archives

o EMusic Trying To Remove Its Songs From Napster
o Ticketmaster Online To Buy Ticketmaster Corp. From USA Networks
o WSJ: Gemstar In Talks To Merge With Barnes & Noble
o Streaming Entertainment Site PayForView.com Receives $40 Million
o Former HBO Executive Launches Urban Youth Portal Volume.com
o Animation Studio DotComix Ceases Operations
o Briefly Noted: nothing records - Live365.com, Digital Music Network -
Warner Music Group, Vitaminic - Amplified, "Name That Jam," Boxerjam -
Indiqu, Amplified - E-music.gr, Inside.com - MSNBC.com, SurferNetwork -
TeleMedia Broadcasting Company
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o EMusic Trying To Remove Its Songs From Napster

Redwood City, Calif. -- Downloadable music seller EMusic.com said on
Tuesday that it will launch an initiative to try to prevent songs licensed
to the company from being traded on music file-trading service Napster.
Redwood City-based EMusic.com will begin tracking the exchange of
EMusic.com songs on the Napster service, and then notify Napster of which
users are infringing on the copyrights of its artists, so that Napster may
then block those users from its service. A similar effort was launched by
metal band Metallica, who asked Napster to block users who were trading
their songs. EMusic.com said the step comes after efforts to negotiate a
solution that would not result in banning Napster users failed. "Over the
past several months, EMusic has continually offered to work in good faith
with Napster on this issue," said Gene Hoffman, CEO of EMusic. "Napster's
unfortunate and inflexible response has been that EMusic's only course of
action is to request that offending users' accounts be cut off completely.
Although we feel that Napster could easily implement a more
consumer-friendly solution, we will begin supplying this information on an
ongoing basis." The company said it will use internally-developed software
to track and report users who are trading EMusic.com songs to Napster.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001121/ca_emusic_.html
http://www.emusic.com
http://www.napster.com
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o Ticketmaster Online To Buy Ticketmaster Corp. From USA Networks

New York -- USA Networks announced on Tuesday that it will sell its
Ticketmaster Corp. to Ticketmaster Online. USA Networks will receive 52
million shares of Ticketmaster Online stock in the transaction, increasing
its stake in the company from 49 percent to 68 percent. The combined
company will be called Ticketmaster, with current Ticketmaster
Online-Citysearch CEO John Pleasants assuming the role of CEO of the new
company. The company will reach a customer base of 20 million for the sale
of entertainment tickets internationally, as well as local information and
consumer services.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001121/ny_ca_usai.html
http://www.ticketmaster.com
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o WSJ: Gemstar In Talks To Merge With Barnes & Noble

New York -- Gemstar-TV Guide International, a manufacturer of e-book
software and reading devices, is in talks with bookseller Barnes & Noble
about possibly merging the companies, The Wall Street Journal reported on
Tuesday. The merger could induce Barnes & Noble to use its leverage with
publishers to ensure that e-books are produced in greater numbers,
benefiting Gemstar, which has recently entered the market to develop
e-book readers. A merged company could also give Gemstar more control over
the pricing of e-books, which currently fluctuates from retailer to
retailer. Gemstar declined to comment on the talks in the article, while a
spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble said the two sides have talked about "how
to exploit the potential of (the e-book) platform," but did not confirm
talks of a merger.
http://www.bn.com
http://www.ebook-gemstar.com/
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o Streaming Entertainment Site PayForView.com Receives $40 Million

New York -- PayForView.com, a streaming media entertainment site,
announced on Tuesday that it has received a $40 million private equity
line from Swartz Private Equity. The company said it will be able to tap
the funds over a three year period. New York-based PayForView.com also
announced an expansion of its business plan beyond the entertainment
industry, to include acquiring companies in the education, information and
business content industries. ParForView.com distributes movies, music,
sports and live events to viewers on a pay-for-view, retail and e-commerce
basis. The company also owns Voyager International Entertainment, which
packages films for production, and Street Solid Records, a rap and hip-hop
music label.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001121/ny_payforv_2.html
http://www.payforview.com
_____________________________________________

o Former HBO Executive Launches Urban Youth Portal Volume.com

New York -- Volume.com, a community portal and entertainment site
targeting urban youth, announced on Tuesday the launch of its site. The
site's launch comes several weeks after Urban Box Office, another urban
youth-oriented portal, fired its employees and declared bankruptcy.
"Volume.com will be the place to meet and interact with others, uncover
breaking trends, showcase your talents, discover underground acts, buy hot
gear, listen to streaming radio, and get the latest in news, sports,
money, careers and sexuality," said Kevin Dowdell, CEO of Volume.com.
Dowdell, who was formerly the head of HBO Internet Ventures, said the
company is receiving financial backing from HBO. The company announced
strategic partnerships with companies including Epinions.com. Volume.com
visitors will be able to earn money by writing reviews of products and
services for Epinions.com's user-generated database of reviews. Volume.com
will provide headlines from CNN.com, and offer financial tools from
FinanceCenter.com. New York-based BullseyeArt will provide animation
design services to the site.
http://www.volume.com
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o Animation Studio DotComix Ceases Operations

