(* Source: Mashable *)

Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins says...

Gian Flugoni of ComScore released some data the company recently presented at the Forrester Consumer Forum that speaks to the ratios of visitor and ad impression shares between MySpace and Facebook. The numbers are interesting, and the implications admittedly difficult to interpret, but the raw numbers come as no big surprise.

MySpace still maintains a clear dominance of the visitor share, with 69% as opposed to Facebook’s 31%. The dominance in advertising is exacerbated by MySpace’s tendency to deliver advertising with a little bit of content to its userbase. The numbers appear crushing to Facebook, in that sense, with roughly 87% going to MySpace and 13% going to Facebook in terms of delivered advertising impressions.

The data was collected in September, so it doesn’t include any new changes to the Facebook or MySpace systems, most notably Facebook’s Beacon or Pages initiatives. Clearly the impact of those will be both difficult to measure and significant, given their infomercial-ish nature.

What is perhaps most interesting is that despite all the interactivity inherent to the Facebook developer program, MySpace visitors still consume an average 1.4 times more pages per visitor than Facebook users.

Yesterday, I also posted a very long diatribe that hopefully will cap off my rants against Project Bacn. If you were masochistic enough to read until the end, you probably remember my slamming of Facebook for walling off their garden so very much. Note that MySpace, while it does have fences around their garden, they are very weak white picket fences (to over-extend the metaphor). Their blogs are RSSified, profiles are publicly indexable, and most content on the site is available without the need to log in.

Most of that content also includes ads. In the run down of the ComScore study, they didn’t specify whether or not they measured non-registered visitors to the MySpace site, but I imagine the passive visitor also contributes significantly to the MySpace bottom line. That’s something Facebook, as of present, can’t claim.

That’s the price of erecting a 20-foot concrete wall around your garden. You may keep the riff-raff out, but it is the riff-raff that pays your bills in the end.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Techcrunch *)

I suspect news feeds/ friends updates will be a standard feature in all future mainstream social networks.  It's just a good idea and it works.  Control on what you want to stream and to whom also makes a lot of sense.  it will be interesting to see what new features these both giants come up with next but i hear a lot of people complaining on the restriction on the facebook group pages in terms of creative expression with the ability to insert widgets.  Why are widget not allowed on group pages on facebook... anyone listening at myspace?

Mike Arrington says.. 

A Reuters article earlier today gave a few details on MySpace’s upcoming “new feeds” product (which is what Facebook calls their similar product launched a year ago. We spoke to MySpace and got a much deeper look at the product, as well as screenshots of how it will look.

The new product, to be called “Friends Updates,” will begin to roll out to users this Thursday, says MySpace. Users from New Zealand and Ireland, where Friends Updates is being beta tested, can already use it.

The new product will give users a steady stream of event information from their friends. Profile updates, blog posts and photo/video uploads are all noted. See screenshot to right (click for larger view) for a visual.

MySpace VP Products Steve Pearman told me that the product that launches on Thursday is just the first iteration; they have additional features slated for release over the next 18 months.

Key differences With Facebook News Feeds

There are a number of key differences between Facebook News Feeds and MySpace Friends Updates. A key focus of the product appears to be not pissing off users. Other differences allow more granular control of news distribution.

MySpace will only begin gathering information about a user once they’ve logged in and have viewed an interstitial page that notifies them of the change - until they see and click on that interstitial page, no information is gathered for the Friends Updates. Users are also given a link to a setting area where default options can be changed, or opted out entirely. This will hopefully help MySpace avoid the user backlash that Facebook faced shortly after launching News Feeds.

Users are also given much more granular control over who can see data. Specific friends can be selected to not receive updates. Pearman gave an example of not necessarily wanting your girlfriend to know when you change your status to “single” (although a quick look at the profile would let her know anyway). Users can also select from one or more categories of information to share.

The process distills down to a requiring a double positive - you must agree to share with specific friends, and they must agree to subscribe. Without both sides agreeing, the information doesn’t appear.

Pearman says to expect third party application access to the news feed in the near future. In fact it was one of the key reasons they built the product, he says.

b-side related article here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(*Source: Techcrunch *)

It seem apple always has a couple of soothsayers from the dark side... didn't they say the same thing about iTunes, iPod and the new iPhone? only time will tell or until another product company comes up with sexier products.

Erick Schonfeld says...

“Merry Christmas, Steve. Enjoy it while it lasts.” That is the sentiment of Fast Company’s December cover story about Apple, written by Adam Penenberg. (I got my hands on the cover at right, which is a computer-generated image of a sour-faced Jobs by Alex Ostroy). He argues that it is a “dangerous moment for Apple.” The stock is near an all-time high, with a P/E ratio about the same as Google’s. Everyone from Nokia to Amazon to Microsoft to Vivendi Universal to NBC is gunning for it, and its ability to sell 10 million iPhones next year—the famous third leg that is propping the stock up—is yet to be proven. Writes Penenberg:

But when you get down to it, the Apple phenomenon is as much about fashion as it is about technology. You might say that Steve Jobs is the Marc Jacobs of computers (minus the heroin), betting the house his products will be, season after season, cooler than anyone else’s. Yet fashion is, by definition, fickle. Lose the buzz, and you’ve got trouble. And for the first time in years, there are signs that Apple is not infallible and that Jobs’s reservoir of goodwill with his followers is not bottomless.

