acquired Eurekan Multimedia, the parent company of websites
FranceMP3.com and MP3France.com. The cash and stock transaction is valued
at about $6.7 million. Milan-based Vitaminic operates websites in the
U.S., the U.K. and eight other European countries that focus on
independent label acts in each region. The company's acquisition of
FranceMP3 combined with its existing French website offers listeners
54,000 tracks from 7,500 artists. The company also recently acquired
U.K.-based music site Peoplesound.com.
http://www.vitaminic.com/press/francemp3finalacquisition.pdf
http://www.francemp3.com
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> Digital Media Wire & socalTECH Present a Panel Discussion:
"Digital Asia: Recent Developments & New Business Opportunities"

Los Angeles | Wednesday, June 20th at the Wyndham Bel Age

SPONSORS:
Jones Day Reavis & Pogue, Loyola Marymount Int'l MBA in Media

This panel of executives, investors and professionals will discuss the
latest developments in digital media, with a focus on business
opportunities, strategies and ventures being created between the United
States and China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.
For more information and to register:
http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=14674&Referrer_id=4074

SPEAKERS:
Ravin Agrawal - Partner | EastWest VentureGroup
Bryan Biniak - COO | Premium Wireless Services & YourMobile Network
Eric Choi - Senior Business Development Manager (Asia Pacific) | Akamai
James Hsu - Attorney | Jones Day Reavis & Pogue (LA - Taipei)
Stuart Levy - Co-Founder & CEO | TOKYOPOP
Beth Minehart - SVP Business Development | Universal Studios Television

MODERATOR:
Stephen Liu
Co-Founder & President | Reelplay, Founder & Chairman | APEX

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS:
Asian Business League, AINT, Asian Professional Exchange, Asia Society,
larta
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> Digital Media Wire Presents a Panel Discussion:
"iTV: Defining the New Face of Television"

San Francisco | Wednesday, June 27th at The City Club

SPONSOR: UBS Warburg

This panel of players ranging from content developers to investment
bankers will discuss the new face of television, which will include an
amalgam of services like email, IPGs (interactive program guides), PVRs
(personal video recorders), enhanced TV, etc., and what it means for
Hollywood, the tech industry and most importantly, the consumer.
For more information and to register:
http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=14770&Referrer_id=4074

MODERATOR:
Michael Kline - Senior Manager | Deloitte Consulting

SPEAKERS:
David Higley - Exec. Director Technology Investment Banking | UBS Warburg
Bill Niemeyer - Director of Strategic Development | Spiderdance
Jonathon Spatz - Chief Financial Officer | Wink Communications
Nicholas Wodtke - SVP Interactive Television | Sony Pictures Entertainment
***Additional panelists TBA***
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o Briefly Noted:

(Seattle) Online retailer Amazon.com announced on Wednesday that it has
expanded the offerings of its Japanese-language site from just books to
include music, videos and DVDs. The company says the site -- which has a
customer base of 400,000 -- is currently the top online bookseller in
Japan. Seattle-based Amazon has also recently expanded its site in the
U.K., France and Germany, adding products such as electronics and video
games.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010613/0081.html
http://www.amazon.co.jp

(New York) Net4Music, an online retailer of digital sheet music and
provider of music learning software, announced on Wednesday that it has
signed a non-exclusive agreement to distribute the catalog of classical
music publisher Universal Edition. The catalog includes the works of 20th
century composers such as Gustav Mahler, Bela Bartok and Karlheinz
Stockhausen. New York-based Net4Music also has distribution deals with BMG
Music Publishing, Schott Musik International and Boosey and Hawkes.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010613/2412.html
http://www.net4music.com
http://www.uenyc.com

(Irvine, Calif.) Consumer electronics manufacturer Archos Technology said
on Wednesday that it will release a new MP3 player with a 6GB hard drive
that has the ability to record live audio through a microphone, or from an
analog or digital audio source, and encode it into MP3 format in
real-time. This feature dramatically increases the amount of audio that
can be stored on the device, because the audio is automatically compressed
into a smaller file size. The $349 player can hold about 100 hours of
music encoded at 128kbps, which is considered to be "CD-quality."
http://www.archos.com

