July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Roku announced today that it has sold five million of its video and music streaming set top boxes, claiming that 25 percent of its users are using Roku as the primary way of viewing television.

In addition to having sold millions of Roku players, the company says it also has provided over eight billion streams of videos and music to date.

The company first started out with streaming service Netflix as its customers’ only option for streaming video, but quickly added more options such as HBO Go and Hulu Plus. In January, Roku rounded out its channels with PBS, Time Warner Cable, and Fox Now. On the music streaming side, it also added Vevo around the same time, and also includes Pandora among its music channels. There are now over 750 channels available on Roku.

In an earlier interview with VentureBeat, Roku chief executive Anthony Wood said that over a billion hours have been streamed as well.

According to Roku, Nielsen states that “the average American spends 34 hours per week watching live TV.” It went on to say that 25 percent of its customers use Roku 35 hours a week. Of course, anyone who buys a Roku box is going to have a predisposition to streaming content, but it does show a shift in attitudes around cable.

Roku launched its first player in 2008.

Roku image via Roku

July 9-10, 2013
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Video delivery platform Vuclip has made its first ever acquisition, scooping up mobile video streaming startup Jigsee.

Vuclip serves videos ‘on-the-fly’ to people on any device in any country. Its goal is to make videos accessible to everyone, and to strengthen the connection between brands and an audience they wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach. The company claims to deliver 25 million videos a day.

In November, Vuclip closed its fourth round of funding from New Enterprise Associates, Singtel Innov8, and Jafco Ventures, bringing its total to $35 million. Now, it is putting some of this money into Jigsee, which makes it easier to receive video on low-cost phones. Jigsee’s technology and team will serve to further engage users in emerging markets. The terms of the deal are undisclosed.

Read more about Vuclip on VentureBeat.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Cameron Yuill is the Founder and CEO of AdGent Digital, a global digital and media technology company.

First up, kudos to CBS for “getting it.” Steaming live video to tablets is an absolute no-brainer. There were almost 50 million tablets sold worldwide last quarter alone. That is a lot of consumers.

So, let me say “thank you” to CBS on behalf of the millions (I’m betting that there were millions) of consumers who took advantage of the live stream. It provided consumers the flexibility and choice we deserve when it comes to watching the biggest sporting event in the country.

Now, if you were only watching the big game on your tablet that would be fine. However, I made the mistake of having the television on at the same time as having the live stream on my iPad on my lap (I am sure many others did this as well).

The issue — and I don’t know if it was my connection or the WiFi I was on, or if it is a technical limitation of live stream — was that the stream to the tablet lagged the television coverage. It was not a short lag, it was considerable. At one stage in the first quarter, I got out the stop watch and timed it. The lag was 21.7 seconds. This was essentially streaming one play behind the live coverage on the television.

This made it impossible to have both the tablet and television on at the same time. And you guessed it, the big screen eventually won.

That said, I did like the fact that you had access to a curated Twitter feed and the commercials that you could play on demand on the tablet.

Perhaps the most exciting innovation was the ability to switch between camera angles at will. It made me feel like I was in control of what I wanted to watch. There was a second or so between the camera angles switching but nothing that marred the experience.

At the risk of looking stupid, the only other thing that I had an issue with was that I could not watch the game on the full screen. Try as I might, I could not find a way of expanding the picture to the full screen. It might be able to be done, but for the life of me I could not figure it out. I am sure someone from CBS will call me out on this.

Overall, I must say I was excited to watch the game on my tablet. We should be able to watch everything on live on tablet. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of live sporting events that are not available. At least there is one network that gets it. Congratulations CBS. Great game!

Cameron founded AdGent Digital in 2008 as a company that develops tablet and video advertising technology for many of the world’s leading digital publishers, and buys and sells media on behalf of premium international brands. AdGent Digital’s technology platforms include AdTouch for tablets and D:30, a video ad platform.

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Streaming service Stitcher Radio is trying to save you from moments of no connectivity and expensive overage charges from your wireless carrier.

How? Through Stitcher new offline listening mode, which the company just launched today for its iOS apps.

The Stitcher apps already consume a small amount of data, at 0.2MB per minute, but now you can download thousands of radio shows to your iPod/iPhone/iPad to listen offline at your convenience.

Stitcher’s in-app programming includes tons of stuff you actually might want to listen to, such as NPR’s Fresh Air, CNN News, Chelsea Lately, Marc Maron, Fox Sports, and its new Election Center station.

And for the unobservant folks who just want to save their precious data, the apps are set to automatically download new shows regardless of the connection — so, it’s probably a good idea to go in and set it to only pull updates when you’re on a Wi-Fi connection rather than 3G.

The app update also includes enhanced Facebook sharing features, AirPlay functionality, and a new comment system. The update is available for free today via Apple’s App Store.

Will you be using Stitcher more now that it has an offline mode? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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After a successful U.S. launch, streaming music service Spotify is now turning its attention to Canada.

Spotify’s recently published annual accounts reveal plans to expand further into the North American continent via the Canadian market, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The annual accounts also mention that Spotify plans to launch its service into Asian and South American markets in the future.

The Stockholm, Sweden-based company’s ultra-popular music service, which allows users to share their playlists with others and discover new music, first gained popularity across Europe before coming to the U.S. last year. More recently, the company launched the service into Australia and New Zealand.

That said, the expansion into Canada is the next logical step for Spotify. The market is very similar to the U.S., which should make marketing and content licensing deals easier to identify. And if Netflix is any indication, Spotify will experience successful growth in under a year.

The service currently has 4 million paying subscribers and over 15 million total active monthly users, according to information the company shared back in July.

Spotify has raised around $188 million in funding, and is reportedly seeking a massive new round that could boost the startup’s valuation upwards of $3.5 billion.

Photo via CBC News

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Ustream wants to make everyone into a broadcaster, and to do that it’s tapping into the social network that everyone’s already using: Facebook.

Today the company is launching Broadcast for Friends (BFF), an iPhone app that allows Ustream users to broadcast directly to their Facebook friends.

While Ustream already offers an app for both Android and iOS, its latest one goes a bit further by integrating directly into the Facebook Timeline. This means there’s no need to log in: Users just give the app permission to connect to their Facebook accounts and they’re ready to start broadcasting.

Ustream marketing VP David Thompson gave VentureBeat a demo of the app earlier today, and the first thing users will notice about it is just how simple the whole process is. Setting up a stream took less than 30 seconds, and the video quality was clear and smooth.

On the Facebook end, BFF allows users to comment on videos, which broadcasters can see in real time. Thompson calls this “social broadcasting”, and it adds a nice level of live feedback to the whole experience.

With the app, Ustream hopes users will broadcast events as personal as their kids’ first steps to those as public as concerts and sporting events. One of the app’s best features is that it will automatically upload users’ finished broadcasts to their timelines, which saves them the trouble of uploading them to external services like YouTube.

But here’s the big question: Why didn’t Ustream just add the Facebook functionality to its current app?

