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On Tuesday, Disney’s ABC Television group announced it would make available, beginning immediately, episodes of some of its popular programs, including Grey’s Anatomy, Lost and Ugly Betty to video-equipped phones on the Sprint network. The four most recent episodes of programs will be available to subscribers who use participating data-plans at no extra charge. At some point in the future, commercials will be added to the content.

The deal will be the first attempt by major media to offer full-length programming on phones, or over cellular. (Verizon has been offering short form video content).

In a statement that clearly shows Sprint made the deal in an effort to compete with the upcoming Apple iPhone (which can play video’s, including TV shows, downloaded through iTunes) Sprint’s VP for wireless data services said “You won’t need to buy episodes individually or sync to a PC to access this kind of content.”

Personally, I’m still not convinced that consumers will find much more than a novelty factor in having TV available on-demand on their phones. With so called time-shifting devices (Tivo, DVR’s etc) allowing consumers to watch programming at times that suit their schedules and not only when originally broadcast, the market for ultra-portable on-demand services seems small. If i can see a program anytime on a much bigger screen, why watch on my cell phone? It’s hard to believe this kind of service will appeal to anyone beyond the extremely bored, or the die-hard fan.

In a separate, unrelated announcement that was timed to coincide with press releases for Motorola’s next generation phones, Music subscription service Napster announced it was making its music service available on Motorola phones. The companies will share promotional efforts in North America, the UK and Germany. It was not clear how, or if, the partnership would include cellular carriers. In either case, as with the Sprint/Disney announcement, this release is another clear effort to compete against Apple’s upcoming iTunes and iPhone combination.

“Here we are now; contain us?” …or was Kurt Cobain singing “Here we are now, entertain us?”…hmm…

Ever wonder what the right words were to some song? Ever been positive the words were one thing, only to find out they were actually something else?   If so, you’re not alone.  Mishearing song lyrics is a common phenomenon.  It is so common, in fact, there’s a word for it: mondegreen.  There’s a website where you can submit your errors; or laugh at other misinterpretations (the site’s name is amusingly based on a misinterpretation of a Jimi Hendrix lyric).  There’s even a book of collected mondegreens (amusingly it’s titled after the same Jimi Hendrix misappropriation though there seems to be no relationship to the website).   Now, there’s also a way of finding out the definitive answer.

Yahoo and Emeryville, California based Gracenote, a music database and information company, announced a partnership today for the distribution of a music industry supported song lyrics database.   

Though lyrics are routinely among popular searches on the web (according to various Buzz indexes), this will mark the first lyrics catalog to be released under licensed approval from the music industry.  (There are a wealth of free lyrics sites, many of which contain mistakes, and many of which have been shutdown for unlicensed reproduction of copyrighted material).

Last summer Gracenote initiated the process when it secured the rights to the lyrics from the North American catalogs of BMG Music, Universal Music Publishing Group Click to Read More

In a ticket industry cluttered with primary and secondary sales, pre-sales and resales, market heavyweights are increasingly worried about protecting their territory.  In effort to reassert its dominance, IAC’s Ticketmaster filed several lawsuits during the past week.

Most notable  of the suits was a complaint filed against eBay’s Stubhub. It was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last Wednesday. That complaint alleges that Stubhub, an auction reseller of tickets, has repeatedly interfered with contracts that typically grant Ticketmaster exclusive rights to sell tickets for events to the general public. 

The complaints specific focuse is on actions relating to the Rowdy Frynds Tour for which Stubhub has advertised that it would offer front-row seats via auction for  up to 100 seats in the first 10 rows for all 20 show dates.   

According to Ticketmaster, these seats should not have been available to Stubhub.  Stubhub used improper tactics to gain access to the seats which contractually should have been part of Ticketmaster’s inventory. Click to Read More

Over the past few years, downloadable forms of content have been eroding the traditional domain of retailers (CD and DVD sales). Today, in an effort to embrace those changes, big-box retailer Circuit City announced it was joining with Los Angeles based Napster on a new co-branded music download service.

The new service which is called Circuit City+Napster will compete with iTunes, Rhapsody, and other download services. The offering will launch April 29th and use Napster’s established subscription based model. For $14.95 a month subscribers will gain unlimited access to songs provided through the service. The music will be playable on PC’s, compatible cell phones (via Napster 2 Go) and compatible MP3 players. (Because Napster uses Windows WMA Digital Rights Management protections its music is not compatible with iPods which run on Apple’s Fairplay DRM system). In addition to the subscription service, individual songs will be sold for 99cents.

Partnerships have been an important part of Napster’s subscription growth. Click to Read More

James Brown once said “Music has to breathe and sweat. You have to play it live. ” For a long time, I thought the same logic applied to listening. For a real experience, I thought, to really feel it, you had to have the hum of the P.A. speakers and the sway of the crowd. You had to have that spirit, that buzz. 

I rarely go to concerts anymore.  Not too long ago I went to see at least one a month. I’d see U2 every time they came around.  I heard Norah Jones cover AC/DC at the famous Fillmore.  I saw Bonnie Raitt in her home territory at a restored Art Deco theater.  I saw Indie acts, blues greats, aging-rockers, and up and comers.   But I got tired.

Click to Read More

Rumors were swirling that there was about to be a new British invasion, that the Beatles were coming to iTunes.  Instead, at yesterdays much hyped Apple press conference in London new ground was broken in a different direction.  Apple announced that in partnership with label EMI, for the first time, there will be DRM-Free music at the iTunes store.

As part of a deal, the digital catalog of EMI music will be sold in two forms:

• The standard DRM-laden 128kbps AAC file that’s defined iTunes will remain at .99 cents.
• An alternate, higher sound quality (256kbps AAC) download free of any DRM restrictions will be sold at a premium price of $1.29/song

After initially selling through Apple, EMI plans to offer similar rights-free music (and video) through other outlets.  Retailers who participate will be able to choose several levels of quality (including options which may exceed the iTunes peak of 256kbsp). Retailers will also be able to choose between offering the music in MP3, AAC or WMA formats.  

The combined effort will increase the portability of music across different platforms and may influence the market opportunity for smaller player manufacturers.

Click to Read More

Last week Ticketmaster announced the purchase of a majority stake in Nashville based music marketing/fan-club/fan-ticketing company Echomusic.   The terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Echomusic, which  provides musician fan-websites, marketing, sponsorship services and direct-to-fan ticketing, will help with Ticketmaster’s (a division of Interactive Corp.) efforts to move into broader promotion, and non-traditional ticket sales (resale, dynamic pricing, direct-to-fan).   It will also give Ticketmaster more tools for building relationships with bands and promotions and  that may increase revenue opportunities from channels beyond the ticket-fee charges that account for the bulk of their revenue.   (Ticketmaster earned $279.1 in revenue for Q4 2006, up 10% over ’05). 

Despite the benefits of the deal, the deal is, arguably, as much defensive  for Ticketmaster as offensive. Click to Read More