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June 02, 2008

Reputation Is A Scarce Good... As Metallica Is Learning

(* Source: Mike Masnick *)

 

Mike reports... 

We wrote about Metallica's latest foray online, where it's attempting to build a community around its latest music. Given Metallica's history of attacking Napster all the way back in 2000, we expected there to be some pushback, but what was really stunning was how many of the comments were from people (many of whom had been big fans of the band) still pissed off about Metallica's actions, and refusing to have anything to do with the band. We weren't the only ones to notice. Wired had a story on Metallica's efforts and discovered exactly the same thing. The vast majority of the comments were vehemently negative. Clearly, Metallica really tarnished its reputation by its actions eight years ago, and it's still paying for it.

This brings up a good point, that we've mentioned in the past in the comments, but not so clearly in a post. A person, organization, band or company's reputation is an important "scarce" good -- and once damaged, it's quite difficult (though not impossible) to rebuild the shattered goodwill. When talking about what would happen in a world without copyright, for example, people often say "but in a world without copyright, couldn't someone just copy your own creation and pretend they were their own." The answer is yes, but they do so at the risk to their own reputation. If the news comes out that the person/organization/band/whatever was taking others' works and not giving credit where it was due, that would harm their reputation. And, as Metallica is learning, a tainted reputation can have serious long-term impact.

 

Photobucket 

Posted by brian tiong at 09:22 AM | | Comments (0)

February 29, 2008

Google Relaunches Jotspot

(* Source: Michael Arrington *)

 

Mike says...

Google acquired hosted wiki service Jotspot in October 2006. The service immediately stopped taking new users, although existing users were supported. Now, nearly sixteen months later, Jotspot has been relaunched under the Google Apps team, as Google Sites.

Google Sites looks absolutely nothing like Jotspot, other than the fact that both are hosted wikis. All of the structured data templates launched by Jotspot in July 2006 have been stripped out. Users now have a choice between just five basic templates - a standard wiki, a dashboard where google gadgets can be embedded, a blog-like template for announcements, a file cabinet for file uploads, and a page for lists of items. Instead of creating structured templates, users will now simply embed spreadsheets, presentations and word documents from Google Docs, as well as Google Calendars, YouTube Videos and Picasa Albums.

Like Google Docs, Google Sites wikis can be made private, shared with others, or made public. Users can select from a variety of templates, but cannot yet customize the look and feel of the site. Somewhere down the road, Google says, they’ll release an API for the new service as well. Editing is done with a rich text editor that allows for basic formatting.

Google Sites is a free product, with limitations on support and storage (10 GB). Users can upgrade their Google Apps account to a standard edition, also free, and map their own domains to the site. A premier edition is also available for $50/user/year that includes a service level agreement, support and more admin capabilities.

All wiki pages have RSS feeds associated with them to allow users to track any changes.

Existing Jotspot users will continue to be supported on the old platform for the near future, and they will also be given instructions for porting their Jotspot wikis to Google sites.

In an interview today, Google’s Management Director of Enterprise Matthew Glotzbach called the combined products under Google Apps a “Microsoft Sharepoint killer” because it’s allowing businesses to collaborate without all that expensive Microsoft software. It may not be a Sharepoint killer yet, but Google Apps constitutes 2-3% of Google’s total revenues. Some point soon, its going to start hurting Microsoft.

Sample screenshots:


 

Posted by brian tiong at 01:25 PM | | Comments (0)

February 01, 2008

Meebo Turns Chat Rooms Into A Web Service

(* Source: Erik Schonfeld *) 

 

 rev3screenshot-meebo.png

 

Erik says... 

Web-based IM and chat room provider Meebo is releasing full-fledged APIs for its Meebo Rooms that will allow Websites to embed chat functionality in an automated fashion. Currently, Meebo Rooms can be embedded on sites or blogs manually by pasting in the appropriate code, which has already led to a proliferation of such widgets. There are more than 200,000 Meebo Rooms, attracting millions of visitors a month. (See our previous coverage here and here). Explains Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg:

Now, the servers of our partners can say, “I want to create a room.” It automates the creation process on a server-to-server basis. Also, we will be putting advertising into these rooms.

In addition to the APIs, the company is also announcing the Meebo Network, which will serve ads inside Meebo Rooms across the Web, splitting the revenues with the Websites hosting the rooms. Since each Meebo Room is formed around a particular interest, ads can be targeted. And to the extent that sites participating in the network have demographic data on their members, that can be used for ad targeting as well. Only Meebo Rooms created through the API will show ads, not the ones created manually.

The launch partners joining the Meebo Network are Piczo, Revision3, RockYou, Social Project, and Tagged. Revision3, for instance, will create a Meebo room on its site where fans can watch a synchronized loop of Web TV shows while chatting. Access to the full APIs and the ad network is by invitation only at this point. Social networks could use the new APIs to automatically add chat rooms to every group page. Rock bands or movie sites could add Meebo Rooms to their sites for visiting fans.

 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:49 AM | | Comments (0)

December 18, 2007

Being Useful

(* Source: Neil Perkin *) 

 

 

"Communities already exist and the question these magnates should ask instead is how they can help them to do what they want to do."

 

A statement that is true and close to my marketing heart and one that I have been preaching for the year.  Once brand/ marketing managers and understand this point, the community actions that follow will make a lot more (common) sense.  Good stuff Neil.   

 

Commonsense2

Neil says...

