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Technology Stocks : MPPP - MP3.com -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack Hartmann who wrote (921)	3/1/2000 2:39:00 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 1116

You can go ahead and stick a fork in it now. CMGI's iCast introduces music, movie Web site By Derek Caney NEW YORK, Feb 29 (Reuters) - In its effort to build a better musical mousetrap, Internet venture company CMGI Inc. <CMGI.O> plans to launch on Tuesday its digital music Web site designed to be a combination of online music store and radio/video outlet. The new Web site, called iCast (http://www.icast.com), will compete with retailers and Web broadcasters like CDnow <CDNW.O> and downloadable music sites like MP3.com Inc.<MPPP.O>, not to mention America Online Inc. <AOL.N> whose merger with Time Warner Inc. <TWX.N> creates a potential behemoth in the digital music world. iCast sells songs and albums by established acts on major labels, which users can download onto their personal computer, a service that competes directly with such download sites as eMusic.com Inc. <EMUS.O>, Musicmaker.com <HITS.O>, CDnow, and eventually Amazon.com <AMZN.O>. It will also allow aspiring artists to upload their own songs onto the Internet for other users to hear and download, a feature that competes with MP3.com. It also plans the broadcasting of concerts and radio shows over the Web. iCast also plans to offer similar features to aspiring film makers, who can upload videos and movies onto the Web. "We fundamentally designed iCast so that you could go from being a mouse potato that wants to hear the latest Britney Spears single to the most dynamic user possible which is one that wants to publish your own music, promote your own music, and become an online deejay," Margaret Hefferman, iCast's acting chief executive, told Reuters in an interview. "We're working under the assumption that music lovers want music by major labels as well as music by independent labels and unsigned acts," she added. "We believe that they will want music whether it's through traditional CD formats or through digital downloading." The company is gambling that its interactive features will garner enough eyeballs to reap advertising and direct marketing revenue. To get those eyeballs, it will rely on its "iCaster," which is software that a user downloads that will function as a combination of a browser, a Webcasting outlet and an means of sending and receiving messages to other Internet users. For its messaging function, it has inked a deal with privately-held Tribal Voice, which makes software that allows users to message one another using a variety of different protocols. For example, using Tribal Voice's software, a user of America Online's "Instant Messenger" will be able to communicate with a user of the Microsoft Network's messaging program. This software will be combined within iCast's software. "It's that connection that adds the value to our site," Hefferman said. The iCaster would also provide the option of creating profiles, which, in turn, opens the door to direct marketing possibilities. Hefferman said the plan is to take the company public, although she would offer no timetable. The company will start by making 10,000 downloads available through the MP3 format. It will also allow the music to be broadcast over the Web through Microsoft's Windows Media Player. It plans to offer a stockpile of 30 short film features, plus one new short feature on a weekly basis. Hefferman, a veteran of the British Broadcasting Corporation, assumed the duties of chief executive after Neil Braun, a former president of NBC television, left the company in November amid alleged tension with CMGI's CEO David Wetherall. Consulting firm Forrester Research has forecast the market for downloadable music will grow to $1.1 billion in 2003 from $10 million in 1999. Part of that growth has been spurred by the advent of MP3 technology, which allows music to be downloaded without taking up large amounts of memory. Hefferman would offer no specific revenue targets. "The crucial thing we'll look at is growing out members," she said. "Those are the people that we will be able to market to. The question remains if we will have to go out and buy traffic (through advertising and partnerships) or will traffic be generated by itself." 00:00 02-29-00

To: Jack Hartmann who wrote (921)	3/2/2000 8:49:00 PM
From: Jack Hartmann	Respond to of 1116

MP3.com shares nearly double By Bambi Francisco, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 6:05 PM ET Mar 2, 2000 Market Pulse Movers & Shakers SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- MP3.com, a music Web site that lets lesser-known artists publish their music on the Net, saw its shares jump almost 100 percent Thursday after its chairman and chief executive addressed investors at a technology conference, taking on the legal matters facing his company. Shares of MP3.com (MPPP: news, msgs) rose 15 5/8, or 95 percent, to 32. Michael Robertson, the company's top executive, addressed investors at the Robertson Stephens Tech 2000 conference in San Francisco Thursday. "This was the first chance we had to explain the facts behind the situation in front of many institutional investors," he said. Robertson said he outlined the upside and downside of the possible outcomes of the pending lawsuit with the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA filed a lawsuit against MP3.com over its new product, called My.MP3.com, which was made available on Jan. 12, according to Robertson. In turn, MP3.com filed suit against the RIAA on Feb. 8 for allegedly unfair business practices. The My.MP3.com site uses MP3.com's proprietary technology Beam-it, which lets users put their CD collections online. A consumer places a music CD in a CD-ROM, and, after the user hits a button, the Beam-it technology "reads the DNA" of the disc into a consumer's PC and automatically "turns that CD on," Robertson said. The CD isn't actually uploaded because MP3.com has a database of 80,000 CDs. The company allows access to the database only if consumers can prove they own a CD, he said. "The record companies were concerned we would hurt CD sales," Robertson said. If MP3.com loses the lawsuit, it may have to pay damages to the record companies, he said. "They're going to have a big challenge to prove that we're hurting CD sales," he said, explaining that, through MP3.com's partnerships with several online music retailers, CD sales have actually grown. If MP3.com wins the lawsuit, the upside is tremendous, he said. "This sets the (stage) for a subscription-based service where MP3.com would charge consumers (a nominal fee) to access all of their music on any type of device," he said. My.MP3.com is currently being tested by consumers on a limited basis. In two weeks of testing, consumers used My.MP3.com to store 5 million songs. cbs.marketwatch.com Great, Go on a business trip and this happens. Couldn't stabilize for a while. No. Has to double. Jack