Today in Social

on May 27, 2011

I’ll risk being accused of kissing up to my boss. The best thing I’ve read today is Michael Wolf’s piece on Facebook’s entertainment strategy. I think Games is at least as big an opportunity for Facebook as Music. Facebook will never get a 30% share of digital singles (the economics don’t work) and will have a hard time getting that off of subscription services. Its best bet might be in helping monetize music with advertising – the industry doesn’t spend much, but youth marketers will. That works for Games sponsorships, too, though that may be a market for the games studios themselves. Facebook could translate authentication into a viewing portal for TV and movies, but isn’t its potential role in programming guides more intriguing? Some other ways to integrate social media with traditional entertainment.

Today in Connected Consumer

on February 15, 2011

In the space of a couple weeks, Apple is singlehandedly shaking up the digital media economics landscape, first by pushing for in-app purchasing and today announcing it will be requiring subscription services to offer payment through iTunes. No doubt about it, this should be causing significant discussion amongst those who have relied so heavily on Apple as their sole digital media marketplace and be giving additional cause to give consideration to Android Marketplace.

Grey Lady’s Troubles With the P-Word

Mathew Ingram on January 18, 2010

Is charging users for online content an act of slow-motion seppuku? The New York Times may be about to find out. But the real risk is that it is neither a runaway success nor an abject failure, but rather a slow, steady decline.

Today in Connected Consumer

on September 1, 2009

Over at NewTeeVee, Jordan speculates about the possibility of a subscription video service from Apple.  I’m not as confident it will happen, given a few factors. First off, Jobs has stated his distaste for subscription services in the past, and its not clear he would embrace them for video. Even if he were to change his tune about an iTunes subscription, it’s unlikely big video players like NBC wouldn’t give Apple the rights to their content. Perhaps more important, consumers tend to like ad-supported or very cheap all-you-can-eat solutions like Netflix, so it’s quite possible an Apple $35 subscription service wouldn’t be as big a hit among end-users as some believe.