Zuned out: David Pogue lays the smackdown on the Zune; even though those engadget videos look cool, Mr. Pogue makes an excellent point: the DRM issues seem overwhelming, crippled Wi-Fi, and limited Zune music store makes it look somewhat unappealing — better wait for Zune 2.0.
Universal Extracts Pound of Flesh from Gates: Microsoft is not only allowing Universal to grab a share of each piece of music people pay for, but is also giving them a share of the Zune pie — a dollar out of every Zune they sell. Considering that margins are probably razor thin, it means Microsoft is giving up a helluva lot to entice music companies to play with them. And I’m with Om Malik on this one (and I paraphrase) : Universal’s reasons for this are outrageous — and if you can’t sell enough to come up with enough juice to sell an extra song per device, then there’s something wrong with your ability to perform as a company (I said paraphrase!)
Bootstrapping Causing VC’s to Kvetch: Another NYT article, this one focusing on the successes of Meebo, but more importantly, discussing how little startups need these days, now that a lot of capital is cheap or free. Because VC’s need to make back bongo bucks for their investors and startups don’t need, or won’t, take the millions in blood money seed cash its causing many of them to re-think the VC paradigm. Bottom line: I think many of them will have to work harder and spread their own bets and get in early amongst the many different startups to find that YouTube or Digg that will eventually need much more cash, because they will eventually go supernova. Hey — don’t look at me; I can’t tell you which ones they are either.
Betting Against the Tivo Generation a Suckers Bet: VentureBeat comments on a new startup BlackArrow that has secured 15M in funding, that purportedly has the technology that will allow cable networks, for example, ABC, to play ads while people who have DVR’s either pause or fastforward TV. The details aren’t important — only that the whole idea runs counter to an entire generation of children and teenagers that are currently or will certainly be accustomed to controlling their media, and this certainly includes television. Any cable network that signs up with this might see gains in the short term, but its a sucker’s bet in the long run. Someone’s going to create another DVR that will circumvent this technology, and let’s not forget Bit Torrent. People will strip rip and then strip the ads out with abandon and then release them to the bit torrent wilds. Which is already happening.
So, When Will I Start Seeing Spanish Splogs?: ComScore released some data today that shows an overwhelming majority of traffic to some of the biggest sites on the internet are offshore. For example, almost 80% of unique visitors to Google are, in fact, from outside the states — that is pretty mind blowing. This represents a huge opportunity for marketers who are poised with products and services for non-US, but English-reading, visitors; I guess the question is how long for us to start seeing more targetted Adwords programs to these visitors, and more interestingly enough — when will the content of splogs begin to change?
