In This Update:
• MySpace Launches DRM-Free Music Service
• FCC Advances Airwave Auction
• Report: IPTV Subscriptions to Grow 64 Percent in 2008
• Interactive Marketer ClickSquared Buys UK’s Rocket Science
• Google Moderator Launches, a Tool to Help Presenters Prioritize Questions
• Viacom, NBCU and Others Form ‘Advocacy Group’ Arts+Labs with Songwriters Guild
• Digg Raises $29 Million C Round
• SwapTree.com Raises $3.4 Million Series C
• Cramster.com Raises $3 Million for Online Community Focused on Students
• StockTwits.com Raises Angel Funding
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McCarter & English, LLP
The law firm of new media. Major offices in New York, Boston, Newark, Stamford, and other cities. Advising new media companies from start-up to exit. Venture capital, IP protections and disputes, employment matters, outsourcing, joint ventures, acquisitions, to name just a few.

MySpace Launches DRM-Free Music Service
ELECTRONISTA
MySpace tonight kicked off the formal appearance of MySpace Music, its first commercial music service. The feature takes advantage of existing hooks for streaming music to offer on-demand, ad-subsidized playback of full tracks from the website but also lets members purchase unprotected MP3s of songs through an Amazon MP3-supported system with similar prices; the normal MySpace Flash player now includes links to buy songs or add them to a playlist.
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FCC Advances Airwave Auction
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Federal regulators are pushing ahead with plans to put two valuable chunks of airwaves up for sale, despite market turmoil that could make it difficult for potential bidders to raise necessary financing.Today, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to release draft rules for the re-auction of airwaves that would be used to create networks that allow fire, police and other emergency services to communicate more effectively. The idea, pushed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, faltered earlier this year when the first effort to sell airwaves attracted no winning bids.
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Report: IPTV Subscriptions to Grow 64 Percent in 2008
REUTERS
Worldwide subscriptions to Internet-based television platforms are on track to reach 19.6 million subscribers in 2008, a 64 percent increase, according to analysts at Gartner. Revenue from worldwide Internet protocol television is forecast to reach $4.5 billion, up 93.5 percent from a year earlier, with Western Europe boasting the largest number of IPTV subscribers and North America the largest market for IPTV revenue.It forecast that 1.1 percent of households worldwide would be using IPTV in 2008, and expects that to rise to 2.8 percent by 2012.
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Interactive Marketer ClickSquared Buys UK’s Rocket Science
PAIDCONTENT
Looking to expand into Europe, lead gen and email marketer ClickSquared has bought UK online marketing services provider Rocket Science. Terms weren’t disclosed. Waltham, MA.-based ClickSquared says it had been searching for the right European complement for over a year. The company’s European base will operate from Rocket Science’s existing UK offices in Leeds and Middlesbrough.
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Google Moderator Launches, a Tool to Help Presenters Prioritize Questions
TECHCRUNCH
Google Moderator launched this evening, a simple tool that helps groups determine which questions should be asked at all hands meetings, conferences, Q&A sessions, etc. The idea is that there are always lots of good questions to ask in a limited period of time, but it’s hard to know which questions the attendees are most interested in hearing discussed. Moderator lets users add questions and vote on the questions of others, so the cream rises to the top.
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Viacom, NBCU and Others Form ‘Advocacy Group’ Arts+Labs with Songwriters Guild
PAIDCONTENT
To add to the confusion about industry consortiums, another new advocacy group called Arts+Labs has been formed by heavyweights in the entertainment, technology and telecom spaces to lobby for enhanced content on secure and reliable networks, fair compensation for content creators and to steer consumers away from spyware and spam. Viacom, NBC Universal, the Songwriters Guild of America, Cisco Systems, *AT&T and Microsoft* are all part of the new organization that bills itself as “a collaboration between creators and innovators who regard the internet as a vibrant town center where all consumers can safely choose from a vast array of digital products, entertainment and services”, essentially a tech meet Hollywood kind of consortium.
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Digg Raises $29 Million C Round
NEW YORK TIMES
Digg, the news site with the nerve to substitute the votes of the unwashed, unpaid masses for the refined talent of professional editors, has raised a new round of venture financing, the company said Wednesday.Four-year-old Digg, based in San Francisco, raised $28.7 million from existing venture backers Greylock Partners, Silicon Valley Bank and the Omidyar Network. The round was led by the newcomer, Highland Capital Partners, whose partner Richard de Silva will join the Digg.com board. That brings the total amount of money raised by the still-unprofitable company to around $40 million.
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SwapTree.com Raises $3.4 Million Series C
PULSE 2.0
SwapTree.com is a website built for trading books, music, movies, and video games. SwapTree allows you to create a list of items of things you want and tell what you want. Then SwapTree finds a match with other people who wants your items and are willing to trade for something you have. SwapTree recommends putting 10 items on each list. There is a database of books, music, and movies and users can easily say that they have it or want it by pressing a button. Users can enter a UPC or ISBN code to add items to the trade match too.
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Cramster.com Raises $3 Million for Online Community Focused on Students
SOCALTECH
Pasadena-based Cramster.com, an online community focused on students and homework, said today that it has raised $3M in a Series A funding round. The round was led by Mr. Shai Reshef, who the firm described as an online education industry veteran. Cramster.com operates an online community where students can share notes, practice exams, and help others through difficult homework problems; the site targets both college and high school students.
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StockTwits.com Raises Angel Funding
PULSE 2.0
StockTwits.com is a real-time stock conversation. When a user follows the @StockTwits bot on Twitter, they can give an opinion about a specific stock symbol through a Tweet. The tweets will appear alongside the StockTwits.com profile of the stock symbol. Therefore you can compare what is happening to a stock and compare the Tweets next to them in real-time. All of the information is archived too.
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