Re-reading a Jeff Jarvis Guardian column from earlier this year and thinking about all those brands (media and otherwise) who so desperately want to be liked and surround themselves with communities of likeminded advocates, I was reminded of how often the key dynamic in this relationship is missed:

"At Davos this year, a powerful newspaper publisher beseeched Mark Zuckerberg, the young founder of the hugely successful social network Facebook, for advice on how he could build and own his community. The famously laconic Zuckerberg replied "You can't". Zuckerberg went on to explain that communities already exist and the question these magnates should ask instead is how they can help them to do what they want to do."

Worth reminding ourselves that, just as you don't 'control' conversations, you don't 'build' or 'own' communities either.

 

Posted by brian tiong at 01:23 PM | | Comments (0)

November 14, 2007

Bebo Open Media: Bebo Makes Its Platform Move


(* Source : Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says : 

bebo logo

Today’s big announcement from Bebo is Open Media, a new platform that gives Bebo users the ability to include premium music and video content in their profiles. On the other side of the equation are media companies which are able to use their own branded video players without being charged for access to the Open Media platform. This means that partners can tap into Bebo’s 40 million users, give them content, carry their own advertising and retain all the ad revenue for themselves. Bebo has also had a redesign, as you can see from the screenshot below.

    bebo

In practice, this means that users will now have a Personal Video Profile, where they will be able to store their favorite videos and share them with friends.

Let’s hear that in marketingese (TM): Open Media offers users access to a lineup of high quality programs from professional broadcasters, independent producers and other rights owners, enhancing Bebo’s already-rich archive of user-generated content. Greg Clayman, Executive Vice President of Digital Distribution for MTV Networks says: “Bebo’s new Open Media platform allows us to distribute our content and our marketing partners’ messages in an environment where consumers can quickly and easily share it with others and forge even deeper communities around the programming they love.”

There’s an “intelligent content discovery mechanism” there, too, which will match users who have similar taste in music and videos. Users will also be able to receive online and mobile alerts when new content appears on the media channels they choose.

One of the most important aspects of Open Media is the fact that partners will be able to set up their pages and control how their content is distributed all by themselves. This will be done through “Channel Profiles”, which are new types of profiles designed to be used by media companies. Channel profiles include user comments, reviews, forums, blogs, promo materials, and cross-promotion from other media companies.

How does all this compare to Facebook’s recently announced Pages? You guessed it: it’s a very similar thing. We’ll see if advertisers prefer one over the other soon enough, but with Bebo’s slant towards videos, music and entertainment it seems that their intention is to carve a smaller, more focused niche for themselves.

Bebo’s Open Media partners currently include:

BBC
BSkyB
CBS
Channel 4
Crackle
Endemol
ESPN
FabChannel
ITN
JibJab
Kontraband
Last.fm
Ministry of Sound
MTV Networks
Music Nation
Next New Networks
Premium TV
SumoTV
Turner Broadcasting Systems
Ustream
VBS
Yahoo!

Some more screenshots below:

    Bebo exploreBebo music

Posted by brian tiong at 03:18 PM | | Comments (0)

BoomShuffle: Snocap’s Comeback Album?


(* Source : Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says :
boomshuffle-l.png

Mixtapes are all the rage, and Snocap - which ran aground and fired most of its employees in October - isn’t missing a beat. It’s launching a new service called BoomShuffle, which is a mixtape service powered by Snocap’s Digital Registry. What you can do with this new feature is create online mixes from Snocap’s catalog of tracks, and then invite friends to collaborate on a mix by adding songs as well. Now you have a group effort that’s gone into creating the ultimate digital mixtape.

It’s drop-dead simple to create a mixtape. Give it a title and a description, choose a background, and search for songs. If you have anything less than 15 songs, then your mixtape will only play 30-second clips once it’s shared with friends or placed on the web. Otherwise Searching for music to add is pretty easy as well.

There are popular artists and albums for you to choose from immediately, search options for artist, album or song name, and genre searches as well. For a minute there, I thought that some of the default artists that displayed had been selected based on my mixtape’s title and description–wouldn’t that be cool? I could automatically get Michael Bolton search results if I title my mixtape “Corny Wedding Reception circa 1992.” Good thing there’s also a handy “commentary” section which will let you indicate your justification behind each song choice, which will all display on the widget as your songs play.

From there, you can invite friends via email or other Snocap users. Now they can add their choices to the mixtape. On the mixtape widget, there is a pretty comprehensive menu for artist and song info, purchase links, and even an option for site visitors to copy the mixtape for their own use. Other recent mixtape services include Fuzz and Mixaloo.

    boomshuffle-s.png

Editor’s note: apologies to Snocap for jumping the embargo on this: it’s already out on another site

Posted by brian tiong at 02:37 PM | | Comments (0)

November 13, 2007

Why You Need to Make a Facebook Fan Page for Your Website NOW!

(* Source: Dave Rigotti *)


A first take for Marketers on Fan pages on Facebook by Dave. Try it...
 
 
Dave says...
 
When Facebook announced the Fan pages, there were a number of mixed reviews.  Some where hailing it and its integration to the new advertising platform and some hated it – claiming it was turning Facebook into Myspace.  Whatever your stance is, here are 6 reasons you need to make a Facebook page for your website or company now.

1. Pages are public.  Most of Facebook is behind a login, preventing search engines from indexing.  However, some Fan pages are not behind a login and thus search engines can index the page.  Hopefully, people will stumble on the result in SERPs, visit the Facebook page, and then get to your site via the link (see reason #2).

2. Pages include links.  Because the pages are public, you can get some nice facebook.com link credit.  You can’t use an anchor text, but hey, it’s free.

