I noticed this very interesting report on the linchpin from the Pirate Bay. What side to the story do you take? Is there company illegal or is it all fair game (until all governments unite and join forces in terms on internet laws).
Spottt the new free service from the people at Adbrite must be launching soon. This is just a hunch on my part, because I have seen a spottt 125 x 125 ad placed on the ever popular Techcrunch. Now, no company is going to spend $10,000 for a monthly ad slot on Techcrunch if they dont even have a product or service. Thus, leading me to believe they will be launching very soon!
Techmeme is normally the first stop for tech geeks to see what is happening around the blogosphere. The site was long time in development and is the brain child of Gabe Rivera. I know all the basic principles behind the site and have seen this all explain too many time by Robert Scoble. Im really writing this post to see where the site can go from here. Can the site get any better or really improve on what Gabe is doing at the moment?
After looking at the site, I have never really liked the design. This is the main area in which the site can instantly improve. Due to the current design it is very hard to keep track of all the news stories on the site, this is due to the frequency of articles added to the service and the only way to use Techmeme efficiently is to add it to you RSS reader.
The other area in which Techmeme lacks inspiration is in terms of finding new content through the service and acknowledging the correct author who broke the story. Over the last year on Techmeme I have noticed it is a lot harder to find new websites that I have never heard of. This is mainly due to Gabe only being humanly able to track so many feeds. If this is not rectified i can see Techmeme moving closer and closer to services such as Google News, etc.
Finally, I always see people asking how can they get on Techmeme? Answer, No one knows. At this stage it is nearly impossible to get on Techmeme at all. The options are to get linked to by Techcrunch or just dont ever expect to get on Techmeme. I totally understand Gabe is only human, but there really needs to be a list of who can be shown on Techmeme and some way to actually get acknowledged to gain access to Techmeme. For example when Techmeme was developed they were tracking the top bloggers, but a few of them have disappeared off the radar, but never been replaced.
So what would you change over at Techmeme? And is there any other service that will be a Techmeme killer?
It has been reported by Valleywag in December and now again by Silicon Alley, that Digg are working on a white label version of their product for the IAC. “I’ve seen it, and it looks great,” silicon alley correspondent writes. We inquired with Ask, and got a “no comment at this time”, but we got something slightly more encouraging from Digg’s Jay Adelson: “We have no comment on our relationship with Ask, but will keep you updated!”
If I had a pound for every time I hear “Digg Killer”, then I would def. be rich and owning my own island in the caribbean. However, since the sort of failure of Netscape (now Propeller), there has really been no service to challenge Digg. Now this white label will be on the scene, i dont think it will be a Digg killer mainly because it is getting written by Digg. Thus, how can it really challenge, or are IAC just trying to gain some extra pageviews and fill out their portfolio before they spin off Ask.com into an IPO?? Only time will tell, but im looking forward to seeing this new service soon.
I saw this very interesting post on Techcrunch and Arrington talking about the fate of Yahoo and competition Google. It is quite an interesting response.
I was lucky enough to get a chance to look at Netvibes and their new Ginger offering. As most of us already know Netvibes has to be the most popular start page on the internet at present, and with this new offering it is going to continue. Ginger is the name for the next generation start page that Netvibes is offering in February. This start page has a lot more features then their previous version and more the point is a lot more aesthetically appealing. 
The Interface
The interface in Ginger is a great deal better then what is offered on Netvibes at the present. You have a lot more options to customise your start page exactly like you want it. The theming and coding just seems to be a lot more professional than before.
More Of A Social Network
In Ginger there is a new contact section that is making Netvibes to become much more than just a start page. Slowly the site is growing into a type of social network, in which you will be able to see what your friends are looking at and ever people can follow your site. This feature reminds me a lot of Twitter, follow or being followed. Im also a fan of the activities section, kind of a mix between Facebook news feeds and Twitter.
Overall
Everyone will get there hands on the new Netvibes in February and it will be worth the wait. I have never been a person to use a start page, but because Ginger has just got a really sexy interface, I might even make the switch. Netvibes has also worked out their business model to be based around providing widgets for outside clients, but I would to see them monetize in unique ways, such as offering a sponsored section in which you can pay to be placed in a predominant spot when adding a widget. I can see they already offer a featured section, but this seems to be limited to only 6 slots. However, its always good to see a service not filled with shitty display ads!
