Aware 11

Twitter: User Co-Creating or User Co-Opting?

aware — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:20:45 +0000

Guy Hands Shuffles Deck At EMI, A&R International

aware — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:30:00 +0000

More executive changes at EMI: Veteran exec JF Cecillon is out as President, A&R Labels - International, and President - EMEA, at the end of next week, and could move into an advisory role with the label, boss Guy Hands told staff in an email. Other changes:

Billy Mann, EMI Music's Chief Creative Officer based in New York, will assume the additional role of President, A&R Labels - International, assuming JF's responsibilities for artist development in countries outside North America and the UK.

David Kassler will take over JF's regional duties as President - Europe/Middle East/Africa, in addition to his other role of President - Global Artist Projects.

Ashley Unwin will assume David Kassler's former duties as President - UK and Ireland. Ashley, who has been interim President, A&R Labels - North America and UK, will step down from that role when Nick Gatfield joins us on 15 July.

At our French company, where JF was President and CEO, Nathalie Collin now moves into the lead management position there as Chairman, EMI Music France, reporting to David Kassler.

With Nick leading our A&R efforts in North America and the UK, complemented by Billy in the rest of the world, we have two strong, artist-driven talents who can help us move into a new phase of creativity and deliver our goal of becoming the most innovative, artist-friendly and consumer-focused music company in the world.

Apple Ad “Mac” Guy Justin Long Buys $2.4 Million NYC Condo

aware — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:10:00 +0000

From The Business Sheet: Starring in Mac (AAPL) ads apparently isn't a bad gig.

New York Sun: Actor Justin Long, best-known for his starring role in a series of Macintosh computer commercials, has purchased a [$2.4 million] apartment at the high-rise Blue luxury complex at 105 Norfolk St., on the Lower East Side.

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment, listed by the Corcoran Group, was purchased for $2.4 million, according to the real estate Web site StreetEasy.com...

Mr. Long will move into a 1,975-square-foot unit called "Tower 15," which features palm floors and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Manhattan skyline. The apartment, one of two floor-throughs, includes a combined living-dining area, a walk-in closet, a windowed study, and a kitchen furnished with Boffi cabinetry and countertops.

Unlike the Macs he hawks, Long's apartment looks better on the inside than on the outside.

RIM’s Rapid Growth Plan: A $49 BlackBerry Flip Phone?

aware — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:55:00 +0000

Research In Motion (RIMM) executives have been, in our opinion, incorrectly underestimating how much impact Apple's (AAPL) new iPhone 3G will have on their business. Specifically, now that consumers account for the bulk of RIM's growth, we see the company's target market less interested in RIM's proprietary email system and just happy to buy the best smartphone on the market for around $199. That used to be a BlackBerry; now it'll be the iPhone.

Now it seems RIM could have other rapid growth plans -- trying to court people who buy lower-end, "dumb" phones from the likes of LG, Samsung, Motorola (MOT), and Nokia (NOK), and Palm's (PALM) cheap Centro smartphone. How? By selling a low-end BlackBerry for $49.99 after subsidy -- the same price you'd expect to pay for a crappy RAZR. BlackBerry site CrackBerry.com reports that the new BlackBerry KickStart will sell for $49.99 on T-Mobile later this year, with an early-September launch target. That's with some skepticism:

You may want to take this news with a grain of salt. I know the first time I heard this information I was skeptical. Then I heard it again, and again and again. And now that I've heard the same bit of news from multiple sources / informants / ninjas / tipsters / little birdies I can't help but believe it to be true. So to the best of my knowledge... the BlackBerry KickStart will sell on T-Mobile for $49.99!

If true -- we're still not sold on this one -- this could change the game for RIM by opening the company up wider to the massive, non-smartphone mobile market. The high-end smartphone sector, where RIM has done much of its business, is growing rapidly, but it's still smallish -- maybe a quarter of the broader market, which is around 1 billion phones per year worldwide. So a $49 low-end BlackBerry with better email support -- and likely a better Web browser -- than any other "dumb" phone on the market could be a big hit, and could help RIM keep up its growth rate.

(Now: How T-Mobile will subsidize this phone -- and how RIM will be able to price it profitably -- is a different story.)