I’m not so sure I buy the arguments that Apple has to worry about the cell phone industry getting its act together, or the music industry, or the movie industry, for that matter. We still have not seen much evidence of this, although there’s been plenty of grumbling from all corners. The notion, for instance, that iTunes has anything to worry about from subscription music services is laughable. Rhapsody? Please. It is a great service, but hardly a business threat to the iPod/iTunes juggernaut. Apple should be more worried about free advertising-supported music services that are popping up.

I do agree, however, that the “iPod-iTunes pairing was the product of a historical moment that may never be reproduced.” AppleTV is certainly a bust, and Hollywood bosses will not be the easy marks that the desperate music executives were when iTunes first got started. Penenberg’s strongest argument is that in an era of increasing openness, Apple’s insistence on closed perfection might no longer fly:

What does Steve Jobs know that Albert Einstein didn’t? Einstein posited that a closed system would become stagnant over time. . . . Jobs may have to accept that Apple’s next wave of growth–or energy, as Einstein might have put it–depends on syncing up his products and platforms with those of his competitors.

In an age of convergence and simplification, customers are ever more insistent that computers, phones, TV, and music systems work together. For them, being “open” isn’t about sharing patent information or computer code but about compatibility and seamlessness, from the phones in their pockets to the movies playing on their flat screens. . . . Winning outright is a very tall order, of course. It means coming up with a self-contained system so beautifully functional that a critical mass of consumers are willing to enter that world and never leave

It all sounds good. Except that, it has been exactly this closed-world strategy that has worked perfectly for Apple so far. The digital device industry needs a control freak like Jobs to show the rest of us what is possible when everything works as it should. Open systems are great because of their inherent flexibility, but they can also be more chaotic and difficult to manage. The question is whether everyone else can learn from Apple, catch up, and surpass it. And if they do, whether Steve Jobs won’t simply join their parade (at the front, shouting loudly about his new-found open religion) just as it begins to pass by.

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(* Source: Caroline Middlebroke *)

Thanks for sharing your internet marketing FREE booklist, Caroline.

1. Adsense Arbitrage, Brad Callen, 40 pages
2. Authority Black Book, Jack Humphrey, 64 pages
3. Bending the Web, Jack Humphrey, 30 pages
4. Blog Profits Blueprint, Yaro Starak, 55 pages
5. Buying and Selling Domains for Profit, Joel Comm, 33 pages
6. Google Adwords Made Easy, Brad Callen, 85 pages
7. Instant List Profits, Fabio Marciano, 126 pages
8. Internet Business Manifesto, Richard Schefren, 29 pages
9. Keyword Research Guide, Wordtracker, 52 pages
10. Killer Flagship Content, Chris Garret, 17 pages
11. Marketing Pilgrim Essays, Various Authors, 163 pages
12. Marketing Wisdom for 2007, Marketing Sherpa, 56 pages
13. Social Media Daily, Michelle Macphearson, 26 pages
14. Teaching Sells, Brian & Tony Clark, 22 pages
15. The IM-Myth, Russel Brunson, 44pages
16. The Internet Money Tree, Joel Comm, 15 pages
17. The Resource Report, Mike Filsaime, 37 pages
18. Your Online Money Factory, Kevin Riley, 23 pages
19. Warrior Tips v3, Various Authors, 133 pages
20. Web Traffic Orgasm: A Case Study, Dean Hunt, 20 pages
21. Zero Dollars, a Little Talent, and 30 Days, Jennifer Laycock, 143 pages

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(* Source: Mashable *) 

Kristen says... 

Molson

It’s a sadly funny situation, seeing a brewery try to get hip with an online photo contest on Facebook. I can only assume that Molson didn’t happen to notice that Facebook is a breeding ground for drunken party pictures pouring in from campuses across the world. Needless to say, the photo contest ended up looking more like a promotion for binge drinking, and the brewer pulled the plug on that one after being contacted by an Xavier University administrator. Surprise, surprise.

Lesson Learned for Molson

So what can we all take away from Molson’s mistakes?

Don’t hold a college party photo contest (especially on Facebook!) if you’re a brewery. Go sponsor a cab company instead.

Just because it’s a social network and your daughter spends too much time on it doesn’t mean it’s the best place for you to advertise. This leads us to the next takeaway…

Get an online marketing specialist. If you can afford one, then it’s likely you’re too far removed from social networking to understand it anyway. So just spend money to hire experts to do online marketing for you. It’s like a dog walker, only way better for you.

