Rob Hyodo

Ever hear a song that you know should exist somewhere other than in your dusty collection of LPs or tapes stashed in storage? I mean should exist somewhere in digital format?

Perhaps you’ll find something on Lost Tunes. (If you live in the UK –> International launches to ensue in coming months)

Universal Music Group has just launched a site where you can find some old favorites. Lost Tunes, powered by digital media company, 7digital, provides some of those old, overlooked or hard-to-find tunes as both albums ($11.85+) or as individual downloads ($1.96). Apparently, 134 of the 829 albums currently available on the site can’t be found elsewhere (except maybe in your private stash).

The 320kpbs track MP3s are DRM-free so they should work with any MP3-compatible device.

Question is, how successful will this be? This is not top 40 stuff. Will the mass consumer find value in old tunes? Perhaps. Depending on the album, I might purchase a digital copy here rather than dig through storage to uncover a decrepid version of an old favorite.

For example, in browsing the categories, I went to Rock –> Heavy Metal (yes, I once listened to heavy metal) and found none other than Dio, The Last in Line! I only have a tape of that. Would I buy this tonight? Eh, probably not, but I bet there are some willing to.

So I think success will be marginal. It’s definitely an additional revenue stream for repurposed content and will perhaps cater more to the parents of Ge-Xers. that said, Lost Tunes is not trying to be an iTunes. They’re simply providing us with digital versions of what we may no longer be able to find, which sounds good to me.

This just posted on Contentinople… “Technicolor Teams With Highwinds for Streaming.” I can’t get into the specifics of this, but I’m very excited about what Technicolor and Highwinds will be able to do together. I’m working on some marketing material and data sheets on what we will accomplish as a team, and I think Technicolor’s development and Highwinds capbailities will yield a great offering!

Update: Another article available on Streaming Media: www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=10543

I’ve neglected posting for a while now. I’ve been out on business trips, conferences and have been taking a lot of time getting my hands dirty in my new duties. I’ve talked to many people and have had great conversations with CinemaNow, Highwinds and others as part of my new role at Technicolor. As such, my next post (coming up in minutes!) will regard Highwinds.