archives

o MP3Board Joins Roster Of Bidders For Scour's Assets
o Palm Pictures To Merge With Entertainment Site Sputnik7
o Content Delivery Software Developer Burst.com Lays Off 80% Of Staff
o EMI Launches Streaming Music Service
o Miramax Streams Film Via Satellite To Times Square Theater
o Briefly Noted: MP3.com - Tommy Boy Records, "Jupiter Entertainment
Forum," Weezer, Broadband Sports - ESPN.com, RespondTV - PBS, Launch.com - Mascot Network, LicenseMusic - Filmport, AudioRamp - StreamSearch
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o MP3Board Joins Roster Of Bidders For Scour's Assets

San Francisco -- Controversial MP3 search site MP3Board entered a bid late
Friday to acquire the assets of file-sharing exchange Scour, Inc., Wired
News reported. San Francisco-based Listen.com and Oregon-based CenterSpan
have also entered bids to acquire the assets of the now-bankrupt media
file-sharing service, which shut down last week in order to expedite the
sale of its assets. Bids registered with the bankruptcy court handling
Scour's Chapter 11 proceedings must be received no later than Dec.5, with
a final buyer to be determined on Dec. 12. "We believe that the Scour
Exchange will integrate very well into the MP3Board.com site and make it
one of the largest and most comprehensive music search sites in the
world," MP3Board.com CEO Lars Mapstead said in a written statement. "It
will provide our visitors with an additional way to search for music and
entertainment-related content on the Internet, and we believe we can allow
for such peer-to-peer file sharing in a lawful manner." Santa Cruz-based
MP3Board has been sued several times by the music industry for its
practice of aggregating links to free MP3 files from the Internet on its
website.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40267,00.html
http://www.mp3board.com
http://www.scour.com
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o Palm Pictures To Merge With Entertainment Site Sputnik7

New York -- Film production company Palm Pictures has announced that it
will merge with entertainment site Sputnik7.com, Inside.com reported on
Monday. Both companies are owned by Chris Blackwell -- the founder of
Island Music -- who is credited with having discovered artists including
Bob Marley, Cat Stevens and Nick Drake. The Palm/Sputnik7 film division is
expected to be headed by David Koh, formerly Palm's head of acquisitions
and co-productions. Sputnik7 features independent film content from Palm
as well as digital film festival organizers RES; it provides Japanese
anime from Manga Entertainment, a division of Palm Pictures. The site also
offers users a range of music in the form of web radio stations, music
videos and free downloads, from independent labels including Rykodisc,
which Blackwell also owns. Sputnik7 will benefit from Palm Pictures' $100
million round of financing, led by Chase Capital Partners, that was closed
in May.
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,15444_10_22_1,00.html
http://www.palmpictures.com
http://www.sputnik7.com
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o Content Delivery Software Developer Burst.com Lays Off 80% Of Staff

San Francisco -- Burst.com, a developer of software for the delivery of
audio and video over broadband connections, announced on Monday that it
will lay off 80 percent of its employees. The company also said it will
close six sales offices, in an effort to reduce its burn rate. San
Francisco-based Burst.com will let 77 of its 95 employees go, the majority
coming from its marketing and sales departments. "Unfortunately, our
inability to fully execute our business plan at this time, coupled with
current market conditions, has impaired the company's ability to raise
financing and generate significant near-term revenue," said Burst.com CEO
Doug Glen. "Therefore, management has taken prudent action to reduce
overhead, and to seek additional financing in order to outlast the current
market conditions." Glen said the company will now focus on building
large-scale, long-term strategic technology relationships.
http://www.burst.com
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o EMI Launches Streaming Music Service

Los Angeles -- EMI Recorded Music announced on Monday a subscription
service for streaming music to consumers. Dallas-based Streamwaves has
licensed songs from EMI artists for use in a monthly, subscription-based
streaming service. "Music fans have loudly declared that they want music
on demand," said Jay Samit, senior vice president of new media for EMI. A
spokeswoman for EMI said that although a price has not been determined by
Streamwaves, the subscription is expected to cost between $12 and $17 per
month. Subscribers will be able to create playlists of songs available
through the service, as well as listen to pre-programmed music selections
and playlists of songs created by other users. EMI said the service is
expected to launch officially at the beginning of 2001.
http://www.emigroup.com
http://www.streamwaves.com
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o Miramax Streams Film Via Satellite To Times Square Theater

