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Selfcast Beta application now open!

If you're dreaming of creating your own TV channel or radio for FREE, there's no need to pinch yourself: A soon to be lauched user generated broadcasting tool Selfcast developed by RawFlow will make it happen.

Register to try the beta here.

Last.fm moved into video

London-based recommendation service Last.fm is now layering music videos into its offering, an aggressive challenge to YouTube. The enhancement will allow users to create customized video channels, based on expressed preferences. The concept is getting started with content from UK-based indies Ninja Tune, Domino, Warp, and Mute, as well as artists from Vancouver-based Nettwerk Music Group. Last.fm also pointed to agreements with EMI and Warner Music Group, as well as a collection of roughly 20,000 independent labels. That forms the underpinning for an immense video collection, one that will offer broad exposure to new and established artists. "Last.fm aims eventually to have every music video ever made on the site, from the latest hits to underground obscurities to classics from the past," the group indicated.

According to the company, videos will be streamed sequentially, and users can rate the content in a more passive model. That lean-back approach allows users to determine their level of involvement, similar to the Launchcast radio rating system on Yahoo. From a broader level, the video rollout will appeal to dedicated music fans, though users are already accustomed to finding any video on YouTube. In a competitive stab, Last.fm is hoping to trump its well-established target on quality, though it remains unclear if fidelity issues are critical to end users. "The quality of videos on Last.fm will be significantly higher than that of YouTube, with audio encoded at 128kbps compared to YouTube's 64kbps," the company indicated. Meanwhile, bands are artists will be able to upload their own content onto the service, a move that almost guarantees gargantuan content volumes.

Permalink: http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/051007last

MySpace is dead. Long live Facebook!

If someone thought I was in love with MySpace, they're wrong. MySpace is a good place to be because it allows you to mess up the pages and customise them yourself, and it has proven a good way to get in touch with and discover new bands. However, there's also a lot of problems with MySpace. First of all, nothing WORKS! Secondly, it is too big to be a true community. Most of my friends on MySpace are completely unknown to me, and search feature is crap. Third, the whole site is loaded with ads. Fourth, MySpace lost cred after being bought by News Corp. What's next then?

Contrary to analyst's prediction, Facebook has continued to grow. It is now the sixth most-trafficked site in the U.S. and 1 % of all Internet time is spent on Facebook, and some estimates suggest it will bring in $100 million in revenues this year. Why? Well, it provides an easy way to keep in touch with friends and family, links between people are defined, you can start groups and there's a real-time news feed where you can see what your friends are up to (who uploaded new photos, who's going to Glastonbury etc).

AND unlike MySpace which sold out as soon as it could, Facebook has turned down $750 million -$1 billion offers, and wants to stay independent, according to a recent article in FastCompany.

However - Among the only holes in Google’s portfolio is good social networking play, and after Google’s DoubleClick buyout goes through (if it goes through), this might be the next in its sight? Let's see shall we.

Finally - EMI and Itunes to offer non-DRM sales

EMI, Apple Announce DRM-Free Digital Sales Plan

EMI and Apple will now sell DRM-free catalog on the iTunes Store, according to a joint announcement issued today. The move is groundbreaking, and shatters a previously ironclad commitment to digital protections by the major labels. The decision means that well-known tracks from artists like the Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Lily Allen, and Janet Jackson can now be downloaded in a protection-free format, an approach that eliminates usage and sharing restrictions. The company pointed to a refreshed product line that will feature "a much higher sound quality than existing downloads," and one that will be "free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions". Specifically, the label will offer its catalog to digital music stores in a range of higher bitrates, including CD-quality fidelities. According to Steve Jobs, the DRM-free offering will be exclusively unveiled by iTunes in May. Other stores will offer the DRM-free catalog at dates thereafter.

The move represents a major shift, though several asterisks are dangling. The tracks themselves are being branded as "premium downloads," and will carry an elevated price tag above "standard," DRM-protected tracks. Instead of a standard, 99 cent, 79 pence, or 99 euro price tag, the premium tracks will be priced at $1.29, 0.99 pence, or €1.29. Both premium and standard tracks will sit alongside one another, and consumers will have the ability to upgrade their standard versions by simply paying the difference. That approach breaks an iTunes commitment to uniform pricing and format, and conflicts with earlier philosophies expressed by Jobs. But during the unveiling, Jobs noted that the offering means greater choice, and a more fine-tuned offering. "We think our customers are really going to appreciate this," Steve Jobs said. "iTunes will continue to offer its current catalog at the same price, alongside the DRM-free, higher quality versions." Jobs also disclosed that the iTunes Store has now sold more than 2.5 billion tracks.

