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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- Oct. 6, 2000
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To Subscribe For Free: http://www.digitalmediawire.com
o Sony To Launch Digital Music Subscription Service
o MP3.com Launches Yearly Subscriptions For Classical Music
o IBM Partners With Filmtrust To Create B2B Entertainment Marketplace
o Sega's Dreamcast May Prosper From Sony PlayStation 2 Shortage
o Fox Settles Lawsuit Against TheStreet.com
o Briefly Noted: USA Networks - NBA.com, LicenseMusic.com - "Meet the
Parents," Z.com - Will Vinton Studios, WildTangent, Demand Video
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Digital Media Wire will not publish on Monday, October 9, due to the
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o Sony To Launch Digital Music Subscription Service
New York -- Sony plans to launch a paid subscription service for streamed
digital music in January, Inside.com reported on Friday. The new service,
called Unsurface, will be part of Sony's 550 Digital Media Ventures, an
investment and incubator division that was announced earlier this week.
Unsurface will allow users to store music they want to stream in a
"digital locker," a concept that MP3.com's controversial
MyMP3.com service
uses. MyMP3.com allows users to store music from any label in their
"digital locker" free of charge, so long as they can prove that
they have
already purchased the music on CD. The Inside.com article did not say how
much Sony plans to charge for its subscription service.
http://inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,10639_9_16_1,00.html
http://www.unsurface.com
http://www.550dmv.com
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o MP3.com Launches Yearly Subscriptions For Classical Music
San Diego -- MP3.com, a downloadable music site, announced on Friday the
launch of a yearly subscription service for its classical music channel.
The company said it will charge users $29.99 for the ability to stream or
download any of its 4,000 classical tracks for one year. The service is
one of the most comprehensive subscription models for gaining revenue from
digital music while compensating copyright holders to date; but the method
is not without flaws. In theory, for roughly the price of two CDs,
consumers with a CD burner will now have the ability to create hundreds of
custom CDs from MP3.com's classical music offerings. The same can be done
with songs downloaded from Napster, without having to pay a subscription
fee. Whether or not the subscription fee charged by MP3.com for the
service is fair compensation for artists is unclear at this point.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001006/ca_mp3_com.html
http://www.mp3.com/channels
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o IBM Partners With Filmtrust To Create B2B Entertainment Marketplace
Santa Monica -- IBM has announced a new partnership with Filmtrust, an
online marketplace and provider of budget management services to the
entertainment industry, to create a comprehensive online marketplace for
the entertainment industry. Santa Monica-based Filmtrust said that the new
service will fully automate negotiations between entertainment companies
and their vendors -- including costume renters, caterers and
post-production companies. Filmtrust also said the service will provide
greater efficiency and lower costs for both entertainment companies and
vendors.
http://www.filmtrust.com/corp_html/news_i.htm
http://www.ibm.com/solutions/media
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o Sega's Dreamcast May Prosper From Sony PlayStation 2 Shortage
New York -- Sega Enterprises' Dreamcast video game console could see
higher sales during the holiday season as a result of limited supplies of
Sony's highly anticipated PlayStation 2 console, the Wall Street Journal
reported on Friday. Following Sony's announcement that only 500,000
PlayStation 2s would be shipped by the end of the year, Sega said it was
contacted by retailers such as Wal-Mart and Toys 'R' Us, which will offer
special promotions for Dreamcast, including special newspaper inserts. The
Wall Street Journal also reported today that despite the shortage of
PlayStation 2s, Sony will still soon launch a massive advertising campaign
for the product.
http://www.sega.com/sega/index.jhtml
http://www.playstation2.com/
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o Fox Settles Lawsuit Against TheStreet.com
New York -- Fox News Network has settled its lawsuit against financial
news site TheStreet.com, Reuters reported on Friday. Fox had sued the web
site for breach of contract due to the canceling of its financial news
program on the network. The dispute began when Fox criticized The Street
co-founder James Craig for promoting his company's own stock on the TV
program. TheStreet.com will pay $10,000 to the Eric Breindel Foundation as
part of the settlement, according to a statement from the two companies.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001006/wr/media_fox_streetdotcom_dc_2.html
http://www.thestreet.com
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o Briefly Noted:
(New York) USA Networks announced on Friday that it has partnered with the
National Basketball Association to sell tickets to NBA games on the
NBA.com site, which is operated by USA Networks, and Ticketmaster.com. USA
Networks said that it will also sell NBA merchandise on the web sites.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2948569.html
(Los Angeles) LicenseMusic.com, an online music provider for film, TV and
advertising, announced on Friday that Universal Studios will use a track
from its catalog in its upcoming film, "Meet the Parents." The
song,
"Hi-Dee-Hi-Dee-Ho," was written by Michael Ferenci from the
group Aircraft
Production Library. LA-based LicenseMusic.com allows its clients to find
and license music for their films and television programming online from
its library of 50,000 tracks.
http://www.licensemusic.com
(Burbank, Calif.) Z.com, an entertainment site, announced on Friday that
it has partnered with animation company Will Vinton Studios to produce
programming for Z.com. Portland, Oregon-based Will Vinton Studios is the
creator of animated characters such as the California Raisins, and the WB
Network's "The PJs." The animated program "Mr.
Resistor" is currently
available on Z.com.
http://www.z.com
(Redmond, Wash.) WildTangent, a developer of online 3D games, announced on
Friday that it has designed several games for use with the Nullsoft Winamp
player, a popular program that plays .mp3 music files. Washington-based
WildTangent said that the games can be played while users are listening to
music on the Winamp player.
http://www.wildtangent.com
http://www.winamp.com
(Mountain View, Calif.) DemandVideo, a provider of online video on demand,
has announced that Richard Hercules has been promoted to the positions of
president and CEO. Hercules succeeds Rajiv Jaluria, who will become the
company's chairman.
http://www.demandvideo.com/press_frame.htm
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