As it turns out, the original Ustream app was born out of requests from Ustream’s professional broadcasters, who wanted to take the Ustream experience mobile. Which means that while the app is ideal for professionals,  it’s a tad too complicated and feature-heavy for the sort of mass audience Ustream is targeting with BFF.

“We wanted it to be the most simple user experience possible,” Thompson said.

Right now BFF  is only available for iOS, though Thompson says it’s a smart assumption that an Android version will be available down the line.

Ustream has also created a demo video to showcase BFF’s key features.

This is part 2 of our interview with Wikipad’s James Bower and Fraser Townley, the company’s CEO and president of sales. Click here to read part 1.

GamesBeat: Getting back to partnerships, are you working with OnLive as well as Gaikai/Sony?

James Bower: We’re in discussions with OnLive as well. One of the key things of Wikipad is that we’re approaching this as a very open platform. We’re willing to work with a lot of various players. The most important thing for us is that our customers have content and that there are various ways for them to get content. There’s the traditional way through Google Market. And then there’s the streaming games, like Gaikai, which was just bought by Sony, and OnLive. We’re in discussions with what our relationship is moving forward.

We also have other forms of content that are interesting, forming on the horizon, that I can’t share yet. We’re not concerned that there won’t be enough content on the Wikipad to get started, and it’ll only get better over time.

GamesBeat: What is Wikipad’s funding? Is the company self-funded?

Bower: The core founders have funded all of the capital to date–

GamesBeat: And the core founders are yourself….

Bower: Myself, Matthew Joynes, and one other founder that we’ll be announcing shortly. We haven’t discussed him as a founder because of who he is, but that will be coming out shortly. It’s a higher-profile person. A lot of the financing of the business is through banking relationships for the purchase orders we have, and things like that.

GameBeat: You previously worked at Master Image. What was your position there?

Bower: President/COO.

GamesBeat: And when was the company acquired?

Bower: Master Image was acquired from Korea and moved to California in November 2009.

GamesBeat: Do you think you’ll have to look for outside funding, perhaps getting closer to the product release?

Bower: I think it’s a question of how fast we want to grow. As of today, they’re fine. So to answer your question, yes, we’re open to look at that and how it can accelerate the business, but it’s not something we’re overly concerned about doing in the short term because of where we’ve come with doing it ourselves.

GamesBeat: Why go with Tegra T30 instead of the more powerful T33, like in the ASUS Transformer Prime Infinity TF700T?

Bower: One of our goals was to ensure that the Wikipad was both lightweight and thin as possible. The T30s is Nvidia’s smallest, high-powered, component CPU. The T33 is a larger component requiring a larger PCB and would have added addition thickness and, in turn, additional weight to the Wikipad. An additional benefit to the T30s is that it draws less power from the battery. This results in the benefit of longer battery life for gamers using the Wikipad compared to the T33, which draws more power from the battery.

GamesBeat: From my own research, it seems like Wikipad is a secretive company. The company has put out so little information. Is this intentional?

Bower: We really had the intent to come out with the stereoscopic version of the Wikipad. And we made the announcements at CES. With some of the decisions we’ve made to make a better tablet, faster platform, that gamers will take very seriously, some of that strategy had to shift a little bit. We’re being very cognizant and careful about what we announce and when we announce it. We don’t want to mismanage the expectations of our future customers. As you’ve seen, there are a lot of people who are excited with what’s coming, with the potential of Wikipad, of what it means. And we want to be very careful and cautious on what we say, and we want to deliver on what we say.

But you’re going to see a shift in the chatter coming from us, and we’re going to amplify things considerably, going into the launch of the company. It’s just us being cautious.

GamesBeat: Are there any game partnerships, like with developers or publishers, that Wikipad has to release titles specific to the Wikipad?

Bower: We’re working with some of the [graphics] engine guys, like Unity and a couple of other guys that build the engines for other guys. We’re in some discussions for unique game designs for the Wikipad, but there’s nothing to the point where we can make an announcement. We’re going to see a lot of content coming from a lot of directions.

GamesBeat: What can you say about the manufacturing of the Wikipad?

Bower: We’re working with the top two manufacturing plants in the world, that have embraced us as a newer company and have taken us on.

GamesBeat: Can you announce who they are?

Bower: Not yet. But we can sleep at night knowing that the guys who sleep at night are the guys who are manufacturing it for us are manufacturing some of the best brand names in the market.

GamesBeat: Several products similar to the Wikipad have been showed over the last year. The Wii U uses a tablet controller but targets a home audience. Razer’s Project Fiona concept device is a laptop-in-a-tablet with a built-in controller running Windows 8. How would you differentiate Wikipad from these?

Bower: It’s challenging to come back with a very poignant answer to that, because one’s a concept and the other people have only just started to see and play with. The unique factor that we have is that we’re really a bridge between a historically mobile console and the invention of the tablet. We do everything as good or better than other tablets on the market, and very easily you can transform the Wikipad into a very efficient, easy-to-use video game device that’s very comfortable.

How we’re different is that we’re not just about gaming. The focus of the company is gaming; that’s who we are, and that’s our pedigree. But when this comes to market, people are going to realize that, wow, I might as well just buy the Wikipad to do all of this plus have fun with games and have a control mechanism that I have on my console.

GamesBeat: Apple holds 68 percent of tablet marketshare with the iPad. Amazon’s Kindle is the next best, and it’s not even close. Android isn’t even close, even though it’s riding smooth at 50 percent of smartphone marketshare. Is that a concern?

Bower: Not really. Apple’s done such a fantastic job with their products, and we all love them. What we’re coming to the market with is a different concept; it’s not just a tablet — it’s a mobile gaming platform that can do all of the functions that you can with a tablet with all of the advantages you have for gaming. So we’re competing right down the middle with what a tablet is, with what people expect out of a tablet, and with what people expect out of a mini console device.

And it’s a space that isn’t populated by very many, or anybody, because we’re really the first ones to market on this. And the other aspect of this is if we’re as successful with this as we believe we’re going to be, from the indications from retailers, from the orders we already have, we don’t have to dominate a market to do really well, because we’re new, we’re relatively small, and we’re innovative, we’re agile. We have a roadmap for the next 24 months. We don’t have to make 2, 3, 10, 20 percent of the market to do really well. One percent of the market is tremendous success. But I think we’re going to do better than that.

GamesBeat: Do you also see the Wikipad competing with portable game consoles, or does it hit the middle ground so users can have a tablet, a game console, all in one device?

Bower: That’s what I would say. What we’re proposing to the market is a bridge between the two. We’re saying if you get this, you can still do all of the things you love to do with a tablet, and you’re also going to have access to all of the great content that’s historically only been able to get through a console-only device.

GamesBeat: What do you think about newer game technologies like Microsoft’s Smartglass? Or the large number of upcoming Android game controllers? And the recently announced Kickstarter success home Android-based game console Ouya?