Don’t hold a college party photo contest if you’re a brewery!

Got any other takeaways from Molson’s mess up? Share some more “duh” moments in the comments. This is a layup for all you trollers out there.

[via globe and mail]

Posted by brian tiong at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

Ah finally we see some re-action from myspace with all this facebook hype happening... is it too late?

Kristen Nicole says...

Newsfeeds. Everybody’s got them, and MySpace wants them too. You’ll find them added to your account in the next month or so, alerting you to all of your friends’ activities. This isn’t the only time MySpace has moved to better emulate Facebook, which seems to have all the right moves when it comes to engaging users and promoting useless information.

Today’s announcement from Fox Interactive Media President Peter Levinsohn includes other changes that MySpace will be making to its social network, including profile privacy settings that let you create multiple profiles so you can “change faces” according to friends, family and business, something that several other social networks like Friendster are considering as well. This was all hinted at with MySpace’s set of rather significant updates that were mentioned a nearly two months ago, taking MySpace in the same direction as so many other social networks out there–towards the path of Facebook.

The other big announcement from Fox Interactive today is in regards to the expansion of its new ad network, which will now incorporate the entire Murdoch online media empire for advertising options to online marketers.

[via Reuters]

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(* Source: Techcrunch *)

I've been using results from Alexa for yonks... if this post is right, then maybe some caution should be exercised. Be warned. 

Amazon’s Alexa traffic reporting service has little credibility left among people who follow traffic trends. Most analytics services, like Comscore, don’t measure small sites well, but they tend to get it right for the larger sites. Alexa seems to get everything wrong, no matter how large or small the site.

Example: In August Alexa said that YouTube passed Google itself in total page views. They were wrong, but their data continues to perpetuate this alternate reality.

Now, another embarrassing error. Alexa says that Facebook, on a steady growth curve for the last two years, now has a larger audience than MySpace. This isn’t as ridiculous as the YouTube/Google error, but it’s still way off. Comscore says that worldwide MySpace uniques are 109 million/month, whereas Facebook is at 86 million. Compete.com, which measures traffic using similar techniques as Alexa, stills says that MySpace is larger than Facebook.

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(* Source: TechCrunch *)

The Singapore government in their attempts to be 'cool' has struck out again.  Who is responsible for this idea should be given a job in PR because it is just like a firecracker that just went off in yor hand. I could not watch the video... See if you can.

Michael Arrington says...

I couldn’t not post this. The Singapore Media Development Authority made this video to sex up the Singapore tech scene a little. I’d say they definitely succeeded - there’s nothing as cool as middle aged men in suits rapping. Dan, dude, you’ve got to get on this immediately and make it go viral.

I would have paid good money to have done a cameo in this video.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Ars Technica *)

Ben Kuchera says... 

Playing music on plastic guitars is big business. Guitar Hero 3 has become quite the runaway hit at retail, and with Rock Band now released, we have two big-name rhythm games on the market. Rhythm games live and die by their music, and with a varied and carefully selected track list, these games can be a good way to break up and coming acts to new fans as well as a way to raise awareness of classic tracks. Ars Technica has had a chance to look at Soundscan's sales figures for some of the tracks included in Guitar Hero 3 before and after the game's release, and it's crystal clear that having your music included in a Guitar Hero game means increased sales for labels and bands. 

"No labels are really advertising their bands being in GH III, and even if they did most of the 'fans' already have a copy of the bands' most popular song before GH III came out," a source close inside the music industry told Ars.  "It's not far-fetched to assume that these are new people willing to pay for a new song."

Take The Strokes' track "Reptilia" as an example. The week GH III was released, "Reptilia" sold 127 percent more digital copies than it had the week before. The following week saw another 96 percent jump in sales. That number stayed high the next week as well, as the song saw a modest 3 precent increase. The story was similar for Slipknot's track "Before I Forget." That song jumped up 75 percent the week of the game's release, and an impressive 140 percent the week after. The following chart shows the week-over-week sales increases for five of the tracks.

Week-over-week sales numbers for four of the bands. The tracks spike, and stay there

"It doesn't appear to matter if you're in the main game or are a bonus song; huge gains are seen everywhere.  As long as your song ships with the game and you offer the track to be downloaded digitally, you see an increase," the source explained.

This jump isn't as easy to spot when you look at album sales, however. "Look at the Weezer title—47 percent increase for an album that came out in 1994 and can be gotten used for a dollar pretty much anywhere, eBay and locally," he goes on.  "Yet the Queens Of The Stone Age didn't [see a large sales jump]... It's hard to draw a conclusion other than GH III can help sell physical albums—sometimes."

The balance of power in music-based games may be shifting, especially if we see these sale increases leading to improved visibility for the artists included in the game. While Weezer is already a famous name, getting your track included in a game that will be sold to millions of dedicated music fans is an easy and fast way to promote new artists.

