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“Here we are now; contain us?” …or was Kurt Cobain singing “Here we are now, entertain us?”…hmm…

Ever wonder what the right words were to some song? Ever been positive the words were one thing, only to find out they were actually something else?   If so, you’re not alone.  Mishearing song lyrics is a common phenomenon.  It is so common, in fact, there’s a word for it: mondegreen.  There’s a website where you can submit your errors; or laugh at other misinterpretations (the site’s name is amusingly based on a misinterpretation of a Jimi Hendrix lyric).  There’s even a book of collected mondegreens (amusingly it’s titled after the same Jimi Hendrix misappropriation though there seems to be no relationship to the website).   Now, there’s also a way of finding out the definitive answer.

Yahoo and Emeryville, California based Gracenote, a music database and information company, announced a partnership today for the distribution of a music industry supported song lyrics database.   

Though lyrics are routinely among popular searches on the web (according to various Buzz indexes), this will mark the first lyrics catalog to be released under licensed approval from the music industry.  (There are a wealth of free lyrics sites, many of which contain mistakes, and many of which have been shutdown for unlicensed reproduction of copyrighted material).

Last summer Gracenote initiated the process when it secured the rights to the lyrics from the North American catalogs of BMG Music, Universal Music Publishing Group Click to Read More

In a ticket industry cluttered with primary and secondary sales, pre-sales and resales, market heavyweights are increasingly worried about protecting their territory.  In effort to reassert its dominance, IAC’s Ticketmaster filed several lawsuits during the past week.

Most notable  of the suits was a complaint filed against eBay’s Stubhub. It was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last Wednesday. That complaint alleges that Stubhub, an auction reseller of tickets, has repeatedly interfered with contracts that typically grant Ticketmaster exclusive rights to sell tickets for events to the general public. 

The complaints specific focuse is on actions relating to the Rowdy Frynds Tour for which Stubhub has advertised that it would offer front-row seats via auction for  up to 100 seats in the first 10 rows for all 20 show dates.   

According to Ticketmaster, these seats should not have been available to Stubhub.  Stubhub used improper tactics to gain access to the seats which contractually should have been part of Ticketmaster’s inventory. Click to Read More

Yesterday marked the last day of the print publication of Life Magazine.   The weekly photographic-centric magazine, which for decades refused to die, three times trying to re-invent itself to suit the times (1972, 1978 and 2004),  finally lost its battle with New Media.   It will live on in some form online.

In the early days of modern media when Print  was king, Radio an upcoming prince, and Television just a fledginling beacon, the image-centric, photograph-laden, magazine became an icon. 

Life Magazine was born in the great depression, the name bought from another publication by Time publisher Henry Luce for $92,000.  Life’s  first issue was launched November 23, 1936 and sold for a mere 10cents.  It was the first magazine of its era, of any era,  to give as much emphasis  to photojournalism as to print.  A small sample from  the long list of the notable names who contributed to the magazine and saw their work published on its pages and covers includes Norman Rockwell, Ernest Hemingway,  Mary Ellen Mark, Robert Capa, Gordon Parks, and Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Over the decades Life published some of the most memorable images of the 20th century.; from the conflicts and struggles of war times, to the lifestyles of celebrities, to the achievements and failures of nations.  JFK, Vietnam, Korea, the Civil Rights movement, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, landing on the moon.  

Photojournalism will forever owe the magazine a debt of gratitude for its influence and support in shaping their industry.   Perhaps the greatest demonstration of this influence dates back to 1944.  Robert Capa, one of the most famed war photographers of all time, landed on the beaches of Normandy for D-Day, side by side with the soldiers of the first wave  shooting images for Life and sending them home.  Capa was the only photographer there.  (In 1954, when Capa was killed by a landmine in Vietnam, he was again working for Life.) 

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Over the past few years, downloadable forms of content have been eroding the traditional domain of retailers (CD and DVD sales). Today, in an effort to embrace those changes, big-box retailer Circuit City announced it was joining with Los Angeles based Napster on a new co-branded music download service.

The new service which is called Circuit City+Napster will compete with iTunes, Rhapsody, and other download services. The offering will launch April 29th and use Napster’s established subscription based model. For $14.95 a month subscribers will gain unlimited access to songs provided through the service. The music will be playable on PC’s, compatible cell phones (via Napster 2 Go) and compatible MP3 players. (Because Napster uses Windows WMA Digital Rights Management protections its music is not compatible with iPods which run on Apple’s Fairplay DRM system). In addition to the subscription service, individual songs will be sold for 99cents.

