MidemNet Blog

Widgets - a report to keep you up to date

At MidemNet, I spoke about the accelerating rate of VC investment into companies developing widgets - this trend continues, with Widgetbox, Outbrain, Gigya and Sharethis receiving funding over the last couple of months.

Some of the valuations are huge - Slide achieved a $500m valuation in January and Meebo is currently rumoured to be seeking funding at a $200-250m valuation - and there will undoubtedly be consolidation (Isabella Thomas, one of our team of analysts, recently posted some cautionary notes in her Viewpoint on Investment in the widget ecosystem).

It's actually remarkably easy to keep up to date on this kind of industry hot topic using StrategyEye - I just run an automated report which gathers together analysis of all the recent dealflow.

Here's a freebie, brought to you by StrategyEye in partnership with Midem. The report brings together and summarises deals in the Widget space from this quarter - Venture Capital investment, M&A (rumours and confirmed deals), and Partnerships of all shapes and sizes.

Just click on the link below to download the PDF:

 

Download StrategyEye Dealflow report - Widgets Q1 2008

 

(or visit StrategyEye to request a free trial!)

By popular demand ... Widget presentations from MidemNet

When we finished our MidemNet Forum "Hot Models, Hot Companies" discussion on Widgets, one of the first questions from the floor was "can you post your presentations online?" Of course! Here they are ...

- my overview of widget trends and developments

- Gerd Leonhard's introduction to Sonific

- and Roland Deal's introduction to Kadoink

I'm sure that Gerd and Roland would be delighted to answer any questions that you may have about Sonific and Kadoink (contact details are in their presentations) - and do visit StrategyEye or follow any of the news links to the right of this page for continuous tracking of Hot Models.

(... no, not those kinds of Hot Models, but emerging business models right across Digital Media!)

The 2008 conference video series: Janus Friis at MidemNet

Janus Friis, co-founder & co-chairman of Joost (and co-founder of Kazaa & Skype) spoke to TAG Strategic's Ted Cohen about the importance of disruption; and of going legit'!

The 2008 conference video series: Bob Ezrin at MidemNet

Bob Ezrin, producer & chairman of Live Nation Recordings - and one of the most important music producers ever - spoke to Billboard's Tamara Conniff at MidemNet 2008. He notably insisted that music should not be considered as mere content... 

The 2008 conference video series: Domino Records' Laurence Bell

Laurence Bell, founder, of pioneering UK label Domino Records (Arctic Monkeys, Junior Boys, Franz Ferdinand...) was interviewed by A&R Worldwide's Sat Bisla as part of MIDEM 2008's Talent Only initiative.

The 2008 conference video series: MidemNet "Reinventing the label" panel

This ground-breaking MidemNet 2008 session looked at how labels are going beyond their core business of selling recorded music; and at what the label of the future might look like. Speakers: Steve Greenberg, S-Curve Records; Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG Music Entertainment; Emmanuel Mougin-Pivert, Warner Music France 360°, Peter Rojas, RCRD LBL; Ke Song, Taihe Rye Music. Moderator: Ralph Simon, MEF Americas

More MIDEM highlights: Music Marketing Forum transcript

13 music-meets-brands experts also convened behind closed doors at MIDEM to discuss how to improve relationships between the music and brands sectors. Click below for the findings of the first ever Music Marketing Forum!

Download midem_music_marketing_forum_2008_summary_report.doc

More MIDEM highlights: Jim Griffin workshop transcript

Digital distribution guru Jim Griffin was one of MIDEM 2008's most sought-after opinion leaders; you can find the full - and extensive! - transcript of his International Manager Summit workshop here:

Download midem_manager_summit_workshop_jim_griffin.doc

Peter Jenner: Thoughts on why the ISPs need an Access to Music Charge

International Music Managers' Forum secretary general Peter Jenner's latest post adds fuel to the ISP levy debate currently burning in the UK; and on midemnetblog.com, with readers such as Guillaume Laurent pointing out in response to Jenner's last post that the same idea was "happily shot down back in 2006" in France. Nothing to discourage Jenner, however, as you'll exclusively discover here!

There have been two main objections to the idea of a negotiated Access to Music Charge, agreed between the music industry and the ISPs on a company by company basis that I have come across.

The first objection is that it would mean that the current recorded music business would be immediately destroyed, because no-one would pay for music when they can get it for free. This is an argument that has some initial attraction, but the fact is that music has been obtainable for free for some years, and although there has been a potential decline it is arguable that the real damage done to the industry has been through de-bundling (replacing the €15 CD with the 99 cent single iTunes track), and by giving ridiculous discounts to the ‘big box’ retailers. Radiohead’s number one on Limewire, the regular charts and iTunes all provides some serious support to the idea that people’s purchase behaviour is driven as much by inertia, habit and respect for the artists’ right to be paid, as by ‘rational economic decision making’.

The 2008 conference video series: Professor Laurence Lessig, CEO, Creative Commons

Professor Lessig, Author of "Free Culture" & CEO of Creative Commons, outlined his progressive stance on copyright in an enlightening MidemNet 2008 presentation.

...three more sessions in video below; check back here soon for more MidemNet/MIDEM 2008 conference videos (hint: if you subscribe to this blog's feed  - see the link on the left hand side - you'll be automatically informed of these updates)!

You can also add this Podcast feed to your preferred  reader (Netvibes, iGoogle, etc), or click here to subscribe to MIDEM 2008's sessions as a podcast in iTunes. If you already subscribed to MIDEM 2007's podcasts in iTunes, you'll find 2008's sessions in there now, automatically ready for download.