Week of March 3, 2008

The Independent Artist

Friday, March 7, 2008

Trent Reznor is following in the footsteps of Radiohead with the latest Nine Inch Nails release, Ghosts I-IV, releasing the album through his own website instead of a traditional label. Like Radiohead, there are a number of options for fans, including a $300 deluxe package. According to his website, the limited run of 2500 of the deluxe model, sold out within 24 hours. Other options include free downloads of 9 songs from the album, as well as other configurations of downloads or CDs.

The sold out deluxe model means that Reznor has already grossed $750,000. No details have come out on how the other configurations are moving. But, as with Radiohead, the goal is not just the immediate (non-shared revenue) generated from this sale, but the acquisition of fan names and email addresses and the building o f a closer relationship with those fans. That's what will pay off in the long run.

The Indispensible Mobile Phone

Thursday, March 6, 2008

A just-released study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project indicates that more Americans would have a tougher time giving up their mobile phones than the Internet, television or landline phones. The study, conducted from October through December, included over 200 respondents, more than 500 of whom were contacted on their mobile phones.

It also goes into detail about the usage of mobile devices as their capabilities have increased. While Americans of all ages and backgrounds are increasingly using their mobile devices to send and receive text messages, access the Internet, watch video, play games, take pictures, etc., usage is higher among some groups. As expected, those between 18 and 30 are more likely to do all of these activities, but usage is growing across the board. One of the more interesting findings is that African Americans and English-speaking Hispanics are more likely than whites to use their mobile devices for these other purposes.

Radio Ad Barely Beats Online Ad Spending

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The final (as near as we can tell) numbers are in and radio ad sales eked out a close victory over online advertising in 2007. According to the RAB, radio revenues were $21.3 billion, off 2% from 2006. Online advertising, according to the IAB and Price Waterhouse, was up 25% in 2007, rising from $16.9 billion to $21.1 billion.

The victory will be short lived as online will almost surely pass radio in the 1st quarter of 2008. This would be the case whether the economic news was good or bad. What radio needs to take from the phenomenal growth of Internet advertising is that it should be getting a significant piece of the online action.

The results from the PPM markets show that radio stations reach a much bigger audience than previously thought. In many cases, the reach is double what the diary shows. This puts radio's reach in the same neighborhood as market equivalent prime time television shows or a daily newspapers circulation. Combine this reach with strong content, and you have the makings of more than just a new revenue "stream."

Mobile Portals Cometh

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Readers of our New Media Landscape report know that we took somewhat of a contrarian point-of-view and saw lots of opportunity for Yahoo in 2008. One of those was in the mobile space, and with its latest announcement, our confidence appears to have been well-placed.

Yahoo Go!, which is already on nearly every carrier and handset out there, is gearing up for its 3.0 release, and a bit part of that release will be the just-announced "OnePlace" service, which is a fancy name for a mobile version of Yahoo's incredibly popular web portal. The mobile platform/site aims to be the place that mobile users can aggregate all their key content, from YouTube videos to local weather.

Project Apollo...RIP

Monday, March 3, 2008

With relatively little fanfare, Arbitron announced last week the termination of Project Apollo, their joint venture with Nielsen and a number of major consumer companies. The basic idea was to marry the PPM with a handheld scanner to get information on how media exposure affects consumer behavior. A nationally-based PPM panel was to be given the scanners so they could scan every purchase they made, resulting in the exposure-to-purchase data.

The reason cited for the cancellation is the lack of "sufficient client commitments to make Project Apollo a sustainable venture for our two companies." Perhaps this was too much too soon. With radio just started to dip its toe into electronic measurement, we'll need to see how the PPM affects the industry after its rollout resumes. That combined with time to let the economy recover should put some other, similar venture on the drawing board down the road.

We have seen the future and it involves electronic measurement and analysis. The Project Apollo concept is a natural move. It's just a question of when, not if.