Music

LAS VEGAS, Jan 07, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — As the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today furthered the company’s Connected TV leadership by globally expanding the availability of the Yahoo! Widget Engine. New partnerships with Hisense, ViewSonic, MIPS Technologies, and Sigma Designs will dramatically increase the availability of the Yahoo! Widget Engine, delivering compelling TV Widget experiences to more televisions and other consumer electronic devices which will begin shipping as soon as Q1 2010. Yahoo! TV Widgets now work on all major consumer electronic device chip architectures worldwide.

Reinforcing the company’s open strategy in this space, Yahoo! also broadly released its Widget Development Kit (WDK) today, enabling developers to create TV Widgets and effectively reach millions of consumers. ”Consumers are in love with their televisions, watching more TV, and demanding Internet connectivity to further enhance their viewing experience,” said Arlo Rose, senior director of Yahoo! Connected TV. “Yahoo! is leading the connected TV market by bringing a rich variety of Internet content and services to the living room — incorporating video on demand, social networks, games, online shopping, and more — making it easy for consumers to personalize their TV viewing experience.”

New Partnerships To Expand Distribution for the Yahoo! Widget Engine

Building on the company’s existing distribution partnerships with Sony®, LG Electronics®, VIZIO® and Samsung® across North America and Europe, Yahoo! is expanding the availability of the TV Widget experience globally by embedding the Yahoo! Widget Engine in an even greater number of television models and a variety of new consumer electronics devices. New partnerships and noteworthy developments include:

● VIZIO’s XVT Series Connected HDTVs with VIZIO Internet Apps incorporate the Yahoo! Widget Engine and will be available at retailers throughout the U.S. in Q1. Taking unique advantage of the Yahoo! Widget Engine, VIZIO’s Connected HDTVs provide consumers with unprecedented choice, convenience, and control of an ever-increasing array of Internet content and services, as well as intuitive and simple access to the TVs’ settings through the Widget dock.

● Hisense International Co, Ltd., a world leading provider of flat panel TVs, household appliances, and mobile communications, announced a partnership with global Internet brand Yahoo!® Inc. to integrate the Yahoo! Widget Engine into Hisense Internet-Connected TVs that will ship across the U.S. and Europe.

● ViewSonic will provide customers with an interactive, connected TV experience via the ViewSonic VMP80 media player. Powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine, the ViewSonic VMP80 media player will enable current HDTV owners to view movies, TV shows, Web videos, and photos; and to go shopping, play games, and more with TV Widgets. The VMP80 media player will ship in Q1 2010 for an estimated MSRP of US$159.

● MIPS Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer, home networking, wireless, communications, and business applications, today announced plans to develop an optimized Yahoo! Widget Engine for MIPS-Based™ digital home devices. MIPS will develop an optimized reference platform running the Yahoo! Widget Engine for digital TV and set-top box applications. Leveraging this reference implementation, MIPS® licensees will be able to quickly develop devices incorporating Yahoo! TV Widgets.

● Sigma Designs announced plans to support the Yahoo! Widget Engine on its media processors, which will enable manufacturers to easily support Yahoo! Connected TV in a wide array of consumer electronic devices, including Blu-ray players, network players, AV receivers, and cable/IPTV set-top boxes.

WDK Now Widely Available for Developers and Publishers; Offering Instant Scalability

With thousands of developers in the process of creating TV Widgets, and to further the company’s open strategy in this space, Yahoo! is making its Widget Developer Kit (WDK) broadly available for developers and publishers who want to extend their brand, services, and content to a mass market. Beginning today, anyone can download the WDK and quickly create, deploy and monetize exciting and engaging TV Widget experiences. Leveraging a rich set of application programming interfaces (APIs), developers can write widgets using simple JavaScript and XML, producing rich Internet applications to deliver dynamic content to millions of television sets and other consumer electronic devices globally.

For more information on the WDK and to begin developing TV Widgets, visit: http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/developer

Slate of New TV Widget Providers Bring Thousands of Content Sources to Consumers

The Yahoo! Widget Gallery continues to expand, enabling consumers to access their favorite TV shows on Amazon® Video on Demand, play music on Pandora®, check sports scores on USA Today®, shop on eBay®, play games, or catch up with friends on Twitter™ and Facebook®, all while watching TV. Joining leading consumer brands like CBS®, Showtime® and Blockbuster®, a sample of recently introduced Widgets will provide consumers access to a personalized selection of music, video, news and information.

