Sony Music Entertainment's catalog is coming to indie music retail site Amie Street, in the New York-based start-up's first major label deal.
But here's the catch: Sony's catalog will not be participating in the "dynamic pricing" model that's been Amie Street's trademark--unpopular songs are the cheapest, and the price rises as a song is downloaded more. Instead, Sony songs will be available for a flat 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 based on popularity.
"It wasn't a hard decision for us," Amie Street co-founder Josh Boltuch told CNET News. "This isn't affecting all the other dynamically priced music on the site." He noted that RED, the indie music distribution company owned by Sony, already offers its songs on Amie Street through the dynamic-pricing model. "Sony Music obviously has the option to experiment with dynamic pricing at their discretion," Boltuch added. "Clearly we would love to do that with them."
This isn't the first time that an indie music retailer has had to compromise to ink a major-label deal. Sony was also the first major label to bring its catalog--well, its "classic" back catalog--to subscription site eMusic. But the deal resulted in eMusic raising some of its prices in tandem.
Amie Street, which pitches itself as a way to discover as well as purchase new music, made major headlines last year when it was the only place on the Web to buy songs recorded by Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the call-girl-slash-aspiring-pop-star at the center of the Eliot Spitzer scandal.
Crackle, the video site owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, has expanded its feature film lineup, which means that you can now watch "Groundhog Day" or "Spider-Man 2" at the office, if your boss isn't looking.
Crackle now hosts "nearly 100" full-length features, according to a release, and "dozens more" are on the way. There's also a pop-culture trivia game called "Crackle Cinemactive."
What's not clear is whether these movies will soon be on their way to YouTube, where Sony is one of a number of content partners that will be bringing TV and movies to the Google-owned video-sharing site. YouTube has agreed to use a Crackle player when showing Sony content, and Crackle will get a cut of the ad revenue.
Sony launched Crackle two years ago, a year after it acquired video site Grouper for $65 million. Unlike bigger video hub Hulu, a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., Crackle has a target audience: men ages 18 to 34. That's what Sony hopes will make it more advertiser-friendly.
"Our movie lineup is unmatched online," Eric Berger, Sony Pictures Television's senior vice president of digital content, said in a release. "These are the movies that matter for guys 18 to 34, and this is the next step in creating our direct-to-consumer network."
A guy I know created an Elf Yourself video of his friends. Um, I'm on the bottom right.
(Credit: OfficeMax/JibJab, user-gen work by Peter Feld)Because we need to ensure that silly do-it-yourself comedy will stay alive during these harrowing financial times, the magic venture capital fairies have infused JibJab.com with a $7.5 million Series C round. And by "magic venture capital fairies" I actually mean Overbrook Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and existing investor Polaris Venture Partners.
Founded in 1999 by brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, JibJab started as a hub for funny political song-and-dance videos that the two created, but in 2007 the company began an e-card service called "Starring You!" in which visitors to the site could insert photos of themselves (or their bosses!) into geeky cartoon videos. For the '08 holiday season, JibJab partnered with office supply store OfficeMax for the third annual installment of those "Elf Yourself" greeting cards that I'm sure more than a few of you were sent. (See image for embarrassing example.)
JibJab says a whopping 35 million of its holiday greeting cards were sent across the Web this winter. That's a lot of elves.
JibJab forged a deal with CNN Politics around that time last year when everyone was either thinking about Halloween or the presidential election, launching a zombie politician video creator.
The site has a business model beyond advertising and sponsorship, thank goodness: some of its content is subscription-based, and JibJab also sells additional video. To keep an "Elf Yourself" video past the holidays, for example, you can pay to download it.
"We sensed that customers would pay for access to unique, high-quality entertainment that they could use to express themselves online," co-founder and CEO Gregg Spiridellis said in a release. "With this thesis well proven, and the capital from this financing now in place, we plan to aggressively innovate the online greetings category in the months and years ahead."
Hey, guys, I have a suggestion: recession-themed dance video greeting cards!
This post was updated on Friday at 7:26 a.m. PT to note OfficeMax's creation of "Elf Yourself," which is now presented by JibJab.
Project Playlist has struck a deal with Sony BMG to bring the label's catalog to its streaming-music service. It's the first major-label deal for Project Playlist, which recently brought former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta on as CEO but has been dealing with legal problems that have seen its widgets banned from social network MySpace.
Currently, Project Playlist has been sued by Warner Music, EMI, and Universal Music Group, as well as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), because of the amount of unauthorized content that members have uploaded to the service. Industry rumors have persisted that Project Playlist was interested in a merger with Imeem, a similar service that has deals with all the major labels.
