Netflix this morning announced renewed distribution deals with two major content providers, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
Both agreements encompass physical and digital distribution of movies and, in the case of Fox, TV programs. And yes, they include 28-day windows between street date and Netflix catalogue availability for new releases.
Details after the jump. → Read More
The US Department of Justice has launched an anti-trust probe into Total Music, the proposed music service from Universal and Sony BMG. As we wrote in October 2007, Total Music would offer free music to end users by charging device manufactures or ISPs. The earlier figures mentioned $90 per device for access to Total Music, based on $5 per month over 18 months. According to The Register, Universal and SonyBMG are confirmed, with all four major record labels likely to be involved in the investigation as well. The investigation will consider whether the big four, as providers of over 80% of all music, are unfairly using their market position to provide an unfair market advantage to Total Music. The record companies have been investigated previously for such behavior, although the earlier investigation closed in 2003 following Apple’s launch of iTunes. In related news, the RIAA is now suggesting that copyright filtering should be done at a PC level, with the tech bundled with virus scanning software. Desperate suggestions from desperate people. → Read More
Try as they might, HD DVD isn’t going down without a fight. Whether these titles were lined up before the WB announcement is anyone’s guess, but a few blockbusters are slated for this quarter. I didn’t see Beowulf (2/26) and I think the reviews were mixed, but it’s an exclusive as is American Gangster (2/19) and Bee Movie (3/11). I didn’t see the Seinfeld movie, but I did see Denzel and he’s a plays a pretty good badass. → Read More
[photopress:vhddvd.jpg,full,center] HD DVD? What’s that? Universal has ended its HD DVD exclusivity arrangement and Paramount’s HD DVD contract has an escape clause. Should Paramount exercise that clause, and there’s no reason not to at this point, Blu-ray would have thoroughly won this silly “format war.” Now we can get back to the important business of arguing over more important things, like which gaming system is the best or why the Zune (or iPod) sucks so much. HD DVD’s fate more or less lies in Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart and other retailers’ hands now. If the retailers see momentum in the Blu-ray direction, they may opt to limit the amount of shelf space they give to HD DVD. That would only accelerate Universal and Paramount’s production of Blu-ray titles. To videophiles flush with money, the “winner” shouldn’t matter, so long as the studios author their discs properly (remember the abomination that was the first release of The Fifth Element on Blu-ray?). Pirates, on the other hand, are screwed if the BD+ copy protection doesn’t get cracked. Who knew Warner wielded so much power? Blu-ray could win high-def battle [Variety via Bits New York Times Blog] → Read More
Do I really need to endorse this one? It’s Van Damme in HD. Sure, it’s not his best movie (“Blood Sport” gets my vote), but it’s in HD! He does the splits as he does in every movie. Pick up Universal’s “Timecop”, you know you want to. Amazon → Read More
Deutsche Grammaphon. Ever heard of it? Doesn’t matter if you have or not. It’s owned by Universal Music and has decided to build its own classical music download site, where the MP3s are DRM-free and encoded at 320kbps. Single tracks run for $1.29 unless they’re over 7-minutes long, in which case they cost $1.99. That’s a slight departure from how classical music is offered on iTunes or Amazon where a track is a track, no matter the length. Still, the across-the-board DRM-lessness is nice and classical music aficionados might appreciate that higher bitrate. Roll over, Beethoven: Deutsche Grammophon ditches DRM [Ars Technica] → Read More
Doug Morris over at Universal Music Group has a hard job — he has to sell dying media to plugged-in consumers. For a hundred years, recorded music has come on platters of plastic called “discs” or “records.” You used to be able to sell those discs at a considerable mark-up in order to fund artists’ cocaine habits and to ensure that music company CEOs can afford the nice Scotch. Unfortunately, Napster came along, divorcing the music from the disc and turning the entire music industry into morons. Seth Mnookin in Wired got a chance to sit down with Mr. Morris over a nice glass of warm milk and found that the aging oligarch and the rest of his cronies are so clueless that any one of us could have stopped into Universal, claimed to be a futurist, and described a brave new world in which music is beamed directly into our anuses using gamma beams. It’s a sad, sad state of affairs. Now if you’ll excuse me I think Transmission has finished downloading that Kraftwerk discography I “ordered” on the Interweb. Universal Music CEO Doug Morris Speaks, Recording Industry in Even Deeper Shit Than We Thought [NYMag] → Read More
