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(* Source : Mashable *)

Sean P. Aune says : 

Think the music industry is dying, and that it’s time to go independent? Or have you always favored smaller, independent record companies over huge bureaucratic institutions? Don’t worry, even if you don’t have dozens of spin doctors working for you, you can still promote your indie band online. We’ve got 25+ tools to help you do just that.

AmieStreet.com - A social network and music marketplace for indie artists. They give the artists 70% of the sale.

AnyGig.com - A place for musicians to get listed for small gigs, or find venues to play at.

Artistopia.com - An online venue for performers to give themselves an online presence with a profile and display their work.

BandBuzz.com - A social network where artists can set up a profile, upload their music and get reviewed and recommended by users.

BandChemistry.com - A site for musicians to find new members for their group or form a whole new band.

Bandwagon.co.uk - A social network for lovers of indie music where the bands can sell mobile content such as ringtones and wallpapers.

ChampionSound.com - Free mailing list manager for artists, promoters, and venues.

Elisteningpost.com - A way for musicians to upload their music and sell it just about anywhere they want such as MySpace and Facebook.

FireGigs.com - A site with the aim of promoting unsigned bands by arranging to get their music to be played in the background at cafes, coffee shops and more. Also promote you through a Facebook app and MySpace widget.

Fuzz.com - Lets performers upload their music sell it, as well as manage mailing lists and more.

HumbleVoice.com - A place for all types of independent artists, including musicians, to upload their work and promote it.

iJamr.com - Indie musicians upload their music and bloggers can display your songs on their sites for free, and if a sale is made, they blogger gets a cut.

Indistr.com - A company letting independent artists sell their music directly to the public and the musicians receive 75% of the sale.

mTraks.com - An online marketplace and network for indie artists to promote and sell their music.

Mubito.com - Allows you to set up a band website easily and sell MP3s. Two levels of stores with one of them being free.

Musicane.com - Promote and sell your music and ringtones.

MusicNation.com - A community of musician profile pages that engage regularly in competition for various prizes.

Panjea.com - Bring all yourclips from the web together and put them in to one player so they take up less space on your page, so you can promote all your music easily.

PocketFuzz.com - A place for musicians to sell ringtones of their works and notify their fans of news via mobiles.

Popfolio.net - A music widget provider for blogs that lets independent musicians upload their songs for inclusion, and possible sales.

PumpAudio.com - A service for indie artists to get their music licensed for television and film.

Ripple9.com - A site to help bands promote themselves on mobile devices to their fans. New sign-ups are frozen while they are being purchased by Google.

Scriggleit.com - Software you can use on a laptop at your merchandise table so people can sign up for your mailing list.

SessionSound.com - A site for independent musicians to try to stay indie by selling their music online.

Sonicbids.com - Allows you to construct a low cost electronic press kit that can be constantly updated so the recipients always get the latest version.

Unsigned.com - A site for unsigned bands to put up a profile page and host a playlist of MP3s to attract new listeners.

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(* Source : Techcrunch *)

Erick Schonfeld says : 

Facebook just got a whole lot friendlier for music artists. With the launch of Facebook Ads, it is welcoming bands and musicians to set up their own public Facebook pages where members can sign up as fans. Alas, there will be no standalone Facebook Music service. Instead, Facebook is treating music artists just like any other brands, which can also set up their own Facebook pages, collect fans, and market to them directly.

Yet, when it comes to music artists, one of Facebook’s most popular application developers, iLike, is doing the exact same thing. Already, any band or musician can create an iLike artist page on Facebook that includes their most popular songs (filtered by what your friends like), upcoming concert dates (click on a date and see if any of your friends are going), an artist blog called iCast, related artists, and a Fan Wall where Facebook members can leave notes. In fact, half-a-million have done so. And starting today, iLike will create duplicate versions of these marketing pages for them that work with Facebook’s new brand destination pages. Right out of the gate, iLike will generate 160,000 pre-populated artists pages that the musicians or the labels themselves can modify, or leave as is.

So if you are a music artist, you now have to make a decision: Do you go with the iLike page as your main Facebook page (and take advantage of the nearly 10 million members who use the iLike app), or do you go with your own advertiser page on Facebook? Case in point: the new Facebook page for 50 Cent (shown left) had only three fans when it first went up just after midnight, compared to 1.2 million fans on his iLike page on Facebook.

Well, it turns out that iLike does not care which page artists choose to call their home. Any widget on the iLike artist page—popular songs, upcoming concerts, the iCast blog, even the iLike button—can be plopped into a Facebook artist page (also known as a canvas page). And every link in each of those widgets takes you back to the Facebook application pages that iLike controls.

This is not an unintended consequence. I asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday about the potential here for Facebook to be competing with its own app developers. He responded, “What is the effect on app developers if we are making it possible for bands to have music pages? It increases distribution because your app can be on that page.”

Fair enough. But where does that leave Facebook in the fight for the hearts and marketing dollars of the struggling music industry? Already, I like iLike’s chances in this battle. But it doesn’t end within the confines of Facebook.

More here 

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(* Source : Wired *)

Jenna Wortham says :

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

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(* Source : Walstreet Journal *)

A feel-good film about a girl from the Chinese countryside who moves to the big city to discover love, blogging and Starbucks will premier this month in an unusual venue: Shanghai's subway.

"A Sunny Day," is scheduled to play exclusively on thousands of high-tech flat screen monitors on Shanghai's subway cars and station platforms.

Girl meets boy and Starbucks in 'A Sunny Day,' to be shown in installments

Tailored for an audience of 2.2 million who cram onto China's biggest underground railway each day, the full-length feature film will be shown in daily segments of a few minutes each over 40 weekdays, soap-opera style. Subtitles in Chinese will help commuters follow the dialogue over the subway noise, and multiple daily rebroadcasts and tie-ins on the Internet are designed to ensure no one misses any of the cliffhangers.

Instead of an ordinary film, the so-called "subopera" is a blend of drama and advertising. A venture between Starbucks Coffee Co. and PepsiCo Inc. financed and helped produce the drama as part of a campaign that kicks off today in Shanghai to introduce bottled frappuccino drinks to the Chinese market.

"It's quite unique and demonstrates a departure from conventional marketing," says Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman. The coffee company hasn't traditionally advertised, Mr. Schultz says, adding that a soap opera can be effective since it creates "real entertainment for our customers and along the way there is a complementary message." PepsiCo, which will bottle and distribute the Starbucks-branded drinks, referred questions to Starbucks

The film has a clear commercial bent. In some shots, the mermaid from the Starbucks logo gets as much face-time as the movie's big turnstile draw, Huang Xiao Ming, a 29-year-old pop star who is so well known he is sometimes called China's Justin Timberlake.

Still, "A Sunny Day" is no infomercial. Mr. Huang's character "CC" is a struggling musician who strums his guitar for coins in the subway, and falls for big-hearted Sunny, who is trying to get over the death of a boyfriend and fit into a new job.

During the shooting on a recent Sunday, as a gaggle of teenage women sneaked onto the set, Mr. Huang described the subway a "fashionable, very modern" venue that will appeal to a trendy audience.

Subways around the world have long featured visual distractions. A century ago, platforms were showcases for art, like the swank metro stations in Paris. In the 1970s, spray paint enlivened the dank and dangerous New York subway, and in the 1980s, the late Keith Haring helped make graffiti a respected art form with projects like "Studio in the Subway."

This year, the Berlin subway's 1.5 million daily passengers were the judges in a weeklong festival of 90-second, silent films called "Going Underground."

Advertisers are also pressing beneath the streets. Sidetrack Technologies Inc. of Winnipeg and New York-based Submedia LLC place light-board advertising in subway tunnels in several cities around the world, giving riders the motion-picture like effect of seeing a flipbook.

China's $20 billion advertising industry is increasingly adopting the global trend toward marketing disguised as entertainment. In addition to Hollywood-style product placements in TV shows and movies, a rapidly expanding segment is directed at an emerging middle class during the workday hours with slickly crafted TV-style ads in taxis, airplanes and even elevators.

More here 

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(* Source : NextGreatThing *)

Allison says :

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.

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(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Radiohead blew us away with the “donated” sales revenue from its last album “In Rainbows.” The band offered the music for free, and let fans choose how much they’d pay, almost as a tip for the album. What comScore found was that 62% of global users chose not to pay for the album at all.

What’s equally as interesting is the fact that international fans were less likely to pay than US fans. You’d have to do a fairly extensive study to figure out why this may be the case, considering variables such as the native country of the band, the amount of disposable income per capita in various countries around the world, the musical preferences of countries’ citizens, the prevalence of P2P networks as legal options in other countries, etc. So there’s really not much to say in regards to these stats for Radiohead’s album at this particular point.

But what is another topic of conversation is something we’ve touched on in previous coverage of Radiohead’s flip of the script: is this an anomaly and how can regular musicians replicate such success? I’ve said my two cents on the matter–it’s currently rather difficult to make a killing on album sales in the same manner that Radiohead has done, if you don’t already have the fan base. The music industry knows this and may use it to its full advantage.

Radiohead used to be part of the music industry’s machine. Having now cut out the middle man, the band offers content direct to the fans. So with the music industry now looking for ways in which to continually make the same amount of money it raked in during its peak years, I wouldn’t be surprised if Radiohead gets sued.

It was that industry machine that enabled Radiohead to garner such a large fan base, right? So now that the band has kicked the middle man to the curb, the middle man may still want a cut of current sales. While the music industry is still boo-hooing about the decline of sales and the slower adoption of current legal trends, it still has a machine to run. In order to close that gap between previous power and current influence, it will have to find better, more cost-efficient ways in which to advertise artists, and market them across the web.

We’ve seen some pretty under-handed effects arise from this kind of pressure (that means you, Marie Digby), but the evolution will go on, and balance out at some point. As we all know, advertising isn’t going anywhere. The music industry will just need to continue to shift its approach. So will we still have artists able to gain major traction without the music industry’s machine? We won’t have to. The machine will just be better operated.

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(* Source: Sean P. Aune *)

We usually talk about things to help you with your work, now we’re going to help you relax! Actually, scratch that: if you get hooked to any of the games on this list, you might actually lose your job. Listed below are 30+ free MMORPGs for you to enjoy.

Don’t forget to check out our post where you can suggest future toolbox topics! (This list, for example, came from one of the suggestions.)

Anarchy-Online.com - A 3D game set in the far future; it features multiple expansions, and is a winner of many awards.

ConquerOnline.com - An MMORPG mixing elements of kung fu with magic.

Cronous.com - A 3D fantasy MMORPG that supports zoom-in and zoom-out graphics effects.

DarkEden.com - Who can resist playing as one of the creatures of the night, a vampire.

Deicide - A3D fantasy game with a skill system divided in to close, ranged, white magic and dark magic. As with most “free” games, it’s free until you try to get the really good equipment.

Dofus.com - A manga inspired, strategy based game with over 3.5 million players. Free for basic play, costs for extra content.

Drift City - Get ready to jump in your car and drift race around the city. Has a very anime inspired vibe to the artwork.

DungeonRunners.com - Choose from fighters, mages, or rangers, and explore a fantasy game where some dungeons can take as little as 15-minutes if you’re strained for time.

Fishing Champ - Proving that any thing can be turned in to an MMORPG, now you can wile away the hours fishing for virtual fish.

Flyff - Short for “Fly For Fun”, Flyff is a highly rated, and popular MMORPG set in a fantasy environment.

