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With a purchase price of more than $3b a little regulatory scrutiny was to be expected for the pending DoubleClick and Google deal.  Yesterday the New York Times confirmed such scrutiny was ongoing, and official.  According to the article, the Federal Trade Commission (instead of the Justice Department) was conducting a review and had issued Google a Second Request which is a formal request for answers to a list of detailed questions.

The news or review, regardless of which agency administered it, was expected.  Google stated back in April when the deal was announced that they’d studied the anti-trust issues, expected regulatory scrutiny, and weren’t concerned. 

Given the stakes for the acquisition are high, and also the fact that, in this transaction, you have two companies coming together that each handle a tremendous volume of consumer behavior related information, a Second Request and a detailed review is not a shocker.

DoubleClick, which provides display advertising (video or graphic banners), displays its advertising across a wide range of independent web properties and through “cookies” has the capacity to track which sites a web surfer has visited. Google, in contrast, as the leading search engine, has the capacity to track what web searchers users have made. Google reportedly keeps that date for up to several years as well.  A combined company could pool this information and theoretically that could be problematic, so it warrants a check-up.

Realistically, however much privacy concerns irk and scare consumer watch groups, privacy concerns are not likely to do more than stimulate debate.  Both sites have clear privacy policies and neither is doing anything outside industry practice. Click to Read More

Yesterdays post about Apple, iTunes and speculation about the up coming release of DRM-Free music was popular and got a lot of hits. 

Apple has a tendency for showy announcements so I’ve predicted that DRM-Free songs will be released on iTunes in a  high profile way (speculatively alongside the iPhone launch, and with the announcement of the availability of the Beatles catalog being released too)

That got me thinking.  Beatles song Lovely Rita played during a prior iPhone announcement.  If my guess is right, what Beatles song will play next?  If any Beatles song will play in the background during an announcement of DRM-Free music, the launch of the iPhone, or roll out of the Beatles songbook to the digital domain, what would it be. 

With so many classic songs, and obscure ones, out there, the choices are many. 

The email lines are open for an impromptu poll. I’ve created an email account for just this at beatlespoll@metue.com  Send a message, or a leave a comment on the site (If your comment doesn’t post immediately, don’t worry. First time posts are moderated to prevent spam).

  10. Rocky Raccoon

  9. Dear Prudence

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The distribution of Digital Rights Management Free ("DRM-Free") music has been the subject of much debate, and high hopes over the last few months. Many, including me, believe requiring the inclusion of DRM protections on music downloads hinders online music sales, is built on faulty logic, and ultimately, ends up hurting the music industry.

In February, Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, in a detailed essay explained his position and openly called for DRM-FREE music to be made available by the labels. Inspired by his speech, Metue also ran an article on the seeming paradox in the industry; specifically the contradiction between offering 90% of music DRM free (CD’s) and 10% restricted (Online Music).

In early April, two months later, EMI, one of the "Big Four" Record companies, answered Mr. Jobs call and broke ranks to announce that it would allow higher quality DRM-Free songs to be sold side by side with the already encoded songs on iTunes. (EMI, which is currently in the process of going private, has also since announced a similar deal with Amazon for their upcoming music store.)

Now almost June, another two months later after EMI’s announcement, Apple news website MACNN, has run an article citing sources familiar with negotiations, that a launch of EMI’s catalog of DRM Free music is finally ready and imminent. According to the post, the time lapse since the announcement was necessary to encode and host the entire catalog so that it could be launched completely, in its entirety, rather than gradually. The article also states that it was only last week that the contracts were finalize.

Given the significance of DRM Free music to Apple, and its leader’s open position on it, I wouldn’t expect a quiet roll out so I’m betting against something this week. Click to Read More

For now, and the near future, the LCD’s rule as the display technology of choice for portable devices is relatively unthreatened but developing technologies are only a few years from trying to stage a coup. On Friday, at a display industry event, Sony and Philips unveiled bleeding-edge display technology breakthroughs that may lead the charge for next-generation devices in the form of ultra-thin, bendable displays.

