MUZU.TV

Last updated

MUZU
MuzuRedBg.png
Type of site
 Video hosting service
FoundedJuly 2008
Headquarters
South William Street, [1] Dublin
,
Ireland
Area servedSelected countries
OwnerOur Digital Universe Limited
Founder(s) Ciarán Bollard
Mark French
Key peopleCiarán Bollard (CEO)
Colm Harte (CTO)
Keith Curley (SVP)
URL www.muzu.tv
RegistrationOptional
Launched16 July 2008 (2008-07-16)
Current statusIn liquidation

MUZU was an independent online music video site with the largest legal catalogue of online music videos. The video catalogue was licensed by all major record labels Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music, independent music labels and niche music content owners.

Contents

Content includes concerts, music videos, lyric videos, interviews, music documentaries and lots more. MUZU also powered music video solutions on hundreds of sites and platforms including Microsoft Xbox, Samsung, Sony, LG and Philips Smart TV's along some of the largest sites in the world including: Last.fm, The Guardian , Mail Online , The Telegraph , Bild.de, NME , Rolling Stone , Metacafe and many more. MUZU.TV was founded in Ireland by Ciarán Bollard and Mark French and operated in over 19 countries with offices in Dublin, London and Germany.

MUZU generated revenue through premium advertising solutions; Artists, labels, broadcasters and all music content owners got a revenue share of the advertising revenue generated from plays of their videos on and off the site.

The company called a creditors meeting on 22 October 2015 and revealed that it is heading into liquidation and that Michael Leydon has been appointed liquidator.

Company history

Before the launch Sony BMG signed an agreement with MUZU to allow more than 6,000 videos by artists, including The Ting Tings and Kylie Minogue, to appear on the site, with a further 2,000 hours of footage from entities such as Cherry Red, Eagle Rock Entertainment, Hollywood Music, Ministry of Sound, Ninja Tune and Planet Rock Profiles . [2] Converse, Heineken International, O2, Pioneer Corporation, Ray-Ban and Sony were among the earliest companies to advertise on the website. [2] On 20 August 2008, it was announced that a deal had been signed with ITN, [3] which gave MUZU access to archive footage of TV shows such as The Tube and Calendar Goes Pop . [4]

EMI signed a deal on 16 January 2009 which permitted the website to feature more than 5,000 videos. [5] On 19 January 2009, it was announced that Beggars Group had signed. [6] On 27 January 2009, Cooking Vinyl announced it had signed a global deal, with its founder commenting that MUZU TV was "purpose-built for the music industry and we believe it holds great revenue potential". [7] [8] On 21 July 2009, it was announced that Merlin Network, which had previously refused both MySpace and YouTube, had signed. [9] Announced on 25 January 2010 were deals with AOL Music, Bebo and the Telegraph Media Group. [10] In January 2010, Muzu.tv agreed to give them access to its video library in exchange for a share of advertising revenue. At the Muzu also provided a legal music service, and had otherwise signed deals with Irish Independent, Communicorp, Spinner UK, Drowned In Sound, Habbo Hotel, Virtual Festivals, Mama Group, Meanfiddler, and the Fly Magazine. [11] The Samsung Group said in January 2010 it would allow the development of a MUZU app for its televisions. [12] In February 2010, Muzu's new jukebox music video feature faced competition from an almost identical feature released by YouTube. [13] In 2011, it was made available on Metacafe. [14] In November 2011, Sony started offering Muzu videos through its Sony Entertainment Network on several home entertainment devices. [15] The MUZU.TV app became available on Xbox 360s in December 2011. [16]

In 2013, the catalogue of music videos, concerts, interviews, and music documentaries stood at 130,000. It claimed at the time to have the "largest legal catalogue of music videos available on the web licensed by major record labels and the independent sector." That year it partnered with Last.fm for "scrobbling." [17] Muzu was making a profit in late 2013, with backing by Bill McCabe. Ciaran Bollard was CEO of Muzu. [18] In 2014, Muzu.tv and The Guardian were recordings bands such as Klaxons for a live series. [19] In October 2015, MUZU announced it was shutting down. After struggling to pay rightsholders for some time, MUZU, which was free, ad-supported and available in 23 countries, will go into liquidation. [20]

Awards

The Irish Internet Association named Bollard and French as the 2009 Net Visionaries. [9] IIA Chair Maeve Kneafsey announced the winner at a ceremony on 21 May 2009 by describing the website as "an inspiration to the current and future generations of internet entrepreneurs who know that the internet means that there are no boundaries on what we can do in Ireland, the only limit being our imagination". [21] Bollard and French spoke at the Dublin Web Summit on internet business in Trinity College Dublin on 4 February 2010. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Orchard (company)</span> American music and entertainment company