Hero - Set in a land filled with ancient Chinese myths, it’s a martial arts take on a MMORPG.

Heroes in the Sky - Takes to the skies of the World War II Pacific theater, and over the skies of Normandy.

KalOnline - A MMORPG set in a medieval world with a large amount of advancements.

KnightOnlineWorld.com - A 3D medieval game that heavily encourages partying up with other players.

Martial Heroes - A 3D game set in the world of martial arts fantasy fighting.

MythWarOnline.com - Goes for the classic 2D, painted backgrounds feel.

Ran Online - Set in a fantasy version of Asia where somef orm of evil has come from the sky; it’s up to you to figure out what the hell is going on.

Rappelz - A fantasy game set in a 3D world where you can party up and kill monsters.

RF-OnlineGame.com - Set in a far off galaxy, it’s an immersive sci-fi game with three warring factions.

Risk Your Life Part 2 - Another 3D fantasy environment.

Scions Of Fate - A 3D game based on a comic of the same name.

SecondLife.com - With appearances on CSI: New York and the American version of The Office, this game gets bigger by the day. While the game can be free to play, don’t be surprised when you start spending tons of money to buy yourself an island.

Sherwood Dungeon - From MaidMarian.com; no registration is needed, just enter a name and hit enter.

Shot Online - Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and wish you could go golfing? Well, now you can! Yes, it is a golfing MMORPG.

SilkRoadOnline.net - A fantasy game set around the real life Silk Road trading route.

Space Cowboy - Mixing traditional MMORPG with FPS style action, you’re a fighter pilot on a distant planet. The game is free to play… until you want new parts for your fighter.

Tatsumaki: Land At War - Set in 16th century Japan, before the introduction of firearms, you can play as part of the Shogunate or the rebel factions. Currently in beta, they are looking for more testers.

TricksterOnline.com - Cute characters based on animals, fighting isn’t necessary, and free to play until you start buying yourself a home and more.

TurfBattles.com - A 3D fantasy MMORPG that’s free at the beginning, and you have to pay to advance.

Upshift StrikeRacer - Jump in your car, race around Triumph City… shoot up some other drivers. Free to play, some upgrades can be purchased with your reputation.

VoyageCenturyOnline.com - A nautical based MMORPG where everyone captains their own ship.

WarRock.net - Free FPS style fighting across land, sea, and air. Free to play, upgraded weapons is where you can start spending the big bucks.

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

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(* Source : Tameka Kee *)

THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE United States (HSUS) has partnered with Makena Technologies to launch an interactive campaign at There.com. HSUS will use branded virtual and real world merchandise, as well as live events to raise awareness and funds in the fight against animal cruelty.

The effort is a departure from HSUS' typical marketing campaigns, which are geared toward the 50+ demographic. By establishing a presence in There.com, the organization is aiming squarely at the 20- to-30-year-old market.

There.com members can purchase HSUS merchandise for their avatars--and even acquire the corresponding real-life version at the HSUS storefront, connecting real merchandise to virtual sales.

"We are always looking for new ways to celebrate animals and confront cruelty; and working with There.com to take animal protection into the virtual world reaches a new audience with a message of compassion," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States.

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(* Source : Mike Shields *)

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 

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(* Source : Webware.com *)

Jessica Dolcourt says :

Back in early September, I wrote about the five finalists to win a combined $250,000 in development funding from MTV and Cisco, sponsors of the Digital Incubator contest for university-grown Web apps.

Today they announced a prize even grander the first--$100,000 in addition to the $30,000 finalist grant already applied to RapHappy.com's development. The social network for recording, editing, distributing, and commenting on user-generated raps won Digital Incubator's judges with a business plan detailing the nascent company's next level of growth.

Ben Leduc-Mills and Matt Fargo, both graduate students in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, the brains behind RapHappy, are nothing short of jubilant. "We want to give a great big hug to all of you who helped us get this far," reads the message on their Web site, "But I guess you'll just have to settle for a big shout out on the website instead. Thanks though, really. It's your amazing raps that won it for us."

In addition to the Web site, RapHappy rappers can also lay down vocals via hotline (for inspired cell phone rapping) and through a Facebook app.

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(* Source : Timesonline *)

Nigel Kendall says :

The video games industry was told yesterday: “Television used to be accused of corrupting the youth of today. Now you are.”

David Mitchell, the TV comedian, was talking to 750 representatives of the industry at the 25th Golden Joystick Awards, which are decided by public vote. In that quarter of a century, Mitchell observed, video games have gone from “being a few dots dancing around a TV screen to a full-on film that you are in”.

Generations of creative Britons who once dreamt of making films and cracking Hollywood are now just as likely to seek fame and fortune in the video games industry.

Tom Dowding, 25, is a graduate in computer science from Bristol University. He has been playing games since he was 10 and last year set up Mobile Pie, a developer of games for mobile phones. His efforts were rewarded at the Golden Joysticks with a prize of £2,500 and a work placement with Electronic Arts, one of the world’s biggest video game developers. Mr Dowding’s winning game is called Let It Grow.

“You install it on your mobile phone, then, using your phone camera, you nurture it and make it grow,” he said. “Then you post your growing flower on Facebook.” He has licensed the game to a distributor.

For many would-be developers, mobile phones offer a way of making games and minimising expense on programming. A leading game, such as the recent Halo 3, can cost $70 million (£34 million) to develop and a mobile game a fraction of that. The possible rewards are vast. Halo 3 outstripped many blockbuster films in the week that it went on the market, generating sales of $300 million.

Video games have quietly overtaken older entertainment forms such as films and popular music. According to the latest figures from Elspa, the industry body, game software sales in Britain for the first half of 2007 were £519 million, 17 per cent more than in the corresponding period of 2006.

More here 

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(* 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.

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(* Source : Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says :

MyItThings, which is a user-generated lifestyle magazine of sorts, will soon be offering a widget for your Wish List and Virtual Closet, which can be placed on other websites, blogs and social networking profiles, like MySpace and Facebook. A few of these widgets are holiday-themed, so MyItThings is taking advantage of the holiday season and letting you spread some Christmas cheer (i.e. your gift list).

The new widget is powered by Clearspring,so you know there are easy sharing options, including embed code for a variety of social networks and blogging platforms. Wishpot and Glimpse have similar wishlists and widget-sharing options as well.

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(* Source : Brian Hiatt *)

The two biggest music releases of the year aren't albums: They're video games. Inside the fight for number one.

Guitar Hero may well be this decade's biggest rock & roll phenomenon. Guitar Hero I and II have grossed $360 million since the first game came out in 2005 -- vastly more than any album released in the same period. And the games -- in which players re-create songs' guitar parts by pushing buttons that correspond to notes and chords while hitting a "strum bar" in rhythm -- have inspired kids by the millions to memorize the intricacies of "Free Bird" and "War Pigs." One measure of the games' clout: MTV purchased Harmonix for $175 million last year, and video-game giant Activision paid $99.9 million to acquire RedOctane, the company that owns the Guitar Hero name and manufactured the game's guitar- shaped controllers.

With MTV and Activision unwilling or unable to collaborate, the franchise's future has split in two: Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock -- a straightforward sequel with a few twists, including a new "battle mode" -- hits stores October 28th, while Harmonix's Rock Band -- which adds drums and vocals to the formula -- comes out November 23rd. Analysts say that the market is big enough for both games to succeed (music games represent about eight percent of the U.S. video-game market, according to the research group NPD) -- so their near-simultaneous releases could become the music event of the year.

More here 

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(* 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."

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

"People have been ignoring the fact that there are 12 other virtual worlds out there that have hundreds of thousands of visitors," says Jonathan Nelson, special adviser to Omnicom CEO John Wren. "My bet is this stuff is here to stay." Omnicom recently took a significant stake in Millions of Us, and the Wall Street Journal story gives a fair amount of time to Millions of Us projects. The main point, and one that  developers like Millions of Us have been touting for a while now, is that virtual worlds are prime for advertising, but Second Life isn't the only or even the best option out there. Based on Comscore figures for the month of September, Second Life ranked at the bottom of 12 worlds in numbers of unique visitors. And, yes, the number (235,000 for last month) is drawn from users accessing the software for the world, not just visiting the website. Even the rapidly declining Millsberry.com--down 17% from last year, but still at #5--saw 2.5 million unique users.  Webkinz led the pack with 6 million unique users. [via WSJ.com]

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(* 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).

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(* 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. 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 

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(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Nielsen has released its latest numbers for top social networking sites for the month of September. Not surprisingly, MySpace is still on top, with a 24% increase since September, 2006, while Facebook sidled up again in the number 2 spot, still gaining on MySpace with a 133% increase. This rate of increase is higher for both MySpace and Facebook, which were at 23% and 117% for the month of August, 2007.

The rest of the top 10 social networking sites remained about the same, with AOL Hometown and People Connection being the only networks to see a decline in traffic since last year. AOL’s troubles are reflected in its massive layoffs and drastic changes being made at the company as it shifts into an ad-supported model.

A recent study by Nielsen shows in interesting correlation for users that have profiles on both MySpace and Facebook, indicating that these users will spend more time on each site, than those with profiles on either one or the other. In other Nielsen news, the company has recently launched two new features, Nielsen Online and Mobile, for additional metrics tools.

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(* Source : Sean P. Aune *)

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.

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(* Source : Minic Rivera *)

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.

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(* Source : Dennis Bouchand *)

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(* Source : Nick Gonzales *)

However, free doesn’t seem cheap enough. Despite the potentially free download, over 240,000 users got the album from peer to peer BitTorrent networks on the first day of release, according to Forbes. Since then, the album was downloaded about 100,000 more times each day, totaling more than 500,000. By comparison, Radiohead pushed 1.2 million sales of the album through their site, including pre-orders. File sharing networks are expected to surpass legal downloads in the coming days.

While the numbers may seem drastic, it’s really more a tale of how late to the game the music industry has been. Piracy networks have been growing over the past couple of years, despite the industry’s declared “war” on illegal file sharing. The networks have grown into easy-to-use distribution methods for digital music — even easier than what Radiohead offered. Users could easily grab “In Rainbows” while downloading music from other artists. Radiohead couldn’t be as compelling by only offering their own music and requiring users to take the time to set up an account.

But Radiohead doesn’t have that much to be sad about. The band gets to keep all the proceeds of their digital experiment and has distributed about six times more albums than their last release, which sold 300,000. That seemed to be enough to get EMI thinking harder about changing. Forbes obtained a email form EMI’s chairman saying “The industry, rather than embracing digitalization and the opportunities it brings for promotion of product and distribution through multiple channels, has stuck its head in the sand. Radiohead’s actions are a wake-up call which we should all welcome and respond to with creativity and energy.” So it seems there’s still hope yet that those legal war chests will be put to use on some innovations.

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(* Source : Karl Greensberg *)

The 10-week site allows users to play a variety of online games and view film content. The site dangles a chance to win prizes, including a new Mercedes-Benz filled with treasure, with winners to be announced on "Entertainment Tonight" before the film opens.

Mercedes' C-Class sedan is also featured in a chase scene in the film.

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(* Source : Riley Bane *)

When Video Games Live first premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in ’05 to an eager audience of 11,000 people, that’s when the music, video gaming, and entertainment industries took notice that this could be a lucrative trend. The brainchild of composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, at the time the concept was to create an amazing show using the soundtracks of popular videogames played by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra.

