archives

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DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- October 10, 2000
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o SpinRecords.com Shuts Down, Lays Off All Employees
o BMG Launches Music Download Service
o Primedia To Acquire New Media Research Firm Kagan
o Wireless Gaming Provider UIEvolution Raises $2 Million, Announces Launch
o Video Compression Provider DivXNetworks Raises First Round
o DIRECTV Launches Interactive Television Service In U.S.
o Briefly Noted: Hypnotic.com, Musicfans.com, Salon.com - Upside Today,
Firstlook.com - Carsey-Werner, Alltrue.com, MovieTickets.com - Sprint PCS,
Gigex - Excite@Home, Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch - Yahoo, PacketVideo,
HyperBole Studios - Atom Films, Wildbrain.com, iDealmusic.com, Burst.com
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o SpinRecords.com Shuts Down, Lays Off All Employees

Carlsbad, Calif. -- SpinRecords.com, a music site that promoted unsigned
artists, has shut down its service and fired all employees. "According to
people who were laid off Friday, employees were greeted at the front desk
that morning with the news that they were no longer employed,"
TheStandard.com reported on Tuesday. "Furthermore, they were told that
they would not get paid for the previous two weeks of work."
Carlsbad-based SpinRecords.com laid off half of its employees in May, and
asked some remaining employees to give up half their salaries in exchange
for equity in the company, the article said. A statement on the company's
homepage from featured artist The Agency read, "Do NOT buy anything from
this site. Your order will not be fulfilled." The parent company of
SpinRecords.com, Solutions Media, has also closed down. The company, which
also owned somemusic.com and speedmonster.com, said it would try to
liquidate its assets in order to pay its employees for their last two
weeks of work.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,19217,00.html
http://www.spinrecords.com
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o BMG Launches Music Download Service

New York -- BMG Entertainment announced on Tuesday the launch of its
pay-per-download music service. Initially offering 100 songs and albums,
the company said it will make 2,500 available by the holiday shopping
season. BMG's downloadable songs will be priced between $1.98 and $3.49,
and albums between $9.98 and $14.98; the downloads will be available at
web sites including towerrecords.com and bestbuy.com. The company said
that it will compensate artists and copyright holders through the use of
digital rights management technologies from IBM, InterTrust, Digital World
Services and Reciprocal. BMG also said that Digital Island will provide
content delivery services, and Liquid Audio will provide technology to
interested retailers. The company did not say in which formats the
downloads would be available. Competitors Sony and MP3.com last week both
launched subscription-based paid downloading services.
http://www.zdii.com/industry_list.asp?mode=news&doc_id=ZE505904
http://www.bmg.com
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o Primedia To Acquire New Media Research Firm Kagan

New York -- Primedia, a multimedia publishing company, announced on
Tuesday that it will acquire Kagan World Media, a provider of research,
data and information on traditional and new media. Terms of the stock deal
were not disclosed. Paul Kagan, founder of Kagan World Media, will become
vice chairman of Primedia Ventures, the company's venture arm. "Paul Kagan
and his global organization are one of a kind in the media and
communications sectors," said Tom Rogers, Primedia's chairman and CEO. "No
source of information is more quoted about subjects ranging from radio to
TV broadcasting to cable TV to broadband technology to sports and motion
picture finance, streaming media and wireless communications." Primedia
currently publishes over 220 magazines, and operates approximately 300 web
sites.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001010/ny_primedi.html
http://www.primedia.com
http://www.kagan.com
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o Wireless Gaming Provider UIEvolution Raises $2 Million, Announces Launch

Bellevue, WA -- UIEvolution, a provider of wireless gaming technology,
announced that it has received $2 million in funding, and has launched its
site. Washington-based UIEvolution was founded by Microsoft software
architect Satoshi Nakajima, who said the company will initially develop
games and applications for cell phones. Nakajima's Ignition, a wireless
Internet holding company, provided UIEvolution's initial funding.
http://www.uievolution.com
http://www.ignitioncorp.com
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o Video Compression Provider DivXNetworks Raises First Round

San Diego -- DivXNetworks, a developer of video compression technology,
announced on Tuesday that it has closed its first round of venture capital
financing. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. Zone Ventures
led the round; Draper Atlantic, Draper International, Draper Fisher
Jurvetson, and a group of individual Asian investors also contributed. San
Diego-based DivXNetworks develops technology called "codecs," which
decrease the size of video files so they can be sent more quickly over the
Internet. The company said it plans to raise between $7 and $10 million in
its second round, which it said it hopes to close in December, Venture
Wire reported on Tuesday.
http://www.projectmayo.com
http://www.zonevc.com
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o DIRECTV Launches Interactive Television Service In U.S.

