Prices expected to get even lower for online music
Music costs too much, and Stelios Haji-Tonnaou has done something about it. He expects other online music sellers will, too.
The founder of EasyGroup, whose other businesses are geared toward heavily discounted prices in such areas as car rentals, movie theaters and cruises, Haji-Tonnaou told BBC Radio that the music industry “will go through a shakeup” as Web sites offering cheaper, legal downloads are launched. His own EasyMusic.com offers some tracks for about 49 cents.
Haji-Tonnaou believes price-cutting is good for the online music industry. “There were people who said when I started EasyJet that $55 fares would ruin the industry,” he said. “Far from it. It has made some companies less profitable, but it has forced them to compete and therefore become leaner and more competitive.”
Yahoo sees content deals
Lloyd Braun, who runs Yahoo’s media group, told television broadcasting executives earlier this month that the online company would be doing deals with content producers. It looks like Showtime Networks, part of Viacom Inc. may be one of them. At a conference of the National Association of Television Program Executives, Showtime President Robert Greenblatt revealed he is close to announcing a content and promotion deal with Yahoo, according to TV Week magazine. Asked whether the arrangement might call for previewing TV shows via the Internet, he replied, “Much bigger.” Greenblatt didn’t offer details.
Democrats boosted Internet ads
MSHC Partners, a Washington-based online political ad agency, reported it spent $3 million for banner ads on behalf of the John Kerry for President campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Michael Bassik, the agency’s vice president for Internet advertising, said the money bought 800 million ad exposures across 100 Web sites. The strategy also drove 6 million people to the JohnKerry.com and DNC Web sites and generated $2.5 million in political contributions, he said. The agency commissioned studies of the ads’ effectiveness, from which it emerged that they helped boost Kerry’s favorability ratings. Bassik said, nonetheless, that online advertising remains, “the `Rodney Dangerfield’ of political communication.” Accordingly, MSHC plans an industry campaign to highlight its strengths and effectiveness.