Video Games Live has clearly grown in the last couple of years. This month, they’ve announced a tour of so many sold-out shows around the country, that they’re adding an additional 25 stops, including the UK.

“Our goal of building Video Games Live as a worldwide brand is becoming a reality,” said Marc Geiger, Senior Executive Vice-President of Touring for the William-Morris Agency. “Tommy & Jack have created a very special and unique event experience that is not only a hit with gamers but also speaks to a general mainstream global audience as well.”

The shows include top orchestras, solo performers, special fx, exclusive video game footage, synchronized light shows, electronic percussionists, and interactive segments from various games. This tour features music from Mario, Zelda, Warcraft, Halo, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear Solid, Myst, Sonic, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, among others.

While the tour is of course unique, what’s important to note is that video gaming has crossed-over into other aspects of entertainment. As noted in our North American and European Youth Culture Studies, just as brands are discovering the importance of product-placement in video games, and fashion designers are discovering inspiration from subcultures such as Cosplay, so too are musicians and the industry of music seeing the power of music in video games to attract a large consumer marketplace outside of gamers themselves.

Next week, as the new version of E3 trade show featuring new releases, platforms, and ideas from the world’s top video gaming brands infiltrate Los Angeles, you can bet that Video Games Live will be a popular example of just how the industry can attract new sources of revenue within the complicated industry of entertainment.

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(* Source : Reuters *)

Yinka Agedoke says :

 
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.

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(* Source : Rachel Konrad *)

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.

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(* Source : Reuters *)

 Yinka Adegoke says :

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.

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(* 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.

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 

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(* Source : Jordan Chark *)

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- 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.

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

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- 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- 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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(* 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.

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(* Source : Reuters *)

David Ward says :

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 space.

In his keynote speech, he declared that the future of television "will be TV, online, mobile and games."

Zuiker appeared more than willing to be a pioneer in bringing Hollywood to virtual worlds, announcing that a two-part "CSI: NY" -- the first installment airing October 24 and the second February 6 -- will have Gary Sinise's character go into Second Life to chase a killer's avatar.

"And here's the great thing," he added. "CBS is willing to commit to two 30-second spots that night to tell 16 million people that we're having a 'CSI: NY' virtual world . . . that will be up forever."

Zuiker stressed that the "CSI: NY" virtual world in Second Life will be geared for the "CSI" fan rather than the early adopter, with shorter download times and an avatar of Zuiker to walk visitors through the virtual Manhattan.

In addition to casual games for beginners like "Facial Reconstruction," there also will be content for advanced visitors, including the blog game "Murder by Zuiker," where Zuiker will evaluate entries by people trying to solve a crime based on the evidence found in a crime scene in Second Life.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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(* Source : Worldsinmotion.com *)

Posted by Leigh Alexander :

Looking at market penetration, Mitham opined, "I think it’s pretty fair to say that virtual growth to date has been heavily based on word of mouth and viral marketing.” Moreover, Mitham expects the trend to continue, calling on the example of companies like BMW opening Second Life islands to widespread media coverage as a driver of Second Life population growth.

Finding New Markets, Developing Existing Ones

One can't rely purely on PR for advertising, Mitham added, stating that he hopes to see traditional marketing to start happening. "We’re seeing children actively adopting Club Penguin, Whyville, Habbo... as they eventually grow out of it, they will be looking for new worlds to grow into. There’s a huge market already there, waiting to happen."

The market is developing globally, too, Mitham said, noting that European countries are also actively embracing virtual worlds. Though typically Russia and South America are slower to adapt, Mitham noted, these are large growth areas that will begin adopting virtual worlds more in the future.

"We don't see much for 'silver surfers,'" Mitham added, noting that older users are also a prime growth area. Similarly, he expects corporate adoption to broaden, as companies like IBM encourage their employees to move into virtual worlds for corporate uses, and educational institutes are using virtual worlds in the classroom for the set aged 8 to 15.

Engaging New Users

It's a matter of product development, he said -- developing new products for marketplaces that already exist. Mitham also noted that better user interfaces and new user orientation will assist in driving more widespread adoption, as will other avenues of access like web-based remote viewers.

Diversification is the other key avenue, Mitham noted -- bringing new products into untapped markets, as with category-centric "vertical worlds". One example Mitham raised is Football Superstars, a virtual world currently in development for people who play football and soccer. Half the world is for playing football, the other half is for living the life of a footballer.

Beyond this, there are platform-centric virtual worlds, such as Sony's upcoming PlayStation Home, which will be used as a convergence tool for gamers. "The reason for going in isn’t the new technology; people are going in for a specific reason,," Mitham said.

Additionally, Mitham said that avatars that can cross worlds -- the interoperability work IBM is currently involved in -- will be "a really good driving factor for getting more people engaged in virtual worlds."

Mitham offered some projections on growth in virtual worlds he believes will take place between the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. He anticipates growth of registered accounts in Second Life to increase from 10 million to 20 million, 1 million to 7 million for There, .6 to 3 million for Kaneva, from zero to 10 million for the Chinese virtual world HiPiHi, an increase from 3 million to 10 million for Whyville, and from 15 million to 30 million for Club Penguin.

More here 

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(* Source : Worldsinmotion *)

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(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

Google Earth has integrated YouTube, allowing you to view videos from specified locations around the world. A new “YouTube” button in Google Earth places icons on a map to show you where the videos are located. Upon zooming in, you will see more videos for the location of interest. The YouTube videos are plotted according to geotags that YouTube users have placed on their content.

This is a really clever integration between Google products. Versus the Street View feature of Google Maps where the company is sending camera crews around the globe, all of the content here is user-generated. In other Google Maps developments, the company has also added community maps to find things like places to eat, events, and activities, also submitted by users.

Could Google Maps be turning into one of the major social initiatives at Google? Between integrating YouTube videos, user-generated local maps, and potential presence features from the recently acquired Jaiku, it seems like there might be something brewing here.

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(* Source : Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says :

Gigya is creating an updated version of its online widget tracking service that will allow developers and web publishers to define and track any type of activity within widgets. Used in conjunction with Gigya’s Wildfire, developers can track widget performance in a more extensive manner, from its initial installation on a user’s page, to the clicking of a link within a widget and the viewing of a widget’s video.

This will, of course, enable you to better lay out your widget strategy, see how widgets are being used across platforms and social networks, and more easily respond to the market. In setting all of this up for your Gigya widgets, you can even choose your own name for various actions, so you’re tracking widgets in a way that makes the most sense for you and your distribution purposes.

Gigya’s Wildfire tool was launched in recent weeks to let developers create applications for use on Facebook. With MySpace and other networks getting ready to open their platforms as well, tracking tools for widgets and applications will become more important, especially as metrics move to become more inclusive of widget distribution, which is when advertising potential comes into play as well.

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(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Music Gifts is a pretty cool Facebook app launched by MediaMouth. It lets you find music, listen to it, create custom lists and mixes and share all of this with Facebook friends.

But it also is a gifting application, too. And not a fluff gift that’s really just a graphic that sits on your profile. While those are cool (and very addictive), Music Gifts takes gifting a step further and lets you purchase music for your friends. They can get the music in digital or physical format, which will be sent to their home address.

MediaMouth has distribution and retail deals with EMI, Universal, and several indie labels as well, and digital copies of music are sold DRM-free. As with all other music applications currently residing on Facebook, many are wondering if the social network’s rumored mp3 store will have any affect on their existience or success.

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(* Source : Marketing Vox.com *)

MyePets: So cute it's sickening

Tween marketing has undergone a bit of a golden age online in 2007, thanks to sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz which rely heavily on interactivity to keep kids coming back.

According to Advertising Age, interactive tween sites are now taking a page out of the Webkinz handbook, whereby kids purchase an offline item to either join or enhance the online experience.

To proliferate its virtual world, Webkinz relied on word-of-mouth to get youngsters buying stuffed animals that came with codes that "activated" a virtual pet online.

Mattel's Barbie Girls site will soon offer 5.5 million users the option of buying an MP3-player/flash drive that unlocks additional features on the site, where girls spend an average of 30 minutes a session.

Meanwhile, MGA Entertainment introduced Be-Bratz, a line of dolls "sold with a pet pink mouse and flash drive" that hooks users up to a virtual world online.

MyePets.com, another MGA project, has a business model slightly closer in type to Webkinz, where kids "rescue" homeless pets from the store (a la Pound Puppies, a series of despondent stuffed animals from the '80s) in exchange for access to the site.

Though it may seem the market for tween-focused virtual worlds is getting overcrowded, interactive sites now largely come stock alongside major toy launches.

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(* Source : Techcrunch *)

Duncan Riley says :

Since reporting Monday that Nine Inch Nails had dumped its record label and was to offer future albums direct to the public, Oasis and Jamiroquai have also joined the move away from the record industry, but the biggest announcement of all is news today that Madonna has dumped the record industry.

According to reports, Madonna has signed a $120million deal with L.A. based concert promotion firm Live Nation to distribute three studio albums, promote concert tours, sell merchandise and license Madonna’s name.

Whilst the deal differs from Nine Inch Nails in that Madonna is not offering direct-to-public albums, Live Nation isn’t a record company. The deal shows that even for a world famous act, a record company is no longer required in the days of digital downloads and P2P music sharing.

The only real question now is how fast will the music industry model come tumbling down. When Radiohead led the way in offering their music directly to fans many predicted that the move was the beginning of the end; Madonna may well be the tipping point from where we will now see a flood of recording artists dumping record labels and where todays model will shortly become a footnote in Wikipedia.

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(* Source : Stefanie Olsen *)

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(* Source : Scott Hillis *)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Linden Labs, the operator of the Second Life virtual world, said on Tuesday they will work on ways to eventually let people use the a single online persona in different online services.

Interoperability is emerging as a key goal of the nascent virtual world industry, which attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investment on the hopes that video-game graphics and rich 3-D environments will supplant flat Web pages.

(* Source : Kristen Nicole *)

Bands Jamiroquai and Oasis may be following Radiohead’s lead to let fans download new music from the band’s latest album for free, if they visit the site for the radio station XFM. With no contracts to labels, Jamiroquai and Oasis could be considering this move, which often gains a good amount of traction from the fans and spurs the viral growth of their content.

The success of Radiohead’s promotion is cited as the cause for people to pre-order the band’s box set, which costs about $80 and includes vinyl records, a CD and artwork. The hope is to make money on the peripherals, which still come at a premium. That means Radiohead is looking to make money from concert ticket sales, and other merchandise. We’ve already seen Throwdown’s opinion on the matter. And while the concept of giving away something for free isn’t new, it does look to be gaining steam.

[via the telegraph]

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(* Source : Techcrunch *)

 Mark Hendrickson says :

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

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(* Source : Daniel Terdiman *)

Get ready for online games set in your favorite Google Earth locations.

Virtual-worlds platform developer Multiverse Network is set to announce a partnership Tuesday that will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google's online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth.

The idea is simple: Multiverse's technology--which gives game developers tools to design custom virtual worlds--will let those designers pick and choose from most of the millions of 3D models created using Google's 3D software tool SketchUp, and to import pieces of terrain, as defined by entering specific longitude and latitude data, from Google Earth.

If you want to build a virtual world centered on, say, downtown San Francisco, you could use the new technology to create the area itself and populate it with the digital versions of real-world buildings that have been created and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse.

