Just Us & Friends, operator of kids social network Smoodoos, has got a first-round investment of an undisclosed size from Earlybird, designed to grow the site outside its native Germany.…

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OleOle, the Beverly Hills-based soccer community that’s trying to get fans to write the editorial, has followed its recent acquisition of the Arseblog Arsenal weblog by buying eight more independent…

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That’s it. France will officially endorsed its three-strikes-and-your-out music piracy proposal and will introduce the measure in January. The measure, by which ISPs will agree to send three notices to…

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Anyone relying solely on ad-funded business models to shore up the rapidly falling revenues in the music business might want to have a rethink. In a discussion at the London…

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Former Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey, of Teenage Kicks fame, used the London Calling music conference to demand a levy on gadgets that allow music to be copied. Appointed CEO of…

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London-based online music retailer 7Digital will open to US customers in July. The company, which powers white-label music downloads for the likes of Sun Online, ITV.com and Last.fm as well…

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Thirteen months after it announced its intention to create an MTV-beating service to offer the “long tail” of music videos, Last.fm has struck its first major-label partnership for the project.…

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Research by the University of Hertfordshire for industry body British Music Rights confirms what we suspected and paints a dire picture for those still trying to make money out of…

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As the Euro 2008 group stages draw to a close, Uefa has criticised video-sharing websites for failing to warn their contributors about uploading license-breaking material. Uefa Media Technologies CEO Alexandre…

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In the permutations being worked out for the sale of BMG part of music label SonyBMG, Bertelsmann is looking to retain a stake in the European part of the business,…

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Tomb Raider maker SCi has added Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group president Kevin Tsujihara to its board as a non-executive director, as per terms of Warner’s £15 million April investment…

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Update: I eventually got hold of Orange in France, who told me they had incorrectly translated their press release to English, overstating the DRM-free features. Though the release states tracks…

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Netherlands-headquarted Spill Group, an online game destination of dozens of localized portals, announced today that it has acquired Onrpg.com, a multiplayer gaming portal and community website. Financial terms of the…

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EMI Music has agreed to allow the BBC to release its artists’ TV and radio performances that are currently in the broadcaster’s archives. The deal that will let both entities…

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Finally, some meat on the bone of the “Bertelsmann wants to quit music” story. An unnamed source tells FT Deutschland the German media group wants to sell its 50 percent…

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Privately-owned TourDates, a Camden-based music news site, artist showcase and fan community, has bought SoundGenerator, a news and reviews site, for an undisclosed but likely small amount in an all-cash…

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Well, that was embarrassing. UBC Media’s Cliq mobile/radio music download service is shutting down today, a year after the radio outfit invested £1.6 million in the project, UBC said, confirming…

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After considering selling the business due to spiraling costs of sports tournament rights, The Press Association has now decided to hand it on to its PA Sport unit. PA began…

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MediaFLO said it launched a special TV station today called EURO to broadcast live video coverage of the 2008 UEFA European Soccer Championship until June 29. The channel will feature…

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Motorola (NYSE: MOT), feeling ignored among all the iPhone-mania, has announced a deal of its own: in UK, it has done a deal with Paramount Pictures to offer full-length film…

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Last.fm has lost tracks from Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) artists after the label let its contract with the music site expire, complaining returns from the deal have “come up…

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Bigpoint, a German online games site, has sold to NBCU’s Peacock Equity Fund and UK PE Firm GMT Communications Partners for Euro 70 million (about $110 million), according to FT...both…

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Perform Sales, the ad network arm of UK online publisher Perform, has acquired rival No. 9 Media for an undisclosed sum. The deal creates a a major UK player in…

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Starting next week, Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) will begin sending letters to customers whose IP addresses have been used to distribute music illegally. It’s…

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ISPs deserve blame for the devaluation of music and the decline of the traditional music industry. So do device makers and P2P software makers. Oh and China and Chinese businesses,…

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