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FINALLY, A WEB-ENABLED JUKEBOX! MP3.com announced an agreement with Fun e-Business to provide retail establishments with access to music catalogs available on MP3.com via Web-enabled Wurlitzer Fun e-Jukeboxes. "Restaurants, taverns and other retailers will hopefully have more access to musical content including digital artists in the surrounding area," said MP3.com VP of Retail Music Services Bob Simril. "Just in case there's a regional demand for the Push Buttons or FruitThwack or whatever other crappy local band has Web access." What's ironic is that "funny business" is exactly how the RIAA referred to MP3.com just months ago.
EXCUSE ME WHILE I KISS THIS MINIVAN: Webcaster TheDial.com has added two new music formats to its selection. "Kiss This" (a selection of alternative pop and rock from the '80s and '90s) and "Mini Van" (a selection of softer pop geared at soccer moms) join TheDial's 15 other formats, which include "The Boob" (a tribute to ad jingles and TV theme songs) and "Venus Envy" (a Lilith Fair clone). "We're creating formats you just can't find on traditional radio," said TheDial's Music Director Dean Carlson. "I know it sounds impossible, but there are actually options other than the four formats you hear on radio."
LAUNCHING INTO THE WIRELESS FUTURE: Launch.com announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with i3 Mobile, a provider of wireless media solutions. The two companies are partnering to develop a service that will alert music fans via their mobile phones and other wireless devices when their favorite bands and performers will be playing in their local areas. "Now people's phones can let them know when the Push Buttons or FruitThwack or whatever other crappy local band is playing," said a spokesman for Launch. "Now, if we could just find a way to tap into the lucrative jukebox market." In other wireless news, Deutsche Telekom has made overtures to buy VoiceStream, an American wireless company. VoiceStream has a market cap of about $27 billion and $2 billion in debt. Insert your own Germany/world domination joke here. Bonus points will be awarded if you can include a reference to Otto von Bismarck.
DOES MULTIMEDIA INCLUDE PORN? According to Media Metrix Inc., WindowsMedia.com is now the leading multimedia guide on the Web. With a 3.1 million increase in unique visitors between January and May 2000, WindowsMedia reached 5.7 individual visitors in May, topping Broadcast.com (4.6 million), RealGuide.real.com (3.8 million) and MP3.com (3.4 million). WindowsMedia.com is owned by Microsoft, a tiny Seattle-based computer company that currently owns your computer's soul and reads your e-mail.
THE MAGICAL MYSTERY PRESS RELEASE: Ubrandit.com announced it has signed an agreement with a (so-far-unnamed) "major broadcast media company" for the integration of Ubrandit's eCommerce technology into 183 radio station Web properties. The mysterious 183 radio station Web properties cover 42 mid-size markets with a weekly reach of more than 10 million unique consumers. "I wish I could be less helpful with this news release," said a spokesman for Ubrandit, "but sadly I did have to include some specifics."
