SharkJumping

AEG Live Enters Virtual World with Meez

In all of the discussion about the big players in the music business, one sometimes forgets about the importance of the promotional and touring partner, which is strange since most artists make the bulk of their money from touring and from merchandise.  That's why Meez is excited to announce tonight a partnership with AEG Live, the nation's second largest touring and promotion company, where AEG Live connects Meez users with a wide array of popular music artists, all currently on tour with AEG.   The deal is launching with the amazingly talented artist set of Dashboard Confessional (see below), Plain White T's, The Cab and Panic at the Disco, and will soon be followed by additional big name artists.

In the AEG Live Tour Mansion, our users can listen to each band's streaming music in personalized rooms, play instruments, chat/dance/emote, link out to the artist web sites/iTunes sections/My Space pages, and also purchase tickets to each show from AEG Live, plus the users can outfit their avatars with cool accessories and items from each artist.  It's a great way for an artist to connect with their fans in an easy to use and compelling virtual world, and to also drive commerce and engagement since an average room visitor spends over 6 minutes per room, enough to listen to 2 songs and hang out with fellow fans. 

It's an innovative move by AEG Live and the participating bands to embrace the virtual world by not just understanding that it creates a strong connection with their users, but that it should also be used to drive additional revenue.  This continues the recent trend of artists and labels reaching out to virtual worlds like Meez, such as Mudvayne did earlier this week (see earlier post).   We also launched a great room for Estonian Goth-Pop sensation Kerli tonight, so it's a big music week for Meez.

 

Innovative Mudvayne Music Promotion with Best Buy

The popular metal band Mudvayne yesterday announced a cool new way to drive physical music sales through their "The Album Is the Ticket" promotion with Best Buy (NYSE: BB), including a great pair of Meez Nation Mudvayne rooms, of course.    All bands/labels are struggling with how to keep selling CDs while they transition to the digital world, and we're seeing some new approaches, whether it's Radiohead and their "name your own price" download, or Prince's effort to bundle CDs with each concert ticket sold.

In the Mudvayne effort, a The New Game CD buyer gets the exclusive right for to pre-order tickets to the always popular upcoming tour, as well as one year access to the Mudvayne fan clubs with exclusive access to additional video and audio.  GIven the popularity of the band, that should drive up pre-sales for the record, which drops on November 18 - those pre-sale efforts should increase the chances it debuts higher on the still important Billboard charts.  With the Best Buy-exclusive option until the album launches, it helps Best Buy drive Mudvayne users to its web site to pre-order the CD, which helps Best Buy differentiate itself from other music retailers, like what it has done with a few previous music and DVD releases.

I'm sure there will be controversy about the approach, but it's good to see bands trying new ideas to break through the clutter of free music and pirated downloads, and Mudvayne is breaking new ground here, including support from their label, Sony's Epic Records.  Plus we always see Meez as a great partner for these bands looking to increase engagement and commerce with their fans, as we have done with 50 Cent, Shontelle, Cupid, Simple Plan, MIMS, and others (click on Mudvayne Meez below to see animation).

White Trash White House, Palin-Style

I originally had a much longer post planned about how the leaders of the greatest country on earth should rise above us, not stoop down to our level, but I found that a picture says a thousand words...

The GOP Fantasy -  VP actually married husband due to pregnancy (how is ABSTINENCE going?),  she went to 6 colleges in order to get a degree (aka DEGREE SHOPPING), then has pregnant teenage daughter (family values ROCK!), son went to military instead of college (INDIA/CHINA be scared of our system), she hired a lawyer to defend herself against charges (usual ALASKA corruption), and she has allegations of affair with husband's partner (plain fun FODDER for tabloids):

I'm horrified, but I admire the bold attempt to re-capture the GOP base while ignoring the rest of the country who actually wants to do better.  I have never in my life seen a more bizarre way to make "Elite" folks who actually went to Harvard from a single, poor mother seem so WASPY and awful - it's fascinating how the American dream used to be about success, and now it's about mediocrity, at least from the GOP side. Good luck in the trailer...

Sarah Palin Doesn't Understand the Difference Between Mythology and Science

I'll ignore the ever amusing "which member of the Palin household is actually pregnant" debate, and the even more fun "did McCain do ANY due diligence before choosing Palin?" debate since they're being covered extensively.  The issue that's far more important is the Creationism debate.

From Wikipedia - The word mythology refers to a body of folklore/myths/legends that a particular culture believes to be true and that often use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity.  This is a clear description of Creationism, or the belief that a God created humanity and the Earth out of nothing.   

In Norse mythology, Odin and his fellow gods created humans out of 2 tree trunks.  In Greek mythology, humans were created out of clay by the gods.  Yet no one actually teaches those two theories as science because they're clearly just as crazy as the idea that some single God created humanity out of nothing. The wikipedia definition of Science is:  Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge" or "to know") is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding of how the physical world works.  It's not about taking ancient books and confusing them with actual facts.

However, GOP VP choice Sarah Palin actually believes that we should teach Christian mythology in the classroom, and I don't mean in the ancient literature class.  In both a televised debate, as well as in interviews, Palin declined to answer on whether she believed in evolution, and then went on to say that creationism should be taught in school, ignoring the 1987 Supreme Court ruling banning the practice, as well as ignoring the concepts of intelligence and common sense.

It's frankly just pathetic for the top country in the world to be putting forth a major party candidate with such religious zealot views - is it any wonder the US continues to fall behind the rest of the world in Science knowledge?   There is MYTHOLOGY which we learn in Literature class, and then there is SCIENCE which we learn in science class - and Sarah Palin doesn't understand the difference.   

The good news is that there is a clear choice in November - vote for ignorance & mythology or vote for knowledge and science - hopefully the US will make the right call.