I’ve never quite understood Fox Interactive Media’s strategy. MySpace plus the Fox content library should have been enough to create a major portal with actual profit. Instead, MySpace has devolved into primarily a music site.

I received an email today from the iLike founders announcing their acquisition by MySpace.  Reading the email actually got me excited about MySpace in a way that I haven’t been in years. This acquisition says to me that new CEO Owen Van Natta has recognized what MySpace actually is and is embracing that identity. Plus, I’m excited to see how this iLike thing plays out with Facebook.

Below is the full email from iLike co-counders Ali & Hadi Partovi.

Breaking News

We wanted our artist community to be among the very first to hear officially that MySpace has entered into an agreement to acquire iLike.

We’re sure you have a ton of questions, most importantly: How will this affect me or the artist/band I manage?

• First off, you can count on business as usual: The iLike Artist Dashboard, website and apps will continue to operate as always – except that they’re going to get even better in the weeks and months to come.
• Our friends at MySpace share our commitment to helping fans discover your content and connect with you online. Together we hope to make our social music discovery platform even more powerful. Most artists manage their online artist presence via a MySpace page and separately via the iLike Artist dashboard. These two dashboards give you access to fans across all the biggest social networks. It’s an obvious opportunity for us to integrate these services to give you easier technology and access to more fans. We expect to announce some cool new features and integrations in the future.

And that’s not the only big iLike development in the last few days. iLike is now enabling music fans who discover and share your music on iLike.com to purchase songs and albums (in MP3 format) in-page directly from us.

Our download service provides a smooth, immediate in-page purchase experience. Fans can sign up, enter their credit card, and download music without ever leaving the page they discovered your music on. We think the speed and convenience of our service will spur music sales.

We’re delighted to be selling music from all the major labels and hundreds of indie labels through our partnership with MediaNet. We’ve heard loud and clear from lots of independent artists who want to find ways to sell their music directly. We have nothing to announce about this yet, but your feedback has been heard, just give us some time.

Our MP3 download service is currently in Beta, meaning that it’s an early preview, we’ll improve it rapidly as we get feedback from fans and artists. We’ll also make it available on iLike’s applications on leading social networks. Our goal over time is to offer music fans the ability to impulse buy in-page from wherever they are.

Change is exciting, but we know it can also cause anxiety – even when the developments are good. We’ll continue to update you when there is anything new or noteworthy to share. We value your ongoing support and we welcome your feedback.

Sincerely,
Ali & Hadi Partovi, co-founders, iLike

Mike Hirshland of Polaris Ventures posted the below video on his blog with no description other than “This is incredible.” I almost never watch a video for more than 3 minutes. This was worth an exception.

“John Underkoffler, one of Oblong’s co-founders, was the science advisor on the film (Minority Report) and built much of what we saw in the movie from what he was working on at MIT.

The gesture-based g-speak “spatial operating interface” (SOE) software platform has been in development at MIT’s Media Laboratory since the early 1990s…”

Full article here.

I caught the Polysics show last Saturday at the Roxy. Amazing!

EepyBird, the minds behind the wildly successful “Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments”, have made the leap from online video to television. Their newest video “Extreme Sticky Note Experiments” (below) aired on Sept 5th on ABC Family during the premiere of SAMURAI GIRL.

Below is the full lenth video. It’s pretty cool.

Many web series and vlogs have become successful in that they are revenue positive and have garnered significant press but none rival the views or ad revenue generated by successful network TV shows. We in the online content world are more than ready for a series to break out and have televisionesque viewership and revenue. On that note, Seth MacFarlane’s web series CAVALCADE OF CARTOON COMEDY premiered today. Will this be the one?

It’s created specifically for the internet. The random, bit-like nature of Seth MacFarlane’s comedy requires little to no exposition and is therefore just as funny in short clips. There is an already established rabid fan-base. Remember what happened when Fox cancelled FAMILY GUY? And to put it over the top, the sponsor tie-in is actually entertaining.