● CNBC: The CNBC widget allows viewers to interact with CNBC’s real-time stock quotes direct from the NYSE and NASDAQ, real-time watchlists to track favorite stocks, and other key analytics.

● NBC: View NBC’s show schedule, view full screen photo galleries and catch up on your favorite shows with up-to-date quick text recaps, cast bios, and more.

● Napster: Subscribers can browse, search, preview, and listen to Napster’s entire catalog of music on-demand, as well as enjoy custom radio stations, playlists, and Billboard charts.

● RadioTime: Create your personal selection of music from up to 100,000 radio stations.

● Sky News TV: Delivers breaking news by text and images to users’ TV sets. It includes seven categories of news: top stories, U.K. news, sports, business, world news, showbiz news, and politics.

● Dailymotion: Access one of largest Web video sites in the world through your TV.

● The Weather Channel: Enables consumers to stay up to date with the current conditions, the five-day forecast, and access regional radar, all accessible in a simple interface with the ability to look up and save multiple locations.

● Betfair: The world’s biggest betting community provides sports enthusiasts with an online entertainment experience to enhance their sports television watching in the U.K.

● My-Cast Weather: Provides animated Nexrad radar, hourly to seven-day forecasts, StormWatch, cloud information and more across the United States. Yahoo! has also worked with leading video, data and photo aggregators to provide consumers access to their vast libraries of thousands of content sources.

● FrameChannel: Provides consumers with over 1,000 content channels from FrameChannel’s collection of leading photosharing, social networking and content partners, including BBC News, People.com, EW Picks, Deutsche Welle, Crave, Digg.com, Facebook, Twitter and much more. Browse and configure hundreds of channels to create your personalized TV Widget.

● Brightcove: The Leading online video platform for publishing and distributing video on the Web now makes it easy for media companies and marketers to create immersive, branded video experiences for Internet-connected televisions. Some of the TV Widgets that consumers can expect shortly include: Slate V, This Old House, AllYou.com, My Home Ideas, My Recipes, Southern Living, Real Simple, Coastal Living, Sunset, Cooking Light, Wine Spectator, TheStreet.com, The Hollywood Reporter and Cars.com.

● Zinc: Enables users to enjoy high-quality Internet video, providing a simple and consistent way to browse more than 100,000 professionally produced videos from hundreds of different websites, including Amazon, Netflix, those of major networks, and more.

● 1Cast: This personalized video service delivers up-to-the-minute news video from leading programmers and broadcasters across the Web.

Las Vegas, NV, January 8, 2010 – Monster, the leader in audio/video accessories, and Beats™ by Dr. Dre™, co-founded by legendary artist and producer Dr. Dre and Interscope Geffen A&M Chairman Jimmy Iovine, announced a revolutionary new addition to their popular headphone family – Beats by Dr. Dre Spin™ Professional Headphones (SRP: $349). A breakthrough in professional music listening and creative equipment, the Beats Spin headphones were developed through the collaborative efforts of legendary artist and producer Dr. Dre, Monster and Jimmy Iovine.

The new over-ear Beats Spin headphones combine sophisticated construction and advanced sonic technologies to deliver the power, extra durability and sound isolation that until now has been lacking in professional headphones. Beats Spin headphones are tailored for use by working DJs, producers, engineers and musicians, both in the studio and onstage.

Dr. Dre noted: “Our first headphones delivered what we wanted: to hear the music the right way, the way I do. Now we’re introducing headphones that let you use them the way I do. We created headphones that are specifically designed for the people on the frontlines: engineers, producers, djs…I basically wake up with headphones on….trust me, these are the shit.”

“The DJ and recording engineer are ground zero of making and presenting music to the world. We believe we have created the perfect headphone to marry those two worlds,” said Jimmy Lovine, Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records.

Noel Lee, the Head Monster, noted: “To create Beats Spin, Monster and the Beats by Dr. Dre team conducted in-depth research with many of the industry’s top professional recording artists, engineers and DJs to find out just what they wanted in a great headphone. One of the things we heard most from them is that they need a super-durable headphone that could be counted on for repeated use. In addition to making this and other specific professional concerns a top priority, our engineers worked hard to develop a headphone with impeccable sonic performance that would be ideal for everyday use by anybody who is truly serious about their music listening. The result is a first-of-its-kind high-performance headphone with a host of extremely useful innovations that will literally change the way pros think about their headphones and how they use them in their work and their leisure time.”