Photos: BerryShack

“Dark Knight” Woos Comic-Con Crowd With Web Series

aware — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:00:00 +0000

Warner Bros. (TWX) hardly needs to do any marketing to get comic book geeks to show up for "Dark Knight," the new Batman movie. But aside from sponsoring MySpace's redesign and all the viral marketing it's done with movie trailers, Warner Bros. is also spending a little bit of its massive promotional budget on a little Web series aimed directly at the Comic-Con crowd: "Kyle Piccolo: Comic Shop Therapist."

Warner Bros. paid the entire production budget -- $36,000 -- for the first five episodes of the series, set in Manhattan's Midtown Comics, and made by NYC-based Web video production house For Your Imagination. (Warner will also attach the "Dark Knight" trailer to the videos, which are distributed on YouTube, blip.tv, MySpace, DailyMotion and iTunes.)

Why? The show has a good bit of built-in street cred with comic book nerds. The co-creator and director happens to be John Cassaday, an X-Men illustrator and the kind of guy comic book fans will wait for hours to meet. Key to "Dark Knight's" success will be the kind of repeat business that the hardcore fans tend to shower on favored comic-derived films -- so sponsoring "Piccolo" could be a good bet.

Gawker Writers’ Pay Rates Get Cut, Again

aware — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:45:00 +0000

Gawker's pay-by-the-pageview compensation system is novel, but it's proving tricky to sustain. Founder Nick Denton (SA 100 #7) has cut his writers' pay rate for the second straight quarter, Radar reports.

Gawker writers' pay rate in Q1 was $7.50 per 1,000 page views. In Q2, it dropped to $6.50. Now it stands at $5.00 -- a 33% cut since January. Other Gawker properties have seen their rates cut, too, to varying degrees. Why? Success, Denton says: Traffic bonuses have gotten so high that they've "broken the site budget."

What's this mean for writers? To take home the same paycheck in July that they made in June, they'll need to generate 30% more pageviews.

VeriSign Names Founder Bidzos Interim CEO (VRSN)

aware — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Jim Bidzos, who founded VeriSign (VRSN) in 1995, is back in the driver's seat: The company named him interim chairman/CEO today, replacing William Roper, who resigned Monday. Roper's departure comes about a year after his predecessor Stratton D. Sclavos resigned.

VeriSign will continue consolidating and getting rid of excess baggage -- like its Kontiki content delivery network, which it sold to MK Capital in May for $1 million cash and a bunch of stock -- far less than the $62 million it bought it for in 2006.

Blame Google For MySpace’s Advertising Problems

aware — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:40:00 +0000

Google (GOOG) isn't shy about telling everyone what a bad deal its $900 million search pact with MySpace (NWS) turned out to be. The company basically laid its Q4 earnings miss on the deal, claiming social network inventory "is not monetizing as well as expected."

But what if Google, and not MySpace, is the problem? Pali Research media guru Rich Greenfield thinks MySpace is doing just fine selling ads ($500 million excluding the Google deal in FY 2008) but Google isn't doing such a good job on search, and thus is not delivering the right ads to MySpace users.

How does Rich figure? He tried a few basic searches on MySpace and got incredibly irrelevant ads served through Google's AdSense -- ads that would never result in a click, or in a payment to MySpace or Google. Rich tried a search for "Dan" and got ads for DNA testing. We gave it a try: A search for "Mike" got ads for Nike's Summer Sale.

No surprise to Rich, then, that MySpace's search monetization is weak. Will Google walk when its current search deal with MySpace expires? No. More likely: they'll realize they're at least part of the problem and work to get their social network search algorithms right. Then they can start minting money from MySpace's 120 million global users.

Google Closing Offices In Dallas, Denver (GOOG)

aware — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Google (GOOG) confirms the tips we'd heard the last two days: It's shutting offices in Dallas and Denver. A company statement made to Google Blogoscoped:

Following an operational review, we are consolidating our offices in Dallas and Denver, as we currently have at least two offices in each of these markets. This reorganization is designed to ensure we are serving the needs of our customers, stakeholders and Googlers [Google employees] efficiently. These are the only two cities affected by this review, and all affected Dallas and Denver Googlers will be offered opportunities within the company.

Google's U.S. jobs page shows an ad sales opening in Dallas. In Colorado, jobs are available in Boulder and Thornton, just north of Denver.

Casual Gaming Site GameDuell Gets $17.45M

aware — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:35:00 +0000

GameDuell, a San Francisco and Berlin-based casual gaming site, has closed a $17.45 million second round of funding from Wellington Partners, paidContent reports. GameDuell, which claims 9 million users, will use the money to expand internationally and double its employee count.