Reports had surfaced in April that unlike the other labels, Sony BMG was negotiating with Project Playlist rather than seeking legal action against it. Now, months later, that deal has come to fruition.
"Collaborating with Sony BMG is a significant milestone in our effort to improve the access and quality of content on Project Playlist, and enhance the overall user experience," founder Jeremy Riney said in a release. "We hope that we soon will be able to provide our users with ready access to even more of the music they want in the way that they want it."
There are a ton of social music sites out there, but Project Playlist is growing fast: Traffic firm ComScore pegs its user base at 40 million.
Sony Pictures Television has signed a distribution deal with pioneering Web series Rocketboom, which has been producing a quirky daily newscast since 2004.
Under the terms of the agreement--which reports pin in the seven figures--Sony will handle all distribution and ad sales, as well as use its Crackle.com player on the Rocketboom.com Web site. (Until this point, Rocketboom has used a YouTube embed on its home page.) It'll also see additional distribution on Sony's network, which includes the PlayStation 3 console.
Sony bought Crackle, then known as Grouper, back in 2006.
Created by entrepreneur Andrew Baron, Rocketboom rose to fame with actress Amanda Congdon as host, but she left the show on unfavorable terms in 2006 and has since struggled to find a new niche in online media. Congdon's replacement, Joanne Colan, is still at the helm.
In a post on his blog, Baron explained why he chose to seek a distributor (a rarity in the Web video world) rather than raising the money through a venture round: he didn't want to sell out. Mentioning venture-funded video start-ups like Revision3 and Next New Networks, he wrote, "While these networks have provided immense value for the growing transitioning space, they are all controlled now by venture capitalists which tend to have as their primary objective, a sale."
Baron added that it often hasn't helped the quality. "Aside from the hit shows which have spawned the networks, most of the other shows on these networks have not lived up to their predecessors, content-wise, and new shows are often canceled soon after they are launched." Indeed, Revision3 and Next New Networks have both seen new programs debut only to peter out after only a few episodes--something that a major TV network can handle, but which can be a serious wound for a video start-up.
"Instead of gaining capital to burn while continuing to build or seek an advertising solution, we now have one of the most prominent advertising solutions out there," Baron wrote, "along with increased distribution, a road map for expansion and a guarantee that I believe is an unprecedented deal for this space."
What he was saying, albeit obliquely, is that Rocketboom did need a leg up. As more and more early Web video shows have either faded away (Lonelygirl15 just ended its run, and The Burg's creators ended the project to collaborate on a new show backed by former Disney chief Michael Eisner) or acquired (Wallstrip was bought by CBS Interactive, and Revision3 now syndicates Wine Library and Epic Fu) remaining "indie" operations need to stay afloat. Sony can provide Rocketboom with better exposure as well as a more streamlined advertising operation.
Baron is no stranger to shaking things up, having catalyzed one of the blogosphere's most navel-gazing debates when he briefly put his Twitter account up for sale on eBay.
Disclaimer: Wallstrip parent company CBS Interactive also publishes CNET News.com.
For those who came in late, Blu-ray has won the format war.
On Wednesday, online retailer Amazon.com became the latest to declare its support for the victorious high-definition technology, announcing that it "will more prominently promote Blu-ray hardware and software products on its Web site." The company will not, however, discontinue its sales of HD DVD products.
"The high-definition landscape is rapidly changing, and consumers are looking for guidance on how to make the best high-definition buying decisions," Peter Faricy, Amazon's vice president of movies and music, said in a statement from the company. "Our customers have clearly voiced their support for the Blu-ray format."
But in a sense, Amazon is also an indicator that Blu-ray's struggles aren't quite over. With its Unbox movie download service, Amazon is among a number of major Web retailers that offer digital downloads of movies and TV shows. Some have said that with all the bickering over HD DVD and Blu-ray for so many months, digital downloads from companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Apple's iTunes were able to find a steadier footing.
Luckily for Blu-ray overlord Sony, your average digital movie download isn't nearly up to par in the quality department.
A few months ago, the likes of Gothamist and other New York-centric blogs were whispering and gossiping about the presence of Play-Doh bunnies in various city parks, and how it was the fodder for the latest Sony Bravia HDTV ad--you know, those ambitious Euro ads about "colour" that brought us bouncy balls in San Francisco to the tune of Jose Gonzales and paint geysers in an abandoned apartment complex.
And now it's here, to the tune of the Rolling Stones' "She's a Rainbow." Cue up that trippy mindset and check it out--as a New Yorker, I'm sad to say it doesn't top the bouncy balls, but when that first bunny jumps out, you can't help but say "Aww!"
(Via JoshSpear)
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