When Guitar Hero was first released, the developer struggled to get labels to allow the songs to be used in the game. Now that the games have become such a popular part of pop culture and we have evidence that having a song in the game can dramatically increase sales, Activision may be in a position to pick and choose what tracks they'd like for their future games. 

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

(* Source: Techcrunch *)

Google takes a bite at the TV space...here are some hightlights on its plans to reinvent the box as we know it.

Erick Schonfeld says...

"An open-source operating system like Android for the set-top box could change that. If creating applications for set-top boxes was more like creating applications for the Web, we’d be able to do a lot more things with our TVs—especially if those set-top boxes were also connected to the Web. Want instant messaging and caller ID on your TV? No problem. Want customized information widgets for the TV that scroll breaking news, weather, sports scores or stock quotes from sources you choose in your own ticker at the bottom of the screen? No problem. Want to turn that annoying ticker off? No problem. Want to control the camera angles on that basketball game? No problem. Want to add the live video stream from your friend’s cell phone who is attheir TVs? No problem. The game? No problem. Want to create your own video mashup of fight scenes from various movies that you can edit right on your TV and share with others on"

"Oh, and what about new forms of advertising? Inserting ads into pay-per-view or triggering them when someone presses fast-forward on their DVR require applications of a different sort. You might not like that, but the TV industry would. Any new video ad unit that starts to gain traction on the Web could be ported over to regular TVs—clickable overlays, contextual video ads, unobtrusive sponsorship icons. Why not even let viewers program their own ads with a laundry list of categories and companies to choose from? They might actually watch them."

"When it comes to advertising, Google is not shy about stating its ambitions. “We are confident we are going to revive the television advertising industry,” says Dureau, “by bringing new advertising to it.” Already, Google is trying to make TV ads more relevant, easier to target, and cheaper to deploy. As a result, Google thinks it can attract more ad dollars from smaller businesses that may not have been advertising on TV before."

 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Techcrunch *) 

Casual gaming is getting bigger everytime I look at it.  Here is another article... 

Nick Gonzalez says...

Casual gaming is a big business. A video games analyst at IDC, Schelley Olhava, estimated 2.6 million casual games were purchased ($52.7 million) last year. But in game advertising firm NeoEdge says they can triple the revenue of these games by serving ads instead of charging. Their rich media ads are served as pre-roll, post-roll, or interstitial advertisements in games. Today they’ve taken the system, Neo ARM, out of private beta and opened it to all developers.

MochiAds is another casual gaming advertising system we’ve covered in the past. Unlike MochiAds, NeoEdge doesn’t rely on developers to insert ads through a self-serve toolkit, but instead adds the advertising code to a developer’s game themselves (a potential bottleneck). Revenue from the ads are split about 50-50. NeoEdge says they can integrate with more formats than just flash games (i.e. download games), although flash appears to be format affecting most developers. Their system delivers the ads dynamically from their servers over the internet, making it possible to target ads based on demographic info provided by publishers.

But 100% free doesn’t seem to be the whole story. Long before social networks casual gaming sites discovered the value of micro-transactions. King.com collected $27 million from gaming micro-transactions last year. Nexon made $250 million in revenue in 2005, mostly through micro-transaction game upgrades. Kongregate is launching their own micro transaction system for game developers as well. A blended monetization model between ads and micro-transactions seems the best strategy for getting the most money out of visitors.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Techcrunch *)

Some early success stories with Googles Open Social initiatives.

Erick Schonfeld says...

Ever since Plaxo joined Google’s OpenSocial platform a couple weeks ago, the number of connections on Plaxo has skyrocketed from about 200,000 to over a million. Here is a graph from Plaxo marketing VP John McCrea (nice hockey stick, John):

Posted by brian tiong at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Techcrunch *)

By facebook allowing anybody and everybody to build widgets on their platfrom, it levels the playing field and creative ideas seem to be taking the lead.  Here is an student example.  Sounds like somebodys gonna get a job offer real soon.

Nick Gonzalez says...

Dave McClure has been teaching a class on Facebook applications at Stanford over the past semester. The class is made up of about 50 students who teamed up to produced 25 applications. We got a look at the applications earlier. Today we received word that one of them, KissMe, has crossed 1 million installs as of 6:30pm this evening. Another app, Send Hotness is likely to break 1 million in the next few days. It’s pretty amazing considering a lot of professional apps barely register.

KissMe - kiss your friends, basically by inviting them to use the application. Apparently this is the most popular application of the whole class in terms of the number of users it has (100,000).

Send Hotness - figure out your ten hottest friends; invite your friends to help you with rankings. You must invite at least ten people to see the rankings.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: AllofMP3.com) 

Some pretty respectable experts discussing the future of the music industry... 

Stephen J. Dubner co-author of the Freakonomics book expresses his view as well as asks several experts about the present and future of the music industry.