Bower: What’s coming from Microsoft is great. We’ve seen some of the prototypes of Windows 8 and RT, and it’s great. The interesting thing about the future of that platform is going to be the access of some PC content. There’s not much I’m going to talk about in relation to our company at this point, as it relates to Microsoft’s platform, but it is something that we’re looking into. It’s something that we’re open to, not to replacing the current platform we have now, but maybe as an additional product. But it’s exciting. I think Microsoft has finally got a hit with this new OS. And behind the scenes, retailers and manufacturers behind the scenes, are really excited.

GamesBeat: And that’s notwithstanding Valve chief Gabe Newell’s recent remarks about how Windows 8 is just awful?

Bower: Everyone’s going to have their own opinion. I think Android has done a fantastic job on getting out there. If you look at the global numbers, Android has outpaced everything. You then talked a little bit about…?

GamesBeat: Android game controllers?

Bower: You know, for me…I can only speak for myself because our product isn’t on the market yet. If you’re dealing with a mobile product, if there’s separation between the screen and the your person, then it’s an unengaged experience. I think in order to have the experience, on a device that is personal, that you’re willing to put your credit card into, the game experience on controllers has to be directly connected because you’re expecting it to be totally personal. I would rather use this [holding an Xbox controller] than this on a tablet that I have to prop up and play. That’s all I can say. The market will determine who’s the winner at the end.

And since I mentioned Ouya, we’re really excited about Ouya. Them talking about and launching on Kickstarter, and the results that they have, is a really interesting and solid sign for us. The games that are going to play on that are going to work on the Wikipad, and the games that will work on Wikipad will work on the Ouya. The more content that is prepared for them is going to help us, and the more content prepared for us is going to help them. It’s a very interesting concept that they have.

What I think it’s really going to come down to is how can these devices, and how can our partners like google and others, begin to fix the piracy issues? Because the big game developers, the Epic’s of the world, the Crytek’s, they won’t invest the tremendous amount of money they spend to create these great games for consoles until the piracy issues are fixed. Because it’s a lot more difficult to pirate something for a Playstation or an Xbox. It’s just a lot more work. And the discussions that we’ve had with them is yes, the concept is great, but fix the piracy so that our investment of $30 million, $40 million, $50 million, $80 million in marketing and development cost isn’t going to go to a waste and everyone is going to steal it. Fix that problem and we’ll develop everything for this platform.

GamesBeat: But you’re not concerned at this point about piracy….

Bower: Not for us. But I think as far as the experience on these devices, the game publishers need to know that their investment in these high-quality products is protected, and then we’ll see more of that content come about. We’re very involved with the dynamics behind the scenes with our partners like Nvidia and Google and others about how we can help…we’re people’s art that they create is protected, and respected, and paid for. So that there’s enough money so they can develop their next games.

GamesBeat: Have you been in contact with Ouya, maybe for a partnership?

Bower: We love what they’re doing, I’m sure we’re going to have a conversation at some point, but there’s nothing in the works right now. There isn’t anything worth talking about, or even speculating about.

GamesBeat: What about, since we already spoke about potentially going outside of the company for funding, using Kickstarter since Ouya was so successful. Is that something that you’re considering?

Bower: Frankly speaking, we’ve considered that from the beginning. We decided not to because of the significant adoption that has been relayed to us from retailers around the world. Would Kickstarter have helped us or hurt us? We want to see the retailers make money with us. Right now we’re really focusing on the retailer relationships that we already have in place.

GamesBeat: When will the Wikipad ship?

Bower: We’re looking to release later this year.

GamesBeat: And that’s just in the U.S.?

Bower: For now, yes. We’re also actively looking at the European and Asian markets.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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VEVO just provided its answer by giving 50 million music lovers in the U.S. and Canada access to the videos they love anywhere, anytime, on any device. That means iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry Playbook (!), and now…the mobile web.

Native apps are designed for a specific mobile platform, such as iOS or Android, and are distributed via app store downloads. While they can be richer, more customized experiences, mobile-friendly websites or web apps are automatically available to anyone on any device with a modern web browser…without a download.

VEVO’s new announcement means you can have this desktop experience:

On your iPad or any other mobile device with a modern browser:

…all without downloading an app.

VEVO has more than 50,000 music videos in high definition and is seeing 45 billion views a year on a global basis. The service is a sort of Pandora for music videos: Users sign up, VEVO scans both their music libraries and Facebook likes for music they love, and then VEVO creates a playlist of their favorite artists with maybe a few new recommendations thrown in.

Adding the mobile web allows VEVO to be platform-agnostic, letting its millions of users watch music videos however they want.

Another major benefit? Users who click (or tap) on Twitter or Facebook links to VEVO videos have a seamless experience, seeing the video in a browser, instead of being forced to enter (or even download) an application.

VEVO serves videos in over 200 countries via a partnership with YouTube, and over 200 million people use VEVO to watch music videos. However, it’s not clear whether this new announcement means that video will be available on vevo.com for users outside of the U.S. and Canada. VEVO has typically distributed internationally via YouTube. (VentureBeat has inquired, and we’ll update this post as we learn more.)

VEVO is a partnership between Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Abu Dhabi Media Company and has offices in New York, L.A., Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco.

Image credit: Regien Paassen/ShutterStock

Not content with tablets and smartphones, Google is taking its Nexus brand to speakers and TV screens with the Nexus Q.

Called the first “social streaming player,” the Nexus Q lets people play music, videos, and YouTube clips from the cloud.

People can collaboratively create social playlists, which they can tweak and edit on the fly from the Google Play app on Android phones and tablets.

Near-field communications, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are all built in, along with 16GB of storage and 1GB RAM.  The device also functions as a 25-watt amp, so you can use it to power other speakers.

While Google will be talking a lot about Android Jellybean today, the Nexus Q won’t be running on the latest version of Android. Instead, the device will be powered by Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

Alongside the Nexus Q, Google also unveiled a pair of $399 Triad bookshelf speakers and two $49 speaker cables.

Below is a feature showcasing the Nexus Q’s features:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Redux is aiming to move beyond the realm of web video aggregation with its new video distribution platform, which will allow artists to directly sell video on the web. The company has teamed up with Humble Bundle, the folks behind the popular indie game bundles, to give the Czech film “Kooky” its English-language debut.

Humble Bundle lets you set any price you want for its typical game offerings on its site, but to get access to Kooky (and a puzzle game “Windosill”), you’ll have to pay more than the average price (currently $8.80). Once purchased, you’ll be able to download Kooky, or stream it online in your browser, tablet, phone, or Connected TV, all of which is powered by Redux. So far, Humble Bundle has grossed almost $600,000 for the package of games and Kooky.

The company has so far focused on aggregating web video from sites like YouTube and Vimeo on its Web and tablet apps. Redux is also one of the few truly outstanding apps on Google TV 2.0.

