Talent show guru Simon Cowell is taking his popular television formula to find new stars seeking fast fame to YouTube, joining a growing trend of companies using the Internet to bypass traditional broadcasters. Cowell, the mastermind behind global TV franchises “The X Factor” and “Got Talent”, unveiled plans on Monday for the first global audition channel, called The You Generation, that will be launched in 26 countries on March 20. Syco Entertainment, Cowell’s joint venture with Sony Music, said it had teamed up with YouTube to run 26 fortnightly contests over the next year to give people the chance to upload audition videos showing their skills and win a cash prize. Our mission is to discover the world’s next big YouTube stars and showcase their amazing and unique talents on The You Generation channel,” they said in a joint statement. YouTube, the video-sharing website set up in 2005, has become a new way to uncover talent, most notably launching the career of Canadian teen pop star Justin Bieber. Read more

Prince loomed over South By Southwest Music–first as a rumor, then as a confirmed booking that sent fans scurrying around Austin for a ticket giveaway, and finally as a smooth force whose nearly three-hour performance ended at 3 a.m. He led his 22-piece New Power Generation band through a dizzying run of classics, obscurities and covers.

He followed an emphatic set by A Tribe Called Quest, whose four members were tight despite rapper Q-Tip’s quip that they got hired for the show “at the last minute.” Later, pausing among songs like “Can I Kick It” and “Bonita Applebum,” when he sensed the crowd wasn’t reciprocating Tribe’s energy, he cracked, “maybe we should break up again for the third time.” Read more

From Showbiz 411:

Rob Thomas–not the one from matchbox twenty– really wanted to make a movie of his long-cancelled TV series “Veronica Mars.” So he launched a Kickstarter campaign with Kristen Bell and other stars of the show that left the air 8 years ago.

Thomas writes on the Kickstarter site: “Warner Bros. wasn’t convinced there was enough interest to warrant a major studio-sized movie about Veronica and the project never got off the ground. After that, I tried to tamp down expectations. I didn’t want to be guilty — at least not twice — of building up hope when the odds seemed so long. Still, without fail, in every interview I do or every place I speak, I get the “will there be a Veronica Mars movie?” question. Even after a couple of years of downplaying the chances, I’d still run across blog postings headlined, “will Rob Thomas shut up about the Veronica Mars movie, already!” I was trying to. I promise.”

As Bell says in the video below, if they get $2 mil, they’re on to shoot this summer. It’s great pr, a fun video, and it builds on viewer loyalty. So I guess by summer 2014 we will have “Veronica Mars: The Movie.” Why not?

As of this morning, they’ve raised $2.5 million– a record for an indie film on Kickstarter–and it keeps climbing.

YouTube, the world’s largest digital repository of streaming media, will launch a subscription music service later this year. The service has its own negotiating team and operating unit but will likely have some overlap with new features also rumored to be coming to Google’s Android music platform, Google Play.

The two new services are defined by their respective places in the Google (GOOG) empire: Google Play for Android is a digital locker for music — users buy, store, and sort a collection of tracks; but on YouTube’s coming service, anyone can listen to tracks for free. Both services are said to be adding a subscription fee that will unlock additional features. For the YouTube-based service, this will likely mean ad-free access. Read more

Simply, the mothers of their 12 year old daughters called him rude and disrespectful. Many young fans left the city’s O2 Arena early this week without seeing their idol, sparking anger among both the devotees and their parents. But Justin explained he had to start his performance late due to ‘technical issues’ and was not as delayed as the two hours claimed. On Tuesday afternoon, he tweeted a series of rambling messages to his fans explaining his version of events following the furore which erupted after the highly anticipated show on Monday night. Justin tweeted: ‘last night i was scheduled after 3 opening acts to go on stage at 935 not 830 but because of some technical issues i got on at 10:10..so…

‘I was 40 min late to stage. there is no excuse for that and I apologize for anyone we upset. However it was great show and Im proud of that’and tonight we will run on time and look forward to putting on an amazing show for everyone in attendance. Read more