El Segundo, Calif. -- DIRECTV, a digital satellite television provider,
announced on Tuesday that it will offer a free interactive television
service to its subscribers who own a Wink-capable RCA DIRECTV receiver.
The company said the one million subscribers who own the receivers will be
able to download free software that will allow them to access interactive
programming through DIRECTV. Alameda-based Wink Communications will
provide the interactive television technology, which will allow viewers to
access supplementary information and advertising for over 1500 hours of
current programming by using their digital satellite receiver's remote
control.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001010/ca_wink_di.html
http://www.wink.com
http://www.directv.com
_____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(New York) Reelshort.com announced on Tuesday that it has changed its name
to Hypnotic, and will now become a new media film studio. New York-based
Reelshort.com previously provided short films online; the company said it
will now provide resources for aspiring filmmakers with Universal
Pictures, which is also a significant investor in the company.
http://www.hypnotic.com
http://www.universalstudios.com

(San Francisco) Musicfans.com, an online network of unofficial sites
developed by artists' fans, today announced the launch of its main web
site. The company has spent the past ten months acquiring "unofficial" web
sites focused on musical artists that were created by the artists' fans.
The network currently has 140 sites that attract a combined three million
unique visitors per month. San Francisco-based Musicfans.com said that it
hires the founding webmasters of these sites to further build and edit
their sites within the Musicfans.com network.
http://www.musicfans.com

(San Francisco) Salon.com, an online magazine, announced on Tuesday that
it has signed an agreement to feature technology headlines on its web site
from Upside Today, a business and technology publication. Terms of the
deal were not disclosed; the agreement runs until September 2001.
http://www.salon.com
http://www.upsidetoday.com

(Los Angeles) FirstLook.com, a site that offers samples of unreleased
movies and music, announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with TV
sitcom producers Carsey-Werner to create an online contest, "Baby I'm A
Star." LA-based Firstlook.com said that the winner of the contest will get
to appear in an episode of one of Carsey-Werner's current programs, which
include "3rd Rock From the Sun," "That 70's Show," and "Normal, Ohio."
http://www.firstlook.com
http://www.carseywerner.com

(New York) Alltrue.com, a site that provides reality-based movie clips
that users can trade, has announced the launch of its site. New York-based
Alltrue, which was created by Sonicnet founder Tim Nye, said that it hopes
to aggregate the kind of bloopers and hidden camera videos that people
regularly trade through email.
http://www.alltrue.com

(Boca Raton, Fl.) MovieTickets.com, an online movie ticketing service,
announced on Tuesday that its service will be available to Sprint PCS
customers who own web-enabled cell phones. Florida-based MovieTickets.com
also announced that it will provide its services for Florida-based Muvico
theaters. The company is a division of Hollywood.com, which recently
announced a $4.25 million private placement of its stock.
http://www.movietickets.com

(San Francisco) Gigex, a distributor of online video game samples and
"trailers," announced on Tuesday that it will provide its top 50 video
game samples and movie-style video game trailers to broadband service
provider Excite@Home's subscribers. San Francisco-based Gigex also
distributes high-quality video game trailers for titles on Sony
Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox.
http://www.gigex.com

(Pasadena, Calif.) Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch announced on Tuesday
that it has expanded its relationship with Yahoo. The company said that it
will soon offer its local city guides and event information to Yahoo
users, along with its currently available online ticketing services.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001010/ca_ticketm.html
http://www.citysearch.com
http://www.yahoo.com

(London) PacketVideo, a provider of technology that brings multimedia
content to wireless users, announced on Tuesday that it has opened a
London office. San Diego-based PacketVideo said that it hopes to
capitalize on the growing market for wireless content in Europe, and plans
to open an office in Paris next year.
http://www.packetvideo.com

(Seattle) HyperBole Studios, a producer of short films and online games,
announced on Tuesday that it has licensed its original animated comedy
series, "Dog, Buddha, Elvis" to online film site Atom Films. Seattle-based
HyperBole said it will also begin to feature more original content on its
site, where it will display the series.
http://www.hyperbole.com
http://www.atomfilms.com

(San Francisco) Wildbrain.com, an online animation site, announced on
Tuesday its fall lineup of programs. Included in the lineup is "Kozik's
Inferno," created by Frank Kozik, who is noted for his rock poster designs
for Nirvana, the Beastie Boys and Pearl Jam.
http://www.wildbrain.com

(Nashville, Tenn.) iDealmusic.com, a music news and information site,
announced on Tuesday the launch of its web site. The company said it will
provide music news and concert information, a search function that
identifies songs heard on the radio, CD comparison shopping, and music
player software.
http://www.idealmusic.com

(San Francisco) Burst.com, an online provider of multimedia content
delivery services, announced on Tuesday that it has promoted company
president Douglas Glen to the position of CEO. Glen said that San
Francisco-based Burst will focus its efforts on deploying its services for
broadband.
http://www.burst.com
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