Rock Is Religion spoke with Toronto-based, Yangaroo’s CEO John Heaven about its patented Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS), a secure B2B digital delivery solution for the music and advertising industries. DMDS replaces the physical distribution of audio and video content for music, music videos, and advertising to television, radio, media, retailers and other authorized recipients with more accountable, effective, and far less costly digital delivery of broadcast quality media via the Internet.

Record labels originally know Yangaroo as Musicrypt, before the company changed its name in hopes to generate a broader reach into new markets (television, advertising distribution and film and television production support).

RIR: How does Yangaroo’s technology allow record labels to send their artists’ music directly to radio station personnel over the Internet in broadcast-quality format?

JH: Record labels upload their artists’ broadcast-quality music and music videos and select destinations, which can be radio-station personnel and even television personnel for music videos.  The intended recipients are notified of the files availability and can download them directly into their equipment on site for review and for later broadcast. Music files are protected by biopassword authentication of users, digital watermarking, secure file encryption, and access rights management to prevent piracy.

RIR: Is this a free service?

JH: Receiving broadcast-quality audio and video files via DMDS is free and rates for customers vary according to volume.

RIR: Yangaroo’s tagline is “Better… Faster… Greener” -how so?

JH: DMDS eliminates the environmentally unfriendly and costly practices of producing physical media such as beta tapes or CD’s and printed promotional materials, and shipping them by truck or plane to their intended destinations.  It has been estimated, for example, that per each CD produced and packaged with promotional information about an artist, .7 pounds of fossil fuel are consumed.

RIR: How does this system mutually benefit both the labels and broadcasters?

JH: This system benefits both labels and broadcasters in many ways.  It’s secure, it’s quick, it saves them money, and it allows labels to instantly gauge the interest in their artists’ songs as they can track content accessed from DMDS.

RIR: What made you design this technology?

JH: Our team’s background in the music industry made us realize that the Internet could be used to the benefit of the industry for distributing and receiving music securely, quickly, and cost effectively.  We first went about devising a means to make it more secure, which resulted in our Biometrics Rights Management System, a patented method that combines biometrics with encryption and web-based distribution.  Content owners and distributors with whom we had relationships were quick to adopt this technology not long after we began making it available in 2003.

RIR: Is Yangaroo the only service broadcasters/labels use to send music?

JH: Yangaroo is the proven leader in this field, having first developed DMDS and then, just this past year, enhancing it to provide labels with the ability to transmit television broadcast-quality video files.  We completed our first successful tests of video delivery in the fall, the first video deliveries ever to broadcasters in the U.S. and Canada.

RIR: What are Yangaroo’s plans for 2010?

JH: We will be expanding our television broadcast quality content distribution for television advertising, music videos, award shows and film and TV program production support. This will complement our continuing growth for audio content delivery for record labels, artists and award shows such as the Grammys.

As album sales are down 50% since 2000, radio is breaking less new music than ever in history. Record companies are signing fewer and fewer new artists and artist development budgets continue to shrink, artists and labels need to all find a new way to get music out there. 

The 2009 New Music Seminar NYC is an action packed day of power players in the “new” music industry presenting ideas on how to keep up with the latest technologies, network with others to build your own music business foundation at “The Schmoozatorium”  and most importantly, how to monetize your relationship with your fans in the digital age.

The seminar will kick off with President of Myspace Music, Courtney Holt as the keynote speaker, as well as industry individuals such as:

• Mathieu Drouin, Equator Music
• Mark Ghuneim, Wiredset
• Bruce Houghton, Skyline Music/Hypebot
• Peter Wells, Tunecore
• Steve Greenberg, S-Curve Records
• Terry McBride, Nettwerk
• Tim Westgren, Pandora
• Emily White, Whitesmith Entertainment
• Nick Catchdubs, Fools’ Gold
• Sam Hollander, Fresh Kills Music
• Mickey Factz, MC
• Saint Louis, GFC New York Brand Strategic Management
• Martin Atkins, Tour: Smart/Invisible Records
• David Cooper, Foxman/Direct to Fan
• Marty Diamond, Paradigm Agency
• Lisa White, 9:30 Club, Washington DCWashington DC)

Tickets are available on the day for $150

http://newmusicseminar.biz

“Given the fact that Scion has always worked with DJs and respected their culture, we wanted to give our audience a useful tool for their craft.” - Jeri Yoshizu, Scion sales promotions manager on the release of “Scion Radio 17 BPM Meter” iPhone and iPod Touch application.

The launch of the free Radio 17 Beats Per Minute (BPM) Meter application is part of Scion’s effort to generation brand engagement through a social gaming.

The app, developed by EpicTilt.com, automatically calculates the BPM of a song as users tap the screen to the song’s rhythm.  After recording the song’s BPM, users can create playlists by genre and send their song lists with corresponding BPM info to themselves and others for use in the planning of live sets and recorded mixes.  The Scion Radio 17 BPM Meter also provides a scrolling news ticker that keeps users up-to-date with the current month’s Scion Radio 17 features, as well as information about the latest Scion Audio Visual (S A/V) releases and events.  

By providing the DJ culture with a utilitarian tool, Scion not only builds brand engagement, but also generates brand awareness, but in a relevant way. 

The application is now available at the Apple App Store.