As of today, HBO content is available for download at the iTunes store. Of course, the addition of the mighty HBO to iTunes is news in and of itself, but what’s more interesting here is that HBO is the first network to charge $2.99 per episode for an iTunes TV download (it should be noted, that only some, but not all of the HBO shows are priced at $2.99). In the short term, people might be happy about the addition of this high quality content to the iTunes library, but as the The Hollywood Reporter article points out, it seems like it will only be a matter of time before other networks renegotiate their pricing structure with Apple, which will invariably to higher prices across the board.

HBO will become the first TV network to charge more than the standard $1.99 per episode on Apple’s iTunes.

The network announced Tuesday that a wide range of programs would be made available on iTunes, with “The Sopranos,” “Deadwood” and “Rome” going for $2.99 per episode. “Sex and the City,” “Flight of the Conchords” and “The Wire” go for $1.99.

Forthcoming episodes of currently running series will go day-and-date with their DVD releases.

Still unknown is whether the network is getting a higher revenue split than other iTunes partners. [THR.com]

Zune users can now download their friends’ nine most recently played songs, as well as nine tunes flagged as favorites. If you are amongst the 4% of Americans that own Zunes, this is awesome news!

The upgrade takes the community element a bit further by letting Zune users download each other’s nine most recently played songs, as well as nine tunes flagged as favorites. The playlists are updated each time a person connects their Zune to the PC.

In order for people to trade tunes, they have to subscribe to Microsoft’s mobile music service called Zune Pass. The service costs $14.99 a month and lets subscribers download onto their Zunes any of the 3.5 million songs in Microsoft’s library.
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In other Zune news, Microsoft on Tuesday added television shows from Comedy Central, NBC Universal, Turner Broadcasting, and others to the Zune online store. Microsoft added a total of 800 episodes, including those from the popular South Park and Heroes programs. Each show costs $1.99 each. [Information Week]

Related Story: And should you ever find another Zune owner, sharing is now even easier

Well, at least this oughta tie things up in court for a couple years.

Amazon has filed a lawsuit in New York contesting a controversial new state law requiring some online retailers to collect sales tax on purchases shipped to New York’s residents, even if they have no offices or employees there.

The e-commerce giant filed its challenge to the law in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeking a declaratory ruling that the law is “invalid, illegal and unconstitutional.” [Reuters/InternetNews.com]

With the amount of file sharing going on these days, I’d imagine you can find almost any out of print title somewhere online if you dig deep enough. Having said that, I still don’t believe that mp3s are a substitute for having the physical disc, so I kind of think this endeavour is a good thing.

Sony/BMG and EMI plan to release out-of-print albums on CD through CreateSpace, Amazon’s service for creating products as customers order them — sort of like CafePress for CDs, books and DVDs.

“Through our partnerships with SONY/BMG and EMI music, Amazon customers have an even greater selection of music to choose from today,” said Amazon’s VP of music and movies, Peter Faricy. ” CreateSpace ‘Disc on Demand’ is not only making out-of-print albums available once again, but it’s also enabling digital-only titles and international titles that haven’t been released in the U.S. to be made available on CD.”

Among the out-of-print albums to be released under the plan are Henry Mancini’s Hatari Soundtrack, Joe Strummer’s Earthquake Weather, Cake’s Motorcade of Generosity, Bill Stewart’s Telepathy, Tony Williams’ Foreign Intrigue and Grant Green’s Carryin’ On. Some labels are using the service to release new stuff too, including KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic series and the soundtrack for ESPN’s Strongest Man.[blog.wired.com]

Who would have thought these two would end up not getting along?

LOS ANGELES — EBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), the world’s largest online auctioneer, sued Craigslist, a competitor in which it holds an ownership stake, in a dispute over whether the Internet bulletin board tried to blunt eBay’s control.

EBay alleged in the lawsuit that the board of directors of Craigslist, the Web’s dominant classifieds listing service, took “unilateral actions” to dilute eBay’s 28.4 percent stake by more than 10 percent, eBay said in a statement.

The suit, filed on Tuesday under seal, asked a Delaware Chancery Court to rescind the unspecified actions to protect eBay’s stockholders and preserve its stake in Craigslist.

The suit names as defendants Craigslist founder, Craig Newmark, who runs the company in a famously open-minded style, and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster. Newmark and Buckmaster are the only members of Craigslist’s board of directors. [Reuters/InternetNews]

Enslaved @ SXSW 2008 (HeadOvMetal)

Could Flickr video be the next YouTube? Nah. Not yet at least.

Some excerpts from the Flickr video FAQ below:

Is video available to everyone?

Only pro members can upload video content, but anyone can view it, provided they have permission.

Are there any upload limits?

No. If you’re a pro member, your account has unlimited bandwidth and storage space. This includes video content.

But! Individual video files must be smaller than 150MB in size. (That should be more than enough for 90 seconds worth of video.)

Can I upload my 3-hour-long wedding video?

No.

We’ve instituted what might seem like an arbitrary time limit for video playback on Flickr: 90 seconds.

You can still upload a video that’s longer than 90 seconds, but only the first 90 seconds will play. [Flickr Video FAQ]

Pitchfork.TV

You may recall that I reported on the imminent arrival of Videogum.com a few weeks ago, well it turns out that today (April 8th) was launch day for the new pop culture blog. Coincidentally, (or perhaps not), it was just yesterday that Pitchfork launched the horribly designed Pitchfork.TV which looks like an alt-MTV wannabe for the web. The Bumpershine verdict (on Pitchfork.TV), 3.2.

