Mariah Carey "Heartbreaker" streaming audio numbers
e-Media, the leading provider of Internet and Intranet broadcast services to Fortune 1000 and multimedia entertainment clients, reported today that nearly 375,000 individually broadcast audio streams were delivered in the exclusive Web debut of Mariah Carey's new "Heartbreaker" single between Friday and Tuesday night. Also noteworthy is that over 20% of these streams were in broadband. By the end of the exclusive Web preview on Monday, e-Media had transmitted more than 91 billion bytes of data over the Web.
For an individual artist, these developing numbers are huge, stacking up already at nearly three-quarters the individually broadcast streams delivered for the entire Webcast of Woodstock 99, the largest live music event ever to be viewed over the Internet. During that July 23-25 event, e-Media digitally encoded and delivered half a million individually broadcast multimedia streams to the Webcast audience. "With three days data still remaining for this exclusive premiere, which ends on Friday, it appears that Mariah Carey is on pace to exceed Woodstock's record-setting numbers," said Robert Carilli, Manager of Streaming Media for e-Media.
"e-Media has been in the forefront of streaming landmark broadcast entertainment events to the Internet audience, showcasing technologies we are incorporating into the next generation websites we are building and hosting for our corporate clients," said John Engel, President and CEO of e-Media. "Broadcasting unique streams of targeted audio/video information to online customers presents an extraordinary opportunity for companies to develop 1 to 1 sales relationships with prospective buyers in a cost-effective way," he observed.
"What we are witnessing is the convergence of broadcasting with the Internet. The impressive advances Microsoft has made in the quality of deliverable Internet audio and video, combined with a digital rights solution that gives content publishers control over the distribution of streamed content, is opening up unprecedented opportunities in the e-commerce arena," Engel added.
Both the Woodstock and Carey preview events were digitally encoded using Microsoft's New Windows Media Technologies 4. Visitors to MSN WindowsMedia.com may download a free copy of the Windows Media Player, enabling them to experience what is being called "a new standard of CD-quality audio at half the size of competing formats". Microsoft announced Tuesday the release of Windows Media Technologies 4.
"Microsoft selected e-Media to deliver the Mariah Carey preview at this pivotal time because of their proven ability to handle large bandwidth scenarios for major events," said Will Poole, General Manager, Marketing and Business Development, Streaming Media Division, Microsoft Corp. "We are very excited about these initial results."
Columbia Recording artist Carey, the biggest-selling female artist of the decade, has sold more than 115 million records worldwide and has earned 81 gold, platinum and multi-platinum records. "Heartbreaker," written and produced by Carey, comes in advance of an upcoming September release of Rainbow, the Grammy Award-winning artist's first studio album since her 1997 multi-platinum Butterfly.
e-Media will continue to broadcast the Carey "Heartbreaker" event on the MSN WindowsMedia.com site through August 20. Additional information about streaming technology is available on e-Media's dedicated streaming site.
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