It makes sense for the company to get into content distribution though, as we’ve seen big-name comedians like Louis CK succeed with direct-to-consumer specials. But the process to acquire CK’s web special was clunky — it basically involved downloading a file or streaming it to your browser. Redux’s platform gives you a smoother way to access such content across a wider variety of devices. And just like Netflix, you can start streaming a movie on your laptop, pause, and continue watching it on a tablet from where you left off.

Redux CEO and founder David McIntosh admitted that the new platform is a “philosophical shift” for Redux in an e-mail conversation with VentureBeat, but he added “when film-makers and comedians have approached us about distributing their video content to multiple platforms they don’t have anywhere to host it, so we have to take care of that problem for them.”

McIntosh says Redux will only host and stream content if an artist wants to charge for their content. He notes that in many recent content integration conversations, Redux has also been able to tap into existing digital content catalogs.

Redux is currently in negotiations with other artists for similar digital distribution offerings in the future, McIntosh says.

Berkeley, Calif.-based Redux raised around $1.65 million in seed funding for its first incarnation as a social network, but that product never ended up launching. The company has since raised an additional $4.5 million across two other rounds.

Check out the trailer for Kooky below:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Grooveshark is undoubtedly playing a sad song today, but it’s definitely not from an artist licensed by major music company EMI.

EMI, one of the largest music publishers in the world, has terminated its contract with the streaming music service. EMI was the only company that had an official contract with Grooveshark, which entailed that the startup pay royalty fees based on song playback activity of its users. In January, EMI filed a lawsuit against Grooveshark for allegedly not paying any licensing fees since the licensing agreement was signed in 2009.

“Grooveshark was recently forced to make the difficult decision to part ways with EMI due to EMI’s currently unsustainable streaming rates and EMI’s pending merger with Universal Music Group, which we consider monopolistic and in violation of antitrust laws,” Grooveshark said in a statement to Cnet. “To date, Grooveshark has paid over $2.6 million to EMI, but we have yet to find sustainable streaming rates. In spite of this, Grooveshark’s dedication to artists and rights holders remains the same.”

Grooveshark is different from other prominent streaming music services like Spotify, MOG, and Rdio because it doesn’t have broad licensing agreements to play the majority of its music. It depends on its users to upload songs that can be enjoyed by the community. If a user uploads a file that he or she doesn’t own and it gets a DMCA complaint, Grooveshark takes the file down. With Grooveshark’s EMI contract terminated, any music licensed by EMI will need to be removed if found online. To date, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and the Warner Music Group have filed a lawsuit against Grooveshark for allegedly pirating thousands of songs through its streaming service.

Basically, this means Grooveshark can’t use the majority of licensed music, and major music publishers aren’t interested in changing that anytime soon.

Gainesville, Fla.-based Grooveshark has over 30 million active monthly users who stream more than 15 billion songs per year, according to the company. In November, it rolled out a new design of its online music player that includes a social layer.

Jaws image via Universal Studios

July 9-10, 2013
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Over the last 10 years Everyday Health has built one of the biggest tech companies native to New York, with more than 500 employees centered here in Silicon Alley. Today the company cemented its presence as the number one health site on the web when it announced that it was partnering with YouTube as the first network dedicated to health in the video giant’s new channel initiative.

“It kind of feels like the early days of cable,” said Paul Slavin, the network TV veteran and multiple emmy award winner who is heading up production of the new shows at Everyday Health. “There is a ton of opportunity here, but no one has completely sorted out how things are, or are not, supposed to be done, ” Slavin said as we chatted over champagne cocktails at a swank launch party in Manhattan’s Crosby Hotel.

Everyday Health currently reaches 30 million monthly uniques visitors, both through its own site and the sites it manages for stars like weight-loss celebs Jillian Michaels and Joy Bauer. It will now be tapping into the astonishing 800 million monthly uniques that pump through YouTube every month. “They have truly built a network as powerful as Facebook,” said Everyday Health co-founder Michael Keriakos. “And we find that when our readers land on articles with video, they spend more time, and end up clicking through to more content.”

The company has raised $153 million in venture funding. Currently it’s growing and profitable, but the real buzz is around a potential IPO. Rumor is that Everyday Health previously got all the way to the road show before deciding the timing wasn’t right. The company is likely watching the markets carefully to see how things go with Facebook’s public offering before deciding if it wants to try again.

July 9-10, 2013
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Apple unveiled a new version of its Apple TV set-top box today at its press conference in San Francisco .

The new version of the Apple TV will allow owners to play videos in 1080p high-definition quality. The device will also sport a new user interface that more closely resembles its iOS mobile operating system. As you can see from the photo above, the UI groups specific types of media together (Movies, TV shows, Music) in a new navigation bar that sits just below the sliding deck of available content. The bar also contains a button for computers, which presumably will allow you to access content on other computers in your immediate area, and a settings button. All the Apple TV applications appear just below that.

For now it doesn’t look like Apple is going to give us a full app store, meaning we’re still at the company’s whim in terms of which third-party companies and services will get integrated with the device.

The new interface will give people access to TV shows the day after they air and will also have the recommendation engine Genius functionality built into it. Also worth noting is that Apple is adding iCloud functionality to the Apple TV for movies, much like it has done with other devices for iTunes purchases.

The last update to the Apple TV happened in September 2010 along with the original iPad, so a new version was more than overdue. We also expected a new version since 98 percent of retailers no longer had the old Apple TV model in stock, as VentureBeat reported Tuesday. Despite taking a third of the market for all streaming media boxes, Apple has insisted in the past that the device is little more than a hobby. But that hasn’t stopped the company from slowly updating it with better specs and software. Apple TV currently lets owners stream content from their iTunes libraries and videos from YouTube, Netflix, and Vimeo directly to a home TV.

Pairing the new Apple TV and iPad 3 announcements together makes a lot of sense, since both are already nicely matched. Apple’s AirPlay features let you stream music, photos, or video content from your iPad to an Apple TV, or see a mirror image of what’s on your tablet on the big screen.

The new Apple TV will be available next week, but you can begin pre-ordering the device today at the same $99 price.

Check out some additional photos of the Apple TV’s new OS embedded below:

Photos via Heather Kelly

July 9-10, 2013
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It looks like Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings isn’t just thinking about the far-off future for a Netflix-cable partnership. He may already be in talks with cable company executives.

According to Reuters‘ sources, the video streaming company may already be working on cable partnerships, with one cable company reportedly geared up to do a Netflix test run with its subscribers by the end of the year. We recently reported that Hastings believes moving toward a deeper relationship with cable networks is “the natural direction for us in the long term.” It would position the company as a competitor to HBO, offering another on-demand solution for cable subscribers.

“Many [cable service providers] would like to have a competitor to HBO, and they would bid us off of HBO,” Hastings was reported as saying,

It will be a close competitor given the company’s recent forays into original content, such as its own series Lilyhammer and Orange is the New Black. It is also reviving Arrested Development, a cult classic prematurely canceled by Fox, slated for release in 2013. Cable providers afraid of cord-cutters will like the opportunity to take one of their own competitors off the market.

