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: Press releases, Marketing and advertising, Clear Channel Commun (CCU), Media World, Politics

It’s no secret that Speak Radio host extraordinaire Rush Limbaugh has revolutionized the substitute media. With his new contract, it appears that Rush is once again on the cutting edge of societal evolution, and has once again laid down the gauntlet that he is light years ahead of his competition. What’s so incredible is that in an era when traditional media is having all kinds of problems, whether it’s declining newspaper sales, or declining ratings for the nightly news, the man who sits behind the golden EIB microphone is forging ahead as if nothing is happening.

According to a press release, Limbaugh has signed a long-term contract extension:

Advertiser and affiliate demand is at an all-time high for Mr. Limbaugh. President of Premiere Radio Networks Charlie Rahilly stated, “The Rush Limbaugh Show enjoys an unprecedented platform of radio affiliates. Plus, advertisers harness the intensity of listener engagement — no one’s ‘word of mouth’ about a product or service delivers more impact than Mr. Limbaugh does. The Premiere team is proud to partner with Mr. Limbaugh deep into the next decade.”

The Drudge Report is reporting that the contract will pay him in excess of a whopping $400 million!

Earnings now pace him ahead of the annual salaries for network news anchors: Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer - combined!

How this will effect the stock of Clear Channel (NYSE: CCU) who, along with Premier radio syndicate Limbaugh’s show, is anyone’s guess. My hunch, though, is that it will do just fine. Clearly, for Clear Channel Rush is a money making machine. His popularity continues to surge, so it seems that while they are spending a whole lot of money, they’ll more than make it up in revenue that the show produces.

Love him or hate him, and I am in the love him camp, there’s no disputing the impact that Rush has ands continues to have on both politics and the media.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer’s fund has no position in any stock mentioned, as of 7/2/08.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Apple Inc (AAPL), Marketing and advertising, Nokia Corp. (NOK)

Reuters reports this day that Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has signed up Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) to its “Comes with Music” phone service and music store. Nokia is the world’s top phone manufacturer and will be making a direct challenge to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iTunes Store, according to numerous reports. The “Comes with Music” service is the first from a phone manufacturer to “push heavily into content” and “differs from other packages on the market as users can keep all the music they’ve downloaded” while in yearly contracts with Nokia.

WMG executives granted the music company to join up with Nokia since the service “is the first global initiative to fundamentally align the interests of music companies with telecommunications companies.” Nokia already secured the support of fellow music companies Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment in April, and “Comes with Music” launches later this year. Reuters speculates that the agreements with three of the top four music companies (EMI Group has not signed up yet) will “help Nokia attract smaller music companies and challenge the dominant pay-per-track sales model for digital music.” Last year, download sales totaled $2.9 billion; if the 146 million Nokia phones had featured “Comes with Music”, those sales would have surpassed the digital market.

Record labels have consistently looked for new methods to challenge Apple’s grip on the music industry, and subscription models like “Comes with Music” may finally provide that challenge. Subscription models give the music industry more shares per download since users typically are not allowed to keep tracks downloaded during the subscription. “Comes with Music” is betting against that model since users will be granted to keep music downloaded, and Nokia and the record companies are no doubt hoping that dynamic will keep those consumers renewing contracts with the service. Reportedly, the subscription for “Comes with Music” will only cost $20 per phone, which on a yearly basis wouldn’t be too pricey for unlimited downloads.

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Filed under: World wide web, Google (GOOG), Marketing and advertising, News Corp’B’ (NWS), Media World

Seth MacFarlane is the genius behind News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) Family Guy animated television series. But why should News Corp. have all the fun programming cool content? That’s apparently what Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was thinking when it signed up Seth MacFarlane to produce a series of short animated clips for the Google Content Network.

According to The New York Times, MacFarlane has created something called Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. Tiny two-minute clips will be distributed to various websites that key in on the youthful male demographic which loves Family Guy. When users click on the clips, they’ll perhaps see an ad before the thing starts or some sort of banner attached to it. They might also simply see the name of the presenting sponsor before watching. Google will split monies generated by the ads with MacFarlane, the website that features the clip, and Media Rights Capital, the entity which sells the inventory.

I love the idea of the Google Content Network and I think that, over time, it should be a great success, but as with any novel platform, it all comes down to the word in the middle — content. Google will live and die by the quality of the content because, although lesser-quality stuff might still find an audience in other mediums, the internet has such intense competition for eyeballs that have minuscule attention spans. If the clips don’t grab the viewer right away, then the ad inventory won’t be as valuable to the buyers.

Granted, MacFarlane’s name is going to bring in a lot of surfing eyeballs, but I’d have to believe that, in the back of Google’s corporate mind, they are counting on acquiring innovative content from less established talent that won’t demand as much compensation and/or budget expenditures as MacFarlane will. Google, after all, believes wholeheartedly in the power of the unknown to drive shareholder value since it paid a lot of money for YouTube. I concede, though, that a massive brand name will act as a needed catalyst for the platform.

MacFarlane will have a lot of his followers watching this series when it debuts in a couple months, but I do have to state that the example clip mentioned in the article centering on mad cow disease didn’t sound too funny to me. Hopefully it’s just an example of something that needs to be seen to be enjoyed. Whatever happens, I think Google’s foray into these kinds of content-development deals and novel advertising platforms will pay dividends down the road, and I think Google should definitely look for unknowns to help program the space.

