snapshot 8/22/07

Wal-Mart selling digital music free of copy curbs
Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday it is now selling digital music downloads on its Web site without the customary copy-protection technology that limits where consumers can play the songs. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said its new MP3 music catalog includes thousands of albums and songs from major record labels such as Vivendi's Universal Music Group and EMI Group Plc without copy-protection software, known as digital rights management.

The move puts Wal-Mart in closer competition with Apple Inc. Apple's iTunes online music store is the third-largest music retailer in the United States. In May, Apple launched iTunes Plus, a copy-protection-free music download service.


Electronic books with musty book smell launched
An electronic textbook Web site is launching a smelly e-book after finding college students like to be able to smell their books. A survey of 600 college students conducted by pollster Zogby International found that 43 percent of students identified smell, either a new or old smell, as the quality they most liked about books as physical objects. Six out of 10 students also preferred buying used textbooks over new or electronic textbooks even though e-books are generally a third less expensive. E-books sales have been slow to take off.


Eagles to release first studio album in 28 years
The Eagles will release "Long Road Out of Eden," their first full studio album for 28 years, in October, Universal Music Group said on Wednesday. Universal will distribute the new album outside North America, while in the United States the record will be released through Wal-Mart stores, warehouse retail chain Sam's Club and the band's Web site www.eaglesband.com.


gBox Unveils New Digital Commerce Model for the Age of the Consumer-Driven Web
gBox, Inc. (www.gbox.com), a new Silicon Valley company, formally launched today with a new approach for digital commerce in the age of consumer-centric environments and social networks. The company unveiled a new music portal -- gBox.com -- and the gBox Gifting Widget, a simple way for music labels to reach consumers via personal Web sites, blogs and social networks.

The gBox company launch comes on the heels of news that Universal Music Group (UMG) will direct consumers to gBox's online store for its "Open MP3 Test," a program that's making thousands of music titles available without digital rights management (DRM). Once users are in the gBox store they can easily setup their own gBox wishlist and publish it on their profile pages.


Sonific Sets SongsSpots Free
Publishers and artist to connect with 100s of social networks and online communities and make their Sonific plans to make its SongsSpot song streaming widget available at no cost to all record labels, musiccatalogs available for streaming on social network sites. Ecommerce functionality will be provided by iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, Wippit and others.

With Sonific, content providers share in ad revenue and can have a single channel to enable viral exposure on all key online communities and social media including Facebook, Wordpress, Myspace, Friendster, Hi5, Xanga, Orkut, Typepad, Vox.com, Livejournal, iGoogle,Google Gadgets, Netvibes, Blogger, AIM Pages and Live.com. The goal is that with a single click, music companies will soon be able to connect to 100s of platforms and present their music on what Sonific believes will become the next iteration of radio - social networks.


PassAlong Expands StoreBlocks And Partners With MedaTree
PassAlong Networks has upgraded its StoreBlocks Incentive Marketing Platform and partnered with MediaTree – a company that has designed campaigns for companies such as PepsiCo, Red Cross, Scotties Tissues, MTV and Delta Airlines.

The upgraded StoreBlocks Incentive Marketing Platform includes nearly 2.1 million songs in MP3 format and includes Macintosh compatibility. Storeblock's fulfillment technology and custom design capabilities create a package solution for MediaTree and provides a flexible music delivery platform for other incentive marketing firms. MediaTree has already powered a Red Cross blood drive where donors received free music download cards. Scotties Tissues also participated in a promotion where specially marked packages contained a PIN code for free downloads.


Resnikoff's Parting Shot: The Wal-Mart Experiment
The result? Greenfield anticipates a squeeze on CD floorspace at Wal-Mart going forward. "Wal-Mart's entry into the sale of DRM-free music could signal a more rapid decline in album pricing, with CDs likely to lose even more shelf space at physical retail as a result," Greenfield asserted. "As DRM fades away, the near-intermediate-term industry risk is that MP3-album discounting makes it even harder for physical retail to compete for consumer spending on music with either wholesale pricing coming down, floor space reductions or at worst, both."


BlogMusik To Go Legit; Launches Free & Legal Music On Demand
BlogMusik is a service born in France that lets you search for mp3 files on the web and listen to them in streaming mode for free. BlogMusik will announce tomorrow that they came to an agreement with the SACEM, clearing the service of copyright infringement accusations. The details of this agreement are not are not being disclosed, but other deals suggest it is based on a revenue sharing mode. BlogMusik’s business model is relying on advertising and affiliate revenue coming from the sales of songs on iTunes and Amazon. This agreement should cover BlogMusik for any music they host wherever the music is listened from. However they still have to come to an agreement with organizations representing majors and labels (Pandora had to face new webradio rates imposed by the RIAA). This is being taken care of according to the CEO of the company and new agreements should be announced soon. BlogMusik.net will also change name and become Deezer.com.


Sizing up video downloads: renting may be where it's at
As the movie industry looks to tap into online sales and rentals, studies are starting to evaluate the potential place for movie downloads amongst the rather robust field of options already out there. While outright sales generate more profits for the studios, they also know that most Americans rent films as often if not more frequently than than buy.

A recent report by The Diffusion Group says that newer rental methods such as direct mail (e.g., Netflix), video-on-demand, or pay-per-view are growing in popularity. However, despite reports that services like the Xbox Live Video Marketplace are doing well, TDG says that online movie rentals are only making a "negligible impact" on rental behavior thus far.