Los Angeles -- Miramax Films became the first studio to stream a movie
directly into a movie theater and onto a viewing screen this weekend, when
it beamed a digital print of "Bounce" via satellite to a theater in New
York's Times Square, the Associated Press reported on Monday. The film was
converted to a digital stream and encrypted before being bounced off of a
Boeing satellite to a satellite dish atop the New York theater, during a
transmission that lasted eight hours. A computer then decrypted the film,
which was projected before movie audiences using equipment manufactured by
Texas Instruments. Satellite transmissions of digital prints such as this
are expected to replace studios' costly investments in the thousands of
prints for each film it produces and then sends to individual theaters. In
addition to their cost, traditional prints are also susceptible to
scratches, pops and stray hairs. "You can't scratch a zero or a one," said
Phil Barlow, executive vice president of the Disney Motion Picture Group,
which owns Miramax Films. Streaming of digital prints is expected to
gradually replace traditional physical prints, as the cost for theaters
decreases. Currently, digital projectors cost theaters $200,000.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crh718.htm
http://www.miramax.com
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o Briefly Noted:

(San Diego) MP3.com announced on Monday that it has signed a licensing
agreement with Tommy Boy Records. Under the deal, Tommy Boy will license
its entire catalog of songs to San Diego-based MP3.com for use on its
My.MP3.com service. The service allows users to listen online to music
they have already purchased. Artists on Tommy Boy Records include hip-hop
acts De La Soul and Everlast.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001120/ca_mp3_com.html
http://www.mp3.com
http://www.tommyboy.com

(Los Angeles) Internet analyst firm Jupiter Research will host its
"Jupiter Entertainment Forum" on December 7th and 8th, at the Regal
Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Organizers said the conference will explore
the convergence of TV, film and the Internet, focusing on the impact of
the imminent arrival of both broadband and digital television. Keynote
speakers at the event will include Playboy Enterprises CEO Christie Hefner
and Ted Leonsis, president of AOL's Interactive Properties Group.
http://www.jupiterresearch.com/jupiter/events/forum.jsp?doc=entertainment2000&page=overview

(Santa Clara, Calif.) Yahoo announced on Monday that Weezer will be the
headlining band on its "Yahoo Outloud Music Tour." The tour will visit 20
cities during February and March of 2001. A website for the tour will
feature live and on-demand webcasts of concerts, interviews and
downloadable music. The company is also offering a discount to consumers
who purchase their tickets online.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001120/ca_yahoo_3.html
http://outloud.yahoo.com

(Los Angeles) Broadband Sports, a producer and distributor of online
sports content, announced on Monday that it has partnered with ESPN.com to
program an athletes channel for ESPN.com. The channel will feature
commentary, news, chats, interviews and game analysis from 350 athletes
whose personal websites are produced
by LA-based Broadband Sports. Athletes featured will include Kobe Bryant,
Anna Kournikova, Derek Jeter and Troy Aikman.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001120/ca_broadba.html
http://www.broadbandsports.com
http://www.espn.com

(San Francisco) RespondTV, a developer of interactive television services,
announced on Monday that it will provide enhanced TV services to the
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The services will allow PBS viewers
with interactive television to access program-related educational material
and products, such as videos and DVDs, games and program transcripts.
http://www.respondtv.com
http://www.pbs.org

(Santa Monica, Calif.) Online music site Launch.com announced on Monday an
agreement with Massachusetts-based Mascot Network, a provider of higher
education enterprise portals. Under the deal, Mascot Network will feature
Santa Monica-based Launch.com streaming audio and video content on its
university-specific portals for college students. Launch.com will also
provide its streaming media player software on Mascot Network's portal
sites.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001120/ma_mascot_.html
http://www.launch.com
http://www.mascotnetwork.com

(San Francisco) LicenseMusic, a business-to-business provider of music
licensing and delivery services, announced on Monday that it has partnered
with Filmport, a business-to-business provider of software for film,
television and advertising production. Under the deal, each company will
provide links to the other's website on its own website. San
Francisco-based LicenseMusic will also provide a discount to users of its
services referred through Filmport.
http://www.licensemusic.com
http://www.filmport.com

(Irvine, Calif.) AudioRamp, a developer of Internet audio technology,
announced on Monday that it has partnered with StreamSearch, which
provides a directory of streaming media on the Internet. Under the
partnership, Irvine-based AudioRamp will include access to StreamSearch's
index of nearly 2 million streaming audio files on its website.
http://www.audioramp.com
http://www.streamsearch.com
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