Beats Spin new and innovative features and capabilities include:

Unprecedented Durability: To create a headphone capable of standing up to the rigors of rough and repeated professional use, every aspect of Beats Spin headphones was designed for rock-solid durability. Most importantly, all components of the all-important headphone hinge are made of metal, unlike the plastic components used by other pro headphones.

Sound Isolation: To recreate the quietness of an isolated recording studio listening experience, Beats Spin headphones feature a variety of ambient noise-isolation capabilities, allowing consumers to hear the music clearly, even in the noisiest environments.

On-the-Fly Mixing and Sharing with Monster Patented Input/Output Jacks: For musicians or engineers working in the studio, as well as DJs spinning in a club, the art of creation involves a great deal of on-the-fly improvisation. That’s why both Beats Spin earpieces feature specially designed Monster patented jacks that can serve as both inputs or outputs. This unique configuration frees users to quickly and easily send and accept signals from a soundboard or share their creative mixes with fellow artists.

“No More Tangle” Cord Management, Plus ControlTalk™: Beats Spin solve the problem of tangled cable with several key modifications. First, they feature a long 6-foot cord, and unlike many professional headphone models, which utilize 9- or 12-inch coiled sections, the coiled section of the Beats Spin cable is just 3” long (expandable to 1-foot). This allows users just the right amount of coil for long reaches, but avoids the high tangle properties of longer coil cables. Beats Spin also offer a second cord option for added flexibility in everyday use as well – Monster’s super-convenient ControlTalk headphone cable*. ControlTalk can be used with iPhone™ and iPod® for music playback control as well as to take hands-free calls with iPhone and many smartphones. The cable’s integrated high-grade microphone and answer button lets users access their music and answer phone calls without having to reach into their pocketbook, backpack or pocket.

Comfort: Everything about Beats Spin, from their oversize plush ear cups to their extra wide band are designed for total wearer comfort.

Ear Cups That Swivel and Can Be Removed for Cleaning. Both ear cups swivel back easily for greater artistic freedom and flexibility and can be easily removed for washing. This same swivel mechanism also plays a role in helping make Beats Spin headphones super compact when folded away for storage

* The ControlTalk remote and mic are supported by iPod nano (4th and 5th generation), iPod classic (120GB), iPod touch (2nd generation), and iPhone 3GS and newer, but not all, Blackberry models. The remote is supported by iPod shuffle (3rd generation). Audio is supported by all iPod models. Requires software version 1.0.3 for iPod nano (4th or 5th generation), 2.0.1 for iPod classic (120GB), and 2.2 or later for iPod touch (2nd generation). Support for Blackberry varies by model. Subject to change.

LAS VEGAS, NV (CES) and IRVINE, CA – January 08, 2010 — VIZIO, America’s #1 LCD HDTV Company, announced today that it has entered into a three year, North American endorsement agreement with international pop-music icon and film star, Beyoncé Knowles – Carter. Financial terms of the agreement were not released, but the contract does provide language that allows the parties to expand the relationship as VIZIO enters new markets around the world.

The agreement grants name and likeness rights to VIZIO for North American advertising, product packaging, web, promotions, public relations and point of sale materials. The partnership will also allow Knowles to participate in the design and performance characteristics of new products from VIZIO’s ever-expanding line of audio, visual and web-enabled products.

“Beyoncé is in an elite class of entertainers who are globally known and respected for their talent on stage and in front of the camera,” said Laynie Newsome, Co-Founder and VP Sales & Marketing Communications of VIZIO. “We believe both VIZIO and Beyoncé are closely aligned as American success stories who have redefined the rules in our respective industries.”

VIZIO has maintained the #1 U.S. LCD ranking though the third quarter of 2009*, and had twice the Q3 shipment volume of Sony in the U.S. VIZIO now has more than 13 million U.S. households who own VIZIO HDTVs. They have recently been named one of Advertising Age’s Hottest Brands.

“What I love about VIZIO is how committed they have been to customers and their focus on delivering tremendous performance at a great value,” said Knowles – Carter. “As a performer, I can relate to that, because my fans spend their hard-earned money to see me perform, and I give everything I can to make sure I exceed their expectations. I’m excited to be associated with such a successful company.”

