TECHNOLOGY NEWS WITH AN EMPHASIS ON NEITHER
Of This By Dinnertime?
MP3.com, the quicker picker-upper, has signed a marketing deal with Maverick. The pact includes a licensing deal for My.MP3.com, the second most-litigation-inducing online service in recent history. MP3.com will help market and promote Maverick's artists. "Maverick believes that MP3.com represents an important step forward in the creative exploitation of recorded music, and we are excited to be working together," said Maverick CEO Ronnie Dashev. "I'll bet they wish I hadn't said ‘exploitation.'"
WEITZNER GOES FROM E TO TVT
Rob Weitzner, formerly VP Content & Strategy/GM for EMusic, has joined TVT Records as VP Business Development & Digital Strategy. In his new post, Weitzner will endeavor to build on TVT's aggressive new-technology drive, including its decision to drop litigation against Napster and embrace the controversial swapping service. "Bringing Rob on board is a very exciting and significant move for us," says a piece of paper with TVT head Steve Gottlieb's name on it. "He is an experienced Internet music executive and a veteran of the digital revolution. Plus I hear he's buzzing on the street." Weitzner plans to use his residual EMusic stock to buy a brand new stapler.
WARPED TOUR LINES UP LINEUP
Vans Warped Inside Spring 2001 Tour, presented by Target Stores, owned by LAUNCH, sponsored by someone else, with co-op dollars flowing in from lots of other places and advertising placements from yet more companies, has announced its 15-city tour, with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones as headliners. It's dubbed the "Inside" tour because the precursor to the summer tour blowout is taking place at, um, indoor venues. The junket kicks off Thursday, March 15 and includes a stop in Las Vegas as part of Schwing! Magazine's annual charity golf tournament. This final sentence is brought to you by Mentos, the Freshmaker.
ANALOG TAPE SAVED BY EUPHONIX
The basic theory of entropy is that everything is always proceeding toward a state of greater disorder, or "everything falls apart." Such is certainly the case with master tapes; reels from recording sessions dating back to before time began, or at least the late ‘60s, are decaying. Recording-technology stalwart Euphonix has revealed its solution for converting and storing older multi-track tapes. The AES31 TransferStation for the R-1 Digital Multitrack enables digitized audio files to be converted to the non-propriety AES31 format. In English, it converts music from one format to another—meaning the new digital version of the old reel can be manipulated in the same way. "We've seen the future of multitracking," says Euphonix CEO Steve Vining, "and it's converting master tape to a digital file and parking it on a server. Well, that and the jet pack."
DMX WINS ENGINEERING AWARD—NO, NOT THE RAPPER GUY
DMX Axis, created by DMX Music, took home the prestigious Frost & Sullivan 2001 Market Engineering Product Innovation Award. Dude, you should have been at the awards ceremony--it was off the heezy. Software engineers know how to throw down. DMX Axis receivers arrive pre-loaded with hundreds of hours of music; new music is sent to the receiver automatically through the wondrous power of the Internet. DMX Music is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Digital, and soon you will be, too. DMX was unable to pick up the award in person, as he's doing a two-week stint in the clink in New York.
DUDE LOOKS LIKE A SIMULADY
In a big push for AerosmithWorld, a 3-D virtual environment that allows users to adopt a virtual presence to chat with digital versions of the band, developed by Worlds.com, and the group's 3/13 Columbia release, "Just Push Play," the portal developer is promoting itself on AOL Time Warner cable via a pact with AOL Time Warner's Road Runner, a high speed cable ISP. Of course, it could be argued that some members of Aerosmith have always had a virtual presence.
OFFSHORE NAPSTER A SNORE
Leave it to a Canadian to take the idea of Napster offshore to skirt U.S. Copyright law. Matt Goyer, a 21-year-old student announced plans to set up an offshore Internet song-swapping service. Goyer is the co-founder of Fairtunes.com, last year's PR gimmick to get his name in the news, which was a site for Napster users to donate money to artists. Now the site will collect funds for the offshore Napster. If caught and convicted, Goyer could be forced to live in Canada for the rest of his life.
ALAN PARSONS RESURFACES, SORT OF
Free recording and music production online training site Artistpro.com has landed pomp-rock legend Alan Parsons as a host of one of the site's Advisor Forums. No word on if any other Project members will take part, but you've gotta have dreams. Artistpro.com presents online courses, publishes books and videos and provides charity work for where-are-they-now-category musicians. "We are delighted to have Alan Parsons on board as one of our mentors," said Artistpro.com President/CEO Mike Lawson. "I'll never forget the first time I heard ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.'"
