Magnatune a hit with the crits

A music label and website called Magnatune is attracting all sorts of attention in the blogosphere as the most acceptable online model. Their strapline hits the spot, while perhaps coming across as a little shrill: "We're not evil" ... now, who couldd they mean?

Blogs offer taste of war in Iraq

BBC NEWS
"The war in Vietnam is often referred to as the first war on television, and the wars in Afghanistan and now in Iraq will be known as the first wars to be blogged. A new generation of soldier bloggers in the US, known as milbloggers, are both fighting in the field and writing about their experiences. It is opening up a new window on modern warfare and is creating a new genre of war-time writing."

Sony settles 'rootkit' class action lawsuit

CNET News.com
"Customers who exchange their XCP CD can either download three albums from a list of over 200 titles, or claim a cash payment of $7.50 and a free download of one album. To claim this compensation, customers must return their XCP CDs to Sony or provide the company with a receipt showing they returned or exchanged the CD at a retailer after Nov. 14."

Wow ... talk about winning hearts and minds!

RIAA = The Coyote, you = The Roadrunner

p2pnet.net
"How does Organized Music get to victims? Lawyer Ray Beckerman, who's been working with Santangelo since the begining, explains:

A lawsuit is brought against a group of John Does with the corporate headquarters of the ISP as the location of the lawsuit. But, 'All the RIAA knows about the people it is suing is that they are the people who paid for an internet access acount for a particular dynamic IP address,' says Beckerman, going on:

'The 'John Does' may live - and usually do live - hundreds or thousands of miles away, and are not even aware that they have been sued. The case may drag on for months or even years, with the RIAA being the only party that has lawyers in court to talk to the judges and other judicial personnel.

'The RIAA - without notice to the defendants - makes a motion for an 'ex parte' order permitting immediate discovery. ('Ex parte' means that one side has communicated to the Court without the knowledge of the other parties to the suit. It is very rarely permitted, since the American system of justice is premised upon an open system in which, whenever one side wants to communicate with the Court, it has to give prior notice to the other side, so that they too will have an opportunity to be heard.).

'The 'ex parte' order would give the RIAA permission to take 'immediate discovery' - before the defendants have been served or given notice - which authorizes the issuance of subpoenas to the ISP's asking for the names and addresses and other information about their subscribers, which is information that would otherwise be confidential.

'In the United States the courts have been routinely granting these 'ex parte' orders it appears. (Not so in other countries. Both Canada and the Netherlands have found the RIAA's investigation too flimsy to warrant the invasion of subscriber privacy. Indeed the Netherlands court questioned the investigation's legality.).

'Once the ex parte order is granted, the RIAA issues a subpoena to the ISP, and gets the subscriber's name and address.

'The RIAA then discontinues its 'John Doe' 'ex parte' case, and sues the defendant in his own name in the district where he or she lives.

'Thus, at the core of the whole process are:

(1) the mass lawsuit against a large number of 'John Does';
(2) the 'ex parte' order of discovery; and
(3) the subpoenas demanding the names and addresses of the 'John Does'."

John Battelle Talks to Performancing about FM Publishing

Performancing.com
"Over the holidays I had a chance to talk to John Battelle of FM Publishing, a new but much discussed blog ad network that's currently in beta. FM has a whole bunch of high profile bloggers working with it already, and from what I can see it looks near to making a formal debut, so it was good to get some answers from the man himself."

iPod Replaced With Meat

ABC News
"Surprised he was, and so was Cambra. When her son opened the box for the high-tech toy, he discovered the iPod that should have been there wasn't. It had apparently been replaced with some kind of mystery meat."

I name this product the AtkinsPod.

Debunking downloads bollox in FT

p2pnet.net
"p2p news / p2pnet: There's a story in the Financial Times, one of Britain's most reputable and influential newspapers, which gives a completely distorted impression of what's happening in the world of online music.

It could almost have been written by one or other of the Big Four record labels' many and various PR-cum-enforcement units such as the RIAA, IFPI or BPI.

Reading it, one gets the impression there's a successful, busy corporate music downloading sector when in fact, the exact opposite is true."

Women and Men Online

Pew Internet & American Life Project Report
"How Women and Men Use the Internet: Women are catching up to men in most measures of online life. Men like the internet for the experiences it offers, while women like it for the human connections it promotes."

