Digital Round Up: Grooveshark legal spat takes interesting turns; Will Vevo swap YouTube for Facebook?; Megaupload action & more
If you’ve been following the story of Grooveshark’s most recent legal fray with major labels, spearheaded by Universal Music Group, you know that the federal lawsuit charges that executives at the digital music company personally uploaded illegal content. In an odd twist to the case, an incriminating anonymous post on Digital Music News from a supposed employee, lead to Grooveshark’s parent company serving the industry blog with a subpoena last weekend, which DMN responded to today. And in the midst of all the activity surrounding the lawsuits, Grooveshark released a new iPhone app this week, and also pulled the plug on its service in Germany citing too high of licensing costs from GEMA… Elsewhere this week, Ticketmaster launched its new robust Facbook app, which allows fans to see what shows or events their friends are attending as well as buy tickets within the Facebook platform, among a number of other social aspects, and it also features an integration with Spotify… Other Facebook news includes reports that major label-backed video site Vevo has been in talks with Facebook about moving the service over to the social network’s platform upon the conclusion of its current deal with Google-owned Youtube. Such a deal would be a considerable boon for Facebook’s music component, and while Vevo has grown to the second largest online video destination, its quick rise to popularity did come on the back of Youtube’s dominant position as the #1 online video destination… The bizarre saga of Megaupload (remember the song and promotional video featuring Will.i.am and other celebrities that was pulled offline recently?) may be coming to a close with major federal action being taken against the internet ‘locker’ service and its executives yesterday. The arrests and seizures were followed by retaliations from Anonymous hackers who targeted multiple websites including those of the DOJ, MPAA, Universal Music Group and others… Meanwhile, an interview this week on Fast Company tries to pin-down Slacker Radio’s CEO Jim Cady on the hotly-debated issue of whether or not streaming-music rates create a sustainable source of income for artists.
News Bytes: BigChampagne acquired by Live Nation, Rara-who?, Sony & Warner join Grooveshark fray & more
Yesterday evening our Twitter feed was filling up with congratulations for BigChampagne, and founders Eric Garland and Joe Fleischer, following the announcement that Live Nation had acquired the pioneering media measurement operation. While not well known outside of entertainment biz circles, the company is anything but a flash-in-the-pan tech start up – having celebrated its 10th anniversary this year and launching the Ultimate Chart last year, not to mention having their analysis frequently cited and quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and many other publications. Tip of the cap indeed. For more information about how BigChampagne began and an overall interesting read, check our Q&A with Eric Garland from 2009, here… A new streaming music service surfaced this week from the founder of Omnifone. The service is called Rara and it appears to be targeting the segment of online music consumers who want to use a streaming service, but find Spotify, Rdio, MOG and others… too complicated? The service is launching with the help of some built-in links on select HP computers and a discounted 3-month trial price of $0.99 per month… Meanwhile, Sony and Warner Music are reportedly joining Universal Music Group in taking legal action against online music service Grooveshark… The bizarre story of the Megaupload song and video that featured Will.I.Am and a number of other celebrities and artists lauding the file-transfering service, takes another strange turn, Hollywood Esq. has the details… Check marked in the ‘plus’ column for Spotify this week, it was revealed that Arcade Fire’s catalog would now be available on the service in all its current territories. This follows headlines that the new Black Keys album is not being made available on any streaming music services, for now… And for an streaming availability scorecard, Wired published a side-by-side comparison of content exclusive to either Spotify or Rdio.
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Round Up: Grooveshark bites itself, Spotify announces apps, major label moves & more…
Grooveshark emails have bite
Catching up after a turkey hangover, some of what’s happening around the biz… Things are looking messy for Grooveshark, who is facing aggressive legal action from Universal Music Group, with the surfacing of some incriminating internal emails… After teasing a big announcement and “new direction” for Spotify, the streaming-music service unveiled the news in New York City yesterday of a new platform with integrated apps from a variety of third party developers including Rolling Stone, Songkick, Pitchfork and others… According to CNET, it seems the rift between Vevo and MTV may soon be ending, with word that the two parties are negotiating a deal which would give MTV’s online properties access to Vevo’s music videos… Prior to the holiday weekend, Warner Bros. Records announced a three-year global partnership with Vice Music. Those keeping score note that the deal was originally spear-headed by now departed Warner Bros. A&R executive Steve McDonald, who also currently plays in OFF!, one of the bands on Vice’s roster… Dizzee Rascal is taking his label Dirtee Stank to Universal in a deal that will see the major distributing and marketing releases from the UK indie… Elsewhere, more changes within the ranks of Sony Music emerged this week, with further reporting of Sony’s top digital executive Thomas Hesse departing for Bertelsmann, while Tricky Stewart and Mark Shimmel are expected to be announced as part of the continuing executive selections at Epic Records under L.A. Reid… Meanwhile, the New York Posts‘ Page Six reports today that Drake has parted ways with both his management firm, Hip Hop Since 1978 and his agency, ICM, in favor of William Morris Endeavor… And top-notch writer/producer and former member of Whiskeytown, Mike Daly, has taken a new position doing A&R at Walt Disney Records.
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Digital Round Up: Spotify teases with press event invite ala Apple + Universal Music vs. Grooveshark again
Taking some cues from the Apple playbook, Spotify sent out media invitations yesterday for a global press conference next week in New York on November 30th, with plenty of intrigue including phrases like “major development” and “new direction for the company.” What the announcements will include is of course being heavily speculated upon. An MP3 store is one possibility, while other guesses range from the more mundane, like an iPad app, to more significant prospects like a major ISP or mobile carrier tie-up or even an acquisition. Evolver.fm has an interesting theory that the news will include a commercial API that would allow developers to create and SELL music apps that would pull from Spotify’s large catalog of songs… Elsewhere, Universal Music Group has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against online music service Grooveshark parent company Escape Media Group Inc. along with executives from the company for allegedly illegally uploading songs to the service. The Wall Street Journal has more details on the action here… Stay tuned.
08.11.10Wednesday Bits & Pieces – Legal Edition: Viacom’s Appeal, Lime Wire, Grooveshark & More…
VIA v. GOOG
The drawn out legal fight between Viacom and Google, over YouTube copyright issues, has reached its next phase as Viacom has filed an appeal in federal court today. This comes after last month’s comments from Veoh that the outcome of their legal skirmish with Universal Music Group could foreshadow the events of Viacom’s appeal… Lime Wire has filed a request for a jury trial in the lawsuit filed by by members of the National Music Publisher’s Association back in June… Merlin and Grooveshark have settled their legal scrap, and in doing so the online music service has licensed catalogs from Merlin’s indie record label members. Grooveshark settled a similar lawsuit brought by EMI last year… And song parody and viral video sensation “Newport State of Mind” has been yanked from YouTube via a taken-down notice from EMI Music Publishing at the behest of the seven writers of the song “Empire State of Mind”…
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