Jaworski's new ventures

Dave Jaworski and Skip Franklin, both former execs with the now-deceased PassAlong Networks, aren't letting moss grow on their plans for new ventures. Here's what they're up to, now.

Nth Track: Digital Music

Universal Music Group Distribution partners with TuneCore for release of artists' music. The release is out today. Also released this week, SONY Music Entertainment and EpicTilt's TapStar, a rythmn music game for iPhone users. See also our recent story on Bandbox and PassAlong Networks, and our earlier blurb on local iPhone app efforts. Love Don Tate's art at left (Austin American-Statesman).

SONY-IODA could crowd NVdigital startups

No sooner had the electrons dried on our story about Bandbox and PassAlong Networks, than we discovered today's release about the SONY-IODA alliance to create a new distribution and services network for the "independent label community." This move could create a bigger crowd, sooner than many might have expected. Here's the IODA release. Here's our story about the life-and-death cycle of a couple of local digital music startups, Bandbox and a new venture by former PassAlong CEO Dave Jaworski.

Passin' along news from PassAlong`

This is all going somewhere, right? PassAlong Networks' Founder Dave Jaworski has proven he can raise gobs of money, and he's trying to demonstrate that again, now. In the middle of it all, however, the company has just announced it's investing in a new president, one Ray Gary. The initial story's here.

Venture Catchup

My conversation with a VC here, yesterday, brought a reminder the decks are awash with dealflow. It's a buyer's market. Okay, not news. Meanwhile, we, too, have been busy. And tense, if not scared. Pls catch up: Congressman Jim Cooper is staking a bigger claim in the entertainment, patents, copyrights area... CEO, Author, Teacher Rick Oliver is diving into the dealflow with his own D-round American Learning Solutions offering... PassAlong CEO Dave Jaworski really should just be a VC/PE guy, because he's announcing before the close a $30MM round, the kind of touting only a guy who's already raised $40MM-plus can do... Janos Sztipanovits, one of the top scientists leading the exodus from the VU campus to Music Row, is pretty direct about Nashville needing to get its sci-tech act together... Meanwhile, over at SiteMason, co-founders Moses and Conner look as relaxed as two SNL veterans waiting for their cue... Anything going on at your place?

Ultra-quiet Griffin Technology now Tweeting

Tomorrow makes a month since Griffin Technology, arguably Nashville's quietest big technology company -- driven by inventing new gadgets for iPod users -- began tweeting as griffintech. Blame it all on Nashvillian Dave Delaney (at left), the promoter-evangelist Griffin hired Sept. 8 as its social-media coordinator. Delaney tells us through his blog that he's also still speaking at public events, consulting on marketing and threatening to create more events akin to those he's co-invented locally, including BarCamp and PodCamp. Some other Nashville companies are gettin' it, apparently. E.g., PassAlong Networks CEO Dave Jaworksi is into tweeting, while others, like Gibson Guitar, are doing things like launching a Second Life 3-D community.