The Net Is a Boon for Indie Labels

New York Times
"Exploiting online message boards, music blogs and social networks, independent music companies are making big advances at the expense of the four global music conglomerates, whose established business model of blockbuster hits promoted through radio airplay now looks increasingly outdated."

How to build a 2.0 music service in just 9 weeks ...

Pandora
"It's hard for me to believe that it's been just 9 weeks since we launched Pandora. In that time you've created over 1 million stations, starting from 70,000 unique songs and artists. I really can't imagine a more gratifying response. Easily the best part of all of this has been interacting with many of you via email and in the blogosphere. Thanks for all the great product and music suggestions. It's been a blast."

Spot the difference.

Over-50s 'driving music growth'

BBC NEWS
"The over-50s are having an increasing impact on the UK music industry, a survey by the record labels' trade body and Age Concern suggests."

Grumpy old farts on both sides of the table then ... :-)

Review of the Year's Best Web 2.0 Explanations

web2.wsj2.com
"I know that many people are still struggling with what Web 2.0 means, are often confused by thinking it's purely a marketing term, or if you're like most folks, you haven't really heard about it yet. To those, I think this list will definitely help. And it's a good refresher for all of us Web 2.0 followers as well."

Undestanding Ajax

adaptive path
"Ajax isn?t a technology. It?s really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. "

Music Industry Faces Pricing Probe on Downloads

WSJ.com
"New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has subpoenaed at least three of the four global music companies as part of what one company described as 'an industry-wide investigation' into collusion on pricing of digitally downloaded music."

New tune for digital music in 2006

BBC NEWS
"A format war is looming and illegal downloads still outstripping legal ones by a ratio of three to one, despite a sustained legal onslaught by the music industry.

For the record label, the battle is to persuade people to pay for the music they put on their machines.

For consumers and critics of the way the music industry is handling the transition to digital music, the battle is to convince them to be a whole lot more radical."

The 10 Most Pathetic Media Meltdowns of 2005

Free Press

10 MOST-WATCHED VIDEOS ON ADAGE.COM

AdAge.com
Courtesy of Adrants, oh glorious adbiz ...

Top Ten Thirty Adrants 2005 Sex-In-Advertising Stories

Adrants
"As we endeavored to compile our list of the top ten sex-related advertising stories of 2005, we realized very quickly it would be impossible to limit the list to ten. After all, advertising and sex are so deeply intertwined it would be like coitus interruptus to place any limitations on such a project. So here, in no particular order, are the top sex-related advertising stories of 2005 for your multiple pleasures. We're sure we've missed some as there's only so many times a chap can go 'round."

Is this a great business or what? Erm .... pass. Or, perhaps rather, ass.

RSS everywhere in 2005 - RSS organized in 2006?

Read/WriteWeb

Messy Media rules in 2006

Reuters.com
"Media managers will get their hands dirty in 2006, experimenting with new and untested formats to find a better formula of reaching appropriate audiences."

Reuters video to get mass distribution

CNET News.com
"International news agency Reuters is launching a pilot program on Tuesday that will allow blogs, news organizations and other online publishers to show Reuters news video on their Web sites."

Year in review: P2P retreat, iTunes advance | CNET News.com

Year in review: P2P retreat, iTunes advance | CNET News.com

The Big Picture delivers superb relevance-based navigation

CNET News.com
"The Big Picture is a CNET News.com special feature, connecting the dots between stories, companies, and topics within the News.com site."

If you haven't seen this yet, go there now. Familar in concept, but great to see a big media player getting so user-value focused.

It's Time to Take It Apart - The AOL Case from Steve Case

Washingtonpost.com
"There has been a lot of speculation about what Time Warner should do to increase its lagging stock price, and the media giant appears to be nearing a decision on the future of one of the Washington area's most significant enterprises: AOL. Although I played a key role in bringing AOL and Time Warner together six years ago, it's now my view that it would be best to 'undo' the merger by splitting Time Warner into several independent companies and allowing AOL to set off on its own path. Here's why."

Where the Marketing Dollars Go

iMedia Connection
"eMarketer looks at Ad Age's list of leading national advertisers and analyzes ad spending trends."

Internet still lagging badly despite big talk from big brands ... sad.

The Dilbert Blog: It?s the Thought That Counts

The Dilbert Blog
"I asked my fiance what she wants for Christmas and she was nice enough to e-mail me a specific suggestion for a hard-to-find item.