3. Send “updates to fans”.  One of the greatest features is that you can send “updates” to fans whenever you want.  It’s a nice way of building a database of interested users.  Send messages about new products, updated website, etc.

4. You control the page.  Making the page before a Fan or a competitor is critical.  You want to be able to send the messages, edit or remove sections, and control the information to an extent.

5. News feed.  When a someone joins a Fan page, it’s published in their News feed for all their to read (unless they have turned this off).  It makes someone joining your Fan page somewhat viral.

6. It’s free and easy.  Making a Fan page takes just a few minutes – add some information, URL, and upload the logo and you’re done.  You can make your page
here.


 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:15 AM | | Comments (0)

November 07, 2007

Habbo Hotel Wants to Sell You Music


(* Source : Virtual World News *)

 

 

 

 

 

Habbo Hotel launched the Traxmaxhine back in June to bring music to the virtual world. Right now they act as basic jukeboxes for user-created tunes, but Habbo wants to use them as stores for existing artists as well. While record sales are falling and artists are looking for alternative distribution methods, labels are apparently dragging their feet over compensation and digital rights management issues before getting into the virtual world.

"Habbo users want the ability to support and identify themselves with their favorite bands or recording artists inside our virtual community,”  Teemu Huuhtanen, President N. A. and EVP for Habbo business at Sulake told Digital Media Wire. “We are continuing to work with the major record labels on the issue of digital rights and compensation to provide our user base what they are asking for – a way to purchase in Habbo songs and digital goods licensed by label artists."

There.com has a partnership with Capital Music Group, which allows users to purchase CDs from interactive kiosks, but not digital tracks. Likewise, MTV has made big moves in virtual worlds, and Vside has always had a strong music theme with ties to both Interscope and Downtown Records. And plenty of people allow you to upload content, but it seems like nobody has made it easy to buy mainstream digital music and integrate it with your virtual world experience. Or are we missing someone?

[via Digital Media Wire]

 

Posted by brian tiong at 01:50 PM | | Comments (0)

November 06, 2007

Kylie Konnects with Fans on the Handset


(* Source : NextGreatThing *)

Allison says :

kylie.jpg

Artists and labels have been exploring different ways to market and monetize their music beyond MySpace. We just heard that Sony BMG is going to be selling J Lo’s latest album, Brave, on a fancy wooden flash drive (for $70!!) Meanwhile, artists are dropping their labels like bad habits. AmieStreet, MOG, Pure Volume, Indistr, Sellaband, Navio, Roadsound, iFanz, RCRDLBL, iMeem, Popfolio… These are just a few sites out of hundreds they can use to do promotion, distribution, and sales. In addition to the bands we mentioned last week, even the Oldies are going new media; the Eagles, Joni Mitchell and now Aretha Franklin have all dropped their labels to try the digital model.

The next frontier is the handset. Mozes has taken a step there by enabling bands to text fans updates and messages. The real application, though, will be mobile social networking sites, like the newly launched KylieKonnect for Australian singer Kylie Minogue. The dot mobi site (www.kyliekonnect.com redirects to ourtribe.mobi) lets fans blog, communicate with other users and upload images and video all via mobile phone. There is a Kylie’s own blog, a newsfeed and place to buy Monogued-up wallpapers and ringtones. The site, set up by New Visions Mobile, will allow Kylie’s fans to establish a closer connection with her (or the illusion of one), and she will likely profit off it through site sales. Unfortunately for fans, Mashable reports that you seem to need a European-based mobile number to register, just going to show that this sort of technology not as widely embraced (and developed) in the U.S. as it is in Europe, Australia, and Asia.

 

Posted by brian tiong at 04:48 PM | | Comments (0)

October 31, 2007

Who's Who in Mobile Worlds: 10 Plays to Watch


(* Source : Virtual World News *)

Obviously mobile tie ins for virtual worlds are a big deal. From a marketer's perspective, the best things about virtual worlds--their immersive, tight communities--suddenly become all pervasive. From a user's stand point, well, it's pretty much the same.  While the Yankee Group's recent study has had its math called into question, its argument that Anywhere Consumers will drive the future is still a compelling one. "Companies that provide remote access—through mobile devices or other means—to their web experience will have a greater impact than pc-centric companies," said Senior Analyst Christopher Collins. With companies from Sony and Microsoft to third-party hackers in Second Life looking at ways to give users another screen to head into the world on, it looks like consumers will have plenty of options. We present a round up of the major plays being made.

1. Sony's Playstation3 Home: Although it's been delayed until Spring 2008, this console-based virtual world has  a lot of people--both hardcore gamers and worldophiles--excited. Sony is working on tie ins to its games, portable devices, and marketing partners for business, but it wants to take all of those connections mobile. Executive Vice President Phil Harrison said ,"We have the Home client now running on a mobile phone. The touchpoints and community experience of home are expanding to the mobile environment." At the very least, users should be able to upload and download content like pictures from their phone to their Home.

2. Microsoft: No one knows what Microsoft's virtual world play will be, but at  the Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo, Daniel Schiappa, Microsot's General Manager for the Strategy Entertainment and Devices Division, set out some plans for the future: "If a year from now we don’t have anything, then we probably won’t have anything." While Microsoft already has outlets in the Xbox 360 and PC, Schiappa said the company's goals would be to include all of its devices, including mobile.

3. Second Life: Linden Lab isn't doing anything official for a mobile client--at least that they've announced--but there's a flurry of activity out there for third parties to fill the gap. The ngi group's 3Di.jp released its Web-based application, Movable Life, earlier this month, which is also accessible through mobile applications. Comverse Technologies, though, was working on its mobile client back in February, and there's plenty more out there.