Koleman Strumpf, professor of business economics at the University of Kansas Business School whose papers include “The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales” on the present downturn: “there is surprisingly little evidence to support the claim that file sharing has significantly hurt record sales.” Instead several other factors are suggested:
- “industry has failed to find genres that capture the interests of consumers;
- much of the reduction in sales is the direct result of industry cost-cutting. The major record labels have cut large numbers of staff and severed ties with many artists;
- recorded music has had trouble competing against other products that vie for consumers’ entertainment spending;
- he rise of paid digital downloads made popular by iTunes".

Fredric Dannen, author of Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business:
“You can always count on the record industry to cling to the past, and to fight innovation. (Apart from resisting the LP, the cassette, and the CD, the industry also fought MTV.)”

George Drakoulias, music producer, artists & repertoire executive at American Recordings, and veteran of Def Jam Recordings:
“There are many factors contributing to the industry’s current decline. The biggest ones include the inability of record companies to take advantage of new resources like Napster and American Idol, the continuous churning out of bad music, and, of course, greed, greed, and more greed. I think it is clear how we got here; but where we’re going remains very uncertain.”

Peter Rojas, founder of Engadget and co-founder of RCRD LBL, a free, online-only music label launched by Downtown Records.
“The fact of the matter is that the majors thrived in an era of inefficiency, when there was value in physically producing and distributing music. There isn’t any value in that any more (or at least, it’s very quickly declining), and there’s no good way for labels to compete given that the cost structure of the business was designed around physical releases.”

Read more:
What’s the Future of the Music Industry? A Freakonomics Quorum, The New York Times

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(* Source: Adam Ostrow *)

I've been hearing how Facebook is about to catch Myspace.  Have a look at these latest numbers from comScore. 

(* Source: IAB.net *) 

Industry Maintains Record-breaking Trend; 2007 Q3 Revenues Up Over 25% from 2006 Q3

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) today announced that Internet advertising revenues exceeded $5.2 billion for the third quarter of 2007, representing yet another historic high for a quarter and a $1.1 billion increase, or 25.3 percent, over Q3 2006. The results, published in the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, are nearly 3 percent higher than Q2 2007, itself the last record-setting quarter. All three quarters in 2007 have set new highs—Q1 at $4.9 billion, Q2 at $5.1 billion, and now Q3 at $5.2 billon. Revenues for the first nine months of 2007 totaled $15.2 billion, up nearly 26 percent over the $12.1 billion recorded during the first nine months of 2006.

"The continued robust growth of the industry indicates that marketers increasingly understand and appreciate the benefits of interactive advertising," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.

"Marketers large and small have come to accept digital media as the fulcrum of any marketing strategy."

"Internet advertising revenues are on an annual run-rate exceeding $20 billion, further demonstrating the industry has truly come into its own," said Peter Petrusky, director, Entertainment, Media & Communications Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers. "The emergence of new platforms, including broadband video, rich Internet applications, mobile, and social media promise to deliver new benefits for consumers, and create exciting new venues for marketers to realize value in digital media."

"The results of the survey continue to underscore the value that interactive advertising brings to the marketplace, as marketers and agencies build on established guidelines and best practices to control costs and maximize returns from their growing interactive budgets," added David Silverman, partner, Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Dave Rigotti *)

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(* Source: Duncan Riley *) 

Duncan says... 

IBM released an interesting new report earlier this week that predicts the end of advertising as we know it within 5 years.

To quote IBM

Traditional advertising players risk major revenue declines as budgets shift rapidly to new, interactive formats, which are expected to grow at nearly five times that of traditional advertising.

To survive in this new reality, broadcasters must change their mass audience mind-set to cater to niche consumer segments, and distributors need to deliver targeted, interactive advertising for a range of multimedia devices. Advertising agencies must experiment creatively, become brokers of consumer insights, and guide allocation of advertising dollars amid exploding choices. All players must adapt to a world where advertising inventory is increasingly bought and sold in open exchanges vs. traditional channels…

The report observes four change drivers tipping the advertising industry balance of power:”

• Control of attention,

• Creativity,

• Measurement, and

• Advertising inventories

Consumers’ attention has shifted, with personal Internet time rivaling TV time. Consumers have tired of interruption advertising, and are increasingly in control of how they interact, filter, distribute, and consume their content, and associated advertising messages. IBM’s survey findings demonstrated that half of DVR owners watch 50 percent or more of programming on re-play, and that traditional video advertising doesn’t translate online: 40 percent of respondents found ads during an online video segment more annoying than any other format.

Amateurs and semi-professionals are increasingly creating low cost advertising content that threatens to bypass creative agencies, while publishers and broadcasters are broadening their own creative roles. Advertisers are demanding accountability and more specific individual consumer measurements across advertising platforms. Self-service advertising exchanges are attracting revenues that were once exclusively sold through proprietary channels or transactions.

