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Will Smith & 3 major Labels Open New Video Site |
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Written by Mike Stahl
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Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
A Santa Monica, Calif.-based company whose investors include actor Will Smith launched a Web site Wednesday that offers 10,000 high-quality music videos and concerts for free.
PluggedIn.com has the backing of three of the four major music companies: Universal Music Group, EMI Music and Sony BMG.
PluggedIn is the latest social networking Web site that seeks to capitalize on people's desire to discover and listen to music online as well as find others with similar tastes.
"They want to consume a lot for free and make decisions later whether they want to own it or not," said PluggedIn Chief Executive Jeff Somers, a former executive at Amazon.com Inc. and Zillow Inc.
But PluggedIn has to rise above the noise, said Russ Crupnick, an analyst with the NPD Group.
"Everyone is trying to enrich music discovery as traditional retail starts to back down," he said. "The challenge is not music discovery. It's Web site discovery."
The site has raised more than $2 million from its founders and from Overbrook Entertainment, a production and management company whose principals include Smith. Full Story http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu-music-video-pluggedin-apr17,1,2175705.story
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