"The goal is to grab things from the 3D Warehouse when looking at things in Google Earth and then make an instant multiverse world," said Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges. "What we've done is provide a more streamlined interface for using (Google's technology) as a virtual-world production tool."

Until now, incorporating this kind of information from Google has mostly been the province of fantasy. For some time, Multiverse has made it possible to upload some SketchUp models into a virtual world created using its platform. But the technology the company plans to announce Tuesday, informally called "Architectural Wonders," brings the concept to much more well-rounded fruition, and answers what some people have been crying out for as obvious and necessary technology integration.

"Google's mission statement is to make all the world's information universally available and useful," said Jerry Paffendorf, co-author of the Metaverse Roadmap and co-founder of a stealth start-up called Wello Horld. "So I would say this (is about) making all the world universally available and useful, and that's why this is so fascinating."

For Paffendorf, one of the most vocal proponents of a 3D massively multiplayer environment based on Google Earth and SketchUp information, Multiverse's innovation is nothing short of groundbreaking.

He said he's particularly excited and hopeful that the Architectural Wonders project will allow virtual-world designers to incorporate not just models and terrain from Google Earth, but also much of the metadata that makes it so powerful: the personal notations and photographs that millions of users have added to it.

Of course, Multiverse's project is not the only one that has sprung up to make use of this data. Google is rumored to be working on a prototype virtual world, a beta test of which may or may not be under way at Arizona State University.

Another project is SceneCaster, a new technology unveiled at last week's Demo conference that allows anyone to make 3D "scenes" incorporating models from the 3D Warehouse that can then be attached to blogs or Facebook pages or even to Flickr.

Both SceneCaster and Multiverse's Architectural Wonders projects will be shown at the Virtual Worlds conference, which starts Wednesday in San Jose, Calif.

But because not much is known about Google's stealth project and since SceneCaster does not appear to be a massively multiplayer experience, Multiverse's Architectural Wonders efforts may well prove to be the first publicly available attempt to bring vast amounts of data and models Google is making freely accessible into a working virtual world.

More here 

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(* Source : Fred Cavazza *)

Virtual universes are hype, that’s a sure bet. With very strong media coverage for universes like Second Life or World of Warcraft, announcers and users are discovering new spaces for playing, communicating, entertaining and even working which are in complete rupture with 2D spaces they already know.

Complete rupture? No, not exactly since most of these universes are evolution from existing services (chats, social networks, maps…). All these virtual universes bring some oxygen to sometimes unappealing concepts by providing new possibilities. But with new opportunities comes a lot of covetousness and build a very competitive environment inside which the most media covered are not the most interesting.

Did you know it?

• There are more than 150 millions of Neopets‘ users which have already created more than 217 millions of accounts (you can count again, that’s more than MySpace)
• KartRider and QQ are social platforms which generated nearly $100M in quarterly earnings (it’s quarterly earnings, not annual turnover)
• There was $1 Billion Invested in Virtual Worlds in the Last Year (again, it’s $1 billion, not $1 million)

Do these figures astonish you? Well… so they did to me! But they are real.

Four main fields

Comparing all these universes won’t make any sense. First of all because they are very different and then because they target very different audience. But if you REALLY need a comparison, then you can have a look at these two (partial) comparison charts: Virtual Worlds Comparison Chart, Casual Immersive Worlds and Virtual Worlds Platforms and User Numbers.

Let me introduce you to these universes by using a map where I positioned most of them. All of these are not vast virtual world like Second Life, but they all share common characteristics: avatars, virtual currency and virtual places where avatars can meet, chat, play and interact.

This map is divided in 4 main fields:

• Social, with universe revolving around community building
• Games, with universes relying on online games
• Entertainment, where music, videos and films related content
• Business, where selling or exchanging goods is the main motivator for users and with enterprise applications (virtual training, serious games…)

Please not that these fields overlap themselves:

A wide typology of uages

You can find on this map various groups which are related to specific usage:

• 2.5 & 3D Chats, which are an evolution to instant messaging services but with a much stronger immersion (IMVU, Taatu, Citypixel, Faketown…)
• Avatar-centric, where avatars are at the center of interactions and functionalities (Neopets, Club Penguin, Stardoll, Virtual MTV…)
• Social Platforms, universes which inherits from social networks and sharing platforms while adding some avatar management and online games (Habbo, Cyworld, QQ, Gaia, Playdo…)
• Branded Universes, which propose a total immersion inside the brand’s graphical universe and products range (Barbie Girls, Pepsi Town, MyCoke, ToonTown, T-Works, Home…)
• Virtual Worlds, where users experience nearly total freedom of action (Second Life, HiPiHi, There, Entropia Universe…)
• MOG, online gaming platforms relying on casual games for developing sociabilization (KartRider, PuzzlePirates, MapleStory…)
• MMORPG, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games which requires a stronger social involvement (World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Dofus, RuneScape, Lineage II…)
• Online Sport Games, based on collective or individual sports (Football Superstars, Online Soccer Manager, Fishing Champ, Ultimate Baseball Online…)
• Adult Games, money games targeted at adults (PKR, Cameo Casino…)
• Virtual Sex, 3D dating spaces (Red Light Center, Virtual Ibiza, Naughty America…)
• Virtual City Guides, which are natural evolutions of local and mapping services (Google Earth, UpNext…)
• Serious Games, which are deploy inside enterprise to build 3D collaborative spaces, virtual training classes and augmented meeting rooms (Innov8, MPK20, Quaq…)
• World Generators, which allows 3D world creation (Active Worlds, Multiverse, Metaplace…)

Obviously, all these universes are not at the same maturity level: some are approaching the final stage of their life cycle (like Everquest), some others are crossing a turbulence area (Yankee Group Says Hype of Second Life Far Outweighs Its Ability to Impact Mainstream Interactivity), others are growing very fast (Gaia Online) and some are repositioning themselves (like IMVU which is morphing into a social network and Entropia Universe which will try to compete with video games).

A nearly saturated market?

With more than 150 active or soon-to-be-launched virtual universes, accept some numerous take over and disappearances. In this profusion, which universe is the right one? Its’ a hard guess since only two audience niches are sharply targeted: teen and adults (Virtual Worlds Are Trendy Spot for Kids and Teens).

It took 10 years to structure the internet media landscape and provide announcers with reliable communication tools (adwords, adsens…) and measure tools. How long will it takes with the virtual universes media landscape? Who will master advertising inside these new territories / markets? Is co-creation a reality? So many questions… which will find answers in the next months. Stay tuned.

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(* Source : Emarketer *)

Jay Sampson has been in the online space since 1996. He was the sixth hire for MSN, and joined Massive after Microsoft acquired the company in May 2006.

Having spoken with in-game advertising firm IGA Partners, eMarketer asked Mr. Samspon for his thoughts on the same subjects.

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(* Businessweek *)

Olga Kharif says :

IAC/InterActiveCorp's gaming foray could revolutionize online games and hurt console makers—if it succeeds

Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) is entering yet another arena. The Web conglomerate, owner of businesses such as Ticketmaster.com and the dating site Match.com, announced Sept. 18 that it has acquired a majority interest in GarageGames.com, a game publisher and provider of programming tools for indie game developers.

The acquisition, which will lay the foundation of a new division focused on Web-based gaming, marks the latest and biggest move in IAC's bid to become a major player in that market. In the past few months, IAC has snared several video gaming executives from rivals, including Nicholas Lehman from Viacom (VIA). "We think this is an untapped $2 billion market today growing to $5 billion in three years," says Shana Fisher, IAC's senior vice-president of strategy and mergers and acquisitions. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime market opportunity, we think. And we are investing appropriately."

Viacom's Big Bet

While the acquisition's terms were not disclosed, BernsteinResearch (AB) estimates it will cost IAC between $80 million and $100 million. InterActive also says it hopes to announce a collaboration with a major gaming studio in the next week.

At first glance, IAC is arriving rather late to Web gaming, which is already the third most popular online activity after e-mail and chat, according to the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society. In May, the number of unique visitors to gaming sites reached almost 217 million worldwide, a jump of 17% from a year earlier, according to traffic data tracked by comScore (SCOR). The sector attracted 28% of the total worldwide online population in May and recorded an average of nine visits per visitor.

As such, a wide array of media and Internet titans have already been staking out the positions to claim a piece of a market that, according to DFC Intelligence, is expected to swell from revenue of $3.4 billion in 2005 to more than $13 billion in 2011. Viacom's MTV Networks alone expects to dump $500 million into gaming in the next two years. Meanwhile, portals led by Yahoo! (YHOO) and Microsoft's (MSFT) MSN have built up their offers to lure online players. Microsoft also offers owners of its Xbox gaming console an online portal called Xbox LIVE Arcade where they can play games, including GarageGames' own Marble Blast Ultima, where players navigate marbles through moving platforms. Similarly, the Cartoon Network (VIA) has been working to adapt its games for online play with Sony's (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii consoles.

More here 

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( Press Release via Virtual World News *)

TORONTO , ON – October 7, 2007 – SceneCaster today announced the release of the first immersive 3D Web application for Facebook - where anyone can create, transform and explore interactive 3D scenes and share them with their friends – all within Facebook. The application is available at: http://apps.facebook.com/scenecaster.

SceneCaster extends the rich visual experience of 3D on the Web to all Facebook users including consumers, creative professionals, and social media enthusiasts. Bridging the gap between the virtual and real worlds, SceneCaster also connects the Facebook 3D experience to eCommerce sites such as eBay and Amazon, product catalogs from leading manufacturers and retailers and to other rich media social networks such as Flickr.

SceneCaster is breaking new ground in 3D Web applications as the first 3D immersive experience that is built to leverage the "social graph" of Facebook. The Facebook economy is growing every day that could see it achieve 200 million users next year up from over 40 million today. SceneCaster delivers new conversation opportunities to all Facebook users while also providing an innovative revenue model simultaneously with each Facebook profile.

"Facebook facilitates better communication and an easier way to share & discover meaningful content," said Rodney Rumford, Editor of FaceReviews.com, a leading Facebook application review, rating and consulting service based in Solana Beach, CA. "SceneCaster in Facebook makes communications with my real world friends much richer and efficient. SceneCaster's great 3D immersive experience is revolutionary in concept and execution to sharing and discovering the 3D Web." Rodney's review of the SceneCaster Facebook app can be found at http://facereviews.com/2007/10 /04/facebook-3d-rooms-with-scenecaster

SceneCaster was first beta launched on September 25 th at DEMOfall '07, the technology industry's leading conference for innovative and disruptive technologies. Industry media and pundits have praised SceneCaster's debut with over 250,000 pages of reviews and comments residing on the Web today.

"SceneCaster's mission is to mainstream the 3D Web by lowering the barriers to adoption for the largest possible audience," said Mark Zohar, SceneCaster founder. "We've built it from the ground up by combining the very best the Web has to offer today – search, eCommerce and Facebook – with a rich, immersive 3D experience that is accessible within a standard Web browser."

About SceneCaster

SceneCaster is a 3D Web community where anyone can visualize their ideas, share them, and make them real. SceneCaster bridges the gap between the virtual and real worlds by connecting the 3D Web experience to online storefronts, product catalogs from leading brands and retailers, social networks, and consumers' dreams. SceneCaster is a brand initiative of View22 Technology Inc., a leading provider of 3D Web commerce and media solutions used by Global 2000 companies. For more information please visit www.scenecaster.com.

