Pasadena, Calif. - Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG's Epic/Legacy Recordings on Friday announced a promotion for the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album, in the form of a video mashup that will let users insert themselves as Jackson in the legendary music video to the title track. The label teamed with Big Stage and YouTube (NASD: GOOG) on the promotion, which prompts users to upload photos of themselves, which will then be turned into a 3D avatar by Big Stage and integrated into a version of the video with its own YouTube page.

Pasadena, Calif. - Big Stage, a developer of technology that lets users create and share life-like, 3D avatar images of themselves, then integrate them into famous movie scenes, TV shows, video games and music videos, on Tuesday announced a private beta launch of its service, which is expected to launch publicly in the second quarter of 2008.