There has been a lot in the last few days about the announcement by Last.fm about there new business model. Their business model has moved from 30 second clips of songs to full length streams. This however has a restriction of only 3 streams per song per artist. This is a major negative point with the new business model, because once you really get into a song I know I tend to play mine 10 times a day. All these announcements came on the back end of Last.fm signing content agreements will all four major labels.
Artists will be monetized by these streams through the advertising revenue made by the site. I know for a long time Imeem has been attempting to do exactly the same business model and they have had a great deal of success with this. Imeem now has all four major labels signed up and they are making a great deal of money off of the advertising model. Last.fm has also announced that their new revenue model is not exclusive to only the major labels, and anyone on Last.fm can now opt-in and stream their full music for very low royalties.
This all being said I would have really like to see Last.fm slightly change their model. I dont see why there is a limit on the amount of streams per song, unless they have an additional model that allows members to sign up at an additional fee to be able to play the song unlimited times. It is also good to see that Last.fm has partnered with 7digital to offer the music downloads, however a long term solution for Last.fm must be to kill this partnership and enter the download market independently, this might even be a threat to iTunes!
I am still not convinved by Last.fm. The have a great piece of technology in the scrobbler, but I dont think their professionalism on that software has carried over to the site, monetization options and also profile and social network strategy.
There has been a lot of talk this week about Zuckerberg appearing on 60 Minutes (USA). Some where saying it was a good idea and a way to push his older audience and others were saying that it was just pointless because the Facebook demographic is 16-24. However, this all being said, after Zuckerberg’s performance the CBS show only drew 9.6 million viewers (an all time season low), and normally it average 14.3 million viewers. So all in all this was really pointless for Zuckerberg and Facebook. The low numbers might have been due to the Giants-Cowboys game on Fox at the same time, but thats not the point.
Come on Facebook im sure you can come up with better marketing options than 60 Minutes. Why not just pull a stunt like the Gizmodo guys did during the week, or not!!
In 2007 we saw a lot of ad network purchases by the big boys. Google snapped up Double-Click, and Yahoo, AOL and WPP also purchased. This leads me to finding out what ad networks we might see emerge in 2008. The list below is some of the advertising networks i expect to see more and more of in 2008, either in the form of financing or acquisition.
The Ad Network List
Federated Media – Federate Media is a unique take on an advertising network. Most of the larger ad networks simply try to sell advertising based on shear numbers and not really taking into account the individual voice of the authors or even how much the brand of the site is worth. Focusing on brands and authors individual voices, are the areas in which Federated Media are focused. This doesnt make the site or blogger change in anyway and leverages on that to bring in higher revenues for advertising space.
Ad Toll – AdToll is the advertising network that is so simple to use and integrate with your site. AdToll is a trustworthy service that allows web site owners to generate revenue through advertising. AdToll is the link between Publishers who want to sell ads on their web sites and Advertisers who want to buy ads. The service also shows all stats from your site and even possible click thru rates for each type of banner and positioning of the banner. If you are a small publisher then AdToll has to be high on your list for ad networks.
Aductions – Aductions is the transperant ad network. I tend to call it an ad network, but it is more a marketplace, connecting advertisers with publishers. Aductions has so many options for your site as a publisher, you can select the size of the advertising you are going to sell and also if your going to sell advertising on CPM or CPC base. This platform is highly customisable on both sides of the coin (be it advertiser or publisher). This site is growing at a rapid pace so make sure you head over there early and get on the bandwagon.
Ad Roll – Ad Roll is the collective advertising network that focuses on getting publishers in the same niches to join forces and sell advertising across a group of sites instead of just one. This is a great idea as the basic principle of bargaining power comes into fruition. If your a small to medium publisher you must join this network, because it will allow you to make maximum revenues for your traffic.
BlogAds – BlogAds is a similar service to Federated Media but with a bit of a twist. BlogAds does what the name says, only provides advertising solutions to weblogs. Currently it is hard to get into their network, because the only way in is to get referred by a current publisher in the network and even then they are focus on certain niches and have certain limitations. However, this being said, this ad network is very personalised with some great blogs on their books and if you did join im sure they will maximise your revenues to its utmost extent.
Pheedo – Pheedo is the RSS advertising network of the group and it is growing steady in a market that is underutilised. Pheedo provides a simple solution for selling advertising in your RSS feeds. I have found this type of advertising totally underutilised and im sure Pheedo will always be leading the push in this market. Advertising in RSS feeds is not going to make you rich, mainly because it is hard to quantify the views and click thru thus top level advertisers arent willing to invest too much money.
