Music Ally

2010 is shaping up as a big year for mergers and acquisitions in the digital music space, continuing the trend seen in the latter months of 2009, when the likes of Lala, Imeem and iLike were all snapped up, for varying amounts. So which services and startups might be under new ownership this time next year? Here’s some of our predictions.

eMusic

You don’t have to be a soothsayer to suggest that eMusic may be bought in the near future – the company effectively admitted it was open to offers (i.e. shopping itself to potential buyers) just after Christmas. Boss Danny Stein told the New York Post that “We’re opportunistic stewards of capital… If an offer was made that created value for our shareholders we’d listen to it.”

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Live streaming startup Ustream powered a webcast last week for Disney pop trio The Jonas Brothers. Now the company has revealed that 974,000 people watched the webcast at some point.

What’s more, it integrated with viewers’ Facebook and Twitter accounts to help promote the event – they made 1.5 million Facebook posts and 40,000 tweets during the webcast.

The Jonas Brothers (or rather the people who run their digital affairs) have been pretty forward thinking when it comes to online video. Last June, they worked with online video firm Kyte, posting regular footage of their on-tour exploits to their Bebo profile.

Interscope Geffen A&M is launching iPhone applications for five of its key artists, through a partnership with mobile firm Kyte. The five are Lady Gaga, the Pussycat Dolls, Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, the All American Rejects, and Keri Hilson.

The free apps include video content from the artists’ Kyte channels, as well as branding and advertising, click-through links to buy music and merchandise, a built-in RSS reader to pull in news updates, and community features like chat, comments and sharing.

“Kyte allows us to easily deliver iPhone and iPod touch apps that connect our artists with their fans in a fully immersive, interactive experience,” says Ted Mico, executive vice president of digital for IGA. “Fans will be able to watch exclusive, behind the scenes content, chat in real-time, and purchase artist content, all from their iPhone and iPod touch.”

The apps came about through Kyte’s deal with Interscope Geffen A&M’s parent company Universal Music Group. Although artists’ Kyte sites have been accessible through mobile web browsers for some time, this is the first time individual artists’ content has been packaged up into apps.

The apps are due to be live on the App Store today. Kyte will be offering the technology behind them as a turnkey service for other artists and labels in the coming months. We caught up with Kyte’s Daniel Graf at Mobile World Congress last week for a hands-on demo and to talk more about the thinking behind them. Stand by for a post covering that interview.

Next up at MidemNet is a showcase for services connecting artists and fans, with a panel of firms doing just that.

First is Ben Drury from 7digital talking about IndieStore, a service allowing indie bands to sell music while registering their sales for the official UK charts – the top artist has generated $50,000 of revenue through the service.

“When we started, we were focused on working with majors and the big independents, and we built artist stores and our own store, but we got bands coming to us saying ‘we love what you’re doing for Coldplay, can you do it for us?’” he says. So 7Digital created a DIY solution, IndieStores. 60,000 bands are using it.

How is 7Digital making money from this though? “What’s really interesting about it is that there is a revenue stream for bands, but other revenue streams have emerged,” he says, citing a campaign where Puma gave away music from some bands on IndieStore, and ended up using one in a TV ad.

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The first digital deal of MidemNet 2009 has been announced: Universal Music Group has partnered with Kyte to be the online and mobile video platform provider for its artists and subsidiary labels.

The deal is global, and stems from successful trials of Kyte video channels for UMG artists including All American Rejects, Pussycat Dolls, Lady Gaga and Soulja Boy Tell Em.

We’re big fans of Kyte – the company’s thing is letting artists (or, indeed, anyone) broadcast live video from mobile devices or webcams, while then archiving it on their own branded channels. Around that sits chat, comments and ratings, while fans can embed Kyte channels on their own blogs and social network profiles.

Announcing the deal, Kyte CEO Daniel Graf said that fans love the unmediated-feeling stuff on these channels – tourbus clips, studio vids, behind the scenes at video shoots and so on.

The 2008 Popkomm IMEA finalists in more detail – www.popkommawards.com

• BMAT (Spain) has developed technology which rates singers. The technology offers a graphic presentation of various rated features such as pitch contours, note segmentation and vibrato, thereby assisting the user to improve their vocal technique. In February 2008 BMAT was commissioned by “Operacion Triunfo”, Spain’s most popular singing competition. Within six weeks the online casting had generated 24,000 auditions and six million hits.
• Independent IP (Netherlands) has developed the FUGA business-to-business platform to distribute digital content including audio tracks, videos and cover art etc. FUGA’s one click system is all that is needed to send them to retailers anywhere in the world.
• Kyte (USA) is a mobile and online platform which enables everyone, from consumers to the media to entertainment groups, to produce and distribute digital content, live or on-demand, via the internet, social networks or cell phones. Kyte has already entered into strategic partnerships with international media groups, providers of cell phone services and cell phone manufacturers, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Telefónica, Nokia Groth Partners, Steamboat Ventures, TeliaSonera, DoCoMo Capital, Holtzbrinck and Swisscom.
• Rawrip (USA) is a website where users discover new music via The Rippler search engine, and which guarantees artists and record labels 100% of all revenues from the music sales. It features a widget, Rawstores, that allows artists to sell directly from their websites or from profiles on other social networks. Fans can also link up with their favourite bands on MySpace and other social networking sites.
• roccatune (Germany, formerly Adtunes) is a free full on-demand music portal offering over a million tracks from such well-known performers as Robbie Williams, R.E.M., Mariah Carey and the Rolling Stones. Users can hear individual tracks or entire albums, or compile their own playlists, which can be accessed by any PC and via mobile phones in Germany.
• The Filter (UK) is the brainchild of Grammy winner Peter Gabriel – a search engine that can filter entertainment and information from around the world to create recommendations for users. The portal uses artificial intelligence (AI) to produce recommendations for personalised content, matching the
  user’s tastes and interests.

The six finalists in this year’s Popkomm-IMEA contest have been announced, having been whittled down from more than 70 entries. The finalists are:

• Independent IP
• Rawrip
• Roccatune
• Kyte
• Bmat
• The Filter

The finalists will be mentored by Julie Meyer, Charles Grimsdale, Michael Bornhausser for their final presentation on the 8th October in Berlin at the Popkomm conference. The standard of entries was extremely high this year, so thanks to everyone that entered.

Up until now, it’s only particularly switched-on kids in the UK who’ve heard of the Jonas Brothers, but that’s changing thanks to a big promotional push ? including an innovative campaign on Bebo, which uses mobile broadcasting service Kyte. The band are being filmed with a Nokia N95, with the footage being broadcast to the Kyte channel on their Bebo profile. It certainly shows the potential for this kind of technology, since in the past producing this kind of backstage / on-tour footage required sending a camera crew around with bands.