MSN, Cyloop Form Alliance (Billboard.com)

Tue, Dec 16, 2008
By Leila Cobo

Microsoft MSN and Internet music community Cyloop have teamed up in an alliance that will have Cyloop offering its content on MSN ’s portals in Latin America, the U.S. Latin market and the Sympatico/MSN portal in Canada. The strategic alliance was negotiated between MSN and Hoodiny Entertainment Group, the digital entertainment company that owns Cyloop.

As part the deal, Cyloop’s team will administer content and artist relations for the MSN sites. And Hoodiny Productions, which produces digital content for Hoodiny and Cyloop, will generate exclusive content for the MSN Cyloop channel. MSN will be in charge of marketing and selling the new service. The first MSN portal to feature Cyloop content and applications will be Mexico’s Prodigy/MSN, with other MSN divisions expected to come on board in the next several months.

Cyloop is a mix of music site and social site, which offers artist profiles, music streaming and listening recommendations among other features. The site also links to Amazon’s music store for some labels. “What we’re doing is providing the innovation of start-up to a major company,” says Hoodiny president Demian M. Bellumio.

Cyloop was originally launched as Elhood.com in 2006, billing itself as a digital enertainment site and online community with a focus on music. The bilingual site changed its name to Cyloop in 2007. In a bid to expand its reach, Hoodiny struck a deal earlier this year with terra.com in Spain, and now, with MSN.

“We’re focused on what we do best, which is creating technologies around music and creating content that is very music-centric and focused on finding the right partners to help us get our reach,” says Bellumio.

Cyloop.com will continue to run.

5 Questions for Demian Bellumio (OMMA Magazine)

May 2008

If you've been paying attention to the trials, troubles and tribulations of the music industry, you probably already realize the kids today don't exactly line up outside Ye Olde Record Shop anymore. Case in point: Nielsen SoundScan estimates that 2007 U.S. record sales dropped 9.5 percent from 2006. Realizing that free music doesn't necessarily have to be unprofitable (or illegal), Demian Bellumio founded Cyloop at the tender age of 31. The ad-supported site combines the bumpin' grooves of free on-demand streaming music with the stalkerish thrills of a social network, and even the music catalogs of EMI and Warner have joined the party. Bellumio lives in Miami with his fianc ée, and still picks up the occasional CD as an impulse buy. And the online trend that's annoying him most right now? "This might sound weird coming from someone building social media technologies," he prefaces, "But I don't care to know what all my friends are doing all the time. It takes the mystery out of life." Don't say he's not honest.

Where did the music industry go wrong?

Trying to continue at all cost with a business model that was not aligned with how consumers wanted to enjoy music. The slowness in embracing innovative digital services has steered users towards finding other means to access the content, and unfortunately the only easy and efficient means were illegal.

Any industry is skeptical to change their business models and accept that their core product is on its way to a rapid extinction, so many people did not want to accept the inevitable. Also, technologies evolve very rapidly and music companies were not prepared to deal with new technologies and its
complexities.

Many of them have [now] hired experienced professionals in the digital realm and some labels had changed their strategies 180 percent to embrace new digital products and services. Digital is now clearly accepted as the future of the industry. If it is not embraced, then it will be very hard to stay in the content business.

Is ad-supported content the future of the music industry?

I believe that the future of music is about access. I believe that if the right tool and content is offered to consumers, monetization will come naturally. Monetization can be either through direct payments or indirectly, through advertising. Music content and artists are of great interest to brand advertisers, and if companies are smart they can tap into multibillion-dollar ad budgets through music content.

Ad-supported revenues should be one of the key revenue drivers of digital revenues for the labels. Digital advertising itself will continue to grow and I expect that in 10 years it will be bigger than TV and radio. Music and everything associated with it will always attract sizable budgets; the question is how proactive the industry and the artists are in coming up with creative ways to unite the two.

How important is it for cyloop.com to spotlight independent artists?

This was at the core of what we set out to build. If we help the indie artists, we help the labels and we help the industry itself. I just hope that the artists remember those who help them along the way and support the small, innovative and hungry companies that take a chance on them at the beginning. The music industry is filled with stories of artists and labels that sell out to big media once they get their big break.

Who's playlisted on your Cyloop page right now?

Hundreds, and I am particularly proud of those that we helped launch, by supporting them from the ground up and which are on top of the charts now, like Fanny Lu, Melocos, Mala Rodriguez and Calle 13.

What Web site do you and your family use the most?

I use Yahoo, as I spent years customizing it. I like to explore new sites, I don't only see the product, but I love to imagine the talent and the imagination that was utilized to create it. My fiancée likes univision.com, and my parents spent a lot of time on clarin.com, where they read the latest news from our home country, Argentina.