Source – *iSuppli Corporation Q4 2009 U.S. TV Market Tracker

About VIZIO
VIZIO, Inc., “Where Vision Meets Value,” headquartered in Irvine, California, is America’s HDTV and Consumer Electronics Company. In 2007, VIZIO skyrocketed to the top by becoming the #1 selling brand of flat panel HDTVs in North America and became the first American brand in over a decade to lead major categories in U.S. TV sales. Since 2007 VIZIO HDTV shipments remain in the TOP ranks in the U.S. and were again #1 in Q1, 2009 with over 20% market share. VIZIO is committed to bringing feature-rich flat panel televisions to market at a value through practical innovation. VIZIO offers a broad range of award winning LCD HDTVs including the new XVT series. VIZIO’s products are found at Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club, Sears, Walmart, Target, BJ’s Wholesale, and other retailers nationwide along with authorized online partners. VIZIO has won numerous awards including a #1 ranking in the Inc. 500 for Top Companies in Computers and Electronics, Good Housekeeping’s Best Big-Screens, CNET’s Top 10 Holiday Gifts and PC World’s Best Buy among others. For more information, please call 888-VIZIOCE or visit on the web at www.VIZIO.com.

The V, VIZIO, TruLED, Extreme VIZIO Technology XVT, VIZIO Internet Apps, 480Hz SPS, 240Hz SPS, Thin Line, Smooth Motion, Razor LED, Smart Dimming, Where Vision Meets Value names, phrase and symbols are trademarks or registered trademarks of VIZIO, Inc. All other trademarks may be the property of their respective holders.

YouTube-backed video site Vevo is now live after a star-studded launch eventin New York City.

Celebrities like Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, Bono, Pete Wentz, and Mariah Carey joined Google CEO Eric Schmidt in Manhattan to launch the new music video Web site.

Vevo.com currently has 14,675 videos from 5,191 artists in more than 20 categories: alternative, blues, children’s music, Christian and gospel, classical, comedy/humor, country, easy listening, electronic/dance, holiday, jazz, Latino, pop, R&B/soul, rap/hip-hop, reggae, rock, soundtrack, spoken word, world, and other.

Users have the option to create playlists with up to 75 videos. Almost 800 playlists have already been created.

Plans for Vevo were first announced in April with YouTube and Universal Music Group as the founding partners. YouTube described Vevo as a “premium online music video hub” that will be powered by YouTube’s video technology. Users can access the content via Vevo.com or through a new Vevo YouTube channel, which will include a Vevo-branded embedded player.

Sony Music Entertainment joined the venture in June, and AT&T signed on in October. Abu Dhabi Media Company also joined as a founding shareholder that same month, contributing a reported $300 million.

Earlier this month, Vevo announced a content deal with CBS Interactive Music Group, which will provide users with access to CBS properties like Last.fm and more than 90 CBS Radio music stations beginning next year.

On Monday, EMI Music said it would share content from its labels like Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol and Virgin, as well as the independent artists and labels represented by EMI Label Services and EMI’s Caroline Distribution unit.

By Juliana Koranteng, London

Music is playing such a critical role on fast-growing social networks that brand owners can no longer ignore it for brand-awareness strategies, says a new report by Heartbeats International, the Sweden-based international marketing agency.

Called “Social Music Revolution,” the report will be unveiled at the Eurobest advertising festival in Amsterdam today (Nov. 25). It follows “Sounds like Branding,” Heartbeats’ survey on branded music projects published early this year.

The new report examines the role of music in social media and how brand owners can adopt recorded and live music to reach young audiences that have stopped using traditional media.

It analyzes several international studies by firms like SIFO Institute, Entertainment Media Research, and Millward Brown and concludes: “The same digital technology that changed the music industry is changing advertising as we know it.”

It finds that, on average, consumers listen to music on five different platforms, including mobile handsets and PCs.

Moreover, “two out of five social networkers have music embedded in their personal profile.” And the number of hours spent listening to music per day is growing.

“We want to open up more marketers eyes to the massive impact that music has on these networks,” the report’s author, Heartbeats’ CEO/founder Jakob Lusensky, tells Billboard.biz. “There are definitely differences depending on the market and culture. But the digitalization and increased usage of mobile phones, iPod/MP3-players and Internet (in the developed world) have created a situation where more people then ever easily have access to more music then ever before.”

