- LAUNCH Media
LAUNCH Media is a Santa Monica-based media company that created LAUNCH.com, an online music site, and
LAUNCH (magazine) , amagazine issued both in print and as aCD-ROM disk magazine . LAUNCH Media was acquired byYahoo! for US$12 million in 2001. [ [http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/pr/release789.html] |Yahoo! to Acquire LAUNCH Media, Inc. - Yahoo! Press Release, June 28, 2001] [ [http://news.com.com/Yahoo+thinks+entertainment+with+Launch+buy/2100-1023_3-269172.html] |Yahoo thinks entertainment with Launch buy - News.com, June 28, 2001] The features of LAUNCH.com, including theLAUNCHcast Internet Radio service, were later integrated intoYahoo! Music .History
Previously referred to simply as "LAUNCH", LAUNCH Media began as the publisher of LAUNCH, a magazine issued in both standard print format and as an interactive CD-ROM. Eventually the print version was eliminated and subscribers were sent only the CD-ROM version. LAUNCH magazine disks were often found pre-packaged with new PCs in the late 1990s.
LAUNCH magazine contained video interviews, live performances, and special video segments by music stars as well as standard (but interactive) music magazine features.
LAUNCH Media later introduced LAUNCH.com, the official LAUNCH magazine website. The site featured LAUNCH magazine content,
music video s, and, beginning in 1999, LAUNCHcast Internet radio.The company was purchased by Yahoo! for US$12 million in 2001. LAUNCH.com was later integrated into Yahoo! Music.
At the time of its acquisition, LAUNCH was in a legal battle with the recording industry over LAUNCHcast, which the industry claimed provided an "unapproved level of interactivity". LAUNCH pulled LAUNCHcast from LAUNCH.com, then later restarted it with a reduced catalog. Yahoo! later acquired LAUNCH as a subsidiary to avoid being dragged into the recording industry's lawsuit, but was dragged into it anyway. On April 27, 2007, Yahoo! defeated a
Sony BMG copyright infringement lawsuit over LAUNCHcast. [ [http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i1043e7ff720693e99fffbf2b11a8c44d] |Yahoo! Defeats Sony BMG Infringement Suit - Billboard.biz, April 27, 2007, accessed August 21, 2007]References
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