The Full report here (pdf) makes for interesting reading, particularly for anyone working in an advertising related business. A lot of it states what many of us already know, but it doesn’t hurt to have this validated in writing.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Fred Wilson *)

What is this Facebook Ad system is what i'm hearing a lot of these days.  Here is a Fred, a VC commenting on it from his personal view. 

Thanks to everyone who commented and emailed me after my post yesterday afternoon. I am indeed dense. The social advertising system on Facebook is up and running, I just couldn't find it.

Here is my ad. It took me all of a minute or two to create it. I am targeting it at facebook users who have an interest in technology. If you click on the ad, you go to the Union Square Ventures facebook page. I am paying $0.10 for each click and have a cap of $10/day. That is similar to the rates I pay on Google adwords for my avc blog ads.

Just to be clear, I don't really see the value in running Facebook ads for the Union Square Ventures page on Facebook or Google ads for my blog. But I don't understand technology by reading about it. I understand technology by using it.

Facebook says that there are 17,291,140 people who will see ads on Facebook. The only targeting they apply to get that number is 18 years and older. That's an interesting number in its own right.

When you add targeting, the number of people you'll reach goes down. I added the keyword technology to my campaign and the size of the audience I can reach dropped to 32,140 people. That's way less than the number of unique visitors that this blog sees every month.

I wonder how the keywords are mapped to pages. I just added the word technology to my personal interests in my profile to see if that would target my ad to me. It did not.

You can also use a Facebook ad to send traffic to pages outside of Facebook. I am going to set up an identical ad to see how that performs versus driving traffic to Facebook pages.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* 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.

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

(* 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 : Nextgreattthing *)

David says :

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(* Source : Wired *)

Jenna Wortham says :

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

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(* Source: Jeremiah Owyang, insight from Charlene Li and Shar VanBoskirk *)

Executive Summary
Both Facebook and MySpace have launched profile and network targeted advertising and marketing products. As they both use member interests and the communities which they are part of, trust continues to become key in adoption as information is passed along the network. The sheer size of MySpace’s member base, as well as the thriving local business membership will lead to success. Facebook, which brings a unique solution evolves advertisements to endorsements and encourages members to subscribe to a brand in what we are calling “Fan-Sumers” (an evolution of the consumer). As consumers share their affinities, brands can advertise using trusted social relationships.

(Left Graph: Consumers trust their friends and acquaintances far more than any other sources –Report: Leveraging User-Generated Content, 2007)

Trust is and will continue to be one of the most important attributes in the decision making process.

Communities form online, trust develops
How we get information continues to evolve as communities form online organized by individuals with similar interests. Just like in real life, we identify our interests, and are often influenced by opinions and experiences of trusted peers in our communities. For many, social networking sites embody these relationships and influence how trusted decisions are made.

[Brands can now self-serve a targeted marketing and advertising campaign within the already thriving MySpace community]

Webmaster not needed: MySpace profile for businesses
Small businesses can continue to build their online profile on MySpace (many of them already have), but now, because of their familiarity with self-marketing (restaurant, nightclub, and other local businesses and their customers) on Myspace.

Self-service ads remove middle man
When friction is removed, efficiency is created. With MySpace’s “Self-Service” ad network small businesese can target ads across a variety of affinities (over 300) and deploy ads on users’ profile pages. These ads, which should (by theory) be relevant and contextual to a user who has self-populated their profile page will have these ads displayed.

Advertising balance required in already busy MySpace
With marketers already with a strong presence in MySpace this could continue to erode away at early adopter “cool kids” from embracing MySpace. But as cycles have shown, where communities form, marketers follow.

User experience continues to be free-form
These ads, which will conform to IAB advertising standards (sizes) will give advertisers the freedom to create the ads in the style accustomed to the network. Yes, expect more blinking text.

To watch: OpenSocial
As OpenSocial starts to be deployed across MySpace and other partners, expect profile ads to be tied to widgets and vice versa; a fabric of links. I’ve already outlined How to explain OpenSocial to your executives.

Inaccurate user profiles could result in mis-targeting of ads
We know that many members do not make their profiles accurate which could yield inconsistencies in how and where ads are displayed. While MySpace has assured they’re accounting for rogue outliers, expect some inefficiencies in advertisements.

Our Call: Sheer mass will yield success
We think this to be a win for MySpace, given their great reach, there are millions of users with active profiles, and there’s also plenty of inventory as many small and local businesses that are present will be comfortable deploying ads where their community already exists.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Jeremiah Owyang *)

Some insights and analysis from the Forrester team of Jeremiah, Charlene & Shar VanBoskirk.

Jeremiah says...

Going beyond just profile matching of advertisements, Facebook allows consumers to self-identify with brands and becoming fans. In turn, brands can use these “Fan-Sumers” as endorsers to their own trusted networks, resulting in trusted word-of-mouth. Brands can also self-manage their own campaigns, and there’s some unique opportunities for eCommerce widgets or applications to be part of this formula.

