Muzu.tv launched in light of Eircom piracy crackdown

My name is URL

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6251273/Muzu-music-video-site-launched-to-rival-YouTube.html

Muzu aims to take on YouTube by offering thousands of hours of high-quality music videos and archive episodes of shows such as The Tube and Top of the Pops

Users can flick through thousands of hours of footage ranging from the latest music videos to exclusive clips and artists interviews. Archive episodes of shows such as The Tube and Top of the Pops, can be viewed online.

Muzu, which is based in Ireland, has signed deals with the so-called "big four" record labels – Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI – as well as more than 7,000 independent labels. Users can create playlists of their favourite videos and clips, and share them with friends over the internet, or embed them on social-networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and Twitter.

"Whether you're an RnB diva or a hair metal rocker, Muzu's got the lot," said the company in a statement. I"Every imaginable genre is catered for.

And in a veiled dig at YouTube, which remains the most popular online video channel for finding and sharing clips of gigs, shows and music videos, Muzu said: "What’s more, because each video is officially licensed and approved by the artist, you won’t have to trawl through reams of grainy, homemade knock-offs or live footage of your favourite band via a crappy three-megapixel camera phone to find the video you want."

Google-owned YouTube has run in to hot water with record labels and artist groups over its revenue model. Earlier this year, Warner removed videos by its artists, such as Madonna and Green Day, from the YouTube site following a disagreement over payments. This week, Google and Warner reached a deal that will see the videos reinstated on YouTube in exchange for Warner taking the lion's share of advertising revenue from the videos.

In September, Google also settled a long-running dispute with the Performing Rights Society, which saw tens of thousands of videos return to YouTube after they had been removed in March. Google agreed to pay the PRS – which is responsible for paying out royalties to composers, publishers and songwriters – a lump sum of money, instead of the usual pay-per-view model.

It seems like a great site, and good to know it's Irish based

I wonder if there'll be a similar TV service launched soon.. it would be nice

January

Their offices are based on South William Street and they have been online for a while... Been a member of the site for near on 7/8 months now...

My name is URL

Really? I was just browsing the Telegraph site and came accross it, assumed it was new =p

Have they had deals with the music labels all that time?

Thornography

My name is URL wrote: »

Really? I was just browsing the Telegraph site and came accross it, assumed it was new =p

Have they had deals with the music labels all that time?

Yeh I presumed it was new as well!

It seems very easy to use e.t.c and with the contracts signed , its all legal i guess?

My poor friends who run vreel.net wont be happy when they see this

Thornography

UUUUUG the javascript everywhere is making my eyes bleed.

January

It's been around for at least a year anyway... I used to work right beside thier office on South William Street. Curiousity got the better of me about 8 months ago and I went to their site. Signed up. Pretty good.
Don't know if it's been legit with all the companies since then but it's been up and running for a good while.

sonners

Just to answer a few questions:

Muzu.tv has offices on South William Street in Dublin and Carriganore (WIT West Campus) in Waterford. The website was officially launched just over a year ago and a number of contracts with the major recording labels have been signed since. It takes a while from contract signing to actually having the media live on site. All media available on Muzu is legal and above board, a portion of revenue goes direct to the artists.

I dont want to spam this thread, just trying to answer a few of the questions raised. Any questions or suggestions are openly recieved

Thornography

sonners wrote: »

Just to answer a few questions:

Muzu.tv has offices on South William Street in Dublin and Carriganore (WIT West Campus) in Waterford. The website was officially launched just over a year ago and a number of contracts with the major recording labels have been signed since. It takes a while from contract signing to actually having the media live on site. All media available on Muzu is legal and above board, a portion of revenue goes direct to the artists.

I dont want to spam this thread, just trying to answer a few of the questions raised. Any questions or suggestions are openly recieved

You hit the nail on the head with your answers, fine by me

+1


Whats there advertisement like doh? I haven't come across anyone who could tell me about its existence.

Aodan83

My name is URL wrote: »

Really? I was just browsing the Telegraph site and came accross it, assumed it was new =p

Have they had deals with the music labels all that time?

Think it's been around like a year, but they only got the deals with the labels at the start of the summer, maybe a tad later. Good site alright though, massive amount of stuff on there.