(New York) Featurewell.com, an online marketplace that licenses articles
from over 400 journalists, announced on Wednesday that it will launch a
quarterly reading series, beginning June 26. Featurewell contributors
Jimmy Breslin ("I Don't Want to Go to Jail: A Good Novel"), Daniel Asa
Rose and Gayle Forman will read at the inaugural event.
http://www.featurewell.com

(Los Angeles) IndieWire.com on Wednesday ran a feature on StudioNotes.com,
a service that provides aspiring screenwriters with notes on their works
in progress. The company -- made up mainly of development executives from
various studios -- charges $300 to review a script and provide notes on
what is good about the piece and what needs work. The service differs from
"coverage," where a reader summarizes the script and provides only
negative feedback.
http://www.indiewire.com/film/biz/biz_010613_briefs.html
http://www.studionotes.com

(San Francisco) The latest issue of Streaming Media magazine features an
article written by NBA Commissioner David Stern, which details his
thoughts and predictions about how streaming media could become another
live distribution channel for basketball and other sports. The NBA
recently provided the first live video stream of a game over the Internet,
and currently provides audio streams of every game through its website and
RealNetworks' GoldPass subscription service.
http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=7527

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Job Postings:
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To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html

> NextCard, Director of Internet Advertising - San Francisco

Internet advertiser & direct marketing firm seeks candidate w/ strong
advertising contract negotiating skills, an understanding of the Internet
market-place & the credit card business to research & acquire NextCard’s
advertising relationships, source new strategic accounts & negotiate
favorable cost-per-action contracts. 5+ yrs. BizDev or Internet
advertising exp. MBA preferred. Send resumes to: jobs@nextcard.com
http://www.nextcard.com
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> Digitas, Senior Software Engineer - San Francisco

3-5 years of Web Development experience plus 1 year working knowledge of
Java, Javascript, CGI and ideally C++. Ability to work in both Unix and
Windows environments. Understand importance of client delivery and has
good presentation skills. Helps mentor all levels of Programmer Analysts
in their technical skills, when possible. Helps build "team" environment.
Send resumes to: jobs@digitas.com
http://www.digitas.com
______________________

> Bluewave, Project Manager - New York City

Seeking seasoned project manager with experience at a web design agency or
in the interactive department of a large company who has strong
interpersonal skills, good design sense and knowledge of database
technology. As one of Bluewave's key production people in NYC, you will
play a lead role in growing the company's business in the US. Apply
directly to the 'careers' section of www.bluewave.com
http://www.bluewave.com
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> MediaHippo, Sr. Interactive Web Designer/Art Director - Los Angeles

E-services company seeks a Sr. Web Designer to conjure well-architected
multi-media concepts. Candidate must be comfortable designing Web,
Interactive CD, DVD and Kiosk interfaces. Corporate branding & logo design
a must, plus a minimum of 4-6 yrs. of professional web design experience
and an excellent grasp of large-scale site design, navigation, and
architecture. Send resumes to: monica@mediahippo.com
http://www.mediahippo.com
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> CCBN, New Media Designer - Boston

Designer needed to conceptualize, design and develop visual interfaces
utilizing user-centered design principles. Ideal candidate will be
detail-oriented, extremely organized, highly creative and aware of tight
deadlines. BA or BFA -or- 2-4+ yrs. exp. in related field. Proficiency in
Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, DreamWeaver, as well as graphic design
principles. Send resumes to: jobs@ccbn.com
http://www.ccbn.com 

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Events/Services Postings:
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To Post Events/Services: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html

> Wireless 2001, June 13-14 - New York City

PLATORMS * PARTNERSHIPS * CAPITAL: Wireless 2001 - NYC speakers include James Balsillie, RIM; Thomas Dolby Robertson, Beatnik; Ikuo Nishioka,
Mobile Internet Capital (Japan); and James Brailean, Packet Video. SAVE
$100: REGISTER ONLINE TODAY! Visit www.wireless2001.com/register.asp and enter "EMKTRCOMB2" for an exclusive $100 discount.
http://www.wireless2001.com
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> Loyola Marymount University, International MBA in Media - Los Angeles

Loyola Marymount's International MBA in Media is a unique 1-year program
for individuals who are interested in the business aspect of the growing
entertainment and media industries. In cooperation with the Center for
Asian Business at LMU, this innovative program is offered through LMU's
famous College of Business Administration and the School of Film and
Television.
For more information, please visit: http://www.lmu.edu/acad/cab/immba/
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