[Using Facebook, consumers will publicly endorse brands, resulting in the birth of the “Fan-Sumer”, causing efficient word-of-mouth marketing in their trusted network]

There are three major components to today’s announcement, they include the following:

1) Facebook Pages: Brands get their own profile
For the first time, businesses will legitimately be able to setup profile pages, much like MySpace’s business profiles feature. Next, Facebook members will add these brands as ‘fans’ (much like friends) and this will produce a connection between the parties. Members will self-identify with brands in what we are calling “Fan-Sumers”. Furthermore, this service, called “Beacon” gives third parties the ability to share information on the newsfeed and provides lots of unique opportunities. Sponsored groups will start to evolve into this new form brand profile as this system gets adopted.

2) SocialAds: Endorsements at the friend level lead to eCommerce
Once a member has indicated they are a fan of a brand, that brand can choose to purchase SocialAds (from Facebook Sales or via a self-service platform). A unique endorsement of a product or brand will now appear on that individuals news feed or banner or skyscraper ads. Advertisers can purchase social ads target by profile demographics and profiles, as well as by activities done in Facebook. Payment is an auction-based system available to marketers via both CPM and CPC pricing.

3) Use “Insight” for control and flexibility
This self-service dashboard called Insight gives the marketer detailed knowledge how their advertising campaign is working on Facebook. It’s expected that advertisers will have flexibility, control over the type of ads they deploy, in what quantity, and the demographics they want to target.

A likely scenario:
Shauna, who enjoys Revlon products, indicates she’s a fan of the brand and becomes a Fan-Sumer. Marketers at Revlon can then purchase SocialAds, which will then display on Shauna’s newsfeed or on ads on her profile. If Shauna purchases Revlon makeup from Amazon, her newsfeed could indicate an eCommerce links recommending it to her 100 trusted friends, resulting in further sales.

[The traditional marketing funnel as we know it is distorted; endorsements are now passed from trusted customers to prospects, not direct from the brands themselves]

Implications for Facebook:

Members have more control over ads
Facebook users can opt to turn off social ads, and friends of that user can ‘dial down’ endorsements they see using preferences. We believe that Facebook is attempting to respect the rights of users by giving control to members to ‘opt-in’ to become a Fan-Sumer.

Quest for Fans will cause brands to beg
Since social ads only work if a member has indicated they are a fan, brands will be working to earn and buy fans to accept them as members. Expect a lot of noise to be generated from this activity as brands run campaigns to encourage members to add them as fans through discussion boards, banner ads, and special offers.

Hard to qualify a “business”
Facebook is limiting these features to ‘real’ businesses and organizations. Expect an entire team to be crawling and dealing with this qualifying the issue. As recent member accounts have been disabled from Facebook, expect businesses and organizations to encounter same issues.

Limited ad supply to raise prices
Because Facebook members will see only two social ads per day, we expect the supply of ads to be in scarce supply and thus raising prices and not matching the value. This could shift ad buying to large brands who have experience buying and managing search and direct response ads.

Our Call: Brand affinity leads to community endorsements and more trusted marketing.
We see this as a win for Facebook, this highly targeted system isn’t just about web advertising but about brand affinity and hooks into what’s really important, trusted endorsements from people in a network. This truly is the next generation of advertising. Facebook tells us that the worst case it will be 2 times click through rate over the performance of (existing is 4-26%)

Experiment: Because of the control and flexibility, we recommend to brands that are currently on either of these social networks to experiment and test.

Learn how to efficiently manage your campaigns. There’s clearly a trend towards self-service, which provides efficiencies for both businesses and the platforms.

To know: Marketing has changed, advertising is no longer a sole-solution. Marketers must also learn how to be part of communities, engage with them, and be part of the conversation.

To know: Marketing is now distributed, brands must embrace communities where they currently exist, rather than solely driving them to their corporate website.

[While traditional search advertisers like Google and Yahoo match by keyword, My Space and Facebook match on something far more powerful: people and their relationships]

Posted by brian tiong at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* 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.

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

(* 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.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* 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.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Stan Schroeder *)

Everyone has joined more than 1 social network, will social network aggregators catch on? Here is a great list by Stan from Mashables.

(* Source: Andrew Min *)

For all you people out there that are using movable type like i do... enjoy.

(* Source: Only Dead Fish *)

Neil Perkin says... 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Comscore *)

Some really interesting results to the Radiohead against the label exercise.  Some of the numbers here really surprised me.  Have a look yourself. 

2 out of 5 Downloaders Willing to Pay an Average of $6 for “In Rainbows” Album

Approximately 2 out of 5 Downloaders Willing to Pay

During the first 29 days of October, 1.2 million people worldwide visited the “In Rainbows” site, with a significant percentage of visitors ultimately downloading the album.  The study showed that 38 percent of global downloaders of the album willingly paid to do so, with the remaining 62 percent choosing to pay nothing. The percent downloading for free in the U.S. (60 percent) is only marginally lower than in the rest of the world (64 percent).