4. Habbo Hotel: Earlier this month, we reported that Sulake had 110,000 users on its experimental mobile client. At Virtual Worlds Fall, CEO Timo Soininen told us that the world had 120,000 users, and  Sulake had plans: "It's just been a research project up until now. We wanted to have a proof of concept to show it could be done. We're currently using the Nokia Symbian platform, so you need a Nokia phone. But it is exciting. We're discussing with various parties how to take it to a new height. Because it's clearly proven that there's demand. For Habbo we've had the basic technology for almost two and a half years, but the operating costs for data has been preventitively expensive up until now, especially with the young demo. And the technology reach for the young demo has been low, up until about a year ago. So it might go for a slightly older audience."

5. Disney: Disney's had its fingers in virtual worlds for a while, but it made a gigantic leap in August with its acquisition of Club Penguin. Tucked away in the press release for the sale was this tidbit: "Strategically, Disney plans to develop a Disney-branded connected entertainment network that allows users to access Disney-branded content, including virtual worlds and Disney.com games and videos, any time and anywhere, as well as communicate with each other across platforms, through a Web-based hub connected with PCs and mobile devices such as cell phones and game platforms." Disney  already has firm plans to create a sort of metaverse network for its Nintendo DS games with DGamer, which will allow users to "chat, create personal avatars and trade game-themed items, across the room or anywhere in the world with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection."

6. Cyworld: In June the Cyworld US offices explained that they had plans to go mobile for the US market in the first quarter of 2008. Cyworld's parent company SK Telecom has a relationship with Sprint (via Helio) and T-Mobile USA’s parent company in Germany, so the corporate infrastructure shouldn't be too hard to put into place. In Korea, the mobile application has brought Cyworld 2.5 million users, so it's an understandable desire. “We’ve been dragging our feet on this, because we want to get it right," Cyworld USA Vice President of Marketing and Sales Michael Streefland told GigaOM . "We commissioned a research report to figure out what Cyworld Mobile would be in the U.S., and we’re still figuring that out.”

7. There.com: There doesn't seem to be any rush to go mobile, but when we spoke with CEO Michael Wilson in July he remarked that "We believe in extending the platform to as many devices as possible and to more light-weight devices. We’ll be making an announcement next month about lighter weight devices. The problem is that the just doesn’t have a good network. If we were in Asia it would be easier." We haven't heard that announcement yet, though, and There.com says there's nothing to report at this time.

8. Trion: When Trion received $30M in funding in July, CEO Lars Buttler said that the company is pursuing a technology that "essentially build games that are more real time and dynamic, so we can deliver storylines on a daily basis." The game will feature multiple channel-like components across multiple platforms, allowing users to access their information from PCs and mobile devices."

9. Moshi Monsters: These upcoming toys from MindCandy, I don't think, engage directly through a cell phone interface, but they do work with your ring tone. The Guardian reports, in Aleks Krotoski's take on mobile worlds, that the release asks users to "Clip your moshi monster to your bag or jacket, then relax and do whatever you want to do! When your mobile rings your MoPod magically springs to life!"

10. Everybody Else: Because no day is complete without a little rumor mongering, let's not forget that Google is supposedly  working on a virtual world, and it's set to make an announcement about its (separate?) mobile platform within a matter of weeks.

More seriously, mobile is booming as its own separate channel for entertainment, marketing, and engagement. In June Forrester reported  that 3 of the 15 largest interactive agencies in the U.S. see virtual worlds as having one of the greatest impacts on their design practices. But 12 of 15 see the mobile channel as significant. If virtual worlds want to go mainstream,  there's not a much simpler direction than mobile. And as more virtual worlds place a premium on casual elements, it seems like a sure thing.

Did we forget someone? Maybe. Do you know of more happening in mobile virtual worlds? Hopefully. Let us know.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:55 PM | | Comments (0)

October 30, 2007

CNN Goes Virtual

(* Source : Mike Shields *)

cnn-l.gif


As news organizations slash budgets and scale back bureaus, CNN is expanding—except not in real life.

In the week of Nov. 5, the news giant is set to open a news-gathering outpost in Second Life. And unlike news service Reuters, which embedded a real reporter in the online virtual world last year, CNN will rely on Second Life "residents" to do all the legwork.

In the space, the network will create a variation of its i-Reports, the real-world vehicle through which average citizens contribute eyewitness reports. CNN will equip Second Life denizens with kits enabling them to transmit copy and photos. Visitors to Second Life will be able to get the latest news via kiosks scattered throughout the virtual community.

And the network will act as a sort of journalism school, offering guidance to avatar citizen journalists via weekly "news meetings" directed by CNN.com staffers. And top CNN personalities including Larry King will conduct virtual training sessions for budding cyber journalists.

Given that Second Life users tend to be highly passionate about the virtual space, CNN execs believe the community will embrace user-generated journalism—more than they would embrace simply repurposed content.

"We looked at what are people doing [in Second Life] that is meaningful to what we do," said Susan Grant, executive vp of CNN News Services. "I love that we don't have to take things from the real world and force them in."

As for whether the world of Second Life will generate news events worthy of reporting, i-Report producer Lila King is not concerned. After all, visitors to the online world include news-making personalities like Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who most recently had the public guessing whether he'd jump into the presidential race (he hasn't).