Apparently Universal Music Group – which has been dipping its toes into DRM-free waters this year – is none too worried about music pirates getting into classical music. Deutsche Grammophon, a German classical music company founded in 1898 and owned by Universal, will be launching on Wednesday an online store for MP3s called DG Web Shop. The store will offer 24,000 albums and box sets encoded in a delectable 320 kbps (over the more standard 128-192 kbps). Six hundred of these albums are no longer available on CDs. Albums will cost between $/€11-12 and tracks will be priced at $/€1.29 each, making purchases peculiarly cheaper for Americans. The site will be available in 42 countries and offer other things like album booklets, promotional videos, and tour information. It may be worth noting that classical music receives less legal protection than contemporary music because only its recorded performances, not its compositions, are still under copyright. → Read More
The latest brainwave from the besieged music industry is the proposal to offer free music to end users via the Total Music brand. Spawned by Universal Music, Total Music looks likely to sign the big four record labels and a range of smaller firms as well, with Sony BMG on board and Warner Music looking as it will be as well. Free is the ultimate selling point in market side economics, because ultimately you can’t beat the opportunity cost of zero. But here’s the catch: Total Music may market itself as offering free unlimited music, but it’s not really free, the cost is just hidden. That cost: $90 per device for access to Total Music, based on $5 per month over 18 months (the figures Universal are using). In our above example Microsoft has decided not to absorb the $90 Total Music charge but has instead added it to the price on the 4gb Zune, taking the total price to $239. Which would you buy? In the Zune example Microsoft may embrace the Total Music model and subsidize the subscription costs. Say that Microsoft split the difference and the Zune went from $149 to only $194, it’s a better figure but it’s still $45 more that the iPod. Could Microsoft absorb the whole price? Unlikely; after all why would it willfully hand over $90 of a $149 product, which we presume would certainly destroy Microsoft’s product margin on the Zune, and could even make each sale a loss. I’ve used Microsoft as an example but it could be any company with a music player that isn’t Apple. Universal is looking at targeting anything that plays music, so aside from MP3 players you could be seeing this hidden cost built into mobile phones, media streaming devices and perhaps even computers. I should note that some people like their music legal and will pay a premium, but given a $90 price difference this is unlikely to be a majority of buyers, particularly when the iPod offers legal options as well, options that are a choice and not an imposed upfront cost to the buyer. The music industry may talk about free music, but all it is doing with Total Music is shifting the point in which the consumer pays to one that isn’t nearly as transparent as iTunes. More details at CrunchGear. → Read More
Universal CEO Doug Morris is looking to partner with Sony BMG and Warner to develop "a new music subscription service that will try to loosen Apple’s grip on the online music market." → Read More
It’s hard being NinjaMan, Ninja of the Future. Just ask the stewards on my last flight. They had to put up with me looking like a total moron and loving every minute of it. Why? Because I was wearing the Myvu Universals, a pair of video glasses for the iPod — or any other device with a video output — that basically turns you into the coolest guy on the plane. These glasses allow you to watch standard definition video and listen to stereo sound without having to stare at a tiny physical screen. They have a small LCD embedded near the front of the glasses and the picture is sent to both eyes simultaneously, creating a tiny screen directly in front of your field of vision. The best thing is that it works amazingly well. → Read More
