DOT COMEDY
Digital Rights Management company Reciprocal is turning out new initiatives like it's 1999. In a partnership with V2 Records, the security-mongers will offer encrypted streams of Black Crowes live performances in the Windows Media format. Only visitors to a "secure" Crowes site who've bought the band's new CD, "Lions," will have access to the streams--at least until some sullen 15-year-old in Venezuela decrypts them. Further live tracks will be made available on the site each week subsequently, so that fans can burn their own live anthologies (if they've bought "Lions" and obtained the appropriate "digital permit," that is). The company has also unveiled its new retail Web site template, Reciprocal Storefront. The "off the shelf" solution (which is also reportedly "off the hook") allows businesses to go to the Web without having to design an e-commerce site from the ground up. The DRM outfit is targeting clients of its Reciprocal Digital Clearing Services that don't have an existing site or want to keep digital-distribution businesses separate from their existing ones. Storefront works with Reciprocal's back-office systems—which isn't nearly as illicit as it sounds—and supports all digital content, including videos, music, software and porn. Said President/CEO John Schwarz, "The storefront offers simple solutions to the complex technological demands of selling digital content online, and is a seamless experience for the both the client and the end user. Of course, until someone actually sells something online, this is just a theory."
DMN THE TORPEDOES
Digital Music Network today announced it has secured a North American license from EMI. DMN, a supplier of interactive music content to hotels, will offer EMI recordings and music videos in North American hotel rooms equipped with DMN's systems. The EMI license significantly expands the number of files in DMN's current library of over 600 CD titles that hotel guests can order on demand. Now, if they could only do something about the minibar...
HEARING VOICES AT YESMAIL
YesMail has teamed up with BYOBroadcast, an audio technology company, to provide its customers with audio-enabled e-mails. Under the terms of agreement, YesMail, an e-mail marketing services provider, now offers marketers an opportunity to deliver personalized audio e-mails to their users. The Java-based system does not require software downloads or special instructions, meaning that naked celebrity spam will now come with sound.
EVEO EVENS THE SCORE
Web video company Eveo has launched Eveo Music Video Solution, a service encompassing music-video production and customized streaming-media tools for marketing and promotion. The company hopes to sway record labels into gearing their music vids not just to broadcast outlets such as MTV or BET, but the Internet as well. The new package, an addition to the company's digital-download capabilities and web-video services, will partner Eveo with labels and artists at a project's concept stage, before the music video is produced. The company then creates a unique treatment for broadcast and digital distribution to keep the campaign consistent online and offline. For an additional fee, Eveo will also provide snide commentary from fourteen-year-olds.
EU LAWMAKERS HOPE NEW COPYRIGHT LAW STRIKES AWE
You can't please all of the people all of the time, but the European Union is sure as heck gonna try. The governments of the 15 EU members approved a new-media copyright law, extending copyright protection to new technologies like the Internet and cell phones. Legislators believe the new law balances the protection of artists' rights as well as those of the private user, and expect the new rules to create a secure environment for trade of copyright-protected goods and services. The law was approved in February with amendments and will be imposed within 18 months. European commissioner Frits Bolkestein said, "Europe's creators, artists and copyright industries can now look forward with renewed confidence to the challenges posed by electronic commerce. At the same time, the directive secures the legitimate interests of users, consumers and the society at large… just as Prohibition did."