CNN's association with Second Life comes at a time when the digital phenomenon is awash in media hype but still far from cracking the mainstream. Its unique user base has hovered between 400,000 and 700,000 per month over the last year, according to Nielsen Online, and has twice fallen below the research firm's minimum reporting threshold.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:51 AM | | Comments (0)

October 29, 2007

PanRaven’s Online Scrapbook used to Promote Nelly’s Album


(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

PanRaven has teamed up with Universal Mowtown Records to create a promotional story for Nelly, who’s getting ready to release his first album in 3 years, “Brass Knuckles.” You may remember that PanRaven is an online tool for creating stories, similar to scrap-booking services like ScrapBlog.

With this particular partnership, a story of Nelly’s filming of the video for his most recent Single “Wadsyaname” is being published on PanRaven’s website, as well as Nelly’s website and MySpace profile. PanRaven is also promoting the story through its Facebook application. The story contains exclusive, behind the scenes footage from the filming of a music video.

And in an effort to encourage users to virally spread this promotion, PanRaven and Universal are holding a contest. The person that spreads the promotion the furthest and widest across the web will win a trip to a future filming session of a Nelly video. The runner-up gets some autograhped merchandise. Not too shabby, as far as prizes go. Kanye West, 50 Cent and Bruce Springsteen have all held similar promotions on MySpace in recent weeks.

 

    panraven-nelly-s.png
     

Posted by brian tiong at 12:07 PM | | Comments (0)

October 26, 2007

Rockband.com Offers Social Networking


(* Source : David Radd


Hang out and rock out online

Harmonix and MTV Games today revealed the details for Rockband.com. The site will launch on November 20 simultaneously with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game and will feature band pages, classifieds, leaderboards, blogs, forums and more. San Francisco-based Mekanism was tapped to build the social networking site.

"Rockband .com blurs the lines between fantasy and reality," said Melissa Macaulay, Producer of Rockband.com, Harmonix. "The site allows you to hype your in-game band's accomplishments, while providing a forum to meet other real-life people and potential band mates who share your musical tastes."

"We see Rockband.com as a true extension of the Rock Band world. It will be an awesome way to meet new people who have similar musical tastes," said Josh Randall, Creative Director for Harmonix. "With Rockband.com players will be able to come together and express themselves in a collaborative manner, which is what playing music is all about."

"We are designing Rockband.com as an online home for your band, and as a creative platform for living out your rock and roll fantasy," said Pete Caban, partner at SF-based digital studio Mekanism. "The b ands and rockers that you can create in Rock Band are insanely unique, and it's going to be fascinating to watch this community come to life."



 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:56 AM | | Comments (0)

October 23, 2007

Glam vs. Geek?


(* Source : Newsweek *)

Brian Braiker says :

Photo illustration: Newsweek.com; photos: istockphoto.com
 
Fighting for members, MySpace tries to outcool Facebook

Do you Facebook or MySpace? Increasingly, membership in one social network does not necessarily rule out the appeal of belonging to the other. Of course, each company wants you visit their site more often than the other (if not exclusively)—all the more reason to differentiate. To that end, MySpace, the 800-pound News Corp.—owned gorilla, made three major announcements this week—two of which served to underscore a deepening fundamental difference in philosophy from its closest rival, Facebook. "MySpace is Hollywood and Facebook is Silicon Valley," says David Card, a senior analyst for Jupiter Research. Or you could put it this way: MySpace is glam; Facebook is geek. Not that there's anything wrong with either.

MySpace announced Tuesday that it has forged a splashy licensing agreement with Sony BMG—the world's second largest label—for access to streaming videos, music and other content. The partnership calls for the social-networking giant and the music studio to share advertising revenue. And in a bid to conquer the social-networking world beyond U.S. borders, MySpace will soon be offering its 110 million active monthly users free voice chats via a new partnership with Skype (220 million strong, mostly outside of the States). In a new service called MySpace IM with Skype, the Internet phone company will enhance the MySpace instant messaging service with new free VoIP capabilities starting November. (The companies will split the revenue, but specifics of the arrangement were not disclosed.)

These moves stand in direct contrast to Facebook, which instead of teaming with major media players to build services for its network of 47 million active users, allows third-party developers to build applications. A staggering 6,000 applications have been built for Facebook just this year. "We are not a media company," Mark Zuckerberg, the wunderkind brains behind Facebook, announced at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week. Analysts are inclined to agree. "I think there's a core philosophical difference, but [it's] the same revenue engine at the end," says Jupiter's Card. That engine, of course, is advertising. But with its Skype and Sony BMG announcements, original programming and hosting concert tours, MySpace seems to be morphing into an entertainment portal where everyone is in your extended network (and a potential audience member).

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 03:15 PM | | Comments (0)

Artists Create New Music Revenue Models


(* Source : David Fischman *)

 Years after the Napster revolution liberated music, industry labels are still hot on fighting the war on piracy. Earlier this month, the association representing big players like Capitol Records and Sony BMG hailed their first victory ever on the legal front, a $222,000 penalty against a Minnesota woman found guilty of illegally sharing music online. But few, if any, believe this isolated win will alter the decisively linear trend of those swapping tunes on the web. At this point, people see the content issue as settled: free music is their right. If the establishment standing in their way has any knowledge of history, they’d work to find new ways to engage “the people” in order to stay relevant—or perhaps more importantly, employed.

This past week at CMJ, musicians, managers (and those aspiring to be) filled rooms at NYU’s Kimmel Center to hear industry advice on how new bands can “make it” in these changing times. One panel, “Music Business Primer: Marketing and Promotion”, had a message for the music industry—you’re not going to win this one, recognize that free music is the future and just work to control it. The panelists suggested that bands should consider releasing free downloads as a way to build community around their music. The MuseBox’s George Davis described the new revenue model well: “It’s all about tickets and t-shirts.”