Netflix has had a rocky time trying to find its identity in the streaming video world. In October, it increased prices on its DVD subscription plan by 60 percent and split its physical DVD and streaming offerings into two different entities. The DVD arm, to be named Qwikster, was soon killed off after backlash from its community. The overall kerfuffle resulted in Netflix losing 800,000 subscribers in the third quarter of 2011.

Photo via Hacking Netflix/Flickr

The event was held in partnership with the global advertising giant OMD, which brought big brands like McDonalds, Doritos, and Mountain Dew into the mix. That meant a lot of prize money, and hackers responded, travelling from as far away as Australia and Pakistan to attend the 48 hour event.

The big winner was Swarm, an app created by Peter Watts, which picked up the $10,000 grand prize. The app made it simple to add a list of friends and then pull in their music activity from Facebook and other sources, generating a dynamic playlist in Spotify of what your friends were listening to that day.

“Spotify is an incredible platform in certain ways,” Watts told VentureBeat. “Everything happens inside their player, so you don’t have the problem of discovery that you do when trying to start a web app from scratch. There are ten million people who end up inside the Spotify client every month and for early apps, before the marketplace is crowded, that is a golden opportunity. And because they are already Spotify members, you don’t have issues like you might with R.dio, where people find your web app, but then need to register or log-in and lose interest.”

Watts says that there is definitely room for improvement in terms of making the platform flexible and developer friendly, “But that is the point of having a hackathon, to work out those kinks.” For someone who has been working on music apps for the last five years, Watts says Spotify solves the two main challenges. “It gives you access to people’s taste graph and solves the hassle of licensing.”

It’s unclear yet how apps on the Spotify platform will monetize. That may be part of why OMD and big commercial brands were invited, to try and connect independent developers with a revenue stream through partnerships. “We think this is a pretty new approach, bringing in brands to work directly with developers during a hackathon,” said Jeff Levick, Spotify’s chief advertising officer. “This weekend was all about having fun and exploring the possibilities, but at the end of the day people need to get paid.”

Image via Spotify PR

July 9-10, 2013
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Screengrab of trending chillwave on Exfm

Back in October music discovery service Exfm attempted to transform itself from a browser extension to a full fledged web service. Apparently the kids like what they’re hearing, because the site has gone from around 75,000 active users to more than 300,000. On the strength of that growth they have raised $1.5 million from their existing investor Spark Capital, more than doubling their total funding to date.

“We’re seeing a lot of opportunity as streaming music becomes more mainstream,” founder Charles Smith told VentureBeat by phone. “We’re able to pull songs from places like SoundCloud and Bandcamp using their APIs. Then we can feature the best stuff on our destination site and give our users a great chance to stumble on new music.”

Exfm began life as Extension Entertainment, a Chrome extension that followed users across the web gathering up the tracks from sites they visited and making them easy to play and share with friends. Like any good pop artists, it has been busy reinventing itself. It took the moniker Exfm, then mobile with an iOS launch last summer. This began to introduce new channels for discovery, like a Tastemaker section.

“It’s my favorite social music experience,” Spark Capital’s Bijan Sabet told VentureBeat. “Just like news often breaks first on Twitter, I’m finding new artists are emerging within the Exfm community before it hits mainstream radio.”

The funding will be used to prepare for synchronous development across the web, Android and iOS. Exfm recently hosted its first music event in partnership with bands at New York nightclub Pianos.”One of the things we’re hoping to do this year is to build out our relationships beyond the tech industry to work with the music industry as well. We realized that we have the power to drive an audience to live events and that is a powerful thing,” Smith said.

July 9-10, 2013
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It’s alive! MySpace, once the king of the social networking space, has been bleeding users for years.  Now it’s set to report a million new users have signed up since December, says the New York Times. (Maybe new investor Justin Timberlake’s experience acting in the “The Social Network” is rubbing off on Myspace.)

The big change strategic change Myspace has made is to stop competing head to head with Facebook. Instead, it’s trying to leverage the licensing deals it already had in place with record labels and the wealth of independent music bands had uploaded to the site.

Specific Media bought MySpace from News Corp. in July of 2010 for $35 million, a fraction $580 million it sold for in 2005.

Myspace rolled out a new music player in December and worked hard to integrate this with Facebook and Twitter. New chief executive Chris Vanderhook told the NY Times that it was this partnership which really drove the new growth at MySpace.

Right now Myspace has 42 million tracks, a lot more than Spotify or Rhapsody. Of course, a ton of those tracks are unbearably bad amateur recordings made by no-name artists. But stopping by the site this morning we found a playlist featuring Grammy winners like Adele, Whitney Houston, Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars.

Turning MySpace around is no small feat. But the site is still growing slowly in comparison to services like Spotify, which is currently adding 250,000 users a day, and with which Myspace now directly competing.

What this data doesn’t tell us is how many old users are still leaving the site. 1 million new users isn’t so great if 1 million old users quit visiting.  The biggest positive indicator is that the site’s traffic has actually grown for the first time in recent memory, climbing four percent over the last month, but there’s no word yet on whether Specific Media and JT have had any luck bringing sexy back to the brand in the eyes of the musicians and teenage fans who once flocked to Myspace.

July 9-10, 2013
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For those who prefer to read with their ears, Audiobooks.com is offering unlimited streaming of audio books for a flat monthly fee.

For $25 a month, you can stream audio books onto any computer or mobile device through the Audiobooks.com HTML5 web app, which works on most major browsers. Since the books are stored on Audiobooks.com’s servers, you can pause in the middle of a chapter on one gadget and pick up exactly where you left off on any other devices — much the way multi-platform e-book readers like Kindle and Nook work with text. As with all streaming media offerings, a downside to not downloading the files is that you can only listen to books when you have an Internet connection.

Audiobooks.com competitor Audible has similar monthly plans, but with Audible you are limited to a set number of books: one title for $15 a month, or two titles for $23 a month.

The $25 monthly cost for unlimited audio books on Audiobooks.com is steep when you consider that audio books are often eight hours or longer (Moby Dick clocks in at 25 hours and 30 minutes long), so you’re unlikely to read a ton of books in any given month. For comparison, an unlimited monthly Netflix streaming subscription costs $8 a month. On the other hand, individual audio books can cost as much as a hardback book: For example, Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography costs $35 on Audible.

If you listen to more than two audio books a month and are always connected to the Internet, an Audiobooks.com subscription is a good deal. However, keep in mind that the company is still expanding its library and doesn’t have a huge selection of books just yet (that means no Harry Potter).

Via Mashable

Rainbow books image via ShutterStock

July 9-10, 2013
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How do you watch your favorite TV shows? Chances are, you’re still using that traditional TV in your living room, but according to a report from Nielsen audiences are increasingly going mobile to consume videos and television.

Nielsen released its 2011 State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report Monday, which looks at all the data collected by the company over the course of the past year to paint a bigger picture of how we consume media, and what devices we’re using to do it.

