Onepageartist.com offers a one-stop place for info on music artists
Finding out about a musician or a show has always been a three-, four- or even five-site process for me. First I’ll hit pollstar.com and see what shows are in the area on a given day. Scrolling through lists of venues and artists, I’ll see something like “BattleHooch” and follow the link to their home page. This page may or may not tell me where they are playing, so it’s back to pollstar.com where I… Continue Reading
YouTube to support 1080p high-definition video; mobile video uploads up 2,000% this year
YouTube is going to roll out 1080p high-definition video later this week, as the video portal steps up its quality to compete with other sites. (That’s 1,080 lines of vertical resolution or horizontal scan lines, a notch above the current highest level at 720p.)
“For our content creators, we want it to look as good or better than the source’s quality,” said Hunter Walk, a director of product management for YouTube, at GigaOm’s NewTeeVee conference in… Continue Reading
Five O’Clock Roundup: Stockbroker sentenced, Google Voice investigated, Moon hit by NASA
Accomplice of criminal VC William “Boots” Del Biaggio gets five years in prison for $100 million fraud — Boots had backed ShopNow.com and VerticalNet before co-founding San Jose’s Heritage Bank. He invested in the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators hockey teams. But he also forged documents to get $100 in loans. Stockbroker David Cacchione, his accomplice, was sentenced to five years and will need to pay back $50 million in restitution. Business Insider has… Continue Reading
YouTube now serves more than 1 billion money-losing views per day
Fifteen million viewers watched CSI on Thursday night, making it the most-popular show on television. On that same day, YouTube served over a billion video clips — 66 times the number of views CSI got.
Yet YouTube owner Google is currently losing an estimated $1.5 million per day on the service, according to basic math done on some analyst reports by Internet Evolution blogger David Silversmith.
YouTube’s story has changed a lot from the big expectations of… Continue Reading
Google buys videotech firm On2, but YouTube costs aren’t as high as rumored
Google’s YouTube division is a victim of its own success. A source inside the company told TechCrunch that YouTube streams close to 1.5 billion video clips every day. That makes sense, if you think of it as everyone on the Internet watching one clip daily.
Google CFO Patrick Pichette told Fortune that the company now collects ad revenue on 13 percent of the clips it serves. Still, streaming videos to customers costs money. Video content on… Continue Reading
Dear YouTube: When do Jill and Kevin get paid?
If you haven’t seen the viral video that sent Chris Brown’s year-old track “Forever” to the top of Amazon and iTunes sales charts, here’s your chance to catch up with the rest of the Internet. A gushing blog post on the Official Google Blog yesterday enthused about how the copyright holders for the song used in this video were able to monetize its breakout popularity. Today, though, online trash talk centers around the hole in… Continue Reading
Roundup: Pogue’s voicemail rage, YouTube monetization, more Techmeme bragging
New York Times gadget guru incites backlash against mobile carriers’ costly voicemail instructions — David Pogue is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore. Not that you could tell, given Pogue’s perennial good cheer and unfailing politeness. But he went on a tear today, documenting the overly-long welcome messages on American carriers’ voicemail systems. It’s no secret that these pre-recorded messages are designed to cause customers to burn extra minutes. Pogue estimates… Continue Reading
Roundup: Apple tablet haters, do NOT text while driving, Verizon cutting another 8,000 jobs
Why the rumored Apple tablet could be a flop — Apple products get more than their share of pre-release hype from … well, from just about everyone but Bill Gates. PC World writer Michael Scalisi explains why he thinks the rumored device, best described as an oversize iPod Touch, isn’t something that will sell. Specifically, he thinks the iPhone’s touch-to-type interface won’t work comfortably on a larger device, and that Mac fans will feel thwarted… Continue Reading
Roundup: Yahoo’s Bartz slams Bing, solar brightens chip market and more
Here’s the latest action:
Intuit picks up PayCycle — The software company paid $170 million for the payroll services provider to strengthen that division of its business, reports Reuters.
Miles unveils electric Coda — Miles Electric Vehicles, known for its low-speed electric vehicles, has launched Coda Automotive, maker of a $45,000 electric sedan, as a new brand. Earth2Tech has more.
YouTube in your living room — YouTube has launched a new interface that makes it easy to watch shows via any… Continue Reading
‘Separating the men from the boys’ in Government 2.0
Updated
Everyone knows the internet is critical to getting elected nowadays, especially after it played a crucial role in President Obama’s success. But you need to do more than just throw up a Facebook page and a Twitter account, said Obama campaign advisor/Twitter investor Chris Sacca (pictured on the left). At last night’s Startup2Startup event on “Government 2.0,” Sacca told the crowd that politicians shouldn’t just think of online social networking tools as “yet another proxy… Continue Reading
Popular video site Dailymotion gets new CEO, looks for cash
French video-sharing site Dailymotion, which has long fancied itself as a leading competitor to YouTube outside of the U.S. market, is reportedly seeking more cash even after raising $34 million two years ago. It is still losing money, according to PaidContent and the Stratégies newsletter.