I copied the product name from her e-mail, pasted it into the Froogle search engine, and found the cheapest one on the Internet. That took about 12 seconds. It took another minute to enter my address and credit card information.

When it comes to gift-giving, they say it?s the thought that counts. So far I had 72 seconds invested in my future wife. I wondered if that was enough."

Scott Adams on Xmas spirit - bah humbug!

The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005

Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog

A very useful and thoughful list of key 2.0 apps. Shapes the space very nicely. Start here.

Comedian Richard Pryor dead at 65

BBC NEWS
"Groundbreaking black US comedian Richard Pryor has died after almost 20 years with multiple sclerosis.

He died at the age of 65 of a heart attack at Encino hospital near Los Angeles, his wife Jennifer Pryor said."

RIP a great talent.

NBA to create huge digital archive | CNET News.com

CNET News.com
"MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--If you're a rabid basketball fan who's wished you could get your hands on video of that one memorable shot by Michael Jordan from the Chicago Bulls play-off game you went to in 1989, the National Basketball Association may soon be able to help you out."

This is an excellent and high-profile example of a whole new area of 2.0 activity that's going to go postal in 2006 - the microchunking (see Umair's notes on this) of big media to support greater liquidity and plasticity. See also Michael Parekh's useful commentary of yesterday.

Blogads - a, well ... agency for blog ads

Blogads
"You need to woo the early adopters that traditional media can't reach. You need to engage 500,000 opinion makers, not pester 100,000,000 nobodies.
You need Blogads. Read by fanatics, pundits and journalists, blogs increasingly set the insider agenda. Use blogads to engage where opinions are made."

Certainely a credible stance!

Microsoft to show search engine users the money

InfoWorld
"Microsoft Corp. will share a part of its advertising revenues from its search engine with users, the company's chairman Bill Gates said in a panel discussion on an Indian television channel."

BG again demonstrating a combination of bold intent and online marketing naivete, as MS continues its PR blitz on Google's ad dominance. When will someone point out the the quality of user experience mandated by this type of revenue model doesn't exist yet?

Aspiring TV writers get their chops together online

CNET News.com
"Suddenly, Internet TV is hot. Networks like ABC offer hit shows through Apple Computer's iTunes download service, while established tech companies like America Online and Yahoo have beefed up their offerings of video that can be viewed via Web pages or transferred to a pocket-size gadget.

Even mobile-phone providers like Sprint Nextel now offer live rock concerts and sports clips for customers' tiny screens.

But like blogs and podcasts before it, Internet TV has also drawn everyday users looking for a way to share their ideas outside established channels--and even helped some of them get jobs in the 'old media' that they bypass."

This means that professional micro-content is becoming a player in the 2.0 landscape.

Cheers for Yahoo's move to a community-driven Web

News.blog | CNET News.com
"Bloggers are celebrating today's news that Yahoo has agreed to buy online bookmark and tagging site Del.icio.us. With only nine employee, Del.icio.us has gained a huge following in recent years. Its system of tagging and bookmarking has become a key part of many blogs and boasts some great industry thinkers as fans."

Strong review of what the Yahoo!>delicious deal means.

Consumer-generated micro-content as videoblogs

Rocketboom
"We differ from a regular TV program in many important ways. Instead of costing millions of dollars to produce, Rocketboom is created with a consumer-level video camera, a laptop, two lights and a map with no additional overhead or costs. Also, Rocketboom is distributed online, all around the world and on demand, and thus has a much larger potential audience than any TV broadcast. However, we spend $0 on promotion, relying entirely on word-of-mouth, and close to $0 on distribution because bandwidth costs and space are so inexpensive. While TV programs have traditionally been uni-directional, Rocketboom engages its international audience in a wide range of topical discussions. "

2005 - The IT year in quotes

InfoWorld

WSJ.com - Yahoo Buys Del.ici.ous

WSJ.com
'Nuff said.

Microsoft Covets Online Ad Revenue, Ballmer Says

WashingtonPost.com
"Grabbing a bigger share of online advertising spending is 'of keen interest' to Microsoft Corp., chief executive Steven A. Ballmer told a Washington area gathering yesterday, outlining the business strategy behind his company's ongoing talks with Dulles-based America Online Inc."

Can we talk? Exactly how does MS intend to innovate in this growing but also problematic space .... just by buying or locking in with AOL? I'm REALLY interested to see what their declared strategies (as opposed to all this media puffery ...) will be. Great company, but not exactly steeped in consumer or brand insight ... or am I missing something?

