There’s increasing evidence that Web surfers have responded to the crush of online advertising by training themselves to ignore the ads altogether. Bad news for marketers and publishers alike. Apple’s solution: Place the ads where you’re not used to seeing them. And make them so big–and so interesting–that you can’t look away.
If the Kindle is the iPod for books, do we need a Kindle for magazines and newspapers? I’d say no. But publishing heavyweight Hearst disagrees and is going to come out with an e-reader of its own, according to a published report.
Amazon is set to unveil Kindle 2.0 next Monday at a New York press event. But how many of the original e-book readers has it sold already? Don’t ask Jeff Bezos and company. But Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney figures Amazon sold 500,000 devices last year and that the Kindle will be a billion-dollar business by next year.
Is Hulu coming to your iPhone? Or your iPod? That would be pretty sweet! But contrary to what some of us thought when we saw the video service’s first-ever TV ad yesterday, it’s not happening anytime soon. In retrospect, the tentacle should have tipped us off.
The music industry is pretty much conditioned to expect bad news at every turn these days. So this had to feel nice: Apple reports that its iTunes store recorded its “biggest music quarter ever” during the last three months of 2008, and that it posted “record” music sales during Christmas week. Alas, it’s hard to read much into that.
The Web allows you to legally order up just about anything you want to hear, for free. So who on earth wants to listen to conventional radio stations on the Internet? More people than you’d think.
In 2007, Steve Jobs predicted that half the music offered at his iTunes store would be sold without digital rights management–the lock-and-key system that the music labels wrap their songs–by the end of that year. Better late than never: Apple finally has deals in place with three of the big music labels to sell DRM-free songs. In exchange, Jobs will give the labels some ability to introduce “flexible pricing,” a key demand for the industry.
Warner Music Group’s digital sales have been slowing for the past few quarters. And since digital sales are tied closely to sales of new Apple products, that could get worse for Warner–and the rest of the music business–in the next few months.
If demand for Apple products slackens a bit–perhaps because the company doesn’t have a compelling new iPod, or perhaps because everyone who wants an iPod has one, or perhaps because the economy is terrible–then the same thing will happen to digital growth.
That’s the offer, sort of, being made by something called Datz Music Lounge. Are there catches? You bet–this is the music business, after all. But it’s a potentially intriguing idea that could work both for music fans and the industry.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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