Prince has been working this model with much success. The artist, who escaped his contract with Warner Music in 1994, had the music industry in a huff when he gave his most recent album away with a British newspaper. A digital music pioneer, Prince also lent early support to P2P and was one of the first to sell music directly from his website. Madonna Now Madonna is following suit by leaving Warner Music and signing with Live Nation for a $120 million 10-year deal. As she explained, “The paradigm in the music business has shifted.” While the deal will require Madonna to produce three more albums, the real focus is clearly on expanded touring and merchandise that Madonna, as her own brand, can sell to fans. The Live Nation deal includes all-things-Madonna, including everything from her website to DVDs, music-related TV and film projects, and corporate sponsorships. For someone who is a walking commodity, perhaps this is the best way to go.

But free music can actually make money again. Bands and labels should stop working outside the trend and, instead, ride the digital wave by directly engaging fans.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:37 AM | | Comments (0)

October 22, 2007

New App Merges Facebook and Second Life

(* Source : Sean P. Aune *)

Second Life logo

A new application for Facebook is merging the social network with that other king of time killing, Second Life.

Called Second Life Link, the new app allows you to display your avatar on your profile, and also indicate when you’re on and off line in the virtual world. If your friends also have the app installed, you’ll be able to see each other’s avatars. The new application also allows you to share your favorite locations in the popular virtual world. This will allow them to teleport to your location easily when you’re online, or allow them to see your home, even when you’re not there.

With the popular CBS show, CSI:New York, having an episode revolve around a murder in Second Life this week, and encouraging viewers to check out the virtual murder, there are sure to be lots of new players this week. Seems like a perfect time for a Facebook app to me with so many new people getting introduced to the online world through mainstream media.

    Second Life Link

Posted by brian tiong at 11:50 AM | | Comments (0)

Over 6 million song plays on Ckrush through September


(* Source : Minic Rivera *)

ckrush.png

Ckrush Digital Network announced that it has recorded over 6 million individual song plays year to date through September 2007. The millions of song plays are happening at the Ckrush online music communities AudioStreet.net and MixStreet.net. AudioStreet.net is home to over 50,000 independent bands and music artists and MixStreet.net is home to over 20,000 DJs. As music-based social networks, AudioStreet and MixStreet are in one of the hottest sectors on the web and continue to establish themselves as important music communities.

AudioStreet.net recorded approximately 300,000 song plays for the month of September and approximately 3,000,000 song plays year to date. MixStreet.net recorded approximately 230,000 song plays for the month of September and approximately 3,600,000 year to date. A song play occurs when a user of either AudioStreet or MixStreet listens to one of the thousands of songs artists have placed on the sites.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:29 AM | | Comments (0)

October 17, 2007

Napster relaunches with Web-enabled platform


(* Source : Reuters *)

Yinka Agedoke says :

Photo


 

 

 

 

 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Napster Inc, the digital music service, said on Tuesday it plans to attract more customers by moving to a Web-based platform allowing users to play their music from any computer without having to download any additional software.

The move is intended to open up the service and attract more paying subscribers by making the Napster platform more flexible and compatible with any Internet-enabled device.

Before now most Napster subscribers could only listen to their music after downloading the Napster software application on to their personal computers. This is similar to a model currently used by Apple Inc's iTunes Music Store, which is the market leader with more than 70 percent of all digital music sales.

"With this new platform Napster can easily be integrated into consumer electronics devices or integrated into other Web sites such as social networking sites," said Christopher Allen, chief operating officer at Napster.

Napster sells a subscription service for $10 to $15 a month where users can stream or download an unlimited number of songs from its 5 million-strong library. But Napster's and other music subscription services have so far lagged behind larger rival iTunes, which uses a more traditional buy-to-own model. Itunes sells songs as permanent downloads at 99 cents each.

 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:28 AM | | Comments (0)

MySpace, Skype announce partnership

(* Source : Rachel Konrad *)


myspaceskype

SAN FRANCISCO - News Corp.'s MySpace will offer members of its popular social network free Internet phone calls with a new feature based on eBay Inc.'s Skype service, the companies announced Tuesday.

Users with a Skype account will be able to click a single button in their MySpace profile to call the computer or telephone of another member, so they could reach people in their network even when they're not online. The service will be available in 20 countries starting in November.

MySpace, the largest social-networking site with 110 million members, will share revenue from the deal with Skype, which allows customers to place long-distance calls using their computers. Skype, the Luxembourg-based division of eBay, has 220 million registered users.

Standard PC-to-PC phone calls will be free, but users must pay for "premium" options such as their own personal phone number, voice mail, call forwarding, and the ability to make calls from a computer to land lines or cell phones.

Executives would not disclose other financial terms of the deal, which comes as both companies strive to expand membership amid growing competition.

One of MySpace's biggest rivals is fast-growing Facebook.com, which has more than 47 million active users — including at least 200,000 new registrations per day since January.

More here

 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:10 AM | | Comments (0)

MySpace in ad-supported music deal with Sony BMG


(* Source : Reuters *)

 Yinka Adegoke says :

Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp's MySpace has reached a licensing deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment to stream music videos from its artists, who include Britney Spears, Beyonce Knowles and Bruce Springsteen.

MySpace, the world's most popular social networking site, said on Tuesday it will share advertising revenue with Sony BMG, which will make its music videos and select audio material available on artists' profile pages to MySpace's U.S. users.

