It’s official: You still can’t buy the Beatles’ songs on the Web, despite the efforts of a site that attempted to do so by rewriting copyright law on the fly. In other news: Have you seen this clip of Richard Pryor reading the alphabet on Sesame Street? Awesome.
What happens when one of the biggest bands in the world Webcasts a live concert on the world’s biggest video site?
You get a lot of video streams. Close to 10 million, says YouTube, adding that Sunday’s live Webcast of U2’s Rose Bowl concert was the single largest event it has streamed so far.
Here’s a good way to get your hands on scarce venture capital money: Create a start-up geared around Twitter-like “real-time” sharing and conversations. The newest entrant: Hot Potato, a buzzy start-up that’s supposed to let users converse about a particular event, whether they’re attending it in person or watching from afar. When it’s up and running, that is. The five-man crew doesn’t have users or a product just yet. But it has just raised around $1 million.
There are plenty of question marks surrounding Vevo, Universal Music Group’s new music video site that’s scheduled to launch later this year with a big assist from Google’s YouTube. But here’s one answer: The venture will be run by Rio Caraeff, who currently oversees UMG’s digital business.
The newest special-edition iPod to hit the market comes from Prince. It is purple, it is produced in a limited batch of 950, and it will cost you $2,100. But at least it contains every Prince song ever recorded, right? Nope. From what I can tell, the only thing the gadget comes preloaded with is a 15-song, 40-minute concert video.
U2’s album sold well last week, but not nearly as well as Coldplay’s disc in the first week it went on sale last year. An iTunes ad could have helped.
In addition to myriad rock star perks you’ve already heard about, here’s another one to add to the list: Better stock deals. At least when you’re talking about stock in concert promoter Live Nation. Since Live Nation shares have gotten pummeled, you’d think those music acts would be hurting, too. Nope.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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