MySpace has now added online music sales shop

From digitalmusicnews.com 20/03/07

MySpace Boots Hoooka Widget, Tila Tequila Miffed

MySpace has now removed a portable music sales application from the Tila Tequila page, a development that has angered the model-turned-artist. The widget, known as the Hoooka and supplied by Los Angeles-based indie911, was positioned just days ago on the Tequila MySpace page. The application can be placed on any webpage, including social networking spots like MySpace, and revenues are distributed between indie911, the artist, and a distributing fan if present. As reported earlier, MySpace executives have been actively reviewing the status of third party music widgets, and the latest removal suggests that the company will not be playing ball with outsiders. And according to Tequila, non-MySpace providers can probably expect a greater level of exclusion moving forward. "MySpace recently asked me to take down all of the things on my page that don't involve just MySpace ... but it never used to be that way," Tequila noted in a recent blog on her website, tilahotspot.com. The
post is not available on the Tequila MySpace page, allegedly because it was removed by the social networking giant.

The move follows the removal of other third party applications from providers like Revver, part of a difficult balancing act for MySpace. On one hand, the company is interested in preserving a sense of freedom and user-generated chaos. On the other, unregulated third party applications often spell missed revenues and usability issues. For Tequila, the reaction has been decidedly sour. "I just want to express how I am feeling right now about MySpace and I am sad to say that I am pretty bummed out about all the changes," the model continued. "If MySpace decides to delete my page due to me having other cool stuff up such as my Hoooka feature, or other embedded videos that I have recorded ... then so be it. I'm just really bummed how everything has changed so much." MySpace was not available to respond, though the move comes just as the company is ramping its partnership with Snocap, a provider of digital music sales and screening software.

The solution to the music industry is simple: Fix the product!

...could not have said it better myself!

Forget DRM, It’s the Music
Excerpted from CNET News Report by Charles Cooper

Pushing my vacuum cleaner around the living room last week, I suddenly did a double take. Chockablock with records, cassettes, and CDs, the wall unit across from me contained my 35-year-old history as a music consumer.

Truth be told, I did download a few digital-music files here and there during Napster’s heyday in the late 1990s. (Personal note to the RIAA: They’ve all since been deleted. I swear on my pet rock.) But I paid for most of the rest of my collection, down to the last penny. I bet you can say the same for the majority of the music-listening public.

So it was with a mix of amusement and disappointment that I read about the recent get-together for music industry executives, where the folks invited as talking heads took turns bashing Apple CEO Steve Jobs and offering pale prescriptions about how to fix what ails their business.

I don’t want to get into an argument about which generation created the best music. Personally, I’m partial to jazz and classical, though I can’t deny that I dig a lot of hip-hop. But is it possible – or even likely – that the falloff in music sales has more to do with the quality of contemporary music than with digital infringement? We obviously have an enormous appetite for schlock, but there are limits.

With all due respect to the high-quality bands working for a living, the studios have always chosen the easy out by shoving numbingly formulaic, bad music down the public’s throat. For most of the postwar era, that was the way things worked. Then came the Internet, which ushered in the revenge of the music buyer.

The studios shouldn’t be surprised at what happened. Throughout their history, they routinely targeted Top 40 titles at teenagers and early twenty-somethings. The irony is that these folks make up the demographic most likely to infringe music copyrights.

Instead of threatening to sue their own (potential) customers, why don’t they do more to monetize the growing demand for oldies and indie music? Fans clearly are willing to pay it. What’s so hard about finding a way to make that work? With a little creativity, the studios could find ways to better promote musicians who cater to these – and other – demographic categories, in which digital infringement isn’t the fashion. All the consumer wants in return is a fair value.

Instead, the industry’s best and brightest continue to look elsewhere.

For instance, they insist on clinging to DRM as if it were a lifeboat. Pardon the cliché, but that ship has sailed. The endless wrangling over Jobs’ call to get rid of DRM is so irrelevant. Same goes for their tired refrains, blaming the likes of you and me for their plight.

To wit: Ted Cohen, who directs music consulting for Tag Strategic, says the solution is “to get money flowing from consumers and get them used to paying for music again.”

Really? It’s not as if we haven’t been paying all along. With all the high-powered MBAs in their employ, it’s hard to fathom why the music industry can’t move beyond finger-pointing and develop a more creative approach. I can understand the angst expressed by Cohen and his music industry cohorts about the future, but squeezing music fans for a few more shekels isn’t the answer.

These folks are still shell-shocked from the Napsterization of their business, which has suffered a 23 percent decline in worldwide sales the last six years. Blaming P2P technology has become the convenient undertaking of our times. But it’s useful to recall that people didn’t stop buying books or maps when the Xerox machine hit.

Customers will pay for worthwhile products, even if they can get free lower-quality copies. There’s a better reason to explain what’s gone wrong. It’s the product, stupid. Then again, maybe I’m simply showing my age.