Daryl Hall of Hall and Oats hosts a monthly web series out of his house and this month the guest is Chromeo. Embedded below is a teaser for the episode. To get the full experience go to the LIVE FROM DARYL’S HOUSE website. My favorites are “Family Man” and “Tenderoni”.

This is a prime example of quality content that exists because of the internet. A devoted fan-base definitely exists for this type of content but it’s too niche for network and major cable television. Plus the format of releasing an episode once a month wouldn’t work on TV. If there was no internet, do you think this content would have been created?

While skateboarding to work last Friday, I got a call from a co-worker telling me the batmobile was pulling onto Rodeo Drive by the Beverly Wilshire. I immediately diverted course and saw this:

I’ve been following 42 Entertainment’s Dark Knight ARG, I’ve watched every released trailor many times and I’m a huge Christopher Nolan fan. Needless to say, this made my day.

UTAOnline made the cover of May 30th’s edition of USA Today. The article entitled “Amid rush to sign online talent, agencies ponder how to profit” broadly talks about the changing landscape of the entertainment industry. This article only touches on the surface of the subject but it is a great piece of press for our department (pictured below).

Last week, Hollywood insider blogger Nikki Finke posted an article written by “video game guru” Keith Boesky in reaction to the above USA Today article. At first glance, Keith appears to be attacking the major talent agencies’ approach to the online space. The article was originally titled “UTA, CAA, Endeavor Just Don’t Get It” before Nikki Finke changed it to the less pointed “Why Hollywood Agents Just Don’t Get It.” If you look past the intentionally incendiary opening, there is some quality insight. Below are some of his best points.

“By viewing the on line world through the lens of traditional media, the agencies are advocating unidirectional content for distribution via channels owned by other people and subsidized solely by advertising. During the original dot com days these same people acknowledged it was the people who made the shovels got rich during the gold rush, so why are the agencies making the shovel makers rich again? They are supplying the content upon which to build distribution channels, and they are ignoring the connections among the audience, as well as the pipe coming out of the home.

Value on-line is created by consumer engagement and community, not eyeballs alone. People are turning television off in droves…The winner in this market will be the one who figures out how to maximize consumer engagement and harness community. They will figure out how to make consumers use the technology to invite their friends to share an experience with them every day…

Some Valley companies are threatening to take this next step into content creation, but they will soon learn they are not as good with narrative as Hollywood. This is the place for the agency focus. I am not talking about a lunch box equivalent license grant to an on-line game. It is an implementation of a core IP, designed specifically for the media. This is, something people like Heroes’ Jesse Alexander and MIT’s Henry Jenkin refer to as “transmedia,” The IP exists independent of all media. Each media exploitation is tailor-made for the extant media. Rather than a Coen brothers video releasing on the Web and then being stitched together to show up on television. The Coen brothers IP would be interpreted by an ARG creator and turned into an on line experience, the Coen brothers would direct a film or television show, a novelist would write a book, a graphic novelist does a Manga or graphic novel, People magazine covers the production and more. Each element is unique and stands on its own, telling a different story, which points back to the core IP, thereby making the IP stronger and the consumer commitment deeper….

By no means are these the only options, but if they continue on their current path, the agents can rest assured their unidirectional content will be more entertaining than content created anywhere else, but they can also be assured they will be building networks owned by other people. They are painting themselves into the same corner they stand in today – all the content, none of the access.

If the agencies want to profit from the new opportunities, they have to stop thinking evolution and more revolution. Television is a solo experience. A show can build an audience, but it does not build a connected community, and with very few exceptions, the community has no impact on the show. The audience watches, and then shares around the water cooler the next day. The web is about community. Real time community. I can feel impotent in real life, I don’t need my computer tell me I have to sit and listen to what someone else has to say. My computer empowers me and let’s me join in, the entertainment on it should as well.”