DOT COM ALL YE FAITHFUL
Napster, the greatest/worst thing to happen to the music industry since FedEx, has paid an undisclosed amount of cash for filter tech company Gigabeat. Napster picks up more search and filtering technology, something that it needs to keep fighting off the record industry, as well as a team of engineers and a group of bodies to help beat the clock and get its pay service up and running by July. Gigabeat's technology also includes elements that could be useful in a closed, pay service, but let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
NO FREE LAUNCHES
No one noticed, so we thought we'd mention that the RIAA launched a new website with statements from artists and contact information on the ongoing digital music hubbub. In a move that signals the suffix "ster" will be used in the digital world the way "gate" is used in the political arena, Nofreelunchster.com uses MP3s to provide downloads of artists and fans thoughts on the music copyright debate, including comments from staunch anti-Napsterites Mike Stoller, Ted Nugent and Jeff Buckley mom Mary Guibert on a CD mailed to press. Said RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen, giving a soundbite on the issue for the very first time, "This isn't about just record companies and retailers. This is about the heart and the soul and the passion that goes into creating music and run-on sentences." A VC company has already offered the RIAA a million bucks for the domain name so that it can set up a pizza delivery site.
VH1 HEARS MUSIC HERE
VH1 and VH1.com have launched "VH1 Hear Music First," a service that allows users to pre-purchase—their word—a CD and have "exclusive" access to the album online. Unfortunately, the channel/website chose Stevie Nicks' upcoming album, "Trouble in Shangra-La" to kick off the service, so industry observers won't know if people are interested in this sort of thing. Whoa big guy, just kidding. Starting April 16, users will be able to stream an album after pre-ordering it through VH1.com, as well as receive album artwork, lyrics, liner notes, interviews and more. CDs will be mailed out the day of release; in the case of Nicks' album, that will be May 1. "VH1's audience trusts VH1 to connect them to music," said VH1 Interactive Group Sr. VP/GM Fred Graver. "The VH1 Hear Music First service blends our relationship with artists, our connection to our audience and state-of-the-art technology to allow us to get people closer to music than ever before. Our next plan is ‘VH1 A&R Music First,' where users will get access to musicians and their drug habits like never before."
V2 AND RECIPROCAL RECIPROCATE ON BLACK CROWES
In a deal between V2 and Digital Rights Management company Reciprocal, people who purchase the Black Crowes' upcoming "Lions" CD will be able to go to a secure website and listen to streams of live band concerts. In addition, one track per week will be made available for download so that users can burn their own compiliation CDs and users can download and burn one concert in its entirety. All Crowes fans have to do is place the "Lions" disc in the CD player of their computer and they will be magically transported to the site. The promotion starts the third week of April and runs through August, though "Lions" comes out May 8, making us hope that the whole deal works with promo copies of the disc.