As services like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Last.fm alone gain more than 500 million users, they are reaching consumers on a scale global marketers crave for.

Even the 140-character text limitation on Twitter has not stopped the service from making music sharing possible via add-on services such as imeem, Twittytunes and Blip.fm.

Heartbeats’ report advises advertisers to work with the music industry on social network platforms by adopting the new marketing principles of the four Es (emotions, experience, engagement and exclusivity) – as opposed to the traditional four Ps (price, product, placement and promotion).

Brands should also consider three types of strategies, the report continues. The ‘Association’ strategy centers on connecting artists to audiences. An example is Bacardi rum’s collaboration with dance act Groove Armada earlier this year.

The ‘Involvement’ strategy advocates co-creating to encourage fans to interact with music, such as remix competitions using legally licensed hits. Computer chip giant Intel worked with media-buying agency Universal McCann on its Intel Powers Music social-network campaign in Europe last year. The campaign resulted in 19,000 bands and performers adding Intel as a friend on their MySpace page.

The ‘Exploration’ strategy offers music discovery platforms and introduces fans to new music. Duracell, the batteries manufactured by consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, has set up Scandinavia-based music sharing Web site Ramp Music.

The network that introduced millions to Michael Jackson will air his final performance.

MTV Networks has acquired the exclusive U.S. TV rights to air the posthumous documentary “Michael Jackson’s This Is It.”

Though the film wasn’t the blockbuster smash some anticipated, the concert movie did well at the boxoffice and should prove of high interest to viewers of MTV, whose airing of Jackson’s music videos helped boost the singer’s career into the stratosphere during the 1980s.

Sister networks such as VH1, BET and Palladia will also have the ability to air the film.

“The film is a true testament to Michael’s musical genius, passion and commitment to his craft,” said Van Toffler, president of the MTV Networks Music Group. “Michael Jackson has always been inextricably tied to our viewers as they witnessed his evolution from a talented performer to a global icon who redefined music. Now, with this film, we can help give his fans a chance to see his final performance.”

“This Is It” was shot from March to June and includes concert rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage as Jackson prepared for his planned comeback tour.

Microsoft has rolled out an update to its Xbox Live online service that integrates the gaming platform with widely-use social networking platforms, and rolls in more music and video options to expand the appeal of the service beyond merely logging in and fragging enemies. Beginning today, Xbox 360 owners with Xbox Live memberships can tap into social networking service Facebook, microblogging service Twitter, plus tap into music from Last.fmand instant-on HD videos from Zune.

“We’re delivering some truly exciting social entertainment experiences to our members,” said Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten, in a statement. “Xbox Live’s differentiator has always been our community. It’s the community that drives us forward and allows us to pioneer new ways of connecting people through the entertainment they love.”

Xbox Live’s Facebook capabilities will enable users ot automatically generate status updates about what games, movies, or other entertainment they’re pumping through their Xbox, plus other common Facebook actions like viewing their Facebook stream, viewing online photo albums, scanning status updates, and matching up Facebook and Xbox Live friends list. Xbox Live’s Twitter integration enables users to view profiles and conversations, post and reply to tweets, and and follow Twitter trends.

Microsoft is pumping up Xbox Live with Facebook and Twitter, plus music from Last.fm and instant-on HD video from Zune.

The Last.fm integration enables users to create personalized radio stations by indicating whether they like or dislike music tracks; the service keeps an eye on users’ likes and dislikes and creates a custom music stream matching those preferences. Microsoft has also created some predefined “Gamer Stations” for U.S. and UK users. Finally, the new Zune video option offers instant-on HD video at 1080p resolution with 5.1 surround sound audio—and users can share the content with real time voice chat and onscreen avatar integration for Xbox Live “movie nights.” Of course, the “instant-on” functionality relies upon users having enough Internet bandwidth to their Xbox 360 to make the service viable.

The new capabilities are available to Xbox Live Gold members—although Xbox Live Silver member can use the new services for free from November 20 to until November 23, just to see what they might be missing. Xbox Live Gold memberships start at $50 per year, which works out to a little over $4 per month; other pricing plans include $7.99 for one month and $19.99 for three months.

Integrating popular social networking services gives the already-successful Xbox Live service another edge on its competitors…however, don’t expect Sony to rest on its laurels: all indications are that rudimentary Facebook support is coming to the PlayStation 3 any day now.