For years, Tim Westergren was on the front lines of a difficult royalty battle.  But instead of becoming a casualty, Pandora and other internet radio providers managed to forge a workable rate structure - at least one that kept the lights on. But this is still one huge royalty bill,…

To buy or to build? That’s the question that drove Yahoo’s decision to buy social sports startup Citizen Sports, which owns a series of sports-related apps on the iPhone and on Facebook, according to Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) media head James Pitaro. “When we really sat down and looked at what…

More details on the The Sporting News switch from free to paid for its digital daily Sporting News Today, which was first announced by Publisher Jeff Price at our paidContent2010 conference last month. The Sporting News is partnering with its current digital publisher Zinio for the April 1 launch. A…

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has hinted for several months that it would be buying more companies and it’s finally made an acquisition—buying up social sports startup Citizen Sports, which it says will compliment Yahoo Sports, the top sports site in the U.S. And, indeed, the move immediately gives Yahoo clout in…

Several cable operators and movie studios are teaming together to launch a $30 million marketing and promotion campaign touting the virtues of movies on demand. The three month, multi-media campaign titled “The Video Store Just Moved In” will shine a spotlight on the burgeoning movie on demand category, according to…

Popular online golf game World Golf Tour has raised $10 million in a third round of funding, which the company says demonstrates that “investors believe online sports to be a big growth area.” Have to say, however, that it’s been rare lately to see stand-alone game sites like World Golf…

Here’s another chart with hockey stick-like projections for the global mobile applications space: The market is set to grow to $17.5 billion by 2012, which will be greater than the value of all CDs estimated to be sold that year. The report was commissioned by GetJar, which distributes free applications…

I gave serendipity a chance today at SXSWi, opting to attend a session solely because the title caught my eye—Making Sure The World Doesn’t Suck: How Independent Content Can Save The Media. The payoff: a lively session, although the topic often felt like an umbrella that anything could fit under,…

Social gaming startup Playdom is putting this past fall’s $43 million funding round to quick work lately. The San Francisco company is investing $5 million in Argentina-based social gamer MetroGames as part of the South American company’s first round. The investment comes a barely two weeks after Playdom acquired Offbeat…

Universal Music Group was early to tap into the whole music gaming phenomenon by partnering with Tapulous to make iPhone apps for artists such as Lady Gaga and Souja Boy Tell ‘Em. Now it’s branching off and working with others to create even more gaming applications. The record label’s latest…

A few weeks after reporting that its net loss grew in Q4, Blockbuster’s 10-k presents some stark details about its debt struggles. The movie rental chain’s SEC filing served as a warning of sorts, with Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) saying that its roughly $1 billion in debt could become more difficult…

If you were hoping that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek would use his South by Southwest Interactive keynote to announce a launch date for the U.S., no such luck (although Rafat has a source who says possibly end of May). Ek’s biggest bit of news: Spotify now has more than 320,000…

So the deal has happened, at a slightly higher price: eMusic owner JDS Capital’s private equity arm Dimensional Associates, which has been negotiating with online indie music distributor The Orchard for a few months now, is buying the part it didn’t own, for $2.05 a share, valuing the company at…

At the Abu Dhabi Media Summit last week, I ran into Edward M Prince Jr., COO of National Geographic Ventures, the commercial arm of NatGeo, who professed to be a big fan of ours. So lo behold, considering the opportune moment, I did a short interview with him there, on…

Heavily-funded mobile broadcast software firm Roundbox is buying the technology and IP of Jacked, a startup which provides web-based dashboards that aggregate info related to live TV broadcasts. Roundbox says it will integrate Jacked’s technology into its ‘mobile broadcast suite’—which is used by broadcasters to deliver content, like video and…

Sonos, which sells a digital music system that can be used to play music throughout a home, has raised $25 million in a third round of funding from Index Ventures. The funding was first reported by TechCrunch earlier this week and confirmed by Sonos CEO John MacFarlane in an interview…

The album’s not dead yet - well, not in Pink Floyd’s case at least. A judge has ruled in favour of the prog rock band, which went to the UK High Court for the right to have its material sold online only the form of albums, not individual singles, which…

In another bit of EMI news, less vital to the company’s future than today’s latest change at the top, OK Go and Capitol Records have parted ways after nine years through mutual agreement. OK Go asked; EMI agreed. OK Go is best known for its viral videos—and was touted by…

In 2008, Terra Firma hired the guy who ran the company which makes Cillit Bang and Air Wick to turn EMI Music around. But now the record label finds itself seeking a reported £100 million to avoid breaching banking covenants. So now executive chairman Elio Leoni-Sceti is on his way…