The Phillips announcement, which was limited to words and a photograph, captured modest press attention. The Sony news, which was also revealed in a Japanese video showcasing the technology, has been burning up the wire services.

Sony’s video press release showcased a 2.5in prototype of an “Electronic Paper” display.  It has a screen that measures in at a tiny .01 inch (.3mm) thickness.  Layered on a plastic, instead of glass, the display is so thin, in fact, that unlike LCD or Plasma TV technologies, the Sony prototype can be bent into curves yet still show high quality full motion video content. (The Philips prototype offers similar abilities).

At its core, the Sony display uses what’s called an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology along with several innovations.  The OLED technology which uses organic materials printed onto a thin film doesn’t require any kind of backlight to function (compared to an LCD) and as a result can be made far thinner.

Possible futuristic applications include ultra thin portable video devices that could look like they were imagined out of the archives of science fiction.  Click to Read More

With the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” so began MTV in August 1981.  Moments later, the video for Video Killed the Radio Star aired.  It was the first music video shown on Music Television (MTV).  Now, more than 25 years later, I wonder, as the song goes, was there a “day the music died”…. can someone tell me, has the internet “Killed the Video Star?”

When MTV first hit the airwaves in 1981 it was revolutionary, edgy…. borderline counter culture… It was the dream alchemy to capture the attention of its twelve to twenty-five year old target audience. 

For its first 6 years, using a format somewhat adapted from Top 40 radio, MTV carried almost exclusively music videos – most a similar kind of somewhat crude, rough around the edges, under-produced material to that which now litter the pages of Internet video networks.  The grainy concert clips, the saucy, crude displays, they were the antithesis of the rest of broadcast TV.  That was part of why they were adored and appreciated: They were new, they were different, and they were bold.

Eventually, as the MTV brand grew and globalized, siblings were brought to the family in the form of new channels and new kinds of programming.  Like an older child, slightly neglected because of the needs of its baby brothers and sisters, the music video moved to a place of less prominence. 

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In a move hinting that Amazon may be interested in offering more than just music at its soon to be launched online music store, Amazon has acquired the nations largest independent audio-book publisher Brilliance Audio.  The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Brilliance, which was founded in the 1980s and is based in Michigan, publishes audio titles from best selling authors ranging from Deeprak Chopra to Ken Follett. Brilliance releases twelve to fifteen audio-books a month in MP3 format on CD or for digital downloads.  Amazon currently offers about 100k audio-book titles, approximately one thousand of which come from Brilliance.

In acquiring Brilliance, Amazon will be in a position to leverage its publishing relationships (as well as its own in- house efforts) to expand the availability of the audio book format to a much larger range of titles. Click to Read More

Oakland, California, based Pandora Media, a free Internet-based radio service is partnering with Sprint Nextel to offer a personalized streaming radio service to Sprint Nextel mobile phone users.  Beginning today, the new service will be available for free for the first 30 days of use; it will then be a $2.99 a month add-on fee to Sprint data plans (which require plans with a cost equal to a minimum payment of another $15 a month.

The Pandora service, which will be offered through a new web interface specifically for mobile customers, will also be available on the Sonos Music System, a wireless home music system gaining rave reviews from gadget freaks around the globe.  (Sonos is kind of like a cross between an iPod and a remote control.  It wirelessly streams your music collection from up to 16 computers or storage devices (including MP3 players) to Sonos receivers which can be placed around your house and connected to speakers or stereos. Each Sonos "Zone" receiver can play music independent of the others).  For Sonos, Pandora will also offer a 30 day trial and a similar subscription fee.

Pandora bills itself as a personalized (or semi-personalized) Internet radio service.  Unlike their competitors, including Last.fm and others, Pandora has created detailed indexes of their available songs based on a range of musical criteria (almost 400 attributes). The call it the Music Genome Project. These criteria are noted for songs you like, as are your listening habits. From the data that provides, Pandora streams to you a play list of music custom tailored for you, the individual listener.

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