First, it looks at what devices we’re using, and good old-fashioned set-top TVs are still the standard. In 2011, 290 million people in the U.S. had at least one TV, and 85.9 million homes had a broadband connection. For 288 million people, traditional TV is still the main method of watching TV and videos. Internet was next, with 143 million people watching over home or work computers, followed by 111 million viewers who watched timeshifted TV (programs recorded to watch later), and 30 million people who watched on their mobile phones. This divide between set-top and new devices was even larger when broken down by how much time was spent watching TV.

Next, the study zoomed in on online habits to look at how people are consuming media on their non-TV devices. Streaming service competitors Hulu and Netflix are consumed differently by viewers. Hulu is more likely to be watched directly on a computer (89% of users) or on a computer connected to a TV (20% of users). The majority of Netflix subscribers are streaming over a video game console (50%), then computers directly (42%) and on a computer connected to a TV (14%). Only a tiny sliver of people use the services on an Internet enabled TV.

Online video services break into two sections, with sites that offered bite-sized videos getting more unique viewers, and sites with full shows capturing more eyeball time per month. YouTube gets far-and-away the most unique views, with 126.5 million hits, and Netflix gets the most viewing time, with 10 hours a month per person.

Finally, Nielsen expands its horizons and looks at tablet and smartphone habits. If they have a tablet, people love to multitask while watching TV, and they do it almost as much during the real programming as during ads. Most often, we check our email, look up unrelated information online and hit the social networks. Many viewers also look up information related to the shows or commercials they see on TV.

The study looked found that 51 percent of people don’t mind getting ads on their apps if it’s free, and people (unshockingly) prefer free apps. The average person has 33 apps on their smartphone or tablet, a mixture of paid and free. The majority of apps are games, followed by social networking and music apps.

Here are some more stats from the study:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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There was a time when little Bobby would get up to turn the television to one of the three available channels when the family got bored. If you missed the Ed Sullivan show that night, too bad, go play chess.

Nowadays, people miss shows on purpose so they can watch them on their time, on the device of their choice. There’s none of this gather the family around the tube for a little late night Lawrence Welk. Now even my grandma is surfing YouTube for variety show reruns on her iPad. The infographic below shows she is far from alone. In fact, 1.2 billion unique viewers watch videos online in October 2011.

Indeed, watching video online is better for money makers as well. After introducing video to its customer service offerings, Dell reported a 5 percent decrease in service call volume. Considering how time consuming these calls can be, employee time can be reallocated into something more financially efficient, changing the bottom line.

There has been a push amongst major media companies for a new type of entertainment delivery: TV Everywhere. TV Everywhere is the idea that people should be able to bring the living room with them, watching shows and movies on their time and their dime. This new push has inspired big industry deals. Disney and Comcast recently reached an agreement to bring Disney’s properties to any Comcast Xfinity subscriber’s device of choice. Other companies such as Netflix are moving their products toward streaming, and putting less emphasis on physical DVD rentals. Physical deliveries put limitations on where you can engage with content, which is the opposite path media companies want to take.

Interestingly, however, it seems how your media provider started out dictates what type of video entertainment people will watch on your service. For instance, Netflix began as a DVD rental unit — a faster, easier, to-your-door alternative to Blockbuster. Perhaps because of its early ties to the DVD industry, more than half of Netflix subscribers watch movies. On the other hand, Hulu was born out of the YouTube category, where people flocked for quick snippets of video. Now a whopping 73 percent of Hulu-goers use the service specifically for watching television shows.

These services are changing what the living room looks like. It’s no longer a couch, recliner and remote, but can also be a doctor’s waiting room, subway train or park. Check out what else is happening as entertainment moves from silver screen to big screen to portable screen in the infographic below:

July 9-10, 2013
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Set-top boxes are so 2011. Roku, a company that helped popularize cheap streaming video boxes, is out to changing the game with its new Streaming Stick.

The Stick, which is about the size of a USB flash drive, plugs into your TV and gives you access to Roku’s more than 400 apps. It packs in Wi-Fi capabilities, a processor, and storage — you can think of it as a miniaturized version of Roku’s set-top boxes.

The device will likely be embraced by consumers who want access to TV apps but don’t want to sully their home entertainment system with yet another box, with its requisite wires and remote. Since it can turn pretty much any HDTV into a Smart TV (with one caveat, listed below), Roku says it will also bundle the Streaming Stick with some televisions, which means TV manufacturers won’t need to worry about bundling their own Smart TV software.

A Roku representative tells me that the Stick will output 1080p high-definition video, and it won’t be different functionally than existing Roku set-top boxes.

The Streaming Stick connects to an HDMI port on your TV — but the rub is that your TV has to support the MHL protocol, which will allow the stick to draw power and be controlled by your TV’s remote. Newer HDTV sets made within the past five years should support MHL, but sets older than five years could be more problematic. You’ll be able to update the Stick’s software, just as you would any Roku device.

Roku says the Streaming Stick will cost between $50 and $100 and will be available in the second half of 2012. Given that Roku’s set-top boxes start at $60 and top out at $100, the company would be better off keeping the Streaming Stick as cheap as possible.

Having launched in June 2010, OnLive is attempting to revolutionize the way that games are distributed and played. All OnLive games play instantly on demand over the Internet via a small browser download on almost any PC or Mac, or on a HDTV via the OnLive Game System, with no discs, no big game downloads and no high-performance computer required.

As well as offering a place to instantly play the latest games, OnLive provides some unique community features, including a spectator mode, which allows you can watch and comment on hundreds of games being played live. OnLive currently has Android and iOS clients that support this spectator mode, and it is planning on rolling out a full gaming service on these devices this fall, alongside a tablet compatible wireless dual analogue controller.

Additional deals will be also be announced on the onlive.com website, as well as on Facebook  and Twitter throughout the weekend, featuring dozens of titles from OnLive’s comprehensive library of over 175 games, including some of the season’s biggest blockbuster titles.

If you haven’t yet tried the OnLive service, now would seem a great time to do so. Your experience with the service will depend a lot on the quality of your internet connection, but with a no-fee sign up, and hundreds of games available to instantly demo, it is an innovation that is definitely worth checking out.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Sean Parker, the billionaire of Napster and Facebook fame, is on to his next big deal: Spotify, which started in Europe and is now offering streaming music in the U.S.

In a conversation with Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek, Parker said that the rise of Spotify and other music streaming services and the debut of their integration with Facebook today fulfilled the original vision he had for Napster. And that vision wasn’t about music piracy.

“This is actually very similar to what I dreamt of 10 years ago,” Parker said, speaking on stage at a press event after Facebook’s f8 event. (That’s Parker on the right in the above photo; Ek is on the left in the “Suits Suck” t-shirt.) “We never really wanted to create a service to destroy the record business or hurt artists in any way. The goal was really to create a more frictionless system. We really believed we would succeed in striking deals with the record labels.”

Parker predicted no less than a rebirth of the music business itself, thanks to better music discovery through the combination of Facebook and Spotify.