Disclosures: AdToll and Aductions are currently advertisers on Crenk. I am also a consultant for Aductions.
 Back in October last year Google acquired Jaiku (Finnish micro-blogging startup) and I thought this was a great move for the little micro-blogging startup, especially considering that there were two big players in the same market at the time (Twitter and Pownce).
Now it is being reported that Google has been letting Jaiku just float around. When Google announced the acquisition, Jaiku would have new features coming very soon, new users will be able to register shortly, and even the official Jaiku blog has had no action, all of these have just not happened. Thus, most the Jaiku faithful need to head somewhere to keep on microblogging, so where? Well that answer is very simple, Twitter! Google better get something moving quite fast because im sure once the users head over to Twitter and see that the community over there is strong, then the user base will not be coming back to Jaiku.
U.S. music sales dropped another 9.5% last year compared to 2006 despite a 44% increase in digital track sales according to Nielson Soundscan.
500.5 million albums sold in various formats last year down 15% from 2006. Only 10% of album sales were digital. But the drop re-calculates to 9.5% when sales of digital singles are counted as 10-track equivalent albums. 844.2 million digital tracks were sold in 2007 compared to 588.2 million in 2006.
iTunes became the third-largest music retailer in the U.S. in 2007.
In the last few days I have been reading some great articles over at RWW on the music industry, where it is headed and how Apple could potentially lose its dominance. These articles have fueled great debates on the RWW site and here is my take on the whole music industry.
Having the Complete Package
Josh wrote a great article at RWW that basically talked about Apple and how they are slowly coming under fire from Amazon and Zune. I think the situation is very straight forward until someone really tries to shake up the market!
Apple currently has 70% of the portable music player market and approx 85% of the music download market. Apple additionally has a very strong brand awareness and loyalty. Apple are very smart at what they do and for companies who only offer part of their package, it will be very difficult for them to compete and actually grab any market presence. Im sure we will see companies like Amazon attempt to attack parts of the music market but if they succeed in any particular area (such as cut pricing of downloads and DRM free downloads), then Apple will just calculate the right times to cover the advances and offer equal services. At the end of the day Apple knows that they have brand loyalty like no other and services such as Amazon Mp3 in the long run will only help them sell more iPods or Macs, because these people who download have to put their music somewhere.
In terms of Zune they have been receiving some good reviews for their new product, however this is Microsoft we are talking about. Microsoft has long been serial monopolists and Zune is not going to change that fact. Apple have of course AAC files that can only be played on iPods and Microsoft have exactly the same with the Zune.
At present no one can challenge Apples dominance and I dont think anyone will challenge them for at least another 5 years. Microsoft with Zune have just launched a product and service exactly the same as Apple did years ago with the iPod and iTunes, there is no difference to me. Amazon however, have launched a service that was need, a service that offers DRM free music not via subscription and via a cut price. Amazon hit a small gap in the market that was needed, but does this mean they will get any where near iTunes? No chance in hell!!
Future of DRM
I predict that 2008 will be the year that all the big 4 (Sony BMG, Universal, Warner and EMI) start selling DRM free music more openly. Amazon has Warner on the books and iTunes has EMI already signed up with Warner to come on board very soon.
In 2007 there have been lots of experiments with the music business model, such as Radiohead and also Amie Street, but have they proved anything? Yes I think they have. The Amie Street business model of offering music low and then prices increase when the track becomes popular has proved so successful that Amazon has bought into the company. Radiohead proved that selling digitally on a website can be just as popular as selling on the huge iTunes.
Conclusions. Overall, I really think customers are willing to pay for good quality music, especially DRM free music that can be transported to any portable music player, but only at the right price! Im still not too sure if we have found the right price yet. This is mainly due to the big 4 wanting to make a good margin on their sales on iTunes, thus prices are currently high. I cant wait to see a service that skips all of the hassels and just offers a simple service that sells good quality mp3s DRM free at a price such as $0.50 per download.
What Needs to Happen to Break the Music Industry
Currently, I am CEO of a company which is entering the music space but focusing on music licensing and distribution. Hypothetically, if I had the resources and money to launch a product in the music industry that would compete with iTunes and Apple, I would do the following.
This is the only way I can see someone breaking the Apple dominance and taking at least some share of the music market. If you are a VC and would like to fund my idea, please get in touch with me! haha. I love a challenge!
