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Media
Buzz expansion is about partnerships not acquisitions
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 2 June 2010
A clarification now on yesterday’s story that US-based music blog company Buzzmedia had acquired six American music blogs, including PureVolume, PopMatters, Gorilla vs Bear, The Hype Machine, Concrete Loop and RCRD LBL.
Despite a slightly ambiguous press release from the Buzz men which talked about the “addition of six established and influential music sites” to their online empire, Buzzmedia have not bought these blogs, rather they have struck up advertising partnerships with the websites so that they will sell ads on their pages, a little like how the Sonic Network has worked with UK music blogs and independently owned sites. The exact nature of those partnerships seems to vary from blog to blog, though in the main said blogs will remain wholly owned by their creators.
One exception is Gorilla vs Bear, in which Buzz does seem to have taken an equity stake. A Buzz spokesman told Hypebot: “We generally don’t get into details of how deals are structured but Gorilla vs Bear is an acquisition in the form of an investment with right to buy the remainder”.
But Hype Machine’s Anthony Volodkin has confirmed no equity has changed hands as part of his site’s partnership with Buzzmedia. He told Hypebot: “We’ve been working with Buzzmedia for some time and they’ve been an exceptional advertising partner, working with us on a full range of ad products, from banners, site skins, to custom site features. We are a small team, mostly focused on product, and it’s difficult for us to effectively sell advertising on our own, so it’s great to partner with such a competent team. On a geeky level (I write software, after all), even the tech implementation of ad delivery is impressive”.
