- Mike Shields, Mediaweek

NEW YORK Federated Media Publishing, the blog-centric ad network helmed by Industry Standard founder John Battelle, has partnered with Microsoft to launch CrowdFire, a music-themed social media platform where fans can share and consume videos, photos and personal accounts from live concerts.

In conjunction with the launch of CrowdFire, the companies said several kiosks would be placed at the upcoming Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco on Aug. 22-24, where attendees will be able to produce and upload their own video, audio and text accounts of the events, in what will serve as a mass test run for the new site. During the event, video screens will display a real-time "mashup" of the crowd-produced content.

In the meantime, Microsoft is helping promote the new community by posting news and information via platforms such as Hotmail, Windows Live Spaces and Microsoft Virtual Earth. Plus, Intel has signed on as CrowdFire's initial sponsor.

In a post on his blog today, Battelle explained that the idea for CrowdFire was sparked when he attended several recent music festivals, and saw how prominent cell phone cameras and other portable video recording devices have become. He theorized that music lovers might have an interest in seeing all this personal footage/reporting on the Web if someone were to compile it.

"What might happen if someone built a platform to let the crowd, the audience, upload their experiences of the music to a great big database, then mix, mash and meld them into something utterly new?" he wrote.