Orchard Enterprises NY, Inc., doing business as The Orchard, is an American music and entertainment company, specializing in media distribution. It is a subsidiary of Sony Music, based in New York City. In 2019, the company sold off its film and television division, which was renamed 1091 Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Today FM</span> National commercial radio network in Ireland

Today FM is an Irish national commercial FM radio station, owned and operated by Bauer Audio Ireland Limited. Broadcasting since 17 March 1997, it broadcasts mostly music, with a daily news and current affairs programme. Today FM holds a licence from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland as far as the year 2027. The station recorded pretax profits of €7.4 million on a turnover of €19.4 million in early 2009, more than twice what it was two years previously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis O'Brien</span> Irish billionaire businessman

Denis O'Brien is an Irish billionaire businessman, and the founder and owner of Digicel. He was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and was Ireland's richest native-born citizen for a period of several years. His business interests have also extended to aircraft leasing, utilities support (Actavo), petroleum, football, and healthcare. As former chairman of the Esat Digifone consortium, O'Brien was questioned by the Moriarty Tribunal, which investigated the awarding of a mobile phone licence to Esat, among other things.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sony Music</span> American multinational music company

Sony Music Entertainment (SME), simply known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Sony Entertainment and managed by the American umbrella division of multinational conglomerate Sony. It is the recording division half of the Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing.

Napster is a music streaming service based in Seattle, Washington. Napster started as an audio search engine named Aladdin that was purchased by Listen.com in May 2001 and became the basis for its new streaming service, called Rhapsody, that launched in December of the same year. Based on the Open Music Model principles, Rhapsody was the first streaming on-demand music subscription service to offer unlimited access to a large library of digital music for a flat monthly fee. In August 2003, internet media behemoth RealNetworks, anticipating the launch of Apple's iTunes store, acquired Rhapsody. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody relaunched as a standalone company, separate from former parent RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version of digital rights management enforced on AAC+ or WMA files.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home entertainment distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony.

Sony Pictures Kids Zone is the kids and family entertainment label of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and the former record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.

Revver was an American video sharing website that hosted user-generated content. Until its shutdown in 2011, Revver attached advertising to user-submitted video clips and originally offered to share ad revenue with the video creators. Videos could be displayed, downloaded and shared across the web in either Apple QuickTime or FLV format. In addition, Revver was a video publishing platform that enabled third parties to build their own "Revverized" site. Revver allowed developers to create a complete white label of the Revver platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bauer Media Audio Ireland</span> Irish media holding company

Bauer Media Audio Ireland is a media holding company based in Ireland, owned by Bauer Media Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Script</span> Irish rock band

The Script is an Irish rock band formed in 2001 in Dublin, by lead vocalist, keyboardist, guitarist Danny O'Donoghue, lead guitarist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power. The band moved to London after signing to Sony Label Group imprint Phonogenic and released their first album The Script in August 2008, preceded by the debut single "We Cry" as well as other singles such as "The Man Who Can't Be Moved", "Breakeven" and "Before the Worst". The album peaked at number one in both Ireland and the UK. Their next three albums, Science & Faith (2010), #3 (2012) and No Sound Without Silence (2014), all topped the album charts in Ireland and the UK, while Science & Faith reached number two in Australia and number three in the United States. Some of the hit singles from the albums include "For the First Time", "Nothing", "Hall of Fame" and "Superheroes". The band's fifth studio album, Freedom Child, was released on 1 September 2017, and features the UK Top 20 single "Rain". Their sixth studio album, Sunsets & Full Moons, was released on 8 November 2019, and features the single "The Last Time". A Greatest Hits album was released on 1 October 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fight Like Apes</span> Irish alternative rock band

Fight Like Apes were an Irish alternative rock band formed in Dublin in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VidZone</span>

VidZone was one of the largest online music video VOD services in the world, operated by London-based company VidZone Digital Media and Sony Computer Entertainment. The online service provides free streaming of music videos from the VidZone.tv website, in addition to music distribution through a number of mobile networks worldwide. The VidZone catalogue encompasses over 1.5 million tracks, 45,000 music videos and 15,000 realtones, including full access to catalogues from the Universal Music Group, Warner Music, Sony Music and EMI.

Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 551 million monthly active users, including 220 million paying subscribers, as of June 2023. Spotify is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.

AWAL is a global recording business that serves as an alternative to the traditional record label, offering deal structures that provide artists the resources and expertise of a global label while allowing them to retain ownership and control of their music. In 2021, Sony Music Entertainment purchased AWAL from Kobalt Music Group for $430m.

