Zoo finds opportunities in music industry

Since announcing in September the availability of its toolset for iTunes production, Zoo has been working with a number of film studios, including Warner Bros, to adapt video content for sale through Apple’s iTunes store.

In a statement, the company said today: “As a result of this, and given the success of the electronic books market, Zoo has augmented its media collaboration platform to include an eBook builder which provides an efficient and cost-effective way for publishers to repurpose traditional books for sale online, across a wide range of genres including picture books, comics, travel guides, cookery books and reference publications.

“This new tool works in conjunction with Zoo’s software for managing collaborative workflows, adapting materials into multiple languages, and providing storage and distribution of content for multiple eBook vendors.

“Zoo has begun working with a number of traditional publishers in the US and Europe to enable high quality adaptations of existing products for sale online. According to a recent report from Futuresource Consulting, in 2010 the eBook market grew by more than 200 per cent to a value of more than 900m US dollars.”

Another area of development for Zoo is the music industry, where publishers are beginning to promote their products with materials using Apple’s iTunes LP format. iTunes LP and iTunes Extras are “interactive experiences” created to accompany music and films.

Zoo has created an interactive content editor to prepare these and other packages to which iTunes LP support has been added.

The initial customers include a number of music publishers in the US, UK and France.

According to Strategy Analytics, digital music revenues in 2012 will reach 2.8bn US dollars and surpass physical sales for the first time.

Stuart Green, chief executive of Zoo, said “The electronic sell through market is clearly one of the most exciting developments in recent history for all forms of media sales, and we’re delighted to be playing an increasing role. The incredible growth in the electronic books market has been well documented of late and we believe that there are also substantial opportunities within the music industry.”