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New Media News Every Morning

Will Radiohead’s set-your-own-price scheme work?

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inrainbows.gifRock band Radiohead is changing the rules of the music industry by allowing their fans to set the price they want to pay for their new album In Rainbows.

You won’t find this new album in your favorite online and offline music stores. Instead, you can go directly to the In Rainbows official website to download this 10-song album.

This new scheme has resulted to mixed reactions from fans and business analysts. Even though it’s too early to predict the outcome of this move, several bands like Nine Inch Nails, Oasis, Charlatans and Ash, and Jamiroquai are considering this option as well.

Originally posted on October 11, 2007 @ 1:05 pm

Get free private video messaging at Threemany.com

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Aiming to make video messages as common as voice mails, startup Threemany.com offers free private video messages to all users with a web browser and any available webcam.

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It provides a digital wall for families to leave messages in a private and password protected site and allows their loved ones to view the messages at their convenience and respond back with a video or text reply.

Privacy is at the core of the product. A family starts off with their own private wall. They can then invite their close friends and family to view their wall only after they have registered and been authenticated.

There are no “home pages” to be built, no websites to be created – a 30-second registration and authentication process is all that is needed to post the first video.

This new technology has proven its prowess in helping Military families communicate with their loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would be wonderful if Threemany.com can integrate this technology with smartphones (for free of course) to make it a lot easier and more entertaining to communicate with family members and friends.

Originally posted on October 11, 2007 @ 10:42 am

CosmoGIRL! magazine enters the virtual world

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cosmo.gifHoping to remain sharply in tune with its readers’ interests, teen magazine publication CosmoGIRL! has extended its brand into the social virtual world of There.com. The CosmoGIRL! Village will open on November 20, 2007.

CosmoGIRL! is the first teen magazine to enter the virtual world and it is available, at no cost, to anyone ages 13 and up with a PC and an Internet connection.

The CosmoGIRL! Village will be located along a coastal area in There.com, where members will be able to enjoy dance parties, fashion shows, spa makeovers, photo booths, live events, rich media and shopping for virtual and real-world clothing and accessories.

“With The CosmoGIRL! Village we are able to offer our readers everything they love from the real world in the virtual world. This is a great opportunity for us to introduce new and exciting ways to engage young people today with their favorite trends and brands,” said CosmoGIRL! VP/Publisher Kristine Welker.

Originally posted on October 10, 2007 @ 10:30 am

Test your Hollywood IQ with Buzztime’s Blur

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buzztime.gifBuzztime, Inc., a multi-point social interactive entertainment company, has launched Blur, a new celebrity-obsessed trivia game available on the network of bars and restaurants across North America and the UK.

It offers a light-hearted, humorous look at celebrities and aims to discover what America really knows about Hollywood.

Players can select from five possible answers, and are helped along with revealing clues. The faster they answer, the more points they score. Players can also earn points by identifying celebrities in images blurred to protect the not so innocent.

“The public is obsessed with celebrities. Blur will provide an entertaining, not too serious outlet for people who love to track every movement of today’s stars. And who doesn’t want to confirm which starlet’s career is in a free-fall,” said Jake Tauber, Buzztime’s Executive Vice President of Content and Programming.

Like all Buzztime games, Blur is free to play. It will air on Thursday nights at 5:00 pm Pacific/8:00 pm Eastern, beginning October 11 with encore presentations throughout the week.

Originally posted on October 10, 2007 @ 10:10 am

blinkx to share ad revenues to users

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blinkx.gifblinkx, the world’s largest video search engine, will use its unique technology to remunerate consumers who have embedded video clips into their blogs or webpages.

It will share 50 percent of the revenue generated from the ads with users, and payments will be facilitated through PayPal.

Based on blinkx’s ground-breaking AdHoc platform, the new widget places unobtrusive, highly-relevant text advertisements against embedded video from popular sharing sites such as YouTube, GoogleVideo and DailyMotion.

Just as Google’s AdSense transformed advertising on the Text Web, blinkx’s AdHoc platform will revolutionize video advertising by matching compelling, customized, TV-style ads to audiences on the Video Web.

The AdHoc platform is unique because it was built from the ground up to address rich media, resulting in more effective marketing for advertisers, higher monetization for content owners and distributors, and, most importantly, a useful, non-disruptive experience for users.

Originally posted on October 10, 2007 @ 9:21 am