Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited.
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JAMtv, Intel To Unveil Internet 'Jukebox'
10:05am EST, 3/3/97
By Therese Poletti
NEW YORK - JAMtv, a six-month-old online company started by a Chicago
music promoter, hopes to turn the personal computer into a
personalized jukebox.
As a first step, the company will unveil today a music network on the
Internet using multimedia technology from Intel.
JAMtv plans to broadcast live concerts, link with radio stations for
other programming, sell CDs and other merchandise and provide daily
news and reviews.
The company is also working with privately held BackWeb, one of the
leading "push" technology companies, which broadcasts personalized
news and information directly to a person's PC.
"The goal is that you will have your own personal jukebox on your
computer," Howard Tullman, chief executive of JAMtv, said.
JAMtv spun out from Jam Productions Ltd, a well-known concert producer
and promoter in Chicago whose co-founder, Jerry Mickelsen, is
chairman.
The company hopes its network will become the main source of music on
the Internet, featuring contemporary and alternative rock artists and
eventually country and jazz.
But JAMtv is not trying to be the MTV of the Internet, Tullman
stressed.
He noted that in recent years MTV has had to change its programming to
offer more shows and features, like the "Real World" soap opera,
because MTV viewers tired of someone else making their programming
decisions for them.
"It's a network of one," Tullman said of the planned JAMtv service.
"Anytime you go there, you can listen to what you want. You don't have
to wait for someone to make these programming decisions for you," he
said. "We will let you design your profile and what you want."
He said the JAMtv site on the World Wide Web will have daily events,
with a calendar of more than 1,500 events already planned for this
year based on upcoming Jam Productions events, such as a U2 concert in
Soldier Field in Chicago as part of the group's tour.
Users of the JAMtv site can also buy from a catalog of more than
140,000 music CDs, 70,000 music and entertainment videos and access an
archive of images, audio, video and other data on hundreds of artists.
Tullman also said JAMtv was talking to computer makers and to
Microsoft and Netscape Communications in an effort in get a spot on
the Windows desktop and a part of the Netscape browser, so that users
will be able to simply click on an icon and have their JAMtv.
JAMtv is also embracing Intel's "hybrid" method of sending fat audio
and video files over the Internet, by providing users with compact
disks of some audio and video, which is then supplemented by updated
audio and video streams sent over the Internet.
The company hopes to make money is several ways, by selling
merchandise over the Internet, by selling advertising and licensing
fees to radio affiliates for programming and through compiling
databases on subscribers which it could sell to record companies.
Ultimately, Tullman said, a big JAMtv revenue stream will come from a
"pay-per-view" distribution of live concerts on the Internet.
"At the end of the day, when you can truly go home at night and click
on your PC and watch any concert you want, there will be pay per view
revenues in this business," Tullman said.
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