Week of February 11, 2008

Blogs More Important For Music Than MySpace

Friday, February 15, 2008

A recent study from New York University has found that music blog buzz has a greater impact on future sales than increasing MySpace "friends." The final conclusion is relevant and makes sense in today's splintered media landscape: Cumulative exposure across multiple distribution points is the best way to generate future success.

REM Goes Open Source

Thursday, February 14, 2008

REM today released 11 versions of the video for their new single, "Supernatural Serious" via www.supernaturalsuperseriuos.com. Users are encouraged to take the clips and remix them into their own unique vision of the video and to upload them to the video page on Youtube.

This is yet another example of an artist tying into the interactive nature of the web and media today. We can certainly expect more of this in the future, as consumers become even more empowered with tools, distribution--and now content.

Over 10 Billion Served

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

According to comScore, the online ratings service, over 10 billion video streams were viewed online in the month of December, by far the biggest showing ever. Some speculate that this came about as a result of the Hollywood writer's strike which led to a shortage of original programming on television. If true, this means that the very thing that writers were striking for, greater revenue from programming shown online, may have been boosted by their strike.

PPCM?

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Nielsen has just announced plans to start monitoring online video usage by the end of 2008. The company says that their customers are increasingly looking for ways to track and compare online usage to television viewing. The problem is getting people to agree to allow their computers to be metered. According to an article in AdAge, only 44 Nielsen households out of 98 agreed to have meters placed on their computers.

Once again, what looks like a good idea on paper, electronic measurement of media consumption, is trumped by the reality of privacy fears. What's most surprising is not the reluctance of some consumers to participate, but rather, the number of people who actually agree to share this much information about their personal habits.

Yahoo, Stock Price, and Brands

Monday, February 11, 2008

Yahoo raised eyebrows today when it officially spurned Microsoft's buyout offer. While Microsoft's offer was substantially higher than the Yahoo stock price, the Yahoo board felt that their underlying assets were worth substantially more than the Microsoft offer. This is a good lesson in Wall Street perception versus brand coverage, because it is quite possible that Yahoo is correct.

A quick look at Yahoo's various brands shows spectacular success: Yahoo Mail? No. 1 in its category, far ahead of Google's Gmail. Yahoo Finance? Near the top as a finance destination. Yahoo's Flickr photo site? No. 1 by far. I could go on and on, but the reality is that in many key areas on the Internet, Yahoo is the category leader. Where Yahoo falls short is in monetizing those assets, and Yahoo's statement to Microsoft today was simple and to the point: We are the leading brand on the Internet today. If you want to buy us, you must pay a much higher premium than the one you offered.

Of course the question remains: Can Yahoo finally figure out how to efficiently monetize its amazing collection of Internet brands and category leaders.