After one too many “unreasonable threats”, video site Veoh preemptively sued Universal Music last month in federal court, seeking a declaratory injunction to bar Universal from taking legal action. Now it seems Universal has finally made good on some of those threats. Universal is suing the startup for copyright infringement, using some strong language in an L.A. court hearing today. Universal said, “Veoh follows in the ignominious footsteps of other recent mass infringers such as Napster”. Adding, “Veoh’s rampant infringement will not stop until Veoh, and those who own, control, and run it, are enjoined and held financially responsible”. The suit joins a heap of lawsuits UMG had launched against MySpace, Grouper (Crackle), and Bolt (since deadpooled). Veoh is partly financed by Time Warner and Michael Eisner’s Tornante Co. Update: Veoh CEO Steve Mitgang has delivered an official response: “UMG’s action is not surprising and reflects their limited understanding of Veoh and of the online video space as a whole. Veoh is recognized by many media companies as a DMCA-compliant company and is committed to respecting the rights of content owners. In fact, we’re currently working cooperatively with major media companies and the MPAA to develop standards for copyright protection. It’s unfortunate that UMG prefers to continue their pattern of litigation rather than contribute to the important discussions going on within our industry.” → Read More
Universal Music Group will sell DRM-free music until January to test consumer demand for being able to do as we please with music that we legitimately purchase. The test tracks will be offered through many major music services with the notable exception of iTunes. → Read More
Eminem, who peaked in 2000, has filed a lawsuit against Apple, which peaked on June 29, 2007. The lawsuit centers on the whether or not Universal Music, which publishes Eminem’s hot beats, can deal directly with Apple with regard to selling music online. It seems Em wants more of a cut of that sweet, sweet iTunes money and doesn’t like how Universal can make deals with Apple without his say. (Don’t record labels own the air musicians breathe, let alone their music rights?) Why, then, Eminem is going after Apple and not his label is unknown. It’s also stupid. → Read More
Not much info on these HOT SCOOPS, but Matt Drudge is reporting that Universal Music Group will not be renewing its iTunes contract with Apple. This means that the iTunes Music Store is going to lose a lot of tracks and customers will soon follow. With the iPhone just released, I’m sure Apple is going to beef up iTMS promotions but this could pose a major setback for everyone, both Apple and customers. Drudge Report → Read More
A new class action lawsuit is upon us and yet again, Apple is the target. This time, independent music label Dawg Music is suing Apple, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music for selling its catalog without consent or compensation. The two major labels here have not only screwed Dawg Music out of royalty checks, they’ve also made illegal hard copies of music not owned by them. Piracy, anyone? Several online music retailers such as iTunes and Napster are also guilty by association. The suit claims that the retailers are guilty because they sold songs that were illegally acquired. Plus, all the money from online sales is going right to the middlemen: Universal and Warner – meaning Dawg Music gets no money from all of these sales. Dawg Music expects $150,000 from each defendant for each piece of work whose copyright was violated. Sounds a bit high, though I’d love to see the big, major labels get screwed for once. Apple and music labels accused of shortchanging artists [Apple Insider] → Read More
We all know by now that the Zune is certainly not the hottest DAP on the market. But after dealing with Microsoft and their “points” system and the crappy music store for Zune, we’re finding out that some of the songs you may have bought can’t be shared with other Zunes—not that you’d find another one near you anyways. The culprits? Sony and Universal. They’ve made a select choosing of certain artists they don’t want shared between Zunes. Who’s affected? Check it: Universal Music Group • Prohibited Zune Sharing: Gwen Stefani, Snow Patrol, Eminem, Blue October, JoJo, Jay-Z; • Accepted Zune Sharing: Nickelback, Nelly Furtado and Maria Careh; Sony Music • Prohibited Zune Sharing: Beyonce, Weird Al Yankovic (not sure if song is from Sony) and Ciara; • Accepted Zune Sharing: Shakira, Wyclef Jean, The Fray, Christina Aguilera, John Mayer and Brad Paisley; Keep in mind, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many more artists are included and DRM restrictions are getting tighter. If you like a CD a lot, just go buy the hard copy so you can do what you want with it. Otherwise, you risk getting shafted. Universal and Sony Don’t Like Zune to Zune Sharing [ClicZune] → Read More
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