It’s blowin’ up real good.

Brainchild of Aza Raskin, Songza launched way back in November 2007. (Sometimes I’m a little late to the game I guess). Anywho, I’ve been playing around with it and it’s pretty cool (except for the stack overflow error I get at the end of every song).

What is Songza?
Songza is the single best place to search for and listen to music on the Web. Find a song and listen immediately, in one place.

Unlike KaZaa or Bit Torrent, Songza users can only listen to songs, not download them. And unlike Last.fm or Rhapsody, Songza permits users to choose exactly the song or artist they want to hear, and does not require them to subscribe or pay for its services.

Do the artists get paid? Is it legal?
Yes. Songza pays for licenses from all the major performing-rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), who then pay the publishers and writers in proportion to the number of plays they get on Songza.

With the way Time Warner rips me off, my TV could use a new best friend.

Vudu is a new video on demand (VOD) service that offers instant access to HD films, TV shows, and approximately 5,000 movies. Rentals range from 99¢ to $3.99, HD rentals from $2.99 to $5.99, and purchased movies from $4.99 to $19.99. TV episodes are $1.99. The box itself costs $295 to purchase. I’m pretty fed up with Time Warner Cable’s exhorbitant fees, so I was strongly considering vudu as an option. The only thing is, from the website, it’s a little unclear to me as to whether they offer first run TV episodes, (which would be a deal breraker).

From one blog to another.

Sony BMG boss, Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, was just quoted in an interview saying that Sony BMG is “working on an online music subscription service.” The service would cost between €6 to €8 per month (about $9 to $12) when launching later in the year and provide full access to its entire music catalog. He goes on to say that customers could own “some songs” even after the subscription was canceled. Interesting on its own, right? Now the kicker: it will work “for all digital players, including Apple’s iPod.” That means DRM-free unless Apple agrees to license its FairPlay DRM… which it won’t. Hell, Sony BMG is already offering DRM-free MP3s to Amazon. If true, then the move could almost turn public sentiment positive in the wake of Sony BMG’s “rootkit” fiasco and its handling of the Jammie Thomas affair. Almost. [Engadget]

Photo: Vermin Inc.

A report by the Financial Times (registration required) cites unnamed executives who say that Apple is in talks with record labels to offer access to the entire iTunes music library for a lump sum price. The fee would be added as a premium option on an iPod or iPhone, or it could come as a monthly charge. It would allow downloading of any song at any time so long as the purchaser still owns the device, and the songs would be yours to keep.
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Apple’s plan is different in several respects. Since the average iPod owner buys about 20 tracks from the iTunes, Apple wants to make the premium about $20, arguing that it should cover the average consumer’s downloads. Then the owner can make unlimited music downloads from the iTunes Store for the life of the device. Once downloaded, the tracks are yours to keep, even if you get rid of the original iPod or iPhone. And since iPod and phone owners tend to replace devices fairly regularly, the record labels would be getting the fee whether or not the consumer makes any further downloads. Silicon Alley Insider did the math and thinks it’s a good deal all around. But according to the Financial Times’ sources, the labels are looking for numbers closer to the $80 Nokia is reported to be paying. [ars technica]

Unlimited iTunes downloads for $20, where do I sign up? I think anyone reading this article will notice the flawed logic they are using in reference to the $20 estimate of the average consumer’s downloads. Sure, maybe this makes sense when your paying 99 cents a shot, but when you’ve got unlimited free downloads surely you’d spend more, in fact, you’d be silly not to.

Sandisk has a new MP3 player coming out called the Sansa Fuze, which pretty much looks like it is designed to compete with the massively popular iPod Nano. From now until July 5, 2008, SanDisk is giving away a free microSD card pre-loaded with 55 tracks of what I will technically refer to as “cool music” when you buy the 8GB Sansa Fuze.

MILPITAS, Calif., March 19, 2008 – SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), a leading seller of MP3 players in the United States, today announced the company will promote DRM-free music from more than 50 new and emerging artists on a microSD card. This U.S.-based program is the first of its kind to use microSD cards, and helps launch the new 8GB (gigabyte) Sansa Fuze MP3 player. The “Sansa Sessions” microSD card is comprised of a collection of rock, pop, and hip hop songs, music videos, and photos from more than 30 labels. Featured artists include All Time Low, Ladytron, Magnet, Nada Surf, Of Montreal and The Coup.

.

Coming in June 2008…

Get your preorder on, Matt.

Internet dinosaur AOL has bought social networking site Bebo for $850 millon. Now I suspect some of you who read this site may have even heard of Bebo, and that can only mean one thing, AOL is now a social networking playa! Personally, I find I just don’t get enough social networking through MySpace, Facebook and Virb, and in fact, a fourth social networking opportunity is just what I have been looking for. But, in all honesty, they say Bebo is big internationally, like Michael Jackson and Hello Kitty.

AOL has made it clear that buying Bebo is a move geared toward international growth, as the youth-oriented social network is wildly popular in the U.K., Ireland, and New Zealand. AOL reported that it has launched “17 international web sites over the last year and has plans to expand to 30 countries outside the U.S. by the end of 2008,” as well as international versions of its home page and some services. Bebo, meanwhile, plans to launch five localized versions of its service this year (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands), and AOL will make it a major part of the company’s international expansion strategy. [CNET.com]

PS Remember MySpace sold for $580 million.