Ads make kids fat

Insitute of Medicine of the National Acedemies
"Food and beverage marketing targeted to children ages 12 and under leads them to request and consume high-calorie, low-nutrient products, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. The report offers the most comprehensive review to date of the scientific evidence on the influence of food marketing on diets of children and youth. "

ITV buys Friends Reunited website

BBC NEWS

WSJ.com - Time Warner Nears Agreement With Microsoft in Online-Ad Deal

WSJ.com

WSJ readers ponder digital music, email

WSJ.com - Real Time
"Would You Pay $2.50 for a Digital-Music File? Most Wouldn't -- but They Do Email Neighbors"

Indie music available to podcasts

BBC NEWS
"Songs by acts signed to UK indie record labels are to be made available to podcasters on a trial basis.

The Association of Independent Music is selling six-month worldwide licence deals for its members' music to be used on download radio programmes."

Apple tiptoes into Media Center domain

CNN.com
"Fast forward to 2005, and Apple Computer Inc. still hasn't released a better toaster. But it has updated its all-in-one iMac G5 computer with a remote control and a program that shares many of the features of Microsoft's Media Center operating system."

Virgin 'plans £4.5bn NTL merger'

BBC NEWS
"Virgin Mobile, the telecoms company backed by Sir Richard Branson, is in talks to merge with cable TV firm NTL.

The deal would create a UK media and telecoms giant worth ?4.5bn ($7.8bn), with more than nine million customers."

The MySpace Generation

BusinessWeek
"The Toadies broke up. It was four years ago, when Amanda Adams was 16. She drove into Dallas from suburban Plano, Tex., on a school night to hear the final two-hour set of the local rock band, which had gone national with a hit 1995 album. 'Tears were streaming down my face,' she recalls, a slight Texas lilt to her voice. During the long summer that followed, Adams turned to the Web in search of solace, plugging the lead singer's name into Google repeatedly until finally his new band popped up. She found it on Buzz-Oven.com, a social networking Web site for Dallas teens."

The RIAA's 'reverse Midas touch' in the PR department

p2pnet.net
"Another American mother has joined the growing number of people who are refusing to be cowed by the music industry's bully-boy tactics.
The Big Four Organized Music record label cartel says Debbie Foster, a registered nurse at a hospital in Oklahoma, has been sharing music without their permission. But she denies that and furthermore, says she doesn't even have a computer that works.
The Big Four's RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has just added another 754 men, women and children to it's list of sue 'em all victims, bringing the total to around 17,000."

A most interesting short essay on 2.0 attributes

adaptive path
"Some of the attributes we associate with Web 2.0 were introduced and commercialized as early as the mid 1990s; let’s call these Foundation Attributes. The figure detail below is part of a PDF that separates these “significant but not sufficient” attributes from the more recent Experience Attributes, those that create the kind of value that’s caused the recent excitement over Web 2.0."

Ceding Control Of Data To Users Could Benefit Marketers, Too

MediaPost Publications
"We generate Web interaction data constantly while we're online, but this data drains into databases, never to be seen again by the average consumer. What if consumers had control over the data that site publishers and advertisers collect for behavioral targeting and countless other purposes? AttentionTrust.org believes that both consumers as well as marketers could benefit if individuals were able to collect, store, manage and share their own 'attention data.'"

Consumer-Generated Justice: Blogger Sidelines E-Commerce Site

MediaPost Publications
"AFTER A HEATED PHONE EXCHANGE with an unsatisfied customer who happened to be a blogger, PriceRitePhoto.com, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based camera e-retailer, recently found that blogosphere justice can be swift, but is rarely merciful. Thursday, around 48 hours after 'Thomas Hawk'--a pseudonymous tech and photography blogger based in San Francisco--posted a nightmare tale of hard sells, threats of legal action, endless delays, and runarounds, PriceRitePhoto.com has found its Web site in shambles, and its listings removed from prominent shopping aggregators like PriceGrabber.com and Yahoo! Shopping."

TiVo Adds Yahoo Services, Podcasts, Games

MIT Advertising Lab
"TiVo is beefing up their HME [home media engine] offerings by centrally hosting applications and partnering with Yahoo, whose weather, traffic, and photos are available by entering Yahoo account info on the TiVo box. Also being previewed are Internet radio (Live365), a podcasting application, Fandango movie tickets, and some games. Beta testing is scheduled to continue into early 2006."