MLB.com Goes Beyond Sports; Gets Into Music

Major League Baseball’s online unit, MLB Advanced Media, is becoming more of a digital media services and delivery firm, from being just an extension of MLB. And as part of that, besides managing the sports presence of other leagues, it is now expanding into other forms of entertainment, this one being music.
It is forming a new 50-50 ventures with music marketing and licensing power Signatures Network, and will offer musicians in Signatures’ stable ways to use the Internet to take charge of their images and financial affairs. Signatures administers sites for Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne and Fleetwood Mac and handles e-commerce for stars such as The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West and Coldplay.
Details: Rev share for all parties involved. MLB Advanced Media CEO Bob Bowman says he expects up to $40 million this year from non-baseball ventures — about half of that coming from the Signatures partnership.
Last year the company, which broke even in 2002, generated $195 million in revenue, and Bowman says that could soar by as much as 70% this year.
What will MLBAM do next? Buy Akamai? I would not be surprised…

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