Parker was a co-founder of Napster, an early shepherd of Facebook, and is now an investor in Spotify. He was such a unique and interesting character that he was played by Justin Timberlake in the movie The Social Network, a fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook. In real life, he played a role in cracking the foundations of the old music business, and now he’s looking to rebuild it.

Parker and Ek held their discussion in a warehouse in San Francisco with opulent party trimmings. The catered meal included roasted pigs, oysters, bottles of tequila, and sushi. The entertainment included The Killers, Jane’s Addiction, and Snoop Dogg.

Ek said that Napster, the disruptive music sharing service started by Parker and Shawn Fanning (who was also there tonight), inspired him when he was growing up.

“Napster for me personally was probably the biggest event in my life when it comes to the internet,” Ek said. It really changed how I considered music, my favorite artists, how I shared music with friends.”

And Parker said, “Meeting Daniel was one of the three key moments in my life, alongside meeting Shawn Fanning and meeting Mark Zuckerberg.”

Facebook today announced that Spotify would be integrated into Facebook so that a friend could listen to a song at the very same moment another friend was listening to it, in a kind of social music discovery. Spotify’s iPhone app, which offers users convenience, requires a subscription fee. Users can now listen to music, watch TV, or view movies without ever leaving Facebook.

“If you want full portability, you have to pay,” Parker said. “The iPhone version has paved the way for that. This was ultimately the most important element in monetization. The element that consumers were wiling to pay for was convenience.”

Parker added, “Solving the music piracy problem can’t happen unless you build a music service that is more convenient than piracy. It didn’t compete with any of the existing services like iTunes or Napster. It competed with piracy.”

The most important unanswered question? Parker said, “Music discovery has always been social. Obviously there has been these top-down media like MTV and radio, but so much music discovery has happened by word of mouth in a dorm room, people going to clubs or hearing music in a restaurant. That social process has always been the real fuel.”

With Facebook, Spotify can now “supercharge that discovery,” Parker said. “More people will experience music than ever before. As long as that is coupled with a monetization platform that actually works, we have a solution.”

Here’s some video of the full conversation between Parker and Ek below. And below that we have a panel of industry artists and managers talking about the significance of Spotify. The panel includes Jane’s Addiction lead singer Perry Farrell, Brandon Creed (manager for Bruno Mars),  producer Ray Romulus, Paul Rosenberg (Eminem’s manager) and disc jockey Kaskade. Afterward, the Killers opened the show and Parker danced next to me. At the bottom is the Killers performing.

July 9-10, 2013
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Streaming music service Spotify now has more than 2 million paying subscribers in eight countries, according to a new report today.

Spotify saw a huge boost in premium subscribers after its U.S. launch in July. The company’s premium service is a paid, advertisement-free version of its streaming music service that lets people share playlists.

The startup has added about 400,000 new paying subscribers since the launch, according to comments made by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in an interview with CNBC. Ek is presenting at Facebook’s f8 developer conference Thursday, where he is expected to share additional information about Spotify’s stateside penetration into the music streaming market.

The company announced that it reached a million paying subscribers in March 2011 — thus doubling its premium subscriber base in just six months.

Spotify’s growth is definitely impressive. And while competitors like MOG and Rdio haven’t disclosed their own premium subscriber numbers, it’s difficult to imagine that they’re anywhere close to Spotify.

MOG, Rdio and several other streaming music services are also presenting at the f8 event Thursday. Many have speculated that the music services will outline the details of their partnership with Facebook’s new music platform.

[via Mashable]

But this is not the early 2000s, and the game rental service will face stiff competition from what might be one of the biggest revolutions in gaming since the advent of digital distribution: cloud gaming.

That could give Netflix’s newest games rental service a short shelf life as cloud gaming companies gain more traction, M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon told VentureBeat.

“It’s definitely a short game,” he said. “It’s likely that the game rental by physical mail companies will be an early victim or an early sector to be replaced by games on demand.”

Cloud-based gaming companies like OnLive, Gaikai and Otoy are all working on different ways to “stream” video games to computers through the Internet. It basically amounts to running a game (or part of a game) on a remote server and then streaming the video data from that game to a browser or client that the player can interact with. Those servers have the advantage of carrying some beefy hardware that can run games with better graphics and at higher frame rates. With the processing located in the cloud, that means players can play these games on any streaming-capable device, such as tablets and potentially smart televisions, without requiring powerful processors. All you need is a decent internet connection.

Services like OnLive are still in their infancy, but they show a lot of promise — particularly with high-profile launches of games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution (which I played through exclusively on OnLive without too many issues). OnLive has also secured deals with THQ to launch Saints Row: The Third and Batman: Arkham City, two of the most anticipated games of the holiday season, at the same time they launch in retail stores. OnLive was last valued at $1.8 billion in February after a funding round led by Taiwan-based smartphone manufacturer HTC.

With cloud-based games, gamers don’t have to wait for them to arrive in the mail. They can play those games at 12:01 a.m., as soon as the games pass their official release date. Hastings himself should know that, based on his experience with movies: He said Netflix would thrive on a “streaming only” model thanks to the company’s success in launching Netflix as a streaming-only service in Canada. “With the strength of streaming only internationally, we got convinced that we can thrive on streaming only,” he said in the company’s most recent earnings call.

Hastings also said that there was a place for the company’s mail-order DVD business and that it could succeed “for a long time” if it were given the resources it needed. That could indicate that Hastings also saw the mail-order DVD business as a short-term game as the company rapidly began expanding its streaming service — which has a lot of traction thanks to its presence on video game consoles like the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, he said on the company’s recent earnings call.

But Netflix has a massive infrastructure for its mail-order DVD business, which it can simply duct-tape game rentals onto, Perlman told VentureBeat. That could give Netflix a quick, early advantage over other mail-order game rental services like Gamefly and Blockbuster. Even OnLive chief executive Steve Perlman (pictured left), one of Netflix’s potential fierce competitors, said it was a smart move.

“They already have the distribution infrastructure in place for discs in the mail, and as their movie rental business declines, this can continue to make use of that infrastructure,” Perlman said.

There will always be a place for retail sales because they don’t require an Internet connection and because game publishers have some skin in the game, Pidgeon said. There’s also some wiggle room in the physical game market due to some early growing pains streaming services like OnLive face. Those services require fast internet connections and the quality of the service varies from place to place across the country.

And there’s the charm of opening a game for the first time and smelling a freshly-printed disc.

“If they follow the same rental market model, and don’t innovate, then it’s same old same old, but I’m not convinced that they’re that stodgy quite yet,” Double Fine productions — the company behind games like Brutal Legend — vice president Zack Karlsson told VentureBeat. “Don’t underestimate people’s desire to put a disk in the console, particularly the enthusiast.”

