snapshot 8/13/08

Best Buy to sell iPhone in the U.S.
Best Buy Co Inc. will be the first national retailer to sell Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone in the United States in a partnership that could help drive sales of a device expected to be one of the hottest gadgets this holiday season.


Vudu now offering 99c rentals
Vudu (see our early review) has cheapened its set-top box movie service in the right way by offering heavily discounted rentals through its newly launched “99 for 99″ movie channel. As the name suggests, 99 movies will be on offer priced at just 99 Cents per rental. Titles will be “personally” chosen by Vudu’s “in-house movie expert” Steven Horn, and will include both recent releases and “classics”, with selections rotated each week.


‘The iTunes Download’ to debut this weekend
Premiere Radio Networks has announced the launch of ”The iTunes Download,” a new three-hour weekend countdown show hosted by iTunes Director of Music Programming Alex Luke. In addition to playing a selection of the 30 most downloaded songs from iTunes, the show will feature interviews with high-profile artists, celebrity playlists, and iMixes. President of Premiere Radio Networks Charlie Rahilly said, “Being the first radio company to do a national show with iTunes demonstrates our desire and ability to explore unprecedented ways to reach, entertain and involve listeners.” “The iTunes charts have become the first indicator, each week, of what millions of music fans are buying,” said Luke. “Radio is where more music buyers first hear what they want to buy and iTunes is the place they go to do it—now we’re connecting the two.” “The iTunes Download” will debut this weekend on Top 40 radio stations nationwide, and will air on Saturdays or Sundays.


Indie bands talk digital music and life without the labels
Panda Riot is a Chicago-based electronic distortion band originally founded in 2005. After recording its first full album in 2007 "in a tiny bedroom in Philadelphia" with the help of a MacBook Pro and Apple's Logic Pro software, Panda Riot began selling music—simultaneously in both CD and online form—in November. Since the band's music sales adventure is still quite young, its perspective on online music is a little different than the old guard that runs, say, the Big Four music labels.

Panda Riot uses Tunecore to sell its music through iTunes in the US, Canada, Japan, and Italy, as well as Amazon MP3. But, as we mentioned in our Tunecore feature, the real key to success online is promoting your music—otherwise, no one has a reason to be aware of it and buy it. "It's all social network type stuff. Blogs are a huge part of the equation too, and Internet Radio (like WOXY.com) also plays a big role," Cook said. "It's all about finding avenues that are global."