Universal Music, the world’s largest record label, will soon offer free music downloads through SpiralFrog in exchange for watching advertising.  The service will be available later this year.

The downloads, which used to cost $0.79, will soon be free while you watch 90 seconds worth of advertisements as the music downloads.  This new offer will give fans access to Universal’s entire back catalog.

However, the “free” music comes with a price, although not monetarily.  Users who watch 90 seconds of advertising may download a song, and if you watch 2 minutes of advertising you can download a video.  But if you want to keep the song or video you’ll have to return to the site and watch more ads. 

The music files are also in Microsoft’s .wma format, and won’t play on a large majority of music players out there, meaning Apple iPods.

I’ll pass on this one.  It sounds like a hassle and a waste of time.  I’d rather buy it than watch that many ads.

The increasing availability and wide-spread use of high speed internet has helped catapult online videos into the forefront of our digital society.  From the two and a half minute video clips of YouTube to the video blogging of everyone from your little sister to Google engineer Matt Cutts, video is pervading our online lives. Even Google AdWords now allows advertisers to submit video ads for publication on others’ sites.

In the not so distant past, online videos were limited to pirated movies and music videos shared through peer-to-peer file sharing systems like Napster and Kazaa.  You could watch a limited number of music videos on Yahoo Music, as well as view movie trailers on Yahoo Movies.  Webcams have been around for awhile, but the abillity to effectively share these videos with mass audiences has been somewhat limited. 

But now, all that has changed. With dial-up internet access falling out of favor to high speed broadband internet, the technology now exists to enable websites to serve up videos at satisfactory speeds.  Websites such as YouTube and Google Video allow users to upload their own videos and embed a video player in their site, which has eliminated the need for many website owners to purchase expensive, bandwith-eating streaming video hosting.  The big websites bear the burden of hosting videos, making it possible for “little guys” without big budgets to get their videos online and in front of large audiences.

Online videos are hot, with friends and co-workers constantly e-mailing eachother the latest viral YouTube video. While it may seem like online video has already exploded, its growth is expected to expand, doubling by the year 2010.  In a little more than three years, analysts expect the global market for online videos to double, reaching 130 million households. 

This latest information comes from a recently published report by In-Stat entitled “Online Content Aggregators – AOL, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Apple – Slowly Defining the Future of Television.”  According to In-Stat, already 12.8% of households with broadband view content via an online aggregator. As access to broadband grows, it is expected that the numbers of those accessing content via an online aggregator will also grow.  In-Stat estimated that about 194 million households had broadband internet last year, and predicts that by the year 2010, 413 million households will have broadband internet.

In-Stat predicts that major TV broadcasters will form a “natural alliance” with online aggregators, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. to provide popular content via their websites.  This is already beginning to happen, as evidenced by popular television shows finding themselves available for download on Apple’s iTunes website.  I can only expect that trend to continue.

And while the old media TV broadcasters try to creep their way into the web, the potential for independent video bloggers, filmmakers, and so on will also continue to increase.  Friends will continue to make silly videos and pass them along to their friends, and video bloggers might suddenly find themselves in front of a huge, loyal online audience.  Rocketboom was only the beginning that phenomenon.

Recognizing the demand for video content, I myself have begun incorporating videos into my personal websites.  So far they’ve been well-received, often increasing traffic to the site immediately.  As a web user myself, I also find video to be refreshing new addition to the web.  I mean, when I first got internet access years ago, I was excited and surfed as much as I could.  But then, after awhile, it seemed like I hit a dead end.  What else new and exciting was out there?  It’s finally arrived, and I’ll tell you what it is- its video.  It’s adding a great new dimension to the web.

 

In a press release issued today, Google announced that they have struck a deal with XM Satellite Radio, the nation’s largest satellite radio service, to introduce and make available commercial advertising inventory on XM’s non-music channels Google’s extensive advertising base through its dMarc media network.

Google’s advertisers will now have a simple, automated way to reach the more than 7 million subscribers of XM Satellite Radio.  Both small and large advertisers will have the opportunity to serve up relevant, targeted advertising to listeners.

dMarc was acquired by Google in January 2006, and allows for easier purchasing, delivery, reporting, and tracking of advertising on terrestrial radio, and now also on XM Satellite Radio.  The technology automatically allows Google to schedule advertising on XM, opening them up to a larger advertising base as well as reducing costs formerly associated with the processing of advertising sales.

Adwords’ customers will be able to purchase both terrestrial and satellite radio advertising when the dMarc platform is fully integrated into Adwords during the fourth quarter of this year. 

Have you ever called a company’s customer service line and been annoyed by the lack of human interaction? Do the robot reps drive you nuts? Do you ever just scream in frustration “I want to speak to a human damnit!!!!” ? I’ll bet you have. And now I have just the solution for you.

Instead of screaming explicatives next time you encounter Mr. Roboto, quickly consult Get Human, a free website with an outstanding database of secret phone numbers and codes to get a human rep. when calling a customer service center.

The database is huge, and encompasses everything from Sears to Mastercard. Right now it seems to include US-based companies only, but hopefully they will expand in the future to include other countries (I’m sure this robot problem is global by now). If not, maybe someone else will be inspired to create other country-specific “Get Human”-like directories.

On the site, you can also view and input customer support ratings for various companies. And according to the site:

We will soon publish a list of the best and worst mass-market consumer companies in the US based on how long it takes to get to a human on the phone and on the quality of support received.

Now, if only they could publish a list to the secret codes to get a native English-speaking rep instead of an Indian named Bobby Smith. Hmm…

For the first time in the history of the internet, Hollywood studios will allow consumers to download movies and burn them to a DVD.  Of course, it is for a fee, but at least they are getting with the times.

Online video distributor CinemaNow will begin the new venture by offering about 100 films from major entertainment companies to consumers, who will then be able to burn a version of the movie on a disc that will play in a machine hooked up to their television. The agreement includes films from the likes of Buena Vista, MGM, Lionsgate, Universal Studios, and Sony Pictures.

On Monday, Movielink (which is owned by several major Hollywood Studios) announced a partnership with Sonic Solutions to provide a similiar solution.  However, no timeline was given regarding the release of the download and burnable films online.

The downloads will start at $8.99 each, and can take up to two to three hours to download. Consumers will also be able to print disc and jewel-case labels for the downloaded film.

It’s an interesting idea, but the time it takes to download the movie, plus the cost involved doesn’t make it very attractive to me.  Plus the added cost of having to have your own supply of blank DVDs lying around. I’d rather drive down the street to my local Blockbuster and get it from them.  I want instant gratification damnit.

Keep track of your money and your stuff with Bill Monk, an interesting “Web 2.0″ style website.  No longer will you have to struggle to recollect who you loaned or borrowed stuff from, and you can keep better track of your friends money mooching habits (or maybe your own mooching habits).

The site allows you to input data about loans you make to friends and when payments are made on them.  You can itemize things that you loan out in the “library”, including such details as what the item was, when you loaned it, and who you loaned it too. You can even keep track of who last paid for dinner.

But is this service really useful?  Who will actually use it?  My guess is that the people who would use it are already pretty anal and probably write these things down in a notebook or something.