Week of July 30, 2007

Amazon Invests In New Music Model

Friday, August 3, 2007

Can a socially aware very capitalistic supply and demand music model work? Well, Amazon apparently thinks so as it just invested in music store upstart Amie Street. Amiestreet.com launched a year ago as a music store where the cost of the tracks fluctuated based on demand. The higher demand tracks cost more than lower demand tracks. Users that purchase songs that are unpopular but then become popular get credits toward future purchases for helping to spread the word.

It's a very ambitious idea, with an interesting concept. While we aren't bullish on the idea (it just seems too much like a Wall Street experience than a consumer one), we applaud the effort. Hopefully, they'll prove us wrong.

Bought By Disney

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Club Penguin, that feisty virtual world/social network for children, has been bought by Disney for up to $700 million. Disney had been rolling out its own site, but the big head start and huge profits thrown off by Club Penguin was too much to pass up for Disney.

Club Penguin illustrates a central mantra of the PMG new media department: If there is a vacuum where there is consumer desire, it will be filled. In this case, there were no easy-to-use sites providing an avatar-driven community for children. Club Penguin came in with a safe and fun environment, and explode in popularity (it has 12 million current users).

London Olympics Embraces User Content

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

While forward thinking in some aspects, most of the major sport associations have been extremely wary of giving users access to content. Cell photos and videos at games are not allowed, and sharing such things on the Internet are actively discouraged. The London Olympics is looking at things from a completely different perspective: They are considering providing a platform that would encourage mobile phone users to take photos and videos of events and then upload the content to a community site.

The key, according to the olympics organizers, is to give the fans an opportunity to share and participate in the games in a much more active fashion.

Rethinking Technology

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Two just-released studies covering 8- to 24-year-olds published by Microsoft and MTV Networks shows that young people under 25 don't see technology the way the rest of us do. "Young people don't see tech as a separate entity--it's an organic part of their lives," said Andrew Davidson, vice president at MTV Networks International.

To those of us in the Baby Boom generation and Generation X, the Internet, iPods, cell phones, PCs, digital cameras, the birth control pill, VCRs, DNA testing, HDTV, etc. are all a part of a technological revolution that we have lived through during our adult lives. Although these technologies and their progeny continue to be the engines of our economy, it's time to start thinking, especially in situations where we're working with a younger audience, about these things as indispensible parts of everyday life.

The other way to look at it is to ask "what parts of everyday life do I overlook that a 20 year-old sees as vital?" Ask her about social networking and you'll get a puzzled look until you mention Facebook or MySpace. It's not social networking, it's talking to their friends.

Facebook's Aggressive Moves

Monday, July 30, 2007

Earlier this year, the college-oriented social networking service, Facebook, opened its service up to the general public. While still primarily known as the place where many MySpace users graduate to when they move on to college, Facebook has been growing at a rapid rate. In addition to opening up the service to more users, they have increased the number of tolls at users' disposal to customize their profiles.

Both the number of users and the time spent on the service have more than doubled in the last few months as a consequence of these moves. And, just this week, they reached a milestone of sorts when internet searches for Facebook overtook those for MySpace in the UK, according to data from tracking service Hitwise. One more indication of Facebook's success is the rise in the number of stories (see this one in The New York Times) about predators using the service, the internet's backhanded compliment.