Week of October 10, 2005

Blog Company Sold

Monday, October 10th, 2005

Weblogs, Inc., a blogging collective known best for its tech blog Engadget, has agreed to be purchased by America Online. This is what Paid Content is describing as "perhaps the first pure content-related company being bought out in the blog/Web 2.0 space...or at least of this scale."

The sale at least points to a financial business plan for profiting from blogs and podcasts, which is to generate a broad array of content over dozens of content sources, and then sell them as radio would sell a network.

Music Recommendation Software Gets Another Player

Tuesday, October 11th, 2005

We've seen the birth and evolution of music recommendation engines going back several years, but the technology and hype appear to be making real headway this year. Music recommendation software acts as just that: It works from a list of music that you enjoy and then recommends music that you would likely also enjoy. The engines run from the social ("People who like this artist, also like this one") to a pure technology based one that uses algorithms.

Just announced is a new player in this space: Musicstrands, which is being launched by a formidable management team, including the former Chief Scientist of Amazon.com.

America Online Rebrands as AOL

Wednesday, October 12th, 2005

While commonly referred to as AOL by pretty much everyone, the company has always officially been known as America Online. They are in the process of changing that to a consistent use of AOL. Why is such a little semantic change a big deal? Because AOL is seriously looking at expanding into international markets, and calling yourself "America" Online just doesn't work in France or Turkey.

Universal Music: Embrace The "Free"

Thursday, October 13th, 2005

At a recent media conference, Universal Music made waves by declaring its intent to be more than just a music company, and to embrace a broad multi-media and lifestyle-based business model. The company also raised eyebrows with this interesting line about on of its music goals: to "tap into the enormous demand for free music, and generate revenue from those who can't or won't pay."

Viacom Expands Its Broadband Content Offerings

Friday, October 14th, 2005

Viacom is already offering robust multimedia broadband sites connected to its Nickelodeon and MTV brands. Now it's planning to do the same for Comedy Central. This is another example of how a content company has realized it is a CONTENT company and not a company wedded to any particular distribution source. Viacom will sell its content wherever it can, whether it is radio, TV, or the Internet and cell phones.

Check back on Monday for more trends and insights.

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