2009 | Social Networking and New Markets

Apple, labels work on plan to boost album sales: report| Deals| Reuters

July 27, 2009 Leave a comment

zyakaira notes: Apple continues to ride on its current successes and hopefully would be able to get itself out of the DRM snare for customers as also improve its payments portal to accept international payments as Music Labels would earn the most out of that with an ipod than any other platform.

Apple Inc and four record labels are working on a plan to increase digital sales of albums, while the computer maker is also separately developing a tablet-sized device, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.Apple is working with EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and Vivendis Universal Music Group on the project, “Cocktail,” with the sides hoping for a launch in September, the paper reported, citing unnamed sources.

The project with the record companies aims to offer interactive features with music downloads, the paper said.Apple also hopes to offer the tablet-sized computer in time for Christmas shopping, the FT reported.The computer will connect to the Internet like Apples iPod Touch and its screen may be up to 10 inches diagonally, the paper reported.The paper said book publishers have also been in talks with the computer maker about offering their services on the new device, which could compete with Amazon’s Kindle.Apple and the music companies were not immediately available for comment.

Filed under Apple, Marketing Tagged with 2009, Apple, Big Tech, Guy Kawasaki, iPod, Kindle, Mac, Media, Online, Online Marketing, Sony, Universal, Vivendi, Warner

Sports Salaries Show What We Really Value: FiLife (a WSJ partner)

July 9, 2009 1 Comment

The issue of escalating compensation and rising ticket prices in professional sports has been around for years. But next month it could reach a boiling point when 21-year-old Stephen Strasburg, the No. 1 pick in this year's Major League Baseball draft, signs for at least $15 million. And that's just a bonus before salary is even discussed.

The blogosphere and radio call-in shows are already buzzing, with people saying things like “Man, the [Washington] Nationals” — or whatever team ends up signing Mr. Strasburg — “are sure going to have to raise prices to pay for this guy. You'll be lucky to afford a beer when you go out to the ballpark to see him pitch.”

Well, if you can't afford to buy a beer at the ballpark then it didn't do the team much good to sign the player, did it? Sportswriters and radio guys delight in reminding fans that every time a team acquires an expensive player the cost of everything goes up. But that's just not the way economics works.

It certainly seems as if the prices of peanuts and Cracker Jack go up after they sign that new guy or build that new ballpark (always with a large chunk of taxpayer money). But that isn't because the owners of sports team are greedy. They are greedy, but that's not the point.

The point is that prices go up because the owners think that's what you're willing to pay. If you are willing to pay, the price stays high. If you aren't — or at least if enough of you aren't — then the price will come back down. It's that simple.

via Sports Salaries Show What We Really Value: FiLife (a WSJ partner).

Filed under Cricket, Facebook, IPL, Social Media, Sports, Sports Marketing, Twitter Tagged with 2009, Big Media, Facebook, Facebook valuation, FiLife, FT, IPL, Marketing, NY Times, Predictify, Social Media, Sports, Sports Marketing, Superbowl, Twitter, Twitter Valuation, WSJ

Social Networks and Blogs Reached Largest Growth Among Top Online Activities – Nielsen’s Global Research | Trendsspotting

April 3, 2009 3 Comments

Facebook users by age

: Online time changes by Top 15

A new study released by Nielsen reports the shift in the online social behavior. Nielsen’s study results presented here followed the online activity in the USA, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Australia. Note that the ‘Member Community’ category includes both social networking and blogging websites.

1. Social network and blogging sites are now the 4th most popular activity on the Internet

Social network and blogging sites are now the 4th most popular activity on the Internet overcoming personal email with 67% global reach as to December 2008. That is 5% more of what they attracted a year ago.

via Social Networks and Blogs Reached Largest Growth Among Top Online Activities – Nielsen’s Global Research | Trendsspotting.

Distribution of reach by global users preferences

All social media - is Nielsen fine?