CYLOOOP.COM: Remember napster? Love pandora? A cool new website offers a similar music capability for the facebook age. (Hispanic Magazine)

Apr 2008
By Mark Holston

Personal radio websites are all the rage and networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have become part of the cultural landscape. At only 31, Demian Bellumio has figured out how to combine the best both in an ingenious new website called Cyloop.com. Visitors log on, create a profile and immediately have access to music from the website’s ever-growing stash. Through partnerships with music labels, Cyloop presents artists represented by labels such as EMI, Warner and The Orchard.

Selected songs and playlists are saved to the user’s profile so that they’re available every time they log on, but songs can’t be downloaded to a hard drive or saved outside the site. Its something of a brilliant plan for music companies trying to recoup the millions lost to illegal downloads and for people who want a little more music with their online friendship-making. Social animals can search for other people with similar musical interests and other criteria. Plus, fans have access to artist updates and tours. And in true Internet style, it’s all free. The website is now working on developing live-action Latin music shows and webisodes of a new Cyloop web show.

Greater Miami Chamber honors technology leaders (Miami Today)

Thu, Apr 10 2008
By April M. Havens

Five Miami organizations and individuals received Technology Leaders of the Year awards Friday as part of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce's second annual awards luncheon.

The awards honor those with extraordinary technological hands-on experience whose management of technology resources or technological innovations have made outstanding contributions to their organization and the community, the chamber says.

Claus Schaale, a major account manager for Cisco Systems Inc. and first-year judge for the awards, said the judges "were looking for companies and people that are Miami-based and attracting high-level technology professionals as employees and using the technology themselves."

For best use of technology for the community as a whole, the South Florida Technology Alliance took the honors. This award looks for individuals or organizations promoting growth, success and awareness of the South Florida technology community.

"That organization helps educate businesses on technology and helps them adopt technologies into their company," Mr. Schaale said. "It's about making your business better or faster or more efficient."

In the chief information officer/chief technology officer category, Steven Berwick of Kaufman, Rossin & Co. took the award. Mr. Berwick said the award was an honor for both him and his group of information technology employees.

Mr. Berwick led his company in a move to go entirely paperless in 2002, a move that helped the firm run more efficiently, he said.

"Technology is huge for us," Mr. Berwick said. "As a CPA firm, we are highly dependent on technology to service our clients.

"We use everything from tax prep software, accounting and auditing software and a tremendous amount of other tools every day."

The award he won differs slightly from the other awards in that it honors one person's career, Mr. Schaale said, noting anyone who can work in that role "for more than five years is a hero."

Mr. Berwick has been at Kaufman, Rossin & Co. for 30 years.

For technology administrator in education, Linda Lecht of The Education Fund was honored for helping to put refurbished computers in low-income students' homes and providing computer-based professional development for teachers and students' families.

Hugo G. Perez of Datacorp took the technology infrastructure and resource management award for his role in managing information technology and systems integration, fostering an environment of cooperation and mentoring smaller system integration organizations in the tech industry. This award "is an example of technology adoption," Mr. Schaale said.

Demian Bellumio of Hoodiny Entertainment Group is the 2008 technology innovator for his role in creating a music-based social networking Web platform www.cyloop.com, Mr. Schaale said.

"It's basically a Myspace with iTunes altogether," he said.

"Here you can create a social network based on music. They do two things: represent artists online (with a focus on Latin artists), and they create the social network around that artist."

Mr. Schaale said the awards are meant to help "attract IT talent into the Miami arena.

"We hope to promote the companies' thinking about engaging in tech business overall and help make this an attractive place to do business in technology."

Mr. Berwick said he thinks awards like these do exactly that. "It's pretty obvious that technology is in almost every organization, and technology is critical in today's environment where people compete on a global level.

"If you're not really on top of the technology, you're going to fall behind. But also in every organization, the computer guys are probably the least appreciated.

"Technology is so important that people just expect it, but they don't understand what is involved in keeping it going. The awards are a great thing in that they get people involved and recognized. It's great for everyone."

Ford advertises heavily on Cyloop.com (Miami Herald)

Fri Nov 16, 2007
By Bridget Carey

Cyloop The social networking music community of Cyloop.com (which is headquartered in Miami Beach) has announced it created an entire section of its site dedicated to SYNC, a Microsoft technology in Ford vehicles that lets the user play music and make phone calls using voice commands. This is no surprise to anyone who has visited the site, since almost every ad is about Ford and its SYNC.

