Cybertainment Blog

Halloween Web Exclusives

2009-10-30T15:20:00Z

If you're trick or treating for some Web TV viewing with a seasonal Halloween edge to it, here are a few Web series to check out.

Vampires starring in a musical performed by “High School “ musical alumni sounds a a surefire formula to get the attention of younger viewers. Enter “I Kissed A Vampire” -- a web musical that stars Lucas Grabeel and Drew Seeley of “High School Musical” and Adrian Slade.

it’s a teen romance, in which Grabeel’s character is bitten by a bat and turns into a vampire, complicating his budding romance with the girl next door.

There are three episodes, which are available only on iTunes. The songs from the series are available as downloads there as well.

And from Paramount Digital Entertainment, there’s the 10-part sci-fi thriller “Circle of Eight.”

Set in Los Angeles, it’s the story of a young woman who moves into an apartment building full of young singles. It’s also the site for a serious of mysterious deaths.

“Circle of Eight” is also an interactive thriller where viewers can follow online clues: for example they can move their mouse across the screen to find a clue.

The first three episodes premiered this week on MySpace. It will also be released on DVD as a full-length thriller.

An Archive in the Palm of Your Hand

2009-10-19T14:33:00Z

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia is now available offline in electronic form.

The WikiReader is a small electronic handheld device that gives the reader access -- wherever they happen to be -- to 3 million Wikipedia articles: It doesn't require an Internet connection.

Wikipedia is a collaborative archive of articles that has become a major online research tool.
Content can be updated on the WikiReader.

Parents will welcome the fact that their children can use WikiReader for homework and research without having to be online. Parental controls aren't needed.

WikiReader sells for $99. It's available through the WikiReader site. The annual update subscription is $29 a year, for two updates.

Radio Evolving

2009-09-15T16:07:00Z

The radio dial used to be tightly defined by its numbered frequencies. But the boundaries are shifting beyond those limits, and old and new platforms are merging.

Last.fm, a popular online music Web site, will launch as an HD broadcast station that will air through CBS radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, starting Oct. 5.

Last.fm, now seven years old, is owned by CBS Corporation. The music discovery site makes recommendations to its users based on the kinds of music and artists they like.

The playlist for the new HD version will be be a mix of music shaped by the site's user-generated weekly charts. The station will also stream online.

And last week's unveiling of a new version of Apple's iPod Nano – which now comes with an FM radio tuner - gives commercial radio stations a boost by giving them a chance to reconnect with listeners they might have lost to portable music players. Wireless reception gives listeners the option of listening to radio on the go instead of their own music collections and downloads.

Listeners can tag songs they hear on their favorite station and buy them from iTunes through the “Buy From FM” platform.

Weather Channel Music

2009-08-26T14:42:00Z

Anyone who watches the Weather Channel is familiar with those mellow-yet-bouncy new age, smooth jazz and pop instrumentals that accompany the local weather forecasts. Some people have their favorites, and hang around to see if they'll hear them: others go for the mute button.

The former category can now carry the Weather Channel tunes with them 24/7. The Weather Channel has launched Weather Channel Music, a web site featuring music played during the “Local on the 8s” segments and more.

There are collections by Larry Carlton and Weather Channel mainstay Ryan Farish.

The site's musical offerings go beyond the Weather Channel's own playlist. There are several collections -- "Acoustic Altitudes" and “Getaway" -- plus classic selections from Al Jarreau, George Benson, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, The Count Basie Orchestra and others.

Listeners can sample excerpts online and download their choices for 99 cents a song.

Newport Jazz Online

2009-08-07T19:03:00Z

The 2009 Newport Jazz Festival will Webcast live this Saturday and Sunday (August 8 and 9).

The 55th edition is a mix of legends, current stars and up-and-coming players. It includes Roy Haynes, Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett, Branford Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride and others.

Locally, listeners can find the the live stream through local jazz/NPR station WDUQ-FM's (90.5) site or through NPR’s site.

Performances run from 10 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. See the NPR site or the Newport Festival site for updates on Webcast times.

NPR is also offering free downloads of music by some of the Festival artists, as well as a downloadable collection of songs from last week's Newport Folk Festival.

Virtual Sheet Music

2009-08-05T15:07:00Z

Musicians who have a Kindle e-book reader have a new use for it. They can download sheet music from a large online collection through Amazon.

FreeHand Systems’ Novato Music Press Catalog, with more than 20,000 titles in classical and traditional music, is now available for download to the Kindle.

FreeHand offers more than 130,000 titles on its sheet music web site. Eventually, the company hopes to make all of them available for the Kindle.

There are numerous other sources for downloading sheet music directly to the computer and printer. Some are free downloads.

Among them: Virtual Sheet Music, 8 Notes, Free Sheet Music and Music Notes.

NPR Launches New Site

2009-07-27T18:02:00Z

National Public Radio has redesigned is Web site and will be adding new applications for smart phones.