Disclosure: I don’t own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Apple Inc (AAPL), Marketing and advertising, Nokia Corp. (NOK)

Reuters reports this day that Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has signed up Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) to its “Comes with Music” phone service and music store. Nokia is the world’s top phone manufacturer and will be making a direct challenge to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iTunes Store, according to numerous reports. The “Comes with Music” service is the first from a phone manufacturer to “push heavily into content” and “differs from other packages on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded” while in yearly contracts with Nokia.

WMG executives granted the music company to join up with Nokia since the service “is the first global initiative to fundamentally align the interests of music companies with telecommunications companies.” Nokia already secured the support of fellow music companies Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment in April, and “Comes with Music” launches later this year. Reuters speculates that the agreements with three of the top four music companies (EMI Group has not signed up yet) will “help Nokia attract smaller music companies and challenge the dominant pay-per-track sales model for digital music.” Last year, download sales totaled $2.9 billion; if the 146 million Nokia phones had featured “Comes with Music”, those sales would have surpassed the digital market.

Record labels have consistently looked for new methods to challenge Apple’s grip on the music industry, and subscription models like “Comes with Music” might finally provide that challenge. Subscription models give the music industry more shares per download since users typically are not granted to keep tracks downloaded during the subscription. “Comes with Music” is betting against that model since users will be granted to keep music downloaded, and Nokia and the record companies are no doubt hoping that dynamic will keep those consumers renewing contracts with the service. Reportedly, the subscription for “Comes with Music” will only cost $20 per phone, which on a yearly basis would not be too costly for unlimited downloads.

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Filed under: Consumer experience, Ford Motor (F), Marketing and advertising

Ford (NYSE:F) is going through its worst sales period in over 20 years. Its flagship during most of that period has been its F-Series pick-up. The truck has sold like mad and it is highly profitable for the vehicle company.

The F-Series trucks are heavy and eat a lot of gas. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Ford has started searching for answers to a question it never used to pay much attention to: exactly who drives large pickups and why.”

Ford figures some of the people who purchase the pick-up don’t need it to haul things or tow things. They are people who want to look tough and have that working man image. The vehicle company is trying to find a way to keep these people although they could drop down to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

If gas hits $5, and it may, the probability that people will purchase pick-ups to be “cool” goes away very quickly and Ford will nearly certainly lose a lot more of its F-Series customers.

Of course, if gas hit $5, Ford has much bigger problems.

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

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Filed under: Good news, Products and services, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising

Despite criticism by Irish band U2’s manager Paul McGuinness over Radiohead’s method for releasing In Rainbows last October, U2’s lead singer Bono has published an open letter in NME disagreeing and applauding Radiohead for the album and how it was released. McGuinness told the BBC in early June that the method was “a failure and backfired” because “it still resulted in over 60%-70% of listeners acquiring the album through illegal channels.”

Bono’s letter to NME, printed in last week’s issue, takes a sharp left turn from his manager’s opinion, calling Radiohead “courageous and imaginative in trying to figure out some new relationship with their audience.” Bono also remarked how “blessed” he feels “to be around at the same time” as “a sacred talent” like Radiohead. U2 have recently taken steps to reach their audience, joining forces with Live Nation Inc. (NYSE: LYV) in a deal that’ll market their music and concerts with related products from one location.

U2 is still signed to Universal Music Group for the band’s record releases, which may have been one reason McGuinness came out against the method Radiohead used last year. Neverthless, the disagreement between manager and lead singer is insignificant compared to the applaud Radiohead continue to receive from fellow artists. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, a band that was also signed to Universal Music Group, has also come out in support of Radiohead’s method, although he, too, took issue with some aspects of it. Reznor has since released two NIN albums the same way.

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Filed under: Press releases, Products and services, Marketing and advertising, News Corp’B’ (NWS)

English rock band The Verve, famous for the hit single “Bitter Sweet Symphony” and the ensuing struggle over the rights to the song (eventually awarded to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards because the song sampled a short snippet of a Rolling Stone song), are set to return in August with a new album — the band’s first since 1997’s Urban Hymns that featured that bitter sweet single. Billboard reported last week that the new album, titled Forth (Billboard cites it incorrectly as Four) will be released on August 18 in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United Says.

While the band had not worked together in nine years before reuniting last year to commence work on new music and play a number of festivals, lead singer Richard Ashcroft had enjoyed a semi-successful solo career built on the success that the band had enjoyed in the nineties. He joined Coldplay onstage at Live 8 in 2005 to perform “Bitter Sweet Symphony” to an elated Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay) and cheering crowds. The first single from Forth, “Love is Noise”, was premiered on British radio June 23 and will be released a couple of weeks before the album. It is currently streaming from the band’s News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) MySpace page.

In the United Kingdom, The Verve are signed to EMI Group and will release Forth via Parlophone, but in the United States, a very special release scheme will be utilized, somewhat similar to Radiohead’s deal in the U.S. for In Rainbows earlier this year. The band has set up a label, On Our Own, and will release the album through a distribution deal with RED Distribution and Megaforce Records. Previously, the band’s albums had been released through EMI’s Virgin Records imprint in the United Says.

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