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(* Source : Olga Kharif *)

Seizing on Orkut's momentum in Asia and Latin America, Google moves to revamp its social networking site and take aim at Facebook and MySpace

If it's not about MySpace and Facebook, then the breathless buzz that surrounds online social networking often gravitates to names such as Bebo and CyWorld. Then there's Orkut. Though early to market, the Google-owned social network hasn't seemed to gain traction anywhere but Brazil. But that laggard status may be fading, thanks to a traffic surge in Asia. And now Google (GOOG) appears determined to eliminate its weakness in social networking, an Achilles' heel that detracts from its dominance in Web search and online ads.

Though MySpace still gets four times as much traffic globally, Orkut recently pushed past the News Corp. (NWS) subsidiary in the Asia Pacific region. Orkut's following in that market, which includes China and Japan, has nearly tripled, to roughly 11 million visitors a month, over the past year, according to the consultancy comScore (SCOR). MySpace, by contrast, has been drawing between 9 million and 10 million visitors in recent months.

Meanwhile, Orkut's usage in Latin America has continued to climb: In August, it received 12.4 million unique visitors from that region, double the Latin American traffic of MySpace and Facebook combined. "Now everybody's got Orkut, even people who don't have their own computer," says 15-year-old Ian Quinonez Gaspar, who lives in São Paulo, Brazil, and has more than 700 friends links.

Web Site Makeover

But that's where the high-fives end for Orkut. Beyond Asia and Latin America, which account for nearly all of Orkut's 24.6 million monthly users, the site's traffic remains simply anemic—totaling just 600,000 in North America and about 1.2 million in Europe, and not growing very fast.

Still, while it's unclear whether its overseas momentum is the inspiration, Google is starting to throw more resources behind social networking. The company recently gave Orkut's site a makeover so it looks more Google-like. It's also launched the site in more languages, including Hindi and Bengali (Orkut is particularly popular in India and Bangladesh). At the same time, Google has been incorporating more social networking features into Gmail and its online Calendar service. "The property has long been neglected. But now Google has recognized the social networking phenomenon is very profound and powerful," says Greg Sterling, the founding principal at consultancy Sterling Market Intelligence.

The next big step, expected in November, will be to open Orkut's software code to outside programmers, a plan first disclosed by Michael Arrington on his TechCrunch blog. BusinessWeek.com has learned that third-party developers based in India have been told that the code, known to developers as an Application Programming Interface (API), would be made available around Nov. 5. While Google declined to confirm or deny these reports, the company did confirm earlier this year it was considering opening up Orkut's code (BusinessWeek, 2/13/07).

More here

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(* Source : Jason Fry *)

New Efforts Try to Make It Easy

Last week Starbucks began testing a new service letting those with iTunes on their laptop, or carrying an iPhone, identify and download songs playing in the ubiquitous coffee bars.

In recent weeks we've heard Apple tout its new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. We've seen Microsoft show off improvements to its Zune music player, talk up the player's ability to share music, and unveil Zune Social, a new community site. Cellular-service providers such as Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless (a Verizon/Vodafone joint venture) and AT&T continue to sell songs over the air and experiment with various music-related offerings. And what about services that recommend and stream music, from Pandora to Rhapsody?

There's a flurry of activity around a common theme: making digital music truly mobile, instead of contained in music players that get topped up at desktop PCs. But what will be the effect of this newfound musical mobility? Could it mark a substantive change in the digital-music experience? Or will wireless buying and sharing remain mere offshoots of the familiar PC/MP3 player ecosystem?

Currently, both buying and sharing are largely restricted to the PC. Music players with wireless capabilities – such as Sandisk's Sansa Connect -- are fairly new. Meanwhile, the cellular-service providers' efforts have largely been stillborn -- because until fairly recently they wanted to charge as much as $2.50 for a download, despite the fact that iTunes had made $1 a de facto standard. Why the high prices? A number of reasons, from the record industry's desperation for an alternative to the iTunes model to infrastructure costs that cut into already razor-thin margins on downloads. Wireless carriers were stuck with a bad choice between a low-margin business or a low-volume one.

The carriers have accepted 99-cent downloads and tried to escape the low-margin trap by expanding their musical offerings to include access to streaming music, ringtones and ringbacks, music videos, the ability to "sideload" digital music from PCs to phones and even services that "listen" to snippets of music and identify the song.

More here 

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(* Source : Rafat Ali *)

Facebook is working on an artist platform to be launched later this year, which in essence is supposed to be better than what MySpace allows with its platform, according to multiple sources I have spoken to since this morning after a slightly off-the-mark rumor came out earlier. The platform will allows bands and labels to create artists pages, and allow various widgets to be embedded for music promotion, organizing events, etc. Among those widgets would be iLike, the most popular app inside Facebook, but will also include iTunes widgets for sampling (to being with), and eventually buying music through Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - News). The service will still have the utilitarian sensibilities of the Facebook platform, the sources stress, rather than the more chaotic and flashy platform that MySpace has.

For now, this squarely takes on MySpace, not iTunes as the rumors said this morning. Facebook will have an actual deal with Apple, though it is conceivable down the line it could start selling music through the artists' platform.

Whether users will gravitate towards Facebook from an already thriving and deep music community on MySpace is what remains to be seen.

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(* Source : Businessweek *)

Olga Kharif and Nandini Lakshman say : 

The social networking majors are aggressively pursuing the region's growing online audience, as earlier arrivals Friendster and Orkut defend their turf

A year ago, Shruti Narayan, a 13-year-old who lives in India, began using Google's (GOOG) social networking site, Orkut, to keep tabs on schoolmates. But a few months ago, Narayan made the jump to Facebook because "it has more features and interaction like quizzes and TV shows," she says.

Narayan's network-hopping reflects the colossal scrum among the world's biggest social networks for the hearts and mouse clicks of millions of people in India, China, and elsewhere in Asia. The landgrab has taken on added urgency lately, as leading social networks MySpace and Facebook converge on the region to battle established homegrown networks and foreign sites, especially Orkut and Friendster.

'Financially Intriguing' Market

Until recently, countries such as China and India held scant interest for the U.S.'s social networking heavyweights thanks to low rates of Internet usage and a dearth of advertiser dollars. Facebook and News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace instead concentrated on the U.S., which according to eMarketer accounts for 73% of social networking's worldwide revenue of $1.23 billion. They left Asia to U.S. laggards Friendster and Orkut, and to local sites such as CyWorld. Of Orkut's 25.2 million active users, about 43% are in the Asia Pacific region, according to Web traffic tracker comScore (SCOR). Friendster has become the largest social network in the region, according to comScore, with 35 million Asia Pacific users, out of 50 million worldwide.

That dominance is now under threat, just as the Asia Pacific market starts to bloom. In China, 230 million people are using the Internet, more than in the U.S., according to consultancy IDC. "Imagine that all these markets, over the next five years, double their penetration," says Karsten Weide, an analyst with IDC. "Then, for the future, the most important market is Asia Pacific. Once it develops more, it's going to become financially more intriguing than the U.S."

Especially when it comes to advertisers. A recent Synovate AsiaBUS study, commissioned by Microsoft (MSFT), found that social networks in Asia Pacific attract the coveted 15- to 34-year-old demographic and that about 15% of the region's users are top managers and business owners. "Each and every month, more and more advertisers are coming to us and paying us more money," says David Jones, Friendster's vice-president of marketing. Like other social networking sites, Friendster doesn't disclose revenue figures.

More here 

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

CVSherman says :

"The game industry may have created the idea of online entertainment, but the days of orcs and elves ruling the online space is drawing to a close," said Christopher Sherman, Executive director of the upcoming Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo taking place October 10-11 at the San Jose Convention Center. The show is attracting big wigs from across the entertainment industry.

"There will always be a place for platforms that just want to allow users to play a game together, but now interaction is key. Community is key," said Sherman who jumped from the game industry to the virtual worlds industry late last year. "The content revolves around and facilitates the community. Treating the online environment like less of a game and more of community or virtual world is key. Major media companies are now looking at anything they do as online entertainment - with a virtual world tied to it."

Case in point: Raph Koster, the former Chief Creative Officer of Sony Online Entertainment, recently took the wraps off of his stealth startup Areae with the announcement of Metaplace. Metaplace is designed to provide an easy-to-use interface allowing users to create virtual worlds that can run anywhere and do anything.

Said Sherman of the announcement, "Whether or not Metaplace is successful, the wake-up call for the game industry has been issued."

Virtual worlds like Kaneva strive to provide activities for their users, including games. Developers like Trilogy Studios, who created a Virtual MTV environment, have a background in next-generation console games like Medal of Honor and The Chronicles of Riddick. It shows in their products. MTV's Virtual Pimp My Ride lets users build experience points while socializing.

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(* Source : PSFK *)

Alisson  Mooney says :

Kids are consumers (virtually)! That was the message on the “New School” panel at the YPulse Tween Mashup on Friday. Speakers from Stardoll, WhyVille, and Cartoon Doll Emporium all recounted that young users of their virtual worlds wanted brands brought into their online environments.

Mattias Mikshe, CEO of Stardoll, said that users were begging for real world brands (“everything from Gap to Gucci.”) This is what led them to create “StarPlaza,” an in-world mall stocked with virtual brands (they now have 9). LVMH-owned Sephora and DKNY just became the first real world brand to set up shop there (featuring the same items as the stores). Cartoon Doll Emporium, a similar “paper doll” site, is also working with offline brands.

The virtual world meets social network WhyVille has 3,000 different lines of clothing—by 3,000 different girls. CEO Jim Bower says they want to have a Whyville store with the designs from 12 year olds. But kids in WhyVille aren’t immune to brand fever: one group of kids actually created M&Ms costumes for their avatars. Over in WeeWorld, users “consistently asking for brands to better express themselves,” says Marketing and Editorial Director, Maura Welch. “By choosing to wear the assets,” she says “the users are endorsing the brands to their friends.” According to the site’s latest food and drink survey, users’ WeeMees (avatars) were jonesing for some Sprite, Gatorade and Cheerios. As it is, they can already pimp themselves out in Armani sunglasses while they pop Skittles.

According to Mikshe, the kids can “distinguish between being marketed to and adding value.” Or maybe the marketing has just done its job. The demand is there for the brand names, creating a pull rather than a push scenario. And now that these brands can provide utility online, they are becoming more and more integrated into the lives of young consumers.

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(* Source : MediaPost.com *)

Laurie Petersen says :

TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC.'S NEW Products Group has signed a one-year deal with Kaneva to build and test virtual world extensions of its entertainment properties.

Each Turner Web community and corresponding virtual space inside Kaneva will contain video players for video streaming of select Turner network content.

"Our exploration with Kaneva of virtual worlds is yet another example of Turner staying at the forefront of consumer technology trends," said Blake Lewin, vice president for TBS Inc.'s New Products Group. "Through this opportunity, we hope to leverage the Kaneva platform to explore how users interact with our brands in a virtual world."

The agreement will grant Turner access to Kaneva's technology and tools to create and use Web communities and Virtual Spaces on the Kaneva Web site and in the virtual world of Kaneva.

"Turner is an ideal flagship media partner for Kaneva," said Christopher Klaus, founder and CEO of Kaneva. "Turner's high-quality programming and credibility is synergistic with our unique focus on delivering entertainment to the masses inside a virtual world. As a result of this partnership, we will provide entirely new ways for audiences to watch, participate and interact around their favorite TV programming."