The new NPR site is designed to make it faster and easier for users to either read or listen to news or to find and listen to the site's many audio features.

The site is divided into three sections – News, Arts and Life, and Music

Music listeners will find it easier to find live streams for public radio stations like WXPN, WBGH and other NPR stations' jazz and folk programming, and to see what's new in the site's live concert and other music archives.

The site is doing more with multimedia and visuals, including interactive maps, slideshows and larger photos.

Later this summer, NPR will launch an application for iPhone users, who’ll be able to listen to live and on demand program streams on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

A New Deal for Web Radio

2009-07-09T18:13:00Z

Internet radio will be able to rock on after all, and listeners can stop worrying about their favorite Web radio stations going silent.

On July 7, Webcasters reached an agreement with SoundExchange to set new royalties rates that everybody can live with.

Larger Webcasters -- those with more than $1.25 million in annual revenues -- have a choice between the higher of two options -- paying 25 percent of their revenues, or a per song fee.

Smaller Webcasters will pay a lower percentage -- around 14 percent.

Internet radio has been on the endangered species list for quite awhile, thanks to a 2006 ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board requiring online stations large and small to pony up hefty royalty fees for the music they play.

In many cases, these stations would end up owing almost as much in royalties as they were bringing in, and therefore wouldn’t be able to stay in business for long.

The ruling applies to stand-alone Internet stations like Pandora or RadioIO -- not to online conglomerates with music channels like Yahoo or AOL, or to terrestrial stations that stream their regular programming online.

The 10-year deal will be in effect to 2015, and is retroactive to 2006, when the original CRB ruling was made.

The audience for online radio is growing. There are now 42 million people in the U.S. aged 12 and older listening to online radio, according to an Edison/Arbitron survey conducted in April, which found that listening had increased: 17 percent of those surveyed said they tune in to online radio, compared to 13 percent in 2008.

The new royalty deal is good news for those listeners and for Webcasters, in the short term at least, because it means they can stay in business.

But the compromise is still weighted heavily against Web radio when compared to the competition. Satellite radio pays a 6.5 percent royalty. And mainstream terrestrial radio pays 0 percent to performers and their labels, although that could change. Commercial radio stations currently only pay royalties to song composers by maintaining ASCAP and BMI licenses.

SoundExchange is trying to extend the radio royalty payments to artists and labels as well. The battle between radio broadcasters and SoundExchange is currently raging in Congress.

The new sliding scale for Webcasters has its disadvantages, as Brandon Matthews points out in SatWaves: “The incentives to grow are now gone. The more the company grows, the more it pays.”

For more details on the deal, go to Radio and Internet Newsletter, which has been covering the controversy in blow-by-blow detail since day one.

Bumpy "Road to the Altar"

2009-07-05T14:44:00Z

Anyone who has been through the insane rollercoaster ride of planning a wedding will get some laughs out of "Road to the Altar," a recently launched Web series from MWG Entertainment, creators of the Web series “My Two Fans.”

This mockumentary stars Jaleel White, best remembered as Erkel of “Family Matters,” and Leyna Juliet Weber, who appeared in “As The World Turns” and who also is the writer/producer for the series.

The premise is the pending wedding of a couple who agree to appear in a reality series in exchange for a free honeymoon.

If “The Office” business suddenly shifted to a wedding planning operation, this is what you might get.

Everything that can go wrong does:. There’s the clash of cultures: it’s an interracial, interreligious marriage [“Are my grandkids going to be Jewish? Is that how it works?” the father of the bridegroom wonders at one point].

There are fights over flowers, a parade of quirky wedding planners, florists, photographers and lighting designers,. The clients are pretty crazed themselves, with their organizational flow charts for guest placements and disagreements over wedding flowers.

Viewers will not get to see the actual wedding all this is supposed to be leading up to. “Road to the Altar” might be all either these characters or viewers can take.

New episodes are posted on Mondays.

Note: This is not suggested for kids because of mature humor and language.

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3WS Radio Host Jim Merkel's 30th

2009-06-29T02:26:00Z

WWSW-FM (94.5) morning host JIm Merkel is marking 30 years on the air at the station.

\Merkel started out at WMBA-AM in Ambridge, and then moved to the former WJOI-FM before joining WWSW, where he has spent the past three decades. He started out on middays, and has been morning host since 1987.

On Monday, June 29, a special edition of the morning show will feature phone calls from celebs and others who have been on the show.

For more career highlights of this long-time local radio voice, visit the 3WS web site, which has captured an interesting slice of local radio history in its tribute to Merkel’s 30th.

There’s a photo gallery dating back to his days at WMBA. Other photos capture Merkel, along with former co-hosts Gary Dickson and Steve Hansen, in promotional and studio shots.

There are several videos, including TV interviews with Ken Rice and Liz Miles and station promos. In one promo, Merkel and Hansen dress up like the bands played on the station -- the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and most memorably, Sonny and Cher.