Netflix has a good track record even before spinning off its mail-order rental service. The company’s net income rose 57 percent to $68 million in the second quarter this year from $44 million in the same quarter a year ago. The company expects to have between 14.6 million and 15.7 million domestic DVD subscribers and between 21.6 million and 23.3 million domestic streaming subscribers by the end of the third quarter this year.

But the company will still have to tread carefully, even if mail-order rentals are a short game, Pidgeon said. And while cloud-based gaming is still in an “early adopter scenario,” Pidgeon said on-demand games would begin to make their mark on game distribution within the next 5 years.

“We all know that enough people have taken a swing at it and Netflix has been successful with disruptive business before — witness the demise of Blockbuster,” Karlsson said. “Netflix is going to have to get this just right or it will go the way of Used Games at Walmart.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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July 9-10, 2013
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Subscription music service MOG on Wednesday announced it will launch a free on-demand component to its service tomorrow, in a move that will help it better challenge players like Spotify and Grooveshark.

MOG has been making a name for itself with unlimited streaming since 2009, but it has been slightly less prominent since Spotify’s hyped U.S. launch in July 2011. One of Spotify’s biggest assets is its free service, which lets users hear what Spotify has to offer while enduring some ads between songs. Now MOG can play on a similar plane and introduce more new users to its service, which has a library of more than 11 million streaming songs.

The new free service from MOG will be a little different than the simple ad-supported model Spotify is currently touting. MOG users will have what the company calls a “virtual gas tank” in the top left corner that tells them how much free music they have available for listening. To get more gas in the tank, users can perform actions like sharing playlists with friends on Facebook, referring friends to the service or listening to promoted artists in MOG’s library. MOG’s free service will be ad free for 60 days while users get acclimated.

Like other subscription music services such as Rdio and Napster, MOG charges $5 a month to access unlimited music through the web and $10 a month to access unlimited music through the web and mobile apps. Ideally, the company wants users to try the free service and then sign up for premium features that guarantee unlimited streams without advertising or jumping through any digital hoops.

The Berkeley, Calif.-based MOG last raised $9.5 million in funding in February 2010, with the round led by Menlo Ventures and Balderton Capital. It has raised $24.9 million total.

To me, MOG’s premium version is one of the best subscription services today, along with Spotify. Ever since MOG launched its slick HTML5 beta at the end of June, it has featured one of the best interfaces compared to its peers. Another area the service excels is sound quality, as it uses 320 kbps streams — something that is sure to attract audiophiles.

Will you give MOG’s free service a shot?

July 9-10, 2013
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Netflix today began its launch in countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean.

Altogether, this expansion of availability, which was first announced back in July, means 43 new countries are now in Netflix’s territory.

The rollout should be complete by September 12, and folks living in Brazil can sign up for a free trial month of Netflix starting today.

Netflix is also planning to launch in Europe, but that region won’t have the service until the first quarter of 2012 at the earliest.

Currently available in the United States and Canada, Netflix serves around 25 million users in North America. The new coverage areas will give Netflix access to the approximately 205 million Internet users in Latin American countries. If Netflix sees roughly the same 10% adoption rate in Latin American countries as it has seen in North America, the expansion might nearly double the company’s userbase.

“Getting to this day has been incredibly rewarding for everyone at Netflix,” writes Netflix vice president of user experience and design Rochelle King on the company blog. “The passion and energy that have gone into building our Latin American service is amazing.”

King also noted that Netflix has taken a different approach in the region, realizing that how the Latin American population thinks about and consumes entertainment content is different from how North Americans might engage with their own (often vastly different) content.

For the new regions of coverage, Netflix has had to license all new films and television programming. Latin American audiences can expect to see the same range of classic films, newer features, documentaries, daytime TV and children’s shows that U.S. and Canadian audiences access through the service.

King also made a note about connection quality and streaming media, saying, “We’ve been testing and figuring out the right Internet architecture to make sure the quality and speed of the Netflix streaming experience is the best it can be.

“We’ve definitely learned a lot in these past few months, and we’ll continue to learn and improve as we grow and expand our service in Latin America.”

July 9-10, 2013
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Music discovery company SoundHound has formed a partnership with streaming music service provider Spotify that will allow European SoundHound users to instantly access Spotify’s catalog of 15 million tracks, the company announced Thursday.

Much like its rival Shazam, SoundHound’s free mobile application identifies music by listening to songs that are currently playing or by users humming or singing the song. It also provides users with lyrics, song previews, YouTube videos and now integration with Spotify.

SoundHound users on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices  — who also have a premium Spotify subscription — will be given the option to ‘Play Now in Spotify’ after identifying a song through SoundHound. If the user chooses the option, SoundHound will then seamlessly launch Spotify’s service, immediately playing the requested song while showcasing the requested artist’s singles, albums and compilations.

For now, it doesn’t appear that the partnership will extend to users in the U.S., which is likely due to the complex music licensing agreements with major record labels.

Founded in 2005, San Jose, Calif.-based SoundHound has received funding from Global Catalyst Partners, TransLink Capital, Walden Venture Capital and others.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Fresh from its successful implementation of the HBO Go app, Home Box Office is launching a new MAX Go app. The app will stream the HBO-owned Cinemax channel’s library of content across multiple devices.

Versions of the app are available for Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, as well as select devices running Google’s Android operating system. Much like HBO Go, the MAX Go app is free of charge to Cinemax subscribers through a participating television provider, including Charter, Cox Advanced TV, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-Verse, Suddenlink, DIRECTV and DISH Network. For now, it appears one of the largest bases of cable subscribers, Comcast, will not be included in the launch.

MAX Go subscribers have access to over 700 hours of programming, including Cinemax’s first original series Strike Back, which premieres tonight. Like HBO has done in the past with True Blood and Game of Thrones, MAX Go subscribers will be able to watch next week’s episode a week early in the app.

Being able to offer original programming incentives has been crucial to the success of HBO Go’s adoption. However, unlike with True Blood and Game of Thrones, Strike Back doesn’t have a large built-in audience. Personally, I’ll be curious to see how well the app fairs with this kind of set-up — especially since Netflix is essentially doing the same.

The launch of the MAX Go mobile app also coincides with the debut of the redesigned Cinemax.com.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

News of Apple getting ready to launch a streaming video competitor to Netflix is apparently premature, reports CNET.

iTunes Replay, as the service is rumored to be called, makes use of Apple’s advances into the cloud. The service allows iTunes users to stream movies from Apple’s servers and re-download them to other devices. Similar functionality was recently added to the Apple TV, which gives at least some weight to the discussion.

However, Apple has yet to sign streaming agreements with at least four of the top six film studios, according the report, which cites multiple anonymous film industry sources. A streaming agreement with all the major studios could take several months.

One reason for stalled negotiations could be that, with Apple, Netflix and Amazon all trying to either launch or enhance streaming video services, the studios could simply be waiting for the best possible offer from companies.

This is especially true now that streaming video service Hulu is up for sale. If a company like Google or Microsoft were to acquire Hulu, the amount of money those film studios could expect to receive from a streaming agreement might be much higher.