Kaneva, which is Latin for "canvas," is a virtual entertainment world that unifies the 2D Web with a 3D experience. It integrates social networking, shared media and collaborative online communities into a modern-day, immersive 3D virtual world. Kaneva enables its members to hang out with their friends online and in 3D, share entertainment, express creativity and passions, and establish meaningful connections with others.

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(* Source : Release *)

Jemima Kiss says :

Them again: Last.fm's latest project to support new music is a site called nowformaband.last.fm, which shows unsigned bands how to use free web tools to produce and distribute their music.

Inspired by the 1976 punk-zine Sideburns, the initiative is part-inspired by Last.fm's hype chart, which picks out bands and trends from users' listening habits before they hit the mainstream.

The site introduces users to Luna Free, which offers a free digital audio workshop tool, the distributon service Tunecore and - of course - Last.fm, as a promotional tool.

Co-founder Martin Stiksel said the company wants to help new music find a wider audience (as well as encouraging take-up of its own site, of course): "There's a lot of talk about all these things in the media but not much action in the real world - so we're going to show new bands how".

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(*Source : Emarketer *)

Paul Verna says :

Since the beginning of the digital music revolution, artists have taken the lead on innovative ways to deliver music directly to their fans.

Some, like Prince, have given away front-line product free. Others, like Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette, have offered up Web-only exclusives, also free.

Then there have been the famous holdouts: Metallica, which joined the fight to shut down Napster, and the Beatles, who, despite years of rumors to the contrary, are still conspicuously absent from iTunes and the rest of the legal Web.

Now comes Radiohead with potentially the most ground-breaking move of all: putting its new album, "In Rainbows," out there for fans to pay what they want.

This museum model of a "suggested donation" is entirely untested, and the industry will be watching closely to see how the experiment plays out.

That said, it is important to keep in mind that this is a niche play from a band that already has a huge, loyal audience, not to mention ownership of its own masters. Whether fans pay for this album will have little bearing on the decisions of rank-and-file artists who don't have Radiohead's clout.

Nor is this move likely to affect the labels' digital strategies. Even if the gambit is wildly successful, it will not change the fact that the industry is staring down the barrel of free-falling CD sales and insufficient digital volume to make up the slack.

Still, it will be interesting to see what happens with "In Rainbows." Some of Radiohead's legions may actually pony up some serious dough, if nothing else to reward the band for not treating its fans as if they were criminals.

While most fans will probably help themselves to the album gratis, inevitably there will be a few crackpots who will pay obscene sums for it, maybe for the attention, or maybe just because they have money to burn and can't help themselves.

It will take only a few of those to give Radiohead a much bigger and more immediate payday than it would have ever gotten from Capitol, its former label.

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(* Source : Billboard.com *)

Michael Paoletta says : 

Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott is adding flair to a new ad campaign for Doritos Collisions, Billboard has learned. In a TV spot that debuts Sept. 17, Elliott is seen working on a new track and then pausing to snack on Doritos Collisions chips. Inspired by the two different-tasting chips in the same bag, Elliott has an epiphany: her song needs two different musical styles. So, she immediately injects her hip-hop track with a little bit of country twang.

The multi-platform campaign was created by the Goodby, Silverstein & Partners agency. According to Rudy Wilson, brand manager of Doritos, the campaign's multi-million dollar media buy is the brand's biggest advertising spend of the year, outside of its Super Bowl ad buy.

Elliott's manager, Mona Scott of Violator Management, says the campaign offered her client the perfect creative outlet. "The whole idea of the mash-up is so prevalent and popular in music today," Scott says. "It's so Missy. And the fact that the campaign takes place in a studio means that Missy remains in her element, which makes the whole thing authentic."

But Scott acknowledges there was another important element that helped cinch the deal: "The TV portion is fine," she explains, "but the Internet element provides us with a great back-end." A link takes fans to Elliott's Web site, where they learn more about the artist and her forthcoming, new album (tentatively titled "The Countdown"), due in December from The Gold Mind/Atlantic Records. "We see this as a great way to further maximize Missy the artist and the new album," Scott adds.

Wilson calls the online experience "a bold, intensive experience for our consumers." Visitors logging on to snackstrongproductions.com will be encouraged to create their own mash-ups (or "collisions"), using Elliott's track as the foundation. Completed mixes can be posted and shared in a "gallery" on the site. Five winners -- with prizes still to be determined -- will be selected.

More here 

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(* Source : New York Times *)

David Itzkoff says :

Visitors to the Sundance Channel area of the Web site Second Life can watch full-length feature films in a virtual screening room

IF you can find him, Vincent Tibbett is precisely the sort of well-connected cultural liaison any emerging filmmaker should want to know. An employee of the Sundance Channel, he is as easily recognizable for his shaggy haircut and assertively casual attire as he is for the crowds of aspiring artists who follow him around, hoping to chat him up about cinematic trends, get him to evaluate their movies or simply score his e-mail address.

But if Mr. Tibbett seems a bit harder to pin down for a lunch date than the average in-demand tastemaker, that’s because he doesn’t exist on our plane of reality. He is an electronic avatar found only in Second Life, the popular online virtual community.

Just six months old, Mr. Tibbett is one experiment in the Sundance Channel’s larger exploration of Internet-based virtual reality, a sort of canary down the mine shaft of a new technology that may or may not take hold among mainstream audiences.

And he is not alone. In the last year broadcast networks, cable channels and television content providers have all set up camp in virtual communities, where they hope that viewers who have forsaken television for computer screens might rediscover their programming online. Some outlets, like Showtime and Sundance, are establishing themselves in existing worlds; others, like MTV, are creating their own. Either way, if the wildest dreams of some very excited technology developers come true, virtual reality might finally be the medium that unites the passive experience of watching television with the interactive potential of the Web.

If that happens, the television industry — which has not been particularly speedy in adapting to the Internet revolution — sees an opportunity not only to recover lost ground from online competitors but also to take a lead, and in so doing create an entirely new environment in which to influence and sell to its audience.

“You want to be in this because you know, as a content provider, that this is where the future is going,” said Quincy Smith, the president of CBS Interactive. “I don’t look at it as science fiction. I look at it as the future of communication.”

For decades ambitious programmers and designers have sought to establish virtual worlds like the one put forth in Neal Stephenson’s influential 1992 novel, “Snow Crash,” which imagines computer users interacting in a simulated three-dimensional world called the Metaverse. But only in recent years, as graphics-accelerator cards and broadband Internet connections have grown more affordable and ubiquitous, has it become possible even to approximate such an experience.

IN Second Life (secondlife.com), visitors to the Sundance Channel area can watch full-length feature films in a three-dimensional screening room or take part in an environmental forum; fans of Showtime’s drama “The L Word” can meet the avatars of the show’s stars and design their own floats for a virtual gay pride parade. In MTV’s Virtual Laguna Beach (at vmtv.com) inhabitants can shop at digital versions of Emporio Optic and Laguna Surf and Sport or, at the click of a mouse, arrive in a virtual version of “The Hills,” where they can then join the party at an electronic replica of the Los Angeles nightclub Area.

More here 

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(* Source : THe Guardian *)

Owen Gibson says :

• Band bypass record labels to get release out quickly

• Internet experiment lets fans put a price on art

Their music has long been praised for blurring boundaries and breaking moulds. Now Radiohead are hoping to establish a new model for the struggling record industry by inviting music buyers to decide how much they want to pay for their new album.

To their biggest fans, eagerly awaiting their first studio album for four years, it is near priceless. Those who believe Radiohead long ago descended into self-indulgence may only risk pennies. But thanks to this ground-breaking experiment, the band will bypass record labels altogether and will be able to put a fiscal value on the public's appreciation of their art.

 The release was announced with a short message from guitarist Jonny Greenwood on the band's website, revealing that the new album, In Rainbows, would be available to download from October 10. Orders started rolling in yesterday, with customers able decide how much to pay - from nothing (plus a 45p administration charge) upwards.

Radiohead's "honesty box" experiment will be closely watched by other artists, their record labels and management companies.

In Rainbows is the most high-profile attempt yet to restructure the economics of a music industry struggling with the effects of digital piracy. Despite a booming live scene, CD sales are less profitable than ever thanks to increased competition and piracy.

With the role of the internet in helping new acts from Arctic Monkeys to Enter Shikari rise to prominence already well documented, more established artists are attempting to revolutionise the way music is sold.

Prince caused uproar among music retailers by giving his latest album away with the Mail on Sunday and yesterday the Charlatans said they would give their new single and album away for nothing through the radio station Xfm.

More here 

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(* Source : Worldsinmotion *)

Earlier this week, we took a look at a research report published by market researcher eMarketer about kids, teens, 'tweens and virtual worlds that found that 34.3 million US child and teen Internet users will visit virtual worlds once a month in 2007 -- and eMarketer expects that number to rise to 34 percent in 2008, and to 53 percent by 2011.

Worlds in Motion spoke to eMarketer's Debra Aho Williamson about her findings. "I think what’s attractive about virtual worlds for kids and teens is that they exist at a 'sweet spot' between online games, which are very popular with younger kids, 'tweens and boys, and social networks, which are very popular with teens, particularly girls," she explains. "I think that virtual worlds combine aspects of both of those things."

Zeroing in on major factors in online social worlds, she elaborated. "There are a lot of games, there's the opportunity to meet friends, interact socially, learn about other people and express your interests. So I think those are the two driving factors." Real-time interaction also plays a big role, she says. "[It's a] very immersive experience. You don’t just 'poke' somebody like on Facebook -- you can actually, physically, poke somebody. What that means is that there’s that much more real-time interaction, no latency, no making a post on someone’s wall and waiting for them to respond. It’s all occurring in real time."

More here

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(* Source : AP *)

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Orderly, pornography-free and safe for children, "meet-me," an online interactive virtual Tokyo, is Japan's answer to "Second Life." Or so its creators hope.

Japanese are so well-behaved and conformist, he says, they would prefer a more predictable and secure virtual environment over the free-spirited anything-goes of "Second Life," created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab.

In "meet-me," players' avatars, or computer-generated alter-egos, are rounder and softer, more like the cuddly characters of "Pokemon" than the angular and relatively realistic avatars of "Second Life."

The sun rises and sets in "meet-me" on Tokyo time. And avatars must ride trains or other vehicles or walk or run to get around a city whose streets and buildings look much like real Tokyo's; they can't jump from place to place as they can in "Second Life."

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(* Source : Virtual World News.com *)

CVSherman says :

Xivio, a Flash-based virtual world with a Web-based social network,  announced that it had introduced a content rating system based on user votes on the TV-MA rating system. When photos, music, videos and journals are uploaded, they are immediately rated TV-MA until the staff or community votes them into a lower rating. "We've tested it out in house, and it works very well," said President/CEO David Wisotzky. "After hearing a lot of the stuff going on with Myspace, you know protecting the kids and how other programs don't allow kids to upload content, we figured that it's the digital age and someone should make that safe to do. It seemed like nobody had been stepping up."