GLaDOS

Every imaginable genre is catered for.

As someone with non-mainstream (for the most part) taste in music, I'm calling shenanigans on this.

They only have one Rush video!

sonners

PlastikdaN wrote: »

Whats there advertisement like doh? I haven't come across anyone who could tell me about its existence.

Muzu has'nt advertised directly to the public yet. The company has generated a lot of talk with regards to its business model and the technologies used in its making. They won the 'Overall IIA & Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary Award 2008' (IIA being the Irish Internet Association) and the 'New Company of the Year 2008' award at the Irish Software Association awards. These awards and other unique aspects of the companies principles have garnered a number of articles in the Music and Software industries.

Advertisements aimed at the general public have been done in connection with a number of other companies. A deal with Bebo enabled a 'Home-page takeover' for a week or two and ensures the Muzu player is Bebo's official music player. Pat the Backer ran a competition early in the summer under which people were encouraged to upload a video of themselves singing the Pat the Baker song to Muzu.tv. A number of high profile musicians now use the Muzu player on their own official websites, Micheal Jackson being the most prominent one.

The issue of available genres is a very valid point. Its kind of a difficult one to address. Muzu gains access to digital media to put on its site by doing deals with the music owners, ie the music labels. Therefore they are kind of tied to what the labels feature in their digital libraries. In order to access the media of a specific artist ie Rush they need to do a deal with their label and specifically request all of Rushs' records. Basically if the artist does'nt put up the media Muzu cant just take it. It is a known issue and one that Muzu genuinely hope to address. The initial inception of the site came out of a desire to provide up and coming artists with a platform to display their work which they could generate revenue from, as opposed to generating revenue for other people. Mainstream music content helps increase users and advertising revenue but the alternative genres are most definitely a high priority in Muzu, its an area that will hopefully be expanding alot over the next 12 months.

Thornography

sonners wrote: »

Muzu has'nt advertised directly to the public yet. The company has generated a lot of talk with regards to its business model and the technologies used in its making. They won the 'Overall IIA & Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary Award 2008' (IIA being the Irish Internet Association) and the 'New Company of the Year 2008' award at the Irish Software Association awards. These awards and other unique aspects of the companies principles have garnered a number of articles in the Music and Software industries.

Advertisements aimed at the general public have been done in connection with a number of other companies. A deal with Bebo enabled a 'Home-page takeover' for a week or two and ensures the Muzu player is Bebo's official music player. Pat the Backer ran a competition early in the summer under which people were encouraged to upload a video of themselves singing the Pat the Baker song to Muzu.tv. A number of high profile musicians now use the Muzu player on their own official websites, Micheal Jackson being the most prominent one.

The issue of available genres is a very valid point. Its kind of a difficult one to address. Muzu gains access to digital media to put on its site by doing deals with the music owners, ie the music labels. Therefore they are kind of tied to what the labels feature in their digital libraries. In order to access the media of a specific artist ie Rush they need to do a deal with their label and specifically request all of Rushs' records. Basically if the artist does'nt put up the media Muzu cant just take it. It is a known issue and one that Muzu genuinely hope to address. The initial inception of the site came out of a desire to provide up and coming artists with a platform to display their work which they could generate revenue from, as opposed to generating revenue for other people. Mainstream music content helps increase users and advertising revenue but the alternative genres are most definitely a high priority in Muzu, its an area that will hopefully be expanding alot over the next 12 months.

Jesus I hope you took a breath when writting this lol, Cheers for the info! nice to see it come on so strongly!

Ratzo Rizzo

took a look at the site... was it designed by a 13 year old with learning difficulties?????

Thornography

Ratzo Rizzo wrote: »

took a look at the site... was it designed by a 13 year old with learning difficulties?????

Yeh the java was used to such an intense degree my retina's burned a little, kinda like watching an eclipse, but you get used to it

Ratzo Rizzo

Thornography wrote: »

Yeh the java was used to such an intense degree my retina's burned a little, kinda like watching an eclipse, but you get used to it

Not just that but repetition of videos onthe same page, why??? And a number of other strange issues. I wonder how it managed to win website of the year:(