Broadband Enhances Grammy Options Online

The 48th Annual Grammy Awards show officially kicks off at 8 p.m. Eastern but there’s plenty to do online before, during and after. Rafat and I will both be checking in on the online action.

CBS has the broadcast and the official show site. I’m kicking off my viewing by watching an interview with nominee Les Paul
via the CBS.com embedded media player. Very smooth although an option to watch the whole interview instead of segments would be appreciated.

But Yahoo Music is the home of offical online coverage with Chevrolet as the sponsor. Unfortunately, the video doesn’t seem to work in Firefox so I’ll have to try again later with a different browser. Yahoo is pitching Grammy ringtones, downloads of Grammy-nominated songs for instant gratification and the 21-song album for $8.17. You have to download and install the free Yahoo Music Engine to buy a song or album. Yahoo also is promoting its Y Music Unlimited with a free trial and the reminder that it’s $5 a month; have to read the fine print to know that price is for the annual subscription.

Rhapsody.com had the exclusive rights for Tuesday’s Clive Davis pre-Grammy party/concert. I missed the live event but the archive version is up and running. It took me a couple of tries to load. At least 20 Grammy songs are available for free listening — as long as you install the Rhapsody music engine; the service also has two “video stations” running with back-to-back music videos tied into the Grammys. A couple of real gems on the flashback station.

– AOL Music kicked off Grammy week with a Network Live concert featuring the Black Eyed Peas. The archived two-and-a-half hour concert is up now. (It does not work with the latest version of Firefox but loaded fine in IE.)

E Online has red carpet pix and voting in sync with its broadcast but no live broadband feed. I wanted to share the direct link to the pictures but it’s a java pop-up. If you want to drive traffic via social networking a link is a good place to start.

– I’ll also be looking at TheEnvelope.com — the new LA Times site incorporating GoldDerby.

Scanning it all, one idea pops out: Rights rule but creativity comes in a close second. Give me an interesting alternative and exclusivity faces a challenge.

Update: Shoud have included the MTV Network sites… MTV News did a pre-show and will do a broadband “after show” on MTV Overdrive. Lots of other bells and whistles. On the multiplatform front, Grammy podcasts are being distributed through MTV.com, iTunes and Yahoo, while highlights from the coverage and backstage winner react will show up on Amp’d Mobile and other wireless carriers.

After-show update: Actually, Rafat didn’t have much time for the Grammys since he’s still on the road.
– Yahoo and Grammy are fundraising for MusiCares hurricane relief by seeking donations for watching a video of the opener with Madonna and Gorillaz; wonder how many more would pay not to watch it again. Too bad they couldn’t use one of the other performances. The on-demand delivery works well.
– I actually downloaded one album on Rhapsody during the show — Alison Krauss — and will put my subscriptions there and at Yahoo to work listening to artists that grabbed my attention during the show.

– Didn’t catch all the commercials but Verizon’s V Cast Music spot caught my attention — a bowler needs inspiration, dowloads a song and gets so caught up in the vibe, can’t let go of the bowling ball. Sprint Nextel ran a “Have A Nice Day” spot with a waiting room that’s transformed to a concert arena by the ability to download from the Sprint Music Store. “Wherever you go take Bon Jovi and all your favorite music …” Don’t know if the Yahoo spot is new but it totally cracked me up. It’s an animation of rapper Pharrell performing the edited version of “Can I Have It Like That?” on a cruise ship; an octupus swallows everyone, then spits him out still rapping. The tag: “Get a boatload of Pharrell and all your favorite Grammy nominees.” MTV Overdrive’s coverage of the “green carpet” came with an Amp’d Mobile ad that shows a guy in the right demo getting the people around him to entertain him when all he needs is Amp’d. Each ad does a decent job of getting its message across; big question: was the message heard?

– Just catching up with TheEnevelope.com. OK, I’m impressed. A solid package Catty commentray from Elizabeth Snead for the fashion pix.Tom O’Neril live blogged while Times staffer Kevin Bronson kept a running diary. “Brokeback Mountain” is being touted in a display ad. I’ll check back tomorrow for more LAT coverage; so nice not to have to go through Calendar.

Comments have been disabled for this post