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(* Source : David Fishman *)

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

Beijing-based virtual worlds developer UOneNet plans to launch a new virtual world called “uWorld in” 1Q 2008, according to redlinechina.com. uWorld is a  3D virtual community that allows users to live, interact, and conduct business together. Users of uWorld will be able to purchase virtual real estate, start businesses, create social circles, and make and sell virtual items. Alpha testing for uWorld will begin in December 2007, says the article. The founder of UOneNet, Eric Ye, was a former software architect at IBM and has a masters degree in engineering from the University of Southern California (USC). The company has been focusing on building a reliable backend, including its own proprietary technology called UniG, which is being used to build uWorld, the article says. UOneNet plans to design the virtual world to appeal to Chinese users by adding more in-game tutorials and content creation tools. Currently, UOneNet is operating with a mixture of angel and venture funding and has 60 employees total, according to redlinechina.com.

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(* Source : Worlds in Motion *)

Hong Kong-based developer Linking People has let us know about a new flash-based strategy and RPG MMO slated for release in early 2008, and it's described as "MySims meets Habbo Hotel meets the Settlers." It's called Coobico, and it casts players in the role of settlers on a deserted island, tasking them with building up the neighborhood and competing with other settlers to become the island's most influential resident -- the experience "blends features like city-building, roleplaying and social networking in a casual game-experience," Linking People tells us.

It'll be isometric 2D, to boot -- looks like a lot of companies are realizing that high-powered graphics aren't always necessary, especially when appealing to a casual audience. Elaborates the Coobico site: "To put a good face on the matter: it’s a lightweight strategy-game with no retail box to purchase, no cumbersome client software to download and install and no nasty DRM. Just click and you’re in. Maybe you are, just like us, a sucker for stuff like World of Warcraft, but you just don’t have enough time for it. What’s more, we won’t require you to take a summercamp on how to play and navigate around on Qubus’ Island."

The company was founded in 2006 by three German Web developers, Wetzel, Martin and Winter, who prior to founding Linking People, built commercial and promo sites for international customers (they list Land Rover and Bayer as past clients). They're now focused on developing new social networking games and apps for the Asian and European markets, aiming for a "casual blend" of chat, social networks, Web 2.0 and multiplayer games.

But they're not targeting the "sweet spot" tweens-and-teens -- rather, Linking People's gunning for the market pegged as the "core" of casual gaming and the broader market, those aged 30 to 44.

As co-founder Winter explains: "We see this as a huge, financially strong and yet mostly untapped market -- current games and networks are completely focusing on pre-teens, teens and young adults. We see a large opportunity for games targeted at a more mature audience: people who grew up with videogames, who still like them, but nowadays neither have the time to spend hours of gameplay in traditional multiplayer-games, nor like to play casual titles like Match-3-puzzles."

Coobico is Linking People's attempt to address this market; while it's still in development, it should be interesting to see how it turns out!

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(* Source : Worlds in Motion *)

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(* Source : Worlds in Motion *)

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(* Source : Leigh Alexander *)

eopets Announces Massive Retail Toy Initiative

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(* Source : Reuters *)

Starbucks on Monday said it will give away millions of songs via downloads starting next month, as it launches a wireless music service with Apple. From October 2 to November 7 at more than 10,000 U.S. Starbucks locations, customers can receive "Song of the Day" cards redeemable on Apple's iTunes store for a complimentary song hand-selected by Starbucks Entertainment, the company said.

Starbucks said it will give away 1.5 million downloads per day for a total of more than 50 million free songs. Customers will have until the end of the year to redeem the song on iTunes. Earlier this month, Apple and Starbucks said they had reached a deal to allow people to buy songs wirelessly from Apple's iTunes music store in Starbucks coffee shops without paying Wi-Fi connection fees. The service is to debut at more than 600 Starbucks stores in New York and Seattle on October 2, and will be expanded to other major U.S. cities later this year and next.

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(* Source : Wired *)

David Kravets says :

Amazon's Tuesday launch of a DRM-free music store with some 2 million tracks represents the music industry's clearest repudiation yet of the elaborate copy-protection schemes it once staked its future on. And though it may not be obvious at first, it's Apple we have to thank.

Along with thousands of independent labels, major music producers Universal Music Group and EMI have signed on to sell songs on Amazon's new service, representing half of the "Big Four" music publishers. True, both Universal and EMI had already experimented with DRM-free downloads, but there are signs that the rest of the industry will soon follow.

Edgar Bronfman, Jr., the Warner Music Group chairman, told Goldman Sachs investors in New York last week he was considering removing DRM from Warner's music downloads -- this just months after suggesting Warner would never abandon DRM. He blamed Apple for the apparent change of heart.

"We need some online competition" for Apple's iTunes Music Store, Bronfman said. He conceded the iPod is "the default device" and iTunes the "download model."

DRM -- digital rights management -- allows downloads to expire, or to be shared and played only a limited number of times or on certain devices.

The self-created headache for the industry is that the highly popular iPod and new iPhone only play music protected by Apple's proprietary FairPlay DRM solution or music that isn't protected at all. And Apple chairman Steve Jobs has repeatedly balked at licensing FairPlay for use on competing download services or devices.

That meant music companies had to choose between using iTunes or going DRM-free. The industry stood by and allowed most of its music-download sales to come from Apple. Recognizing opportunities lost to Apple's dominance, the music industry is moving toward throwing DRM overboard in a bid to open up new retail markets and promotional opportunities.

"As a consumer, when you buy a slice of bread you want to know you could put it in any toaster," said Jeanne Meyer, a vice president at EMI, in an interview ahead of the Amazon announcement.

Phil Leigh, an analyst with Inside Digital Media, put the industry's predicament in layman's terms.

"As long as the iPod is dominant, they're going to have to reconcile themselves with dealing with what the consumer wants: something that will play on the iPod," Leigh said. "The smartest thing they can do is sell music without DRM. It's not as though DRM is stopping pirating in other ways, anyway."

The irony of the industry's predicament was not lost on Steve Jobs, Apple's chairman. Jobs described the industry's sagging business model as self-created by EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, the so-called "Big Four" leaders of sales and label ownership, with control of 70 percent of the world's music distribution market.

More here 

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(* Source : Adam Headstrow *)

Imeem, the service that offers a widget for sharing your music playlist, has reached a deal with Sony BMG to legally offer their music to users. In exchange for allowing Imeem users stream Sony BMG music in their widgets, the record label will get a cut of the advertising revenue. Imeem previously signed a similar deal with Warner Music, after the record company first tried to sue them.

Additionally, the company is reportedly in talks with Universal Music Group and EMI Group about similar content deals.

[via Forbes]

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(* Source : Techcrunch*)

Roi Carthy says :

Zlango

For those of you unfamiliar with Zlango, the company created a new language based on slightly over 200 icons in categories such as People, Actions, Places and Feelings. The Zlango offering was originally aimed at injecting life and excitement into the ever popular but boring SMS, however, the company’s jump into the Web space indicates an understanding that engaging users requires Zlango to extend itself beyond a pure mobile play.

Today’s launch kicks off Zlango’s roll out of a number of social-oriented features. Two of the most notable features available today are:

• Zlango Composer – A Flash driven composer featuring an on-the-fly “Text to Zlango” translator (see screenshot), making it a snap to create fun messages. Messages can be shared, emailed or embedded across a number of social sites (thanks to integration with Gigya).
• zMess – Zlango’s version of a micro-blog. This is an area for users to view public messages, or private ones with groups of friends. Unfortunately, support for threaded comments is not included.

On the business front, the most notable achievement of the year is a partnership with Nokia to preload the Zlango into handsets. Zlango is now also deployed at all three Israeli operators, and has inked deals with operators in the Philippines, Ukraine, Malaysia, Finland, and Indonesia.

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(* Source : Duncan Riley *)

According to Google Operating System, ASU students have the opportunity to test a new product “that will be publicly launched later this year” by “a major Internet company” that is related to social networking, 3D modeling and video games. The questionnaire attached to the application process asks would be testers if they have a Gmail account, and if not would they be willing to get one. The product’s name is shown as “My World.”

Google’s Sketchup service already provides the tech to do 3D modeling and could also be used to create avatars.

We know for certain now that Google has big plans for social networking, from SocialStream to Google’s planned November 5 launch of the mother of all open social networking platforms. Whether the planned service will be a true Second Life competitor is still to be seen, however I suspect that if Google is prepping a virtual world it will be closer to IBM’s Virtual World chat platform than Second Life. To deliver a full UGC world is a not an easy step where a basic 3D world which builds on Google Earth, SketchUp, and existing Google social networking platforms including Orkut would seem more likely.

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(* Source : Reuters *)

Michele Gershberg says :

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Young girls waiting to grow into full-time fashionistas will get a chance to experiment with couture as designer Donna Karan and cosmetics chain Sephora open shop in the virtual play-dress world of Stardoll.

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(* Source : Michael Estrin *)

Now that fashion designer Giorgio Armani has opened a store in Second Life, there really is no excuse for a poorly dressed avatar.

According to a Reuters report, Armani's Second Life store will allow residents to purchase virtual clothing using the site's Linden Dollar currency. Second Life residents also can purchase real clothing with U.S. dollars by going from Armani's virtual store to his website.

Armani, who will attend his store's virtual opening by sending a well-dressed avatar, joins a slew of companies that have embraced Second Life as a marketing tool. Most recently IBM opened up a customer service center in the virtual world, while HBO has mined the site for content by optioning a Second Life film.

With growing interest in virtual worlds coming from brands, Google has taken notice. Early this week, rumors surfaced that Google may be working on its on virtual world to rival Second Life.

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(* Source : IMediaconnections.com *)

Britanny Lawson says :

Get the lowdown on the five most popular Facebook widgets and what this trend means for brands and marketers.

Facebook has upped the ante in its latest effort to gain supremacy over the social network scene. The website's creators opened up the applications setting on May 25, 2007 for users and companies alike to upload widgets that can be embedded in any user's profile. Currently there are over 3,400 applications available to users, ranging from slideshows to horoscopes to personal aquariums.

The widgets are designed to engage users for longer periods of time on the Facebook website by creating activities for people with similar interests. Essentially, Facebook's profiles have changed from a place where you just read about someone to a place where people can engage in activities. This change is effective in generating traffic for Facebook, as well as for the companies creating user apps, and has been termed the Facebook Effect.  

The Facebook Effect is seen in the dramatic increase in web traffic to the top five company applications:

1.) Slide, Inc. has capitalized on the cornerstone of the social network sites -- picture sharing. With over 2.7 million active users daily, the company's Top Friends slideshow application is Facebook's most popular. Their widget, which is exceedingly simple, is available on every social network site, and reaches over 65 percent of all widget-users. Facebook is by far their largest patron and since the end of May has seen an increase of over 265 percent in daily unique visitors, according to Quantcast.

2.) Video by Facebook is the second most active application on the network. This tool comes on the heels of the success of YouTube and allows users to upload their own video content. Video has just below one million active users daily. Facebook's creators have seen the success of social media sites that employ user-generated video and harnessed this technology to generate more user activity on their site.

3.+4.) FunWall! and My Questions? are also in the top five, with a quarter of a million users daily. At a glance, they appear to be created by independent Facebook users. However, this application is funded by Slide, Inc.. The FunWall is a take on the basic wall feature in which users could post comments on each others' pages. It has replaced the basic wall because users can write graffiti and post movies or pictures, which has been a theme throughout social network sites. My Questions? allows users to ask all of their friends a generic question and see the responses on their page. Slide, Inc. has established that it is a heavyweight in the widget marketing platform by creating three out of the top five widgets.  

5.) iLike, Inc. allows users to upload their favorite music and has seen its traffic double since the end of May. This reveals another possibility for the widget platform -- the diversification of the point of sale for companies. Record labels such as SNOCAP have made it possible to sell music anywhere that HTML can be embedded into a web page. This could spell success for artists and music companies. 

