With Mixtapes & Social Media, Is The Album So Far Gone?

11 March, 2010 , 9:12 am

At first glance, Drake's success as an artist appears similar to his hip-hop peers. The actor turned Grammy-nominated rapper performed at the 2010 Grammy Awards and starred in a recent Sprite commercial during the NBA All-Star game. Here is what's new: Drake has yet to release a full-length retail album. So Far Gone was the 6th best selling rap release of 2009, despite being just a seven song mixtape. Read More...

40% Can’t Name A Single Online Music Service

11 March, 2010 , 9:06 am

From 7 Digital to Spotify, there are 20 major music services in the UK. But a new survey says that 40% of consumers have never heard of any of them. Of the 60% who are familiar with digital music, 85% have only heard of two - iTunes and Amazon. Read More...

Increasing Game Time Online

11 March, 2010 , 9:01 am

The popularity of social network games notwithstanding, the proportion of video game users playing online has remained fairly constant, according to research from The NPD Group. Slightly more than one-half of all gamers play on the Web, but the time they spend doing so has gone up in the past year by 10%. Read More...

Shopping Behavior To Change As A Result Of New Marketplace Realities

10 March, 2010 , 11:24 am

With new shopping behavior data and demographic trends indicating that an enduring shift has taken place as a result of the recent economic downturn, retailers and suppliers will need to adapt to consumers’ new shopping behaviors to succeed in today’s evolved marketplace and during the post-recession recovery, according to "The New Consumer Behavior Paradigm: Permanent or Fleeting?," a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Retail Forward. Read More...

Gen Y Will Spend Us Into Recovery

9 March, 2010 , 9:09 am

Don't look to Baby Boomers to lead the way in consumer spending in the months ahead. A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Retail Forward says that this recovery -- unlike those in last few decades -- will be shaped by the values of tech-loving Gen Y, and to a lesser degree, affluent members of Gen X Read More...

Nobody Stole The Pie

8 March, 2010 , 11:31 am

RIAA blog: "Industry analysts, executives, critics, and academics have been debating the impact of digital piracy for a decade. During that period, the U.S. music industry fell from nearly $15 billion annually to $8.5 billion. While a quickly growing digital market helped offset the decline in physical sales, and great strides were made constraining the growth in illegal P2P traffic, still roughly 4 out of 5 digital music downloads in the U.S. are via P2P and other unauthorized services. Some pundits have ascribed the problems solely to the industry, but you would think by now there should be no doubt that the online theft of music has caused significant harm ..." Read More...

Online Retail Sales Will Grow To $250 Billion By 2014

8 March, 2010 , 10:18 am

Online retail sales aren’t growing at the torrid pace they once were, but they continue to grow steadily. Forrester Research put out a new five-year forecast today predicting that e-commerce sales in the U.S. will keep growing at a 10% compound annual growth rate through 2014. It forecasts online retail sales in the U.S. will be nearly $250 billion, up from $155 billion in 2009. Last year, online retail sales were up 11%, compared to 2.5% for all retail sales. Read More...

Award Show Viewing Is Up

8 March, 2010 , 10:07 am

viewership is rising for several notable award shows. If this trend continues, this could mean good news for the Academy Awards, especially given overall movie ticket sales in 2009 and the Academy’s expansion of the best movie category from five to 10 films. Read More...

Global Smartphone App Download Market Could Reach $15 Billion By 2013

5 March, 2010 , 9:06 am

research2guidance estimates that the worldwide smartphone application market will grow from $1.94 billion in 2009 to $15.65 billion by 2013. The big surge in applications will be driven by a fast-growing number of smartphone users, which the research company estimates will increase from about 100 million last year to nearly 1 billion by 2013. Read More...

Parents Teaching Kids Money Values

5 March, 2010 , 9:04 am

According to a recent survey by American Express, 71% of parents with children between the ages six and 16 say their children understand that we are in a recession. 13% give an allowance for kids to spend on weekly non-essentials; i.e. movie tickets, toys, games, etc. 10% give an allowance for kids to spend on weekly essentials; i.e. gas, lunch money, etc. Read More...