According to the New York Post, Facebook is reportedly considering adding music to its popular social networking site, either as streaming to compete with MySpace or as a pay-per-download site such as iTunes.
MySpace recently launched their streaming MySpace Music service and promptly hit 1 billion plays within 3 days.
Facebook would be joining up with either Rhapsody.com, iMeem.com, iLike.com or Lala.com, says the report and also notes that Facebook is in talks with the Big 4 labels.
“Facebook is a serious challenger to MySpace and they would certainly want to do anything that record labels would allow them to do with advertising-supported music,” said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. “Advertising-supported revenue would be good for Facebook and certainly free access to recorded music would be good for Facebook members. It would be good for the labels, too. If the MySpace deal is working out well, then the labels would probably want to replicate that on Facebook.”
We will keep you updated with any developments.
Result for: itunes
Although there have been rumors swirling for months that it was going to happen, TiVo has officially confirmed that Amazon Unbox will be going HD.
“Unbox, the content-downloading service TiVo started with Internet retail leader Amazon.com last year, can’t process HD content, though the companies will announce HD capabilities “in the not too distant future,” Mr. Denney of TiVo said.
Amazon explains the process of using Unbox on TiVo on its official site. “After a simple registration process, you will be able to shop for Unbox videos to your TiVo DVR from two places - the Amazon Unbox website and directly from your TiVo DVR.
If you’re shopping on the Amazon Unbox Website, just look for the TiVo logo to find TiVo-enabled videos. You’ll be able to select your TiVo DVR as a RemoteLoad download destination each time you purchase or rent a video at amazon.com/unbox.
To shop for Unbox videos from your TiVo DVR, select “Find Programs” > “Download TV & Movies” > “Amazon Unbox”. You’ll find a great selection of movies and TV shows to watch right on your TiVo.”
TiVo executives also added however that a few kinks will need to be “ironed out”, mostly bandwidth constraints.
Price is not known for HD movie rentals as of yet but if previous customer surveys are a judge then the cost will be $4.99 USD, the same as iTunes’ current model.
Result for: itunes
Although it has said for years that all digital downloads should have standard pricing, it seems Apple will finally acknowledge that not all TV shows are equal or will sell for the same price.
According to the NYTimes, the company will be selling some HBO shows on its iTunes platform for over its standard $1.99 price. The new deal may lead other premium media companies to ask for price changes for their digital content.
The deal is not official yet but could be announced as early as tomorrow, says a person close to the negotiations. The same person added that over time the complete series’ “Sex and the City” and the “The Sopranos” will be added to the iTunes platform.
Representatives from both Apple and HBO declined to comment on the matter.
The HBO deal will also differ from Apple’s current model with other content owners. Instead of having the episode hit iTunes the day after it airs, HBO episodes will be added to iTunes at the same time the retail DVDs of the seasons are released.
Some analysts feel Apple could simply be making an exception for HBO but if it isn’t then the pricing model could come under scrutiny by other media companies when their contracts with Apple come up for renewal.
“The big question is, will this start to trickle over to other areas of content?,” asks Russ Crupnick, a senior industry analyst for the NPD Group. “It could potentially have a huge impact on the music side.”
