Another Model for Online Tunes

RateOurBand.com is the brainchild of John-Scott Dixon, one of the most effective and forward-thinking Web marketers I know. That's not the only reason this site is worth a look, though.

In crafting their business model, Dixon and his team have actually considered Web customer behavior and the empirically-proven effect on music sales of evangelism born of online file sharing. Unlike most traditional players in the downloadable music arena, RateOurBand.com has found a way to provide up and coming musicians (or wannabees) with exposure to the Web's community of music fans and to provide the Web advertisers that want to reach them with a way to keep potential customers coming back to their sites without taking away the ability for users to get free music online.

Sure, some of the bands aren't ready for prime time, but you will some undiscovered gems, and you're sure to find some tracks worth a listen to to add to your iPod. Find them on or on your favorite shopping sites like TommyHilfiger.com. (Look for the New Music area on the home page.)

Got a band? You can start getting exposure for your music by visiting www.rateourband.com.

This is an excellent example of using observations about how customers really behave to drive a business model. By the way, the tunes are free, and you don't have to worry about the FBI knocking at your door if you download them.

Latest Virus Threat

Breaking Virus News: MyDoom Hobbles Internet E-mail
If you have noticed strange e-mail in your mailbox, or even if you haven't noticed it yet, your PC may be infected with this fast spreading virus. This article from PC Magazine will help you get rid of it.

Interesting stuff on this page from the US DOJ:2003 Term - Petitions for Certiorari that provide some sense of the security priorities in the current administration. Glad to hear the Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether Pull-Tab machines at the casino are illegal.

Can I consider it a dependent?

According to Money Center - The Business Journal of Phoenix more than 11.3 percent of adult Americans were running a new business last year. According to the article:



"President Bush told a group of five women business owners Jan. 9 that last year's tax cuts 'had a significant impact on the entrepreneurial spirit of America because a lot of people who own their own small businesses pay taxes at the individual income tax rate.'"
(http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/moneycenter/story.html?id=2384&jst=m_mc_hl)


It would seem based on the structure of the "tax cuts" to stimulate business, that these women entrepreneurs will also need to have children to reap any tax benefit from their efforts if they are not corporations.

More than you ever wanted to remember about 2003

Fimoculous Year in Review is a collection of links to all of those "Best of" and "Top Stories" links we see every January. The site has conveniently grouped them into categories, including media, art, sports and even advertising/marketing among others.



An interesting read or future resource for Trivial Pursuit research....

Goodbye "Captain Kangaroo"

Bob Keeshan, Who Played Captain Kangaroo on TV, Is Dead at 76

Captain Kangaroo entertained and educated generations of kids, including this one. Children's TV has lost another pioneer.

The Latest Threats

The article, A Bad Bagle and More Danger for Citibank Customers at www.pcmag.com gives more details on a couple of threats to watch out for on the virus and trojan front.

The related articles also include an analysis of how to tell a "spoofed" e-mail message from Citibank from a real one. These types of messages, called "phish" messages, are designed to fool users into thinking they are entering a site with which they have a relationship, when, in fact, they are entering a site which is set up to steal their personal information.

The articles in this series are all quite helpful in identifying and thwarting the top computer security threats for home users.

Check out the new look for our home page, DirectMarketingMBA.com. We hope you will find it easier to use and better looking than its predecessors. Please take a minute to take our short survey-- we'd love to hear your thoughts and won't share your data.

Yahoo! News - War-Weary Sean Penn Reports on Iraq 'Powder Keg'

More candor from an unlikely source. You can read part one of Sean Penn's special commentary based on his followup visit to Iraq in the San Francisco Chronicle today.

Unfiltered, the truth reads like a Hollywood script.

Yahoo! News Search

Yahoo! News - U.S. Soldiers' Suicide Rate Is Up in Iraq


Thanks, Matt Kelley, for filing this story with the sad truth about the real costs of the war in Iraq.

Save Martha! For Martha Stewart (or Justice) fans

You don't have to pretend you didn't find her smug attitude of superiority annoying, but Martha worked hard for her money. There is a huge disparity between the attention being paid to this case, and the quick and easy settlements with brokers, big business execs and others with much more ill-gotten gains than the profit than Martha allegedly gained illegally.



Punishment and publicity should be proportionate to impact. Martha deserves to have this case put in perspective.


BTW, these towels are a super value at $3.99!

If you believe...

Thank you, Washington Post for today's editorial, Moon Dreams (washingtonpost.com), which attempts to bring some sanity to the priorities and coverage of this administration's policies.

Fresh from a successful robotic expedition to Mars, Bush now wants to follow in his daddy's footsteps once again by getting the American people to buy the idea that we will all become The Jetsons in a few years. Never mind that this comes at a price more than ten times the cost of the debacle in Iraq that has put America itself in debt at levels that rival those of consumers who answered the post-911 call to spend and then lost their jobs.

Sure, space travel is a fun and sexy idea, but shouldn't we handle the problems we have here on earth before we start creating them on other planets? Or is this the nucleus of a job creation plan--Lunar and Martian outsourcing?

Wired News: Kazaa Delivers More Than Tunes

Last summer, many of those who used file sharing technologies such as Kazaa were rudely awakened to the reality of the threat of online viruses and trojans. Today, Wired News reported that, based on research by Bruce Hughes, director of malicious code research at security firm TruSecure, forty five percent of files downloaded using Kazaa contain code that is damaging or malicious.

Types of nefarious executables that could be hidden in Kazaa shared files include programs that steal passwords, re-direct home pages, take control of users' PCs, send spam from users' address to people in their address books and other bad things. With over 3 million users of this technology, it's not surprising that these viruses and trojans are spreading at unheard of rates.

The article did contain some good news, though. Virus protection is available and it is mostly effective in curbing the spread of these deviant downloads.

"Hughes said that 80 to 95 percent of the malicious code on Kazaa can be detected with anti-virus software, depending on the detection program. But he said that people often don't update their software with current virus definitions."

Practice safe computing--Install virus protection and keep your virus definitions up to date!

Marylaine Block: Writer, Internet Trainer

Reading part four of Danny Sullivan's series on the Google Dance Syndrome on ClickZ I was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar name mentioned.

Marylaine Block was the librarian at St. Ambrose when I was a student there in the '80's, and is now an Internet writer and lecturer. Her Best Information on the Net site is still hosted by SAU.

Small world!