The site has acted as a promotional platform for artists, particularly new and upcoming bands. But to date, MySpace has played a minor role as a revenue source for major music companies.

Instead, MySpace, which says it has more than 200 million users globally including 70 million active users in the United States, has been accused of allowing its users to upload music without authorization.

Last year, Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company owned by Vivendi, sued MySpace for copyright infringement by enabling users to reformat videos to be played back or sent to others.

Sony BMG is the world's second-largest music company and a joint venture between Sony Corp and Bertelsmann AG. Like its peers, it is seeking new ways to make money amid a rapid downturn in CD sales. Sales of digital music have so far failed to make up the shortfall.

Sharing advertising revenue with Web sites that air its videos for free to consumers has been one of the new business models that music companies are exploring.

"This new effort is a great way to build new audiences for our artists, bring value to fans, and offer exciting new opportunities to advertisers," Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business at Sony BMG, said in a statement.

Last month, Warner Music Group and Lala.com said they were experimenting with selling music from top-selling artist James Blunt through his MySpace page.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:03 AM | | Comments (0)

October 16, 2007

The New Advertising Outlet: Your Life


(* Source : NYTimes *)

Louise Story says :


Rob Bennett for The New York Times

Joggers in the Nike Running Club in Manhattan last month. Nike is spending more of its advertising dollars on services for consumers like workout advice, online communities and races.

STEVE SAENZ used to run a 10K race in 36 minutes. But last spring — 20 years, 2 children and 50 pounds later — he found himself seriously out of shape. A new Web site from Nike, he says, has brought him back on track.

Since April, Mr. Saenz, 53, has been running with a Nike+, a small sensor in his running shoes that tracks his progress on an Apple iPod he carries. After each run near his home in Louisville, Ky., he docks the iPod into his computer and posts details of his run on the Nike+ Web site. There, he has made friends with other runners around the world who post running routes, meet up in the real world and encourage one another on the site.

Nike’s famous swoosh is there all along. For Nike, this is advertising.

“It’s a very different way to connect with consumers,” says Trevor Edwards, Nike’s corporate vice president for global brand and category management. “People are coming into it on average three times a week. So we’re not having to go to them.”

The success of Nike+ is bad news for the traditional media companies that have long made money from Nike’s television commercials and glossy magazine ads.

Last year, Nike spent just 33 percent of its $678 million United States advertising budget on ads with television networks and other traditional media companies. That’s down from 55 percent 10 years ago, according to the trade publication Advertising Age.

“We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive,” Mr. Edwards says he tells many media executives. “We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.”

Mr. Edwards may be more blunt than most. But many large marketers are taking huge chunks of money out of their budgets for traditional media and using the funds to develop new, more direct interactions with consumers — not only on the Internet, but also through in-person events.

Adventurous companies like Nike have been experimenting with these alternatives since the 1990s. But now, even the most conventional marketers are making these alternatives a permanent — and ever bigger — part of their advertising budgets.

Last year, Johnson & Johnson decided to boycott the so-called upfronts, an annual event when advertisers get together with television executives to negotiate for commercial time. In August, General Motors said that 2008 would be the last year for its longtime sponsorship of the Olympics. In May, A. G. Lafley, the chief executive of Procter & Gamble, told financial analysts that the company would spend less on traditional media and more on its Web site, in-store advertising and promotional events.

“If you step back and look at our mix across most of the major brands,” Mr. Lafley said, “it is clearly shifting.”

More here 

 

Posted by brian tiong at 05:02 PM | | Comments (0)

Avatars Everywhere: 27 of the Best Avatar Makers


(* Source : Jordan Chark *)

    avatarroundup.PNG

Avatar creator Meez is back in the news this week, but there are dozens more avatar creation tools gunning for this market. Today we attempt an overview of that market: please add more suggestions in the comment section.

    weblin.jpg

Weblin- Create an avatar and use it as your virtual self within web pages in real-time, interacting with other Weblin users who share the same interests.

    meez1.jpg

Meez.com- Create a 3D animated avatar for export directly to most web profiles, blogs, etc.

    secondlife.jpg

Second Life- Use this extremely popular virtual world to do just about anything, but first, you have to create your avatar. Here, avatars can be customized almost entirely, with plenty of room to create a most accurate likeness of yourself.

    mypictr.jpg

Mypictr- Use any image and resize, crop, customize, and export it to many other web 2.0 social networking sites and profiles, like Facebook, and Digg.

    gizmoz.jpg

Gizmoz- Create, animate, and share photorealistic, great looking avatars, and even video clips featuring them. The animation and overall look of the avatar is sourced from a real picture, actually ending up almost like a personal CGI generator.

    wii.jpg

Mii Editor- Create your own “Mii”, the avatars characteristic of the Nintendo Wii.

    simps.jpg

Simpsons Avatar Maker- “Simpsonize yourself” by creating an avatar in the classic style of the Simpsons.

    gickr.jpg

Gickr- Instantaneously create an animate gif file by either uploading your own pictures, or sourcing from Flickr.

    grava.jpg

Gravatar- Create an 80×80 pixel avatar by uploading an image which is then associated with your email address, appearing on Gravatar enabled websites and blogs without additional effort.

    imvu.jpg

IMVU- Create and dress up your personal avatar which can then be used in their virtual chat-rooms or with their visual messenger client.

    fix8.png

fix8- Create, animate, and dress up your avatar primarily through interfacing with your webcam in order to capture real movement and look.

    zwinky.jpg

Zwinky- Customize your personal cartoon avatar and share it across the web.