“I am surprised by the number of freeloaders,” said Fred Wilson, managing partner of Union Square Ventures and well-known music aficionado. “The stories to date about the In Rainbows ‘pick your price’ download offer have been much more optimistic. I paid $5 U.S. and had no reluctance whatsoever to take out my card and pay. It’s a fantastic record, the best thing they've done in years. But, this shows pretty conclusively that the majority of music consumers feel that digital recorded music should be free and is not worth paying for. That's a large group that can't be ignored and its time to come up with new business models to serve the freeloader market.”

U.S. Downloaders Willing to Pay More than International Counterparts

U.S. Consumers Willing to Pay More When Nobody’s Looking

While freeloaders appear to be as prevalent in the U.S. as in the rest of the world, the U.S. paying customer is willing to pay far more ($8.05 per download) than his international counterpart ($4.64). The difference could be attributed to the fact that U.S. consumers generally have more disposable income, but possibly also to the greater popularity of free file-sharing in other countries.

* Dollar figures exclude credit card transaction fees

Of those who were willing to pay, the largest percentage (17 percent) paid less than $4. However, a significant percentage (12 percent) were willing to pay between $8-$12, or approximately the cost to download a typical album via iTunes, and these consumers accounted for more than half (52 percent) of all sales in dollars.

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(* Source: Marta Strickland *)

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(* Source: Misha Cornes *)

A great coverage on the Forrester Consumer Forum.  The greta thing about the web these days is that you don't even have to be there and can still get the best seats in the house.  Have a look at the below super videos...

Misha Cornes said...

Earlier this month I spoke at the Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 in Chicago.  In a sign of the times, this was a two-day conference devoted entirely to social media.  Given the topic, it was inevitable that almost every aspect of the conference was fully blogged, tagged, and uploaded even before the last session concluded.

Just when I thought I couldn't consume any more virtual content, I got a special treat this week in the form of this video widget from coBrandit, a video podcasting team that covered the event.  It really got my attention.  Here in one neat package are interviews with key speakers including Ze Frank, Charlene Li, Richard Edelman, David Armano, even yours truly.  (Thanks David for the heads-up.)

Widgets are going to be the story for the rest of this year, particularly following the announcement of OpenSocial, Google's challenge to Facebook's closed API.  We tend to think of widgets as toys that live inside a particular social network (throwing a sheep at someone on Facebook), but the advent of open standards will mean an opportunity to applify all kinds of content.  It's game-changing.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Servant of Chaos *) 

It is one thing to talk about social networks ... about the connectedness of people and places. It is quite another to mine this data and provide reporting analytics around it. For example, looking at my Facebook feed page I can quickly tap into the pulse of my own, small scale social graph -- I interpret the words, links, images, group memberships, activations, defections and rewards in a range of ways that allow me to activate, participate or ignore. This interpretation ... my analysis of the events and interactions, when combined with a good dose of imagination can yield surprising insight into the interests and actions of my friends and colleagues.

But what happens when you take this up a level? What if we begin to aggregate the data? This is where statistical and analytical programs come into their own. Like Google Analytics ... but for communities. For nations.

This type of research and analysis fascinates me. It tells me about how people actually DO behave. It helps me position my self within or apart from a movement or trend. It reinforces my sense of belonging or otherness. But mostly, it makes my brain buzz (perhaps Robyn, you can tell me what is going on here!)

In my mind, the social graph is multi-dimensional. There are contact nodes, points of reference, bridges, out-liers and random spikes that rise unexpected. But underlying this is fact ... data ... the truth in action. Behind every connected dot of imagination is the face of someone I am never likely to meet ... and yet I am aware, ever so momentarily, of their presence and impact. And what I would love is a way to explore this information ... to peek into the human secretness of the social gargantuan.

Which is why I am so excited about Skyrails -- "a social network visualization system. It has a built in programming language for processing the graph and its attributes". While it is still in beta and being done whilst creator, Yose Widjaja, is finishing a PhD, its potential is substantial. You can even download a copy to run on your computer (PC only sorry folks). But in case you can't test it yourself ... this video is for you. Voila.

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

(* Source: Chris Anderson *)

As with Radiohead's bold step taken against the music industry with the launch of their new album for "Free".  Chris takes a look at the book industry and debates what "Free"means with a few interesting points of view taken between promotion, sales and what's complicated.

Chris says 

Unlike simply selling what we make, free requires creative thinking about how to make money around what we make. That is, as Adams says, "complicated". Which is why I think there's a book in it.

 

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: B-side *)

Facebook may have the lead right now but they have a walled garden approach with the apps only working on their own platform.  Google with OpenSocial hope to change that with a common API that allow developers to develop widgets that work everywhere.  Hmmm... let the battle begin.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)