Maybe there are legs after all to that hypothesis on the return of pay-for content - the one Economist publisher Paul Rossi suggested at our Future Of Business Media conference last month. Just 12 percent of European web users paid for online content last year, but that’s due to rise to 19 percent by 2013, a new Jupiterresearch report says: “While free content will continue to dominate, as overall online audiences for all content categories continue to grow, so the number of European users willing to pay for content online will grow at an even greater rate.” That will mean paid content could pull in €5 billion in 2013, from €1.4 billion last year.

LINK (via PaidContent)

U.S. video game sales rose 18% in October, to $1.31 billion, led by sales of Nintendo's Wii console and Microsoft's "Fable II" title, according to sales data compiled by market research firm NPD Group. Overall, hardware sales were up 5% to $494.7 million; the Wii sold 803,000 units, compared to 371,000 Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) Xbox 360s and 190,000 Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3s.

LINK (via DigitalMediaWire)

While consumer caution may cause a dip in electronic sales this holiday
season, Apple wrapped up its fiscal year with a 34% jump in
music-related products and services sales.

According to a recent 10-K filing
outlining its fiscal year results, sales for music products and
services jumped from $2.5 billion in 2007 to $3.34 billion this year.
This includes iTunes downloads, App Store sales and all iPod devices
and accessories.

Music sales counted towards 10% of all Apple sales for the year.

LINK (via Billboard)

Having gained a stable subscription revenue base from World of Warcraft, Activision Blizzard may look to monetize some of its other titles through subscriptions -- like Guitar Hero, CEO Bobby Kotick said today.

Activision Blizzard beat estimates to the tune of $711 million in
revenues for its first quarter as a combined company, the company revealed today.

Anticipating investor concerns about an uncertain economy, president
and CEO Bobby Kotick reassured them on the company's results call that
stable subscription revenue from World Of Warcraft "gives us advantages over many of our competitors -- especially as we enter the holidays."

And Kotick added that the just-launched Guitar Hero: World Tour's song creation utility's early success might end up as a new revenue source.

Kotick says that there are now 25,000 user generated tunes that have
been created for the game, and projected "up to 100,000 songs" by the
end of this year.

"The ability to offer these songs on a subscription basis may very well
result in the newest subscription opportunity in our portfolio," he
said.

LINK (via Gamasutra)

Tom Conrad has some pretty compelling evidence that mobile advertising could sell at a fat premium to web-based ads.

Conrad, the CTO of online radio station Pandora, says the click-through rates on Pandora's iPhone app ads have easily trumped the click-through rates on the web.

"Something like 3 percent of our iPhone ad impressions get a click while we get about 1 percent on our web product. And that's true even though we're oversaturating users with Beck's and Best Buy ads," said Conrad, while speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

The assumption is that if mobile ads are seen by more consumers, then the ad rates should reflect that.

And as an unrelated side note: Conrad also throws cold water on rumors that Apple is singling out and blocking specific iPhone apps that it considers competitive.

"I'm extremely skeptical of these theories that Apple is crippling certain apps. Pandora is actually a music company, and Apple has a huge music business . . . At the end of the day, I think it's quite likely that your app will get rejected by Apple if it provides a poor user experience. "

LINK (via Epicenter)

There were many marketing lessons that any business could learn from Obama's
campaign, but perhaps the strongest is the power of having a strong AND
shareable brand. Obama's logo and brand identity were consistently used
across all his communications, but also treated with a flexibility that
would drive many holders of a brand identity completely mad. Instead of
taking a closed approach to his brand identity, the Obama campaign let
people remix the brand for their own uses.

To take an inside look at the power of this brand, I created two
visuals that I believe pretty much tell the story of the power of Brand
Obama and how it was used to help him win the US Presidency in a way
that is much more powerful than I could ever describe.

LINK (via DigitalMediaWire)

London - Video games are set to generate more sales in the U.K. than music or video this year, the BBC reported, citing market research firm Verdict Research.

Spending on games is expected to grow 42%, to $7.5 billion, while sales of music and video combined will total $7.06 billion.

"The music and video market is not just suffering from a slowing of growth but a massive transfer of spend to online," Verdict Research's Malcolm Pinkerton told the BBC.

Steve Redmond, of the Entertainment Retailers Association, noted for the BBC that the Verdict figure includes sales of video game hardware.

Redmond added that the ERA itself predicts that video game spending will eclipse video by the end of the year, but not music and video combined.

LINK (via DigitalMediaWire)

Sony Computer Entertainment America has taken an active hand in
ensuring PlayStation 3 instrument peripheral cross-compatibility
between Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Singstar, and newcomer Rock Revolution, according to a new blog post by SCEA third-party relations director Michael Shorrock.

Irregular hardware and software compatibility between games from competing developers Harmonix Music Systems (Rock Band) and Activision-owned Neversoft (Guitar Hero)has put strain on both the patience and wallets of music game aficionados, many of whom are known to be less than thrilled at the prospect of owning multiple plastic drum sets.

Specifically, Shorrock notes that Rock Band 2- and Guitar Hero: World Tour-branded guitar and drum peripherals will function properly with all three band simulators, while Rock Revolution's drum peripheral (though it supports guitar gameplay, publisher Konami has not announced unique guitar hardware for its game) will also be compatible with all titles.

The microphone peripheral for Sony's own SingStar karaoke game will work with both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour. Sony hopes to expand its compatibility doctrine to existing music games already on the market.

Similar music game peripheral enforcement has yet to be enacted (or at least officially announced) on the Xbox 360 platform.

[UPDATE: Following up on this post, Microsoft's Chris Paladino has officially announced that the same interoperability will be true for the Xbox 360 versions of those third-party titles.

Talking on the company's official Gamerscore Blog, he referenced the
final paragraph of this article, which noted that Microsoft has yet to
announce similar compatibility, and explained:

"For the record, we also do that, so consider this an official announcement. All the instruments from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution will be cross-compatible... In other words, welcome to the party. ;)"]

 LINK (via Gamasutra)