Partnerships have been an important part of Napster’s subscription growth. Click to Read More

On April 13th Google announced a definitive agreement to buy Double Click from private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $3.1b in cash, a price equal to approximately 20x EBITDA.  Rumors of the sale had been floating for a few weeks (Business Week ran a story on April 3rd) but the deal and the price have raised more than a few eyebrows.

Here’s a brief look at the deal and some thoughts:

DoubleClick is known largely for its Display Ad network which large advertisers rely on for brand building and general online presence.  The network which was founded in in 1995 provides ad-management for pay-for-impression (Cost Per Impression: CPM Based) internet advertisers.  Double Click has more than 1,500 clients, most of which participate in its impression-based business and many of which are major online publishers including AOL and News Corp (MySpace).

Google’s ad business, while varied, is best known for its success with search advertising and pay for performance (P4P) model that generates revenue based on viewers click-thru behavior (sometimes called Cost Per Action or CPA).  Through this system Google has a huge pool of partner sites sharing revenue and displaying the ads.

In Display Advertising, Google has generally lagged and not had tremendous comparative success.  In acquiring Double Click, Google is buying a complimentary service that enhances an area where it is weak.  It is also buying a significant client list, and some valuable, but lesser known technology.  The marriage of services and client lists should give Google a nice opportunity to bundle and sell a larger range of services to its clients.  Buying DoubleClick will help Google compete Strength to Strength with Yahoo in the Display Ad Market.

While there is a clear value proposition for the transaction, one motivation for  the deal, and the price, is likely defensive.  There’s two parts to the defensive front:

First, thought not widely known outside the industry, DoubleClick’s portfolio includes a strong affiliate P4P /Affiliate advertising platform that it acquired through a company called Performics (which retains its name inside Doubleclick.) The search and affiliate marketing tools Performics offers are considered by many in the industry to be among the best products available from a technology standpoint..  In acquiring DoubleClick, Google will successfully keep this little jewel away from competitors who would have been able to use it to potentially eat in to Google’s stronger markets.

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In yesterdays post, I mentioned NPD’s newly released sales statistics for the gaming industry. The Nintendo’s Wii again led the race on next-generation consoles. Nintendo also led in the portables category. For those looking for just the numbers, here is the tops of the NPD report:

North American Hardware Sales:

1. Nintendo DS: 508K
2. Sony PlayStation 2: 280K
3. Nintendo Wii: 259K (2.1 million total)
4. Microsoft Xbox 360: 199K (5.3 million total)
5. Sony PSP: 180k
6. Nintendo Game Boy Advance: 148K
7. Sony PlayStation 3: 130K (1.2 million total)
8. Nintendo Gamecube: 22K

North American Software Sales:

1. God of War II (PS2): 833K
2. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (Xbox 360): 394K
3. Guitar Hero II w/guitar (Xbox 360):291K
4. Wii Play w/remote (Wii): 273K
5. Motorstorm (PS3): 199K
6. Diddy Kong Racing (DS): 189K
7. Spectrobes (DS): 165K
8. Major League Baseball 2K7 (Xbox 360): 165K
9. MLB ‘07: The Show (PS2): 164K
10. Def Jam Icon (Xbox 360): 148K

A couple weeks ago, I went looking to purchase a Nintendo Wii for my two nieces.  I was sold on the concept of the Wii’s interface.  Its relative ease of use (as compared to the increasingly complex controllers on many consoles) meant even my three year old niece could play. There were also games that could span generations; games that could be played by video game phobic grandparents, parents and children.  It was something, it seemed, all could enjoy.

On principle I refuse to pay the premiums sellers ask for a Wii on eBay.  Instead, I went store to store.  Over the course of ten days, I made fifty phone calls to different stores.  A few times I was laughed at when I asked if a store had, or was getting more, Wii’s in stock. Once I was hung up on.  Mostly, I was politely brushed off for my seeming ignorance. 

According to staff I questioned on the floor at both Toys R Us and Best Buy, stores have little control of their inventory.  The highly demanded Wii’s are dropped shipped to them directly, and the allocation of units per store is not specified – though typically it’s less than 12 units per store per shipment.   Those shipments are rarely publicized.  There’s no need for promotion.   If there is any promotion or advertising, it is usually limited – an ad in a Sunday paper for Wii’s that were on sale that day were likely gone by the time the ad was read with your morning coffee.

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