Los Angeles -- Internet animation studio DotComix has ceased operations,
The Hollwood Reporter said on Tuesday. The company offered animations
created using Macromedia's Flash technology on its site. Despite a deal to
develop one of the site's programs for television, the company said it has
run out of funds, and can no longer afford to pay its employees. "We had a
great team, a great technology and a business model that worked," said
DotComix CEO Damon Danielson. "We just needed another quarter or two, but
it's very hard to convince investors to come in after high-profile
collapses like DEN and Pop.com." Danielson said that the company will
likely either be sold, or else enter Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings.
DotComix raised $8.5 million in July from investors including Media Tech
Ventures.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/archive/hollywood/current/webwatch/webwatch04.asp
http://www.dotcomix.com
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o Briefly Noted:

(New York) Nothing records announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with
Live365.com, a provider of Internet audio technology, to create a
streaming radio station for the label's music. The station will be
programmed by members of the "nothing collective," which includes nothing
records' co-founder and Nine Inch Nails' singer Trent Reznor. "Radio
nothing offers fans radio created directly from the source," said Reznor.
"It's a new playing field, a place where I can experiment and showcase new
and previously unheard material from nine inch nails as well as my current
favorites from both the nothing catalogue and beyond."
http://www.radionothing.com
http://www.nothingrecords.com
http://www.live365.com

(Laguna Beach, Calif.) Digital Music Network, a supplier of
music-on-demand to hotel guests, announced that it has licensed songs from
Warner Music Group for use in its service. Laguna Beach-based Digital
Music Network's technology allows hotel guests to listen to
music-on-demand and purchase CDs using their hotel room TV's remote
control. The music service operates on the same network as a hotel's
video-on-demand service.
http://www.hotelmusicnetwork.com
http://www.warnermusicgroup.com

(San Francisco) Vitaminic, a site that features music from independent
artists and indie record labels, announced that it has licensed the
catalog of Virginia-based Amplified, a business-to-business provider of
digital music downloads. San Francisco-based Vitaminic's users will gain
access to 15,000 tracks from over 1,000 artists and more than 100 labels,
including Knitting Factory and Alligator Records.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001120/ca_vitamin.html
http://www.vitaminic.com
http://www.amplified.com

(Santa Monica, Calif.) Universal Music Group's eLabs, an incubator for the
company's new media initiatives, announced the availability of a music
trivia game based on its artists and products. "Name That Jam" is a trivia
game targeted at users with high-speed access that uses album art, music
videos and songs from Universal artists. The game is part of a four-month
broadband project by eLabs to target Universal's established base of music
fans that have high-speed access.
http://www.musicuwant.com

(Charlottesville, Va.) Boxerjam, a developer of games and game shows for
online, wireless and broadcast markets, announced on Tuesday that it has
partnered with Indiqu, a developer of content for wireless devices. Under
the agreement, games produced by Boxerjam will be distributed to Indiqu's
wireless users. Virginia-based Boxerjam recently announced a similar
agreement with Sprint PCS.
http://www.boxerjam.com
http://www.indiqu.com

(Atlanta) Amplified, a distributor of digital music to online retailers,
announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Greece-based music site
E-music.gr. Under the deal, Amplified will make its online catalog of
downloadable songs available on E-music.gr's website for a period of three
years.
http://www.amplified.com
http://www.e-music.gr

(New York) Entertainment and Internet news service Inside.com announced on
Tuesday that it has made a deal to feature its content on MSNBC.com.
MSNBC.com also aggregates content from The Wall Street Journal and E!
Online.
http://www.inside.com
http://www.msnbc.com

(Mount Olive, N.J.) SurferNetwork, a developer of web radio stations for
traditional radio broadcasters, announced on Tuesday that it will develop
streaming radio stations for Pennsylvania-based Tele-Media Broadcasting
Company. New Jersey-based SurferNetwork will develop sites for the
company's 12 stations in New England, which include WCPT and WKLI-FM.
http://www.surfernetwork.com
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