Filed under: Deals, Products and services, Launches, Consumer experience, Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Marketing and advertising, MasterCard Inc’A’ (MA)

Billboard reported Thursday that MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) has launched a new campaign titled “Roots of Rock” that offers free downloads for cardholders from Universal Music Group. Apparently the free aspect of the campaign is limited and after 100,000 songs have been downloaded, MasterCard will start to charge $0.80 per track. Even after the credit card company begins charging for downloads, pricing for tracks is still lower than Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)’s MP3 Store ($0.89) or Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iTunes Store ($0.99).

Cardholders who also make a purchase by August 31 will be “entered into a sweepstakes with a grand prize of having a meet and greet with Jon Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton or Kenny Chesney.” MasterCard executive Amy Fuller told Billboard with the new campaign, the company has “created unparalleled music experiences with three of the world’s most popular artists, providing consumers with an intimate perspective on these icons that few fans will ever have.” But those fans will have to win the sweepstakes.

MasterCard’s campaign to offer free downloads is like numerous other programs that are linked with music companies, but it offers to take the digital market to a more massive consumer base. Lowered prices (eventually) for the campaign mean that Universal Music Group will continue to hold on to the lead in music sales, if only because the music company is the only one on board with MasterCard. Consumers that might not have ever downloaded a track might be enticed to try out the campaign and the sweepstakes. This type of growth is what the music industry will need if digital sales are ever going to replace physical sales successfully and completely.

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Filed under: Good news, Rumors, Products and services, Marketing and advertising

Despite a 66% drop from first week sales of 721,000 duplicates, Coldplay’s fourth album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends retains the top spot on the Billboard 200, selling 249,000 duplicates in the album’s second week of release. Billboard reported the chart placement Wednesday and noted album sales are down 7.66% in the last week while dropping 13.2% behind the same week totals from one year ago.

The album was released in the United Kingdom three weeks ago tomorrow, while it has only been out in the United States for two weeks. It debuted big in the UK, selling 302,000 duplicates in the first three days it was out and selling 500,000 copies after ten days. Sales in the U.S. over seven days are obviously more massive than the UK figures, pointing to rumored hopes from the band’s music label EMI that the album would provide a significant boost for the company during the summer and possibly the year.

I’ve had the album since it was released, reporting that very day about the packaging of a vinyl and CD copy together that seemed to hint EMI was aware that consumers listen to music more frequently on MP3 players even if they prefer vinyl duplicates for nostalgia or the entire experience. Two weeks at number is impressive in today’s market and although sales dropped 66%, 249,000 copies is a nice figure for one week. If continued rumors are true that the band will release another album within a year and a half, the future of EMI may be more and more based on the success of one band.

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Filed under: Deals, Microsoft (MSFT), Time Warner (TWX), Marketing and advertising, News Corp’B’ (NWS)

One of Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) plays for showing that it does not need a deal with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is to find another massive partner for a merger or joint venture. It is becoming more likely that the partner may be either Time Warner’s (NYSE: TWX) AOL or News Corp (NYSE: NWS), which owns MySpace.

The structure of a deal with AOL might look very much like the one the firms discussed earlier in the year. According to The Wall Street Journal, “The two companies are speaking about a structure they began discussing several months ago — an arrangement whereby Time Warner would fold AOL into Yahoo and take a minority stake in the combined venture.”

A transaction with AOL would give Yahoo! three important advantages. First, it would nearly double the size of its user base, giving it by far the largest audience of any company in the US. Yahoo! would also get AOL’s Advertising.com network, the biggest display ad network in the nation. Finally, Yahoo! would get a substantial set of new customers for its search and search advertising businesses.

Wall Street wants to see Yahoo! sold. Any other alternative, including a deal with AOL, is likely to drive its shares down. But, if it wants any chance of staying independent, a transaction with Time Warner might be its only viable substitute.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: World wide web, Pic, Productivity, Social Software

Memeo’s new Share application is designed to make the process of sending high-resolution pics a little easier, by sending them directly to another users desktop or putting them in an RSS feed they can look at in iPhoto.

The application, which is currently in beta, isn’t meant to be a substitute for any pic sharing application you might currently be using, although photos shared using Memeo Share can also automatically upload pics to your Facebook account. Share is instead designed for sharing high-resolution photos and video with small groups or family and friends without having to send individual emails containing each item due to their size. Those who receive your pics can then decide what photos they want, and print out pictures they like at a quality resolution.

Memeo Share is offering a free lifetime use for the first 1,000 people to sign up for the beta with the public preview limited to 10,000 total sign ups. Get yours here.

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Filed under: Productivity, Web services, web 2.0

Have you ever been working somewhere and needed to focus on what you were doing, writing, saying, but there was too much ambient noise around you?

You know, peoples iPods crankin’ or chitter chatter chattin’.

SimplyNoise is about to become your best friend.

At desk jobs (ewwww), they sometimes pump in “White noise” to push out sound and give you a bit more privacy, but you can’t control how much of it you get.

SimplyNoise works kind of like an air conditioner in that you can amp it up to as much as you need. SimplyNoise’s site says that white noise can help get you in a zen state, give you more privacy while on the phone, help you fall asleep, and even ease migraines.

Since we’re all writers, and some of us have annoying construction going on outside of their condo during the day, we’ll put it to the test and you should too.

Let us know in the comments if white noise is the right noise for you.

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