Cyloop.com is a pretty young site, so I'm sure this partnership is a big help to the site. It's bilingual and focused on Latin artists, but the company plans to branch out into other music genres and markets. I wrote a story about Cyloop earlier this week which you can read here. The site lets you stream all the music you want for free. It partnered with big music labels to grow its music library -- the idea is that eventually there won't be any more need to pirate music if we can listen to as much as we want for free (just have to pay to download.) And the labels split the advertising profits. Will it work? Who can say for sure, but Ford seems to think it's worth the investment.

Social streaming: music’s new business model? (Miami Herald)

Tue Nov 13, 2007
By Bridget Carey

The music industry loses billions each year on pirated music, so labels are constantly looking for new ways to hold on to their business — even offering music for free.

Soon, you’ll be able to hear the entire music catalogs of labels like Warner and EMI for free, without commercial interruptions, on a social networking site called Cyloop.com.

Cyloop.com, headed by Argentine-born Demian Bellumio, began life as ElHood.com, a social network website geared toward Hispanic musicians. The company changed its name to Cyloop in August with goals to expand globally, including English-language offerings. On Monday, Cyloop.com announced it had signed deals with heavyweights like Warner and The Orchard, which distributes the music of about 6,000 independent labels.

Members can stream as much music as they want and create playlists to save and share with other members. The catch: You have to be logged in to Cyloop.com to play the music. And, forget about downloading the songs to your computer.

The partnership is a new chapter in the evolution of the music industry, as labels are experimenting with new technologies to make up for money lost on in-store album sales and from illegal downloads.

”We want Cyloop to not only be a site but be a platform that powers the music labels,” Bellumio said.

Bellumio, 31, said he expects to close a deal with Sony and Universal before the end of the year.

Cyloop allows users to create custom playlists based on the music the site features, and it allows artists to upload and promote their own music.

Cyloop is home to many independent Latin artists; English-speaking artists include Wilco and comedian George Lopez. With a staff of about 70, the company builds profile pages for artists and expects to have 100,000 artist profiles by the end of the year.

DOWNSIDE, UPSIDE

Unlike other sites such as MySpace.com, Cyloop users cannot create their own content. That makes Cyloop more attractive to advertisers, who don’t want their ads next to potentially risqué content, Bellumio said.

The site is supported by on-screen advertisements, but there are no audio commercials interrupting the music. Billboard now sells the ads for Cyloop in the United States. The record labels split the ad revenue with the site, a new business model for the labels, Bellumio said. Major sponsors include Microsoft and Ford.

Monday’s announcement included the news that Cyloop.com will now run the music channel of Terra.es, Spain’s leading Internet portal. With roughly 17 million unique visitors a month, according to Bellumio, Terra’s traffic can bring a nice boost in advertising revenue to the 1-year-old site.

Bellumio wouldn’t reveal Cyloop’s traffic numbers, but said the target is at least 5 million registered users by next year. As of now, 40 percent of Cyloop’s traffic is from the United States.

Music downloads and subscriptions are a $1 billion industry, said David Card, an analyst with JupiterResearch. The biggest successes in the digital music business, he says, “are the 99-cent singles that you can play on your iPod.”

But downloading isn’t growing fast enough to keep up with declining CD sales. Global piracy of recorded music has cost the United States $12.5 billion in economic output and 71,060 jobs annually, according to an August report by the Institute for Policy Innovation.

”If you are a record label or publisher, you need to tap into multiple revenue streams,” said Card.

But Card said it is too early to guess if this new model will save the industry or match the revenue from digital downloads. And he is skeptical about Cyloop’s plans to profit off advertisements.

”Right now no one is spending any money on digital audio ads,” Card said. “There’s no guarantee that anyone will see those ads whatsoever.”

Bellumio, a former vice president of corporate finance for Terremark, said he doesn’t expect the company to be profitable until next year. The company has so far raised more than $11 million in venture capital financing.

THE NEXT STEP

The next step for Cyloop is to explore how to get involved in the mobile phone market, Bellumio said. It already started filming webisodes in its new video studio in Miami Beach.

He said he plans to use the studio for filming music videos and eventually create a live-audience Latin music show, similar to MTV’s TRL.

For artists themselves, social networking sites have become critical to promoting themselves, even if they don’t make any money.

Jason Calleiro, 27, who toured for years with the band Glasseater, said he depended on online message boards for marketing and communicating with fans.

His new Miami-based social networking site, OurScene.com, which launches in a few weeks, will offer artists the chance not only to give away free music downloads, but also to communicate tour dates with fans and sell merchandise — the real moneymaking paths.

”I definitely think the industry needs to rethink ways of getting income,” Calleiro said.

