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I Love Tun3r.com!

Those of you over 30 probably remember the days before button presets took over the radio interface.  In my opinion nothing beats the the feel of turning that dial and finding new radio stations.  Tun3r.com is the radio dial for the digital age.  Move the ‘tuner’ line left to right or...

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Warner Music Group – Music as a Service Plans

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Internet, Music | Posted on 25-04-2008

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Here’s an article from Slate about a proposed plan by Warner Music Group to fight piracy and in essence give the people what they want – freedom to download whatever they want, DRM free and share it all they want for a flat rate fee every month.

I actually like the idea to a point. I’ve been a Rhapsody subscriber for years and find great value in the subscription model. The underlying question I have in the Warner plan is if the music is freely shared all around the net, how do they account and pay to the artists who work so hard to produce the music in the first place.

Let me know what you think.

Sonific – Online Music Casualty

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Music | Posted on 23-04-2008

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Sonific.com goes offline on May 1, 2008

A message by Gerd Leonhard, Co-Founder & CEO

As a consequence of a the unworkable music licensing situation and the resulting lack of solid revenue modeling Sonific’s founders and investors have decided to temporarily take Sonific.com and Sonific.net offline.  While we are looking for other ways to realize our vision we are also open to talking to any interested party that may have use for Sonific’s user base, content relationships, technologies or distribution network (please contact us anytime to find out more). Together with some other partners, we may also investigate the concept of making Sonific a paid-for service that is provided to artists, record labels and other content providers on a white-label basis.

Here are some background details on our decision:

Blogger Statistics

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Digital Publishing, Research, Statistics | Posted on 21-04-2008

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What’s A Blogger?

Bloggers are younger and higher percentages are Hispanic & African American than the general population. A higher percentage of Democrats than of Republicans are blogging.

Now that Blogging might better be called a market segment rather than a market niche, it’s useful with regard to positioning the marketing message to understand what a Blogger looks like, as distinguished from the rest of the population. According to the BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Survey, 26% of all adults say they regularly or occasionally blog. Of those:

  • 53.7% are male
  • 44.7% are married
  • 28.4% hold a professional or managerial position
  • 10.4% are students.

Bloggers tend to be younger, averaging 37.6 years old, compared to 44.8 for adults 18+ (the “general population”). Ethnically:

  • 69.7% of Bloggers are White/Caucasian (vs. 76.1%)
  • 12.2% are African American/Black (vs. 11.4%)
  • 3.7% are Asian (vs. 2.0%)
  • 20% of Bloggers are Hispanic, compared to 14.8% of adults 18+

Broadband Speeds Around the World

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Internet, Statistics | Posted on 20-04-2008

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From Kenradio.com

The World’s Broadband

Four European Union (EU) nations have the best broadband deployment rates in the world. The Single Telecoms Market Progress Report has shown that Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden saw penetration rates in excess of 30 per cent at the end of last year. Along with the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, these countries saw higher rates than the US in 2007, with some 19 million EU broadband lines added last year.

Mobile Digital Couponing

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Articles, Mobile | Posted on 20-04-2008

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By Mark Levy, CEO MaxxoMedia

CellfireIn a recent ICOM survey of U.S. shoppers, 77% of the respondents in the 18-34 age group see their coupon use increasing if they could use some form of paperless coupon technology … and 63% of those 35-54 said paperless would increase their usage.

The mobile phone is one of the best ways to reach the elusive set of 18-34 year-old adults who have disposable income to spend, brands with which to affiliate, but neither the time nor interest to read newspapers or watch scheduled television.

CellfiresSan Jose-based Cellfire has been working hard for over five years to meet that demand. Cellfire is the only nationwide discount offer service, enabling consumers to conveniently receive and retain savings right on their mobile phones. Today, 68% of Cellfire users are between the age of 18-34, and 27% are over 35.

Currently they offer coupons for popular retailers such as Hollywood Video, Hardee’s, Domino’s Pizza, T.G.I. Friday’s, Peet’s Coffee, 1-800-flowers.com, Omaha Steaks, North Beach Pizza, Pizz’a Chicago and more directly to your cell phone. The service is available on all major cell carriers.

Applications On the Run

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Articles, Mobile | Posted on 11-04-2008

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By Mark Levy, CEO MaxxoMedia

Last week, Las Vegas played host to the telecommunications industry’s annual CTIA conference. Over 20,000 people converged for the event to exhibit and explore the many opportunities of the wireless telecom world. Vendors were on hand to showcase the latest mobile-based applications — here are a few that stood out for me.

PC Games Come To Life On Mobile Phones

Back in 2003, Universal Pictures released “The Incredible Hulk” movie. About one month prior to the movie hitting theatres, I was part of a team that licensed the mobile content rights to the movie from Universal and Marvel. We had the rights to make a mobile game along with releasing various ringtones and graphics. Given the time frame to produce and release the game, we opted to produce a simple puzzle game.

Clear Channel Tries To Revive Ringtone Sales

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Articles, Mobile, Radio | Posted on 08-04-2008

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By Mark Levy CEO of MaxxoMedia

In the midst of recent pronouncements that ringtone sales are in decline, Clear Channel Radio announced that mobile content offerings will be integrated into the websites of over 650 stations within the chain. The service, offered in partnership with Thumbplay, a leading mobile content retailer, will offer listeners direct access to purchase the tones for their cell phones.

Ringtone sales are projected to drop over 7% to $510 million in sales for the US in 2008. BMI says this is the second year of the declining sales trend. Some of the reasons blamed for the decline include high or complex content pricing models, advanced handsets that allow consumers to side-load content, mobile content sharing websites, social networks and the waning novelty factor.

MTV Networks claims mantle of top mobile video provider

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Mobile | Posted on 07-04-2008

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MTV Networks claims mantle of top mobile video proKing of the hill

MTV Networks claims to have streamed more than 57 million mobile videos across all its brands and carriers, a milestone that’s a big boost for the medium.

The 94 percent growth was recorded from February 2007 to February 2008, convincing MTV Networks to don the mantle of the world’s leading provider of mobile video.

“In record numbers, our fans are turning to their phones for engaging entertainment experiences and finding MTV Networks video, mobile Web sites, games, widgets and more that connect with nearly every conceivable demo, on any occasion,” said Greg Clayman, executive vice president of digital distribution and business development at MTV Networks, in a statement.

Music Labels’ Openness on Deals Comes At a Price

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Music | Posted on 07-04-2008

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From Paidcontent.org Rafat Ali

A known secret of the music industry: the labels, though becoming open to new business models from startups, are asking for a hefty upfront advances for licensing music and in some cases a substantial equity stake in the company, and Billboard explores the practice. Someone like Universal Music Group is making the equity stake standard in any deal, our sources say.

Among the examples: troubled online ad-supported music service SpiralFrog has given more than $3 million in upfront advances to UMG alone before it even went live, and has paid additional millions in licensing fees since the original term expired. Imeem is said to have paid major advances and gave labels equity in the company, the story says. We reported on the Buzznet-UMG deal last week, which involved equity as well.

divinity Metrics Charts Brand Value in the Online Video Space

Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Online Video | Posted on 03-04-2008

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divinity Metrics has launched a weekly chart that tracks not only the views of online video from 20 top US brands but also the ‘health’ of them. By using VMI – Video Marketing Index, dM ranks the validity of each video for its marketing value by analyzing the video’s views, comments, ratings and other consumer reactive data points.

You can check out the latest chart here – divinity Metrics Brand20 Index