It is also reportedly appointing Ian Brotherston, formerly of BT and AOL, as the company’s new chief executive, a move that may be announced later today. He replaces Mark Zaleski. We’ve… Continue Reading
Roundup: Ashton vs. CNN, the NY Times vs. Sarah Lacy, Dell vs. HP and more
Here’s the latest action:
Expectations run high for Apple earnings — Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey estimates the iPhone maker’s take at $8 billion for the second quarter, up 6 percent from last year.
Twitter topped 9 million visitors in March — The micro-blogging site saw a 131 percent spike in traffic, largely driven by older users. comScore has the scoop.
CNN and Ashton Kutcher neck and neck in Twitter race — The sprint to 1 million followers is heating up,… Continue Reading
Universal deal with YouTube frees up music videos (just as newspapers threaten to charge for articles)
The Associated Press and a range of newspaper leaders trashed online news aggregators large and small earlier this week, calling them parasites and other foul terms and demanding that everyone start paying for doing things like republishing excerpts of news articles (or even paying for any access whatsoever). Those who make a living off the internet responded in kind, even resorting to comparing newspapers and their demands to record labels and their practice of suing… Continue Reading
YouTube, Sony partnering for streaming films?
Short-form video site YouTube and Sony Pictures are rumored to be in negotiations for a new content deal. Sources close to the talks have told CNet the agreement could make full-length films like Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man” and the 1998 remake “Godzilla” available for free on YouTube.
Although YouTube has ruled the roost in short-form online video, the site has always been light on full-length content. After its 2006 purchase by Google, YouTube became the go-to destination… Continue Reading
Disney CEO: Pulling online video is anti-tech, anti-consumer
Let’s be honest — Disney took its sweet time in partnering with Hulu and YouTube. But, chief executive Robert Iger says upping Disney’s online video reach was always part of the plan. During Iger’s keynote at the Cable Show conference in D.C., the Disney executive argued that the industry’s survival hinges on embracing online video rather than yanking content.
To note, Disney already has a relatively solid track record in the online space. Disney-owned ABC eventually became… Continue Reading
Confirmed: Major Veoh restructuring, layoffs
Online video service Veoh is said to be undergoing a major restructuring tomorrow, a source close to the company tells me, that could include large layoffs and a potential change to its product strategy. [Update: We've since confirmed the layoffs and restructuring, more at the bottom of the post.]
Back in October of last year, the company denied a report that it was laying off 40 percent of its workforce, and instead announced cuts of between… Continue Reading
Roundup: Spam bounces back, angel investors balk, Entellium bigwigs go to jail and more
Bebo caught in Irish conflict — The video sharing site has become an unexpected platform for both Irish Catholics and Protestants to hurl insults and violent threats at each other. The BBC has the story.
Downturn puts drag on angels — The Center for Venture Research reports that angel investors put less money into each of their startups in 2008 than in years previous, noting a drop of 26 percent from 2007.
Encarta buckles under Wikipedia’s weight — Microsoft will… Continue Reading
Disney on Hulu would leave CBS as the odd network out
The premium video streaming site Hulu works first and foremost because it has great content. And it looks to be on the verge of getting even better.
A deal to bring Disney’s content to Hulu is “basically done,” a source familiar with the negotiations tells Silicon Alley Insider. This means we should see content from ESPN, ABC and probably some Disney movies on the service. It’s a huge win for Hulu and its fans.
With ABC on… Continue Reading
Roundup: Hammerhead’s tale, web ad stats and more
The tale of Hammerhead Systems — A Cisco competitor, it got as far as inking deals with major telecommunications companies during its seven-year run, but now it’s closing up shop. It had received more than $110 million in funding and promised superior routing technology. The San Jose Mercury News has a closer look at what went right and wrong.
MySpace to offer Windows Mobile application — And it’s also going to support Microsoft’s Silverlight developer framework on its… Continue Reading
YouTube, Universal Music teaming for Vevo, a.k.a. MTV 2.0?
Universal Music Group and Google-owned video supersite YouTube are close to striking a deal to create a standalone site for music videos, according to anonymous sources cited by CNET News.com and the Wall Street Journal. The site would be called Vevo (uh, what?), it would be the largest music video site online, and it would probably attract much higher advertising rates than YouTube.
I don’t think this is something users were crying out for — I… Continue Reading