Lazona, Elhood give Latinos their online space (BILLBOARD)

Sat Jul 1, 2006
By Leila Cobo

MIAMI (Billboard) - Given the success of MySpace among all users, Latins included, it was only a matter of time before a social networking site specifically targeted that demographic.

In fact, there are two Spanish-language, music-centric sites now up and running.

MTV Networks Latin America's Lazona.com, officially announced June 29, may evolve to become an all-encompassing social networking site. But now it is being touted as a Spanish-language site for bands and music lovers, with an emphasis on new and unsigned acts from Latin America.

Meanwhile, Miami-based Elhood.com followed its March beta launch with an official June 26 kickoff, with similar goals. The bilingual site is described by Damian Bellumio, president of parent company Hoodiny Entertainment Group, as "an entertainment site that begins with music but wants to evolve into all media."

The heads of both sites acknowledge the influence and success of MySpace but say there was still opportunity in the area of social networking.

"We felt the Latin American audience had been underserved," says Luis Goicouria, vice president of new media for MTV Networks Latin America. "Sites like MySpace work in all languages but don't target Latin Americans. We felt there was a niche to fill."

Bellumio says Elhood, which also has an office in Spain and expects to open one in Los Angeles, plans to address the bilingual, bicultural reality of much of the younger Latin demographic in America.

"We wanted to create a company that presented the best of both worlds," Bellumio says. "Unfortunately, most of the innovation happens in the Anglo market, and that is one of the things that frustrate me. So we looked at the best practices in the U.S. market and put them into a portal. With social networking, the beauty is (that) the content creates itself."

While Elhood offers personal and miscellaneous postings, the site is most definitely music-oriented, featuring established artists alongside unknowns. Technical features include 1 GB of free storage and the capacity to create individual playlists for streaming. Bellumio has been financed with private funding, but the plan is to become advertising-driven.

MTV also plans for its model to become advertising-driven. Lazona will no doubt benefit from the reach of the MTV brand. The site logically would tie in with U.S.-based MTVTr3s -- the newly named U.S. Latin MTV channel -- after its planned September launch.

Lazona already is getting substantial exposure through MTV Networks Latin America, which reaches some 16 million homes in the continent, excluding Brazil. For the past six weeks, new musical acts have been encouraged to enter a contest through Adiosgarage.com, housed at Lazona; five bands are chosen monthly with the winner voted upon by the community. The ultimate winning band will be featured on MTV Latin America show "Alerta."

The response so far has been overwhelming, with 12,000 fans and 10,000 acts registering for the site.

According to MTV, for the month of May alone, Lazona had 1.4 million page views, 50,000 visitors and 11,000 new users.

Most acts hail from Mexico and Argentina, but, Goicouria says, "there was just tons and tons of good music that we felt we could reach."

Social Networking Sites Target Latin Audience (BILLBOARD)

June 29, 2006
By Leila Cobo

Two companies have launched social networking sites geared towards Latin users.

Lazona.com (The Zone) belongs to MTV Networks Latin America and is available to users throughout Latin America, in Spanish (although profiles are accepted in any language) and is conceived as a place to break and discover new accts. According to MTV, the site has already registered more than 10,000 acts and 12,000 fans.

Elhood.com, headquartered in Miami, calls itself a “digital entertainment” site and global online community for individuals who share a passion for Latin content, particularly music. Elhood is owned by Hoodiny Entertainment Group, which specializes in digital entertainment.

The promotion and exposure of new acts and new music is at the crux of both sites, which allow users to register from any part of the world. However, given that MTV Latin America reaches audiences on that continent, its users will fall heavily from that area, while elhood has made U.S. second and third generation Latins one of its priorities.

Although Lazona is officially being announced today (June 29), MTV has indirectly promoted it for the past several weeks via its MTV Latin America network by inviting acts to participate in Adiosgarage.com, a contest housed at Lazona. Through Adiosgarage, bands can enter a contest in which five bands are chosen monthly with the winner voted upon by the community. The ultimate winning band will be featured on MTV Latin America show “Alerta.”

The impetus behind Lazona.com was to expose new music that would otherwise not be heard, says Luis Goicouria, VP of new media for MTV Networks Latin America. Although big acts can also be on the site, Lazona will focus on the new.

“There are tons and tons of good music at a grassroots level that we felt we could reach,” says Goicouria. “Lazona is very targeted. Our goal is to bring about a sort of sea of change across the region, so that people all around can hear bands they would never get to hear.”Although Lazona is music-targeted, Goicuria expects the community to broaden in the next months.

As for Elhood, president Demian Bellumo calls it “an entertainment site that begins with music but wants to evolve into all genres.”