Vevo LLC is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, digital video recorders, digital media players and streaming television services. The service once offered a consumer mobile and tablet app; however this was shut down in May 2018 to allow the service to focus on its other platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgin Media Television (Ireland)</span> Irish television company

Virgin Media Television Ltd is a commercial television company in Ireland, based in Dublin. Launched in 1998 as TV3 Television Network, the TV3 Group was formed in January 2009. The company was acquired by Liberty Global in 2015, and the channels were rebranded to Virgin Media Television in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SoundCloud</span> German online audio distribution platform

SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG, doing business as SoundCloud, is a German music streaming service that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming services in the world and is available in 190 countries and territories. The service has more than 76 million active monthly users and over 200 million audio tracks as of November 2021. SoundCloud offers both free and paid memberships on the platform, available for mobile, desktop and Xbox devices. SoundCloud has evolved from a traditional online streaming platform to an entertainment company.

Mary Byrne is a top 10 selling Irish singer and TV presenter based in Ireland and the UK. Mary rose to fame in 2010 after becoming a finalist on the seventh series of The X Factor. Following her elimination in the live semi-final, she signed a record deal with Sony Music Ireland. Byrne and her fellow The X Factor finalists gained a number-one single on the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singles Chart with a cover of David Bowie's "'Heroes'" in aid of Help for Heroes.

rara was a music streaming media service. It operated between December 2011 and March 2015. It offered ad-free, on-demand music streaming from a range of major and independent record labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music and Warner Music Group, global rights agency Merlin and independent digital distributors The Orchard, INgrooves Fontana, Believe Digital, [PIAS] and VidZone Digital Media.

Kobalt Music Group is an independent rights management and music publishing company. Founded in 2000 by CEO Willard Ahdritz, Kobalt acts primarily as an administrative publishing company, not owning any copyrights. Also offering label services and neighboring rights, the company has developed an online portal to provide royalty income and activity to artists and allow them to manage their rights and royalties directly.

References

  1. ↑ "MUZU TV goes live with music videos old and new". Hot Press . 16 July 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2010. MUZU TV, an online video streaming service which allows bands and labels to share in advertising money, has officially gone live from its studios on South William St.
  2. 1 2 John Collins (17 July 2008). "Online video service launched". The Irish Times . Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  3. ↑ "Muzu TV pens deal with ITN". Hot Press . 20 August 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  4. ↑ "Muzu TV adds to online content". Irish Independent . 20 August 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  5. ↑ "EMI signs with MUZU.TV". RTÉ. 16 January 2009. Archived from the original on 18 January 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  6. ↑ Jen Wilson (19 January 2009). "Beggars Group Joins Muzu.tv Community". Billboard . Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  7. ↑ Kate Holton, Dan Lalor and Paul Casciato (28 January 2009). "Cooking Vinyl signs deal with YouTube rival MUZU". Reuters . Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  8. ↑ "MUZU.TV signs new global deal". RTÉ. 2 February 2009. Archived from the original on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  9. 1 2 Laura Slattery (21 July 2009). "Muzu.tv signs major licence deal with indie music agency". The Irish Times . Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  10. ↑ Ciara O'Brien (25 January 2010). "Muzu.tv signs lucrative new deals". The Irish Times . Retrieved 14 March 2010. The company, which provides a legal music service, has also signed agreements with the Irish Independent, Communicorp, Spinner UK, Drowned in Sound, Habbo Hotel, Virtual Festivals, Mama Group, Meanfiddler, and The Fly Magazine
  11. ↑ O'Brien, Ciara (25 January 2010). "Muzu.tv signs lucrative new deals" . Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  12. ↑ Harry Wallop (7 January 2010). "CES 2010: apps on your TV". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  13. ↑ O'Hear, Steve (24 February 2010). "Nightmare! MuzuTV launches music video jukebox just as YouTube gets in on the action". TechCrunch . Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  14. ↑ "MUZU.TV Music Video Collection Accessible on Metacafe". EContent. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  15. ↑ Sony (Press release) (14 November 2011). "Leading global music video site, MUZU.TV launches on Sony Home Entertainment Products". Archived from the original on 19 January 2012.
  16. ↑ Alvarez, Edgar (15 May 2012). "Microsoft rolling out new apps to Xbox 360, including MUZU.TV and Manga in the US". engadget . Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  17. ↑ Kennedy, John (22 May 2013). "Muzu.TV strikes deal to bring more than 90k music videos to Last.fm". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  18. ↑ Burke, Roisin (1 September 2013). "Google boss takes punt on Muzu.tv". The Independent . Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  19. ↑ "Watch Klaxons perform Golden Skans and Show Me a Miracle". The Guardian . 11 June 2014. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  20. ↑ "Youtube Rival Muzu is Heading into Liquidation". Music Business Worldwide. 11 October 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  21. ↑ "MUZU is Overall Net Visionary winner". RTÉ. 22 May 2009. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  22. ↑ Charlie Taylor (29 January 2010). "Leading tech figures to speak in Dublin". The Irish Times . Retrieved 14 March 2010.

[1]

  1. ↑ Music Business Worldwide (11 October 2015). "YOUTUBE RIVAL MUZU IS HEADING INTO LIQUIDATION" . Retrieved 25 October 2015.{{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.