Growth in Online Time

Filed under Online Maketing Tagged with 2009, Facebook, Guy Kawasaki, Linked In, Neilsen, Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Net, Surveys, Twitter

Twitter Fires Up the Spotlight | Marketing Pilgrim

February 24, 2009 Leave a comment

Last month Twitter launched its ‘suggested users’ feature and the impact on those who were put on Twitter’s red carpet has been significant. Some of these profiles saw tens of thousands of additional followers added to their own personal profiles which created some very happy folks and, you guessed it, some not so happy people. The LA Times Tech blog has all the details but here are the high points.

Evan Williams and Biz Stone, co-founders of Twitter put this feature into place last month. When users sign up for a new account which is happening at a dizzying pace they are given a list of suggested users to follow. The folks at Twitter were noticing that many folks were signing up then not using the service. The hope by offering this was to get the newbies in the game. Makes sense to me since Twitter can be somewhat daunting for those beyond the early adopter / social media savvy part of the population.

The list includes Felicia Day, The Guardian, Rainn Wilson, Dell, The New York Times and CNN to name a few. The benefit to those who made the cut is very clear:

Since Twitter began endorsing a handful of personalities in mid-January, The Guardian was among several entities to reap a subscriber windfall. Its account jumped from about 4,000 followers to 66,000 in about a month, according to stat-tracking service Twitter Counter. And within the last two weeks, @GuardianTech added new users at a pace about 300% faster than the previous two weeks.

Day, an Internet video maven, experienced similar results. She has jumped from 20,000 to 83,000 since mid-January.

TechCrunch went… from 41,000 to 111,000 in the same period. The New York Times’ Twitter account increased its subscriber base by a factor of six — to 145,000.

The Twitter purists, however, are crying foul. The concern is that those who have grown their following organically and around ‘real’ value or severe self importance, you make the call are going to suffer. Leo Laporte of TWIT puts it this way:

via Twitter Fires Up the Spotlight.

Filed under Online Maketing Tagged with 2009, Amitonomics, Entertainment, Facebook, Guy Kawasaki, Online Advertising, Social Media, Social Networking, socialtoo, Twitter

Jay Leno’s Move Hints at Future of Prime-Time TV – NYTimes.com

January 23, 2009 Leave a comment

With one sweeping shift this week, the ailing NBC network reordered the playing field of prime-time television. The introduction of a five-night-a-week program starring Mr. Leno, beginning next fall, was a concession that TV norms cannot continue, at least not at fourth-place NBC.

The programming and viewing habits of the last 50 years — exemplified by the checkerboard of competing programs on the broadcast networks — are being replaced by an Internet-influenced time-shifting model of scheduling. As a result, the very definition of prime time may be changing.

“We do have to continue to rethink what a broadcast network is,” Jeffrey Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric, said at an industry conference Monday, hours before the news of Mr. Leno’s new assignment emerged. He warned that if changes were not undertaken, “the broadcast networks will end up like the newspaper business or, worse, like the car companies.” Maybe Mr. Zucker has seen the future; after all, his network has lost 50 percent of its 10 p.m. audience in the last three years.

The announcement of Mr. Leno’s show continues to reverberate on studio lots and executive corridors here, as the Monday-through-Friday “strip” is unprecedented in the modern network television era. NBC framed the decision in terms of competitiveness and cost-effectiveness, because it defuses the risk of Mr. Leno’s move to another network and saves untold millions of dollars a year. But it also reflects the increasing irrelevance of the network schedule.

The irrelevance is partly because of digital video recorders, the bane of many a television executive. Viewers in the 28 percent of homes with DVRs are recording programs at 8 and 9 p.m. and playing them back later in the evening, hurting the 10 p.m. hour. Of the 10 prime-time programs that gained the biggest audience from DVR usage this year, none were on at 10 p.m.

The biggest gainers from DVR viewership were dramas. According to statistics on time-shifting released by Nielsen Media Research on Friday, the NBC series “Heroes” benefited the most from DVRs, with a 35 percent increase in its audience after seven days of time-shifted viewing. The new Fox drama “Fringe” experienced a 26 percent increase, and the ABC series “Lost” had a 25 percent increase.

via Jay Leno’s Move Hints at Future of Prime-Time TV – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Uncategorized Tagged with 2009, Advertising, Amitonomics, DVR, Entertainment, Media, Obamanomics, Sports Marketing, Time-shifted viewing