Sony BMG Teams With Muzu TV
July 16, 2008
- Global
| Digital and Mobile
By Juliana Koranteng, London
Sony BMG U.K. has become the first major music company to strike a video content agreement with Muzu TV, an ad-funded online multimedia music service launching in Beta format today.
Muzu TV, a privately-owned venture belonging to the Ireland-registered company Our Digital Universe Ltd, offers consumers labels and artists the opportunity to set up and operate personalized online music-TV channels on the Web.
Consumers can collate a playlist of content -- ranging from music videos, TV shows, live performances and artist profiles -- under one digital player on the Muzu TV site. Moreover, users can share their personalized channels with others, and embed them on to their personal Web sites or social-networking pages.
The service is an open platform that anyone can access, but users will need to register before setting up their personalized channels.
Ciaran Bollard, Muzu TV's co-founder/business development director, tells Billboard.biz the venture will gradually develop into a full commercial service later this year. The company is in talks with the other three majors. In the meantime, the firm has agreements with several indies like Ministry of Sound, Eagle Rock, Ninja Tune, and Cherry Red Records.
"We've already got 3,500 artist channels, including ones for acts like Beyonce and Foo Fighters, and content from more than 200 labels, TV broadcasters, management companies, artists, festival promoters, and music magazines," Bollard says. "The format is designed to enable artists to communicate directly with their fans, instead of relying on the labels."
The venture, currently available only in the United Kingdom and Ireland, has signed up with U.K. collecting society MCPS-PRS Alliance and its Irish counterpart IMRO.
In the coming weeks, agreements with management companies, TV broadcasters for music programming, and the other three majors are expected to be disclosed.
Future plans include an international roll out to continental Europe during the third quarter of this year, and the U.S. plus the rest of the world by the first quarter of 2009. There are also plans to add links to online retailers for purchasing digital downloads and mobile access.
Revenues will be generated from in-stream ticker advertising that will appear within the video contents. Viewers can click to see the ads' details or close them down.
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