    caric1.jpg

Digibody’s Caricature Maker- Use the components of a caricature to create your unique caricature avatar.

    faketown.jpg

Faketown- A pixel-art, avatar based, MMORPG, similar to second life, but much less realistically.

    doppelme.jpg

DoppelMe- Simply assemble an apparently “hand drawn” avatar image for use anywhere.

    sitepal.jpg

SitePal- A pay-based 3D, animated avatar creation service aimed towards business looking to create a personal presence on their website.

    gaia.jpg

Gaia- Another avatar-based MMORPG, this one, anime-styled.

    imbee.jpg

imbee- The social network for young people includes an avatar creator featuring images of animals from the National Geographic Kids library.

    myrl.jpg

Myrl- A social network based on avatars in the “metaverse”, supposedly using avatars to connect with the web by virtue of collaboration. Close to it’s beta launch, this definitely looks like something to keep an eye out for.

    kaneva.jpg

Kaneva- Yet another avatar-based virtual world, Kaneva looks like a valid Second Life alternative.

    blogscoped.jpg

Blogscoped- Chat with others in this virtual, visual, chatroom, which makes efficient use of user avatars. While it may not appear to be that “web 2.0″ it uses PHP, MySQL, Ajax, and the Google API, which effectively categorize it as so.

    moji.jpg

MojiKan- A somewhat odd MMORPG for customizable 3D pet avatars.

    frenzoo.jpg

Frenzoo- Customize and use one of their well-designed avatars in chats as well as a variety of other environments.

    clickbeurs1.jpg

Clickbeurs (Dutch)- Create an avatar and apply for a job through virtually chatting with potential employers, a somewhat odd idea.

    mrpicasso.jpg

Mr. Picassohead- Create stunning, Picasso-like paintings which are easily transformed into avatars.

    robbierock.jpg

Whyrobbierocks- Create a “stereotypical” avatar for use on various social networking sites, IMs, etc.

    weeworld.jpg

Weeworld- Interact with some quite uniquely designed avatars in a virtual world primarily based on chats and mini-games.

    voki.jpg

Voki- Create an avatar, record your voice, and share. A possible alternative to something like Sitepal, but geared more towards a less-business-oriented audience.

Honorable Mention

    wow.jpg

While all of the sites (except for a couple, added for their significantly customizable avatars and creation engines) above are primarily based upon the principle of avatar creation and customization, I’d like to quickly mention the importance of your “avatar”, or probably more aptly named character in many popular MMORPGs. The likes of which are probably most easily recognized in games like World of Warcraft.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:18 AM | | Comments (0)

fix8 Lands $3M for Webcam Avatars


(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Webcam avatar community fix8 has raised $3 million in a series a round of funding from Vickers Venture Group, which is a Singapore-based private equity firm. We first covered fix8 here.

You may remember that fix8 lets you create animated avatars with your webcam by reading your expressions and gestures. There are loads of tools that you can play around with, including fix8’s wide selection of avatars, and other accessories like voice manipulation, graphics and editing tools. These clips can then be embedded in your website or social networking profile, or use it for your instant messaging client like AOL, MSN, Skype or Yahoo Messenger.

fix8 has recently teamed up with Pringo for distribution purposes, Stickam , also Shanghai Media Group to create AuditionsTV, which makes interactive tv audiences able to participate during live or taped programs. Coming up, fix8 will be offering a mobile solution, which will surely extend the ways in which its avatar creation tool can be used for communicative purposes. See here for more avatar creation sites.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:41 AM | | Comments (0)

China plans virtual world for commerce


(* Source : Rachel Konrad *)

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Your favorite pants are fraying? You may soon be able to order replacements directly from the factory where they were made, according to the chief scientist of an ambitious Chinese Internet project.

China's government is building a vast virtual world dubbed Beijing Cyber Recreation District, which founders say will help the manufacturing superpower evolve into an e-commerce juggernaut.

Some supply-chain experts say the project is impossibly grandiose in its goal to provide direct links between tens of thousands of Chinese manufacturers and millions of individual customers around the world. But every "Made in China" label eventually could include a Web site where customers could order more — and Chinese factories would produce custom-made goods and send them directly to consumers' homes, mused Chi Tau Robert Lai, chief scientist of the virtual world.

The 3D world is supposed to be the online counterpart to the China Recreation District, a theme park, mall and playground being built in a former steel plant in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Some Chinese-language Web sites of the CRD are already up, but most of it — including the first direct links to manufacturers — won't come until the second half of next year at the earliest, Lai said.

In addition to connecting factories with people outside China, the project will allow businesses outside China to tap the nation's burgeoning middle class, he said.

"This makes you have to think of China in a different way," Lai said Thursday evening at the Virtual Worlds Conference & Expo in San Jose. "We are stepping back and trying to blend the human and the computer to touch everything associated with people's lives."

More here 

 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:35 AM | | Comments (0)

"CSI" gets a Second Life with integrated episodes


(* Source : Reuters *)

David Ward says :

Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of the CSI television show, speaks at the 2007 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada January 9, 2007. Zuiker dropped some clues to an upcoming Second Life integration with his CBS series in his address here Wednesday at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo. (Rick Wilking/Reuters) Reuters Photo: Anthony Zuiker

SAN JOSE, California (Hollywood Reporter) - "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker dropped some clues to an upcoming Second Life integration with his CBS series in his address here Wednesday at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo.

Zuiker was part of a Hollywood contingent at the event, signaling the mainstream entertainment business' growing investments in the sp