The question, then, is how Facebook and companies such as Slide, Inc, and iLike plan to turn this popularity into financial success. As sites such as Nielsen have changed the way in which they rate websites by placing more emphasis on time spent on a website than on clicks, this could translate into ad success for Facebook. These applications keep users active on creators' respective pages as they take quizzes about their friends or play video games that are out of distribution. This will increase Facebook's rating on the Nielsen sale, and in turn increase the appeal for click advertisers. 

At the end of April 2007 Facebook had 20 million users; since then they have increased their user base by more than 50 percent to over 31 million in less than six months. Their daily uniques have doubled as well. This is in stark contrast to MySpace, which still has the lead over Facebook, but has remained relatively stable in the amount of unique clicks it receives each day. Is Facebook's rapid growth a result of its application platform? Perhaps. Regardless, Facebook's growth is putting the pressure on MySpace.

More here 

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(* Source : Emarketer.com *)

It's a virtual, virtual world after all.

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(* Source : Michael Arrington *)

Social network Piczo has released a new feature into private beta: Piczo Zone. It’s being tested by a small group of users now and will be released generally in a few weeks.

What is it? Product Evangelist Keith Crowell says its a way for users to decorate their profile pages in much the same way as teenagers decorate their rooms - with posters, music, etc. Users take (or create) images, videos, style sheets or just about anything else and then add it to their profile. Each content item also includes descriptive data and tags. When someone creates something (say an image showing a band or artist name), any other user can add it to their profile as well. All of the “stuff” created in the Piczo Zone will then spread virally as the more popular items gets added by more and more users.

Users like this stuff - they can see what the popular kids (however defined) put on their profiles and then add the same things to their own. For now users can’t add stuff that they see directly from their friends’ profiles, but software engineer Devon Boyle says they’ll add that functionality shortly.

Users Love This Stuff. But So Do Advertisers

But there’s another reason this is important: user profiling for advertising. As users add artists/bands, popular movies and well known brands (nike, whatever) to their profiles they build an extremely detailed demographic and psychographic profile of themselves that can be used for far more targeted advertising. As an example, a music label could focus advertising around a new album release to users who’s added certain similar bands and artists to their profile. It’s highly likely that the advertising will be aimed at people who are likely to buy, and ad rates increase dramatically.

The content can also be used to predict new trends far before traditional methods. Users will create their own images for a popular local indie band, for example. As more and more users add the image, someone with access to aggregate data will be able to see what’s going to become mainstream well before it actually does. Since Piczo’s users, mostly teenagers, are the trendsetters, it’s a particularly powerful tool.

Piczo isn’t the first social network to experiment with something like this. In July we wrote about a similar product called HotLists released by HotOrNot. HotLists are made up only of images, but like Piczo users create them themselves and they spread virally as users add them from the profiles of people they view. Users immediately took to the idea, adding brands, movies, artists and other things that they identified with to build out their profile. And HotNorNot now has much deeper user information to aim advertisement at. Everyone wins.

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(* Source : Press release Hasbro*)

Fastest Growing Girl Toy Brand Launches "The Cuddliest Pets on the Net"

PAWTUCKET, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS - News), announces the launch of LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs (Virtual Interactive Pets), a line of five cuddly, plush pets that bear secret codes on their collars to unlock a virtual world where tween girls can interact with the digital counterparts of their plush pals and explore a fun online VIPs destination jam packed with exciting games, activities, and community events. LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs will be unleashed in the New York Metro market and online in mid-October 2007 followed by a global retail launch in early 2008. Each LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs plush pet will carry an approximate retail price of $14.99 and includes exclusive access to the VIPs virtual world which will continuously evolve with new and exciting elements.

The initial LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs line will include a dog, cat, turtle, penguin and panda. Upon getting home with their new cuddly plush pet, girls with parental permission will plug in the secret code found on the collar at www.littlestpetshop.com, receive a VIPs Adoption Certificate and watch their pet come to life online. The fun really begins as they begin to customize their pets and environments, earn "Kibble" points to keep pets happy and healthy, play mini-games and engage in fun individual or community based activities.

"This is a very exciting time for the LITTLEST PET SHOP brand," said Valerie Jurries, vice president of marketing for Hasbro's girls brands. "We wanted to take this incredibly popular property and do something truly spectacular for the millions of girls who have come to adore the LITTLEST PET SHOP line over the years. Creating an engaging and meaningful online connection between girls and their LITTLEST PET SHOP pets was an instinctive next step. VIPs delivers a rich, immersive online world where girls and their pets can have endless hours of fun exploring, playing and bonding."

Blending Traditional LITTLEST PET SHOP Play with Online Fun

Just as they do with their real world LITTLEST PET SHOP pets, VIPs will allow girls to customize homes for their pets as well as personalize the pets with the latest apparel and accessories purchased at virtual stores and boutiques with VIPs currency called Kibble. Kibble points are earned based on keeping pets happy and healthy by completing activities such as going for a check-up at the "Get Better Center", going to the playground for some exercise and fun, playing mini-games or simply exploring the environment for hidden surprises.

 More here

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(* Source: Virtual News.com *)

CVSherman says :

This week Utherverse announced that it would be opening a currency exchange system for its Rays to be bought and sold by users. It's also moving toward the October opening of Virtual Vancouver, a more music-oriented virtual world. With 650,000 registered users, 155,000 active users, and a growth rate of over 10,000 users per day—all in the year-long alpha—Shuster paints Utherverse and RedLightCenter as "direct competitors" to Second Life. And, of course, there's the sex, which Shuster calls the most advanced in the industry.

All the animations, including all the adult animations, are either done through motion capture or professional animators," said Shuster. "It's all very life-like and realistic."

He's quick to point out, though, that the world isn't necessarily non-family friendly—or, really, any more adult than the rest of the worlds, virtual or otherwise.

More here 

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

CVSherman says : 

 When we spoke with Kaneva CEO Christopher Klaus back in August, he hinted that the game-oriented virtual world would be rolling out a series of casual games in its fourth quarter. The first, Dance Party 3D, launches tomorrow with prepaid cards for access and bonus items, in $10 and $25 varieties, appearing in Target by October 1. What sets Dance Party apart from a business point is that it's being marketed as a standalone game instead of just a value-add for existing Kaneva users. "There are lot of people who want to go into virtual worlds, but there are a lot of people who don't understand the concept, but they want to go dancing," said Klaus. "Instead of saying, 'There's a world and we have a dance game,' we want to go out and say, 'Imagine the world is our theatre, and here's the movie we just produced.' We want to make this a packaged game similar to traditional games and talk about it that way, and then say, 'By the way, one of the major features is that you end up in a virtual world.'"

"It's kind of flip-flopping it for the virtual world industry. While I think virtual worlds are important, to go out there and reach a broader segment, say people who are into music or the club scene or dance games, you just say, 'Here's a full-on game for you.' I think we're going to find members who join the game just to play the game. I think we'll also find members who join for the game and then realize that they can decorate their homes. As we add more games, it becomes like a themepark where you can run around to all the different rides. You advertise the new rides, not just the theme park."

Klaus does say the virtual world creates a different atmosphere than a standard dance game would. For one thing, it draws on the fact that Kaneva already encourages its users to stream media into the world and create their own spaces. Every club can have all of YouTube's library as its DJ's archive, letting users dance along to any video they can find.

Maybe more importantly, Dance Party 3D is still meant to be a social game. If you play Dance Dance Revolution against two or three other users, you're there to compete in the game. If you're dancing in a club with 50 other people and then happen to start a competition, you're already tied into the social experience.

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(* Source: Larry Gentille *)

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(* Source : BBC News *)

Jonathan Fieldes says :

The tool could be embedded in blogs as well as used in gaming Metaplace demo

Users of Metaplace, as it is known, can build 3D online worlds for PCs or even a mobile phone without any knowledge of complex computer languages.

The web-based program is the brainchild of Raph Koster, one of the developers of massively multiplayer online games such as Ultima Online.

Users make the virtual spaces from simple building blocks.

The results, which could be used for gaming, socialising or e-commerce, can be embedded in a webpage, facebook profile or blog.

"We are out to democratise virtual worlds and bring them to absolutely anybody," said Mr Koster, founder of Areae, the company behind Metaplace.

"You can come to the site, press a button and have a functioning virtual world that supports multiple users in about 30 seconds."

Web puzzle

Second Life is one of the most popular virtual worlds

There are already a number of popular virtual worlds such as Second Life, There and Entropia Universe. In addition there are games worlds such as World of Warcraft (WOW).

Most of these require a person to download specialist software or buy a game and there are no links between the different universes.

"They're all walled gardens," said Mr Koster.

In contrast, Metaplace is entirely web based and connections can be made between all of the different worlds.

"We modelled this on the web," said Mr Koster. "You can think about each world being a webpage and every object within in it is a link."

Users can create the worlds using different methods.

People with no programming background can use the graphical interface and choose worlds from a number of templates, such as a shop or a puzzle game.

They can also clone worlds developed by other Metaplace users.

More competent visitors to the site can build a world from scratch using the tool's own programming language known as metamarkup.

The language is "platform agnostic", according to Mr Koster, which means that it can be used to create worlds which can run on anything from a powerful PC to a mobile handset.

User control

We want to see 10,000 virtual worlds so that lots of wild and crazy stuff gets made because that is the only way it will advance as a medium Raph Koster, founder, Areae

"Others may want to make a book club that is integrated with Amazon where people can get together and chat every Thursday night about a book but they can actually see the pictures of the books on the wall, click on them and buy them," said Mr Koster.

"The applications are pretty open."

When complete, each world is given its own page on the Metaplace website.

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(* Source : Nextgreatthing.com*)

Sherrie Hui says : 

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(* Source: Mashable *)

ReverbNation has launched another new widget for bands and artists to promote themselves. Named TuneWidget, his widget nearly acts as a mini website in itself, offering all the necessary information for the band, including upcoming shows, song and video previews, and marked locations on a Yahoo map. The widget also displays band and information, like the band’s genre, location, label, and how many times the widget’s been played.

One unique and helpful feature the ReverbNation widget has is a “recommended band” display at the bottom of the widget. This lets artists cross-promote each other. Visitors can sign up for the mailing list from the widget, an grab the embed code to place it on their blogs or social networking profiles. Choose your network from the grab-it options the widget has for sites including Xanga, MySpace, and many more.

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(* Source: AFP *)

MAKUHARI, Japan (AFP) - Sony said Thursday it was delaying until next year the launch of an online virtual universe for the PlayStation 3 where users will be able to socialise, shop and even go to the movies.

Sony had planned to launch "Home" this year but PS3 owners will now have to wait until early 2008, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, Kazuo Hirai, revealed at the Tokyo Game Show.

The delay is another setback to Sony, which has much riding on the success of the PS3 but faces fierce competition from Microsoft's XBox 360 and Nintendo's Wii.

Sony said in March the free service would allow PS3 users to set up an apartment for life-like virtual characters, or avatars, which can invite friends over, share pictures and videos, and play online games.

Users can personalise their virtual home with furniture, art and other items and chat through audio or video links.

The service is seen as a cross between social community website MySpace and Linden Lab's Second Life, which allows "residents" to build homes, create vehicles, nightclubs and stores, and to communicate with instant messaging.

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