I am a die-hard Pandora enthusiast. I love being exposed to new music that I don’t hear on mainstream radio, and I enjoy being able to fine-tune my channels to play music that would interest me the most. However, my listening days may be coming to an end, due to a ruling that could put Pandora out of business.

Web radio is fighting back against possible fee increases of the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) that may cripple the industry. The ruling, announced earlier this month, imposes a yearly royalty rate increase set “per performance” from 2006 to 2010. This could be severely detrimental to small web broadcasters, who claim that it could exceed their total revenues. In a WSJ article, the co-founder of Pandora states that if the ruling stands, his company may cease to exist.

Pandora has had some success this year in growing its site visitation by an average of 10% each month. With over 150% growth in unique visitors last year, Pandora’s popularity may come with a steep price. The CRB ruling also indicates that there is a $500 minimum fee “per channel” per year. The ambiguous definition of a “channel” puts websites which offer limitless customized “channels”, like Pandora, in a precarious position.

Continue reading “The Biggest Threat to Web Radio” »

Myspace has transformed and dominated online social networking. Netflix has revolutionized the movie rental market. So what happens when you mix one part MySpace with two parts Netflix? You get two interesting social commerce plays - Peerflix and LaLa.

Peerflix serves as marketplace for p2p trading exclusively for DVDs. For instance, I unfortunately own The Beach and I would love to trade it for a copy of Little Miss Sunshine. As a member of Peerflix, I can find a member who owns Little Miss Sunshine and make a trade. Similarly, Lala provides a marketplace for me to trade my CDs.

At first glance it appears Peerflix is significantly more popular compared to LaLa and building a relatively popular service. However, as you pull back the layers you’ll find the majority of Peerflix traffic is generated through online ads. Conversely, LaLa has taken a conservative approach, slowly cultivating its beta users. Since its emersion from beta stage in March 2006, Lala only receives ~30,000 unique visitors per month.

Where LaLa shines is its ability to convert the traffic it receives. Specifically, 21% of LaLa visitors sign up for the service, whereas Peerflix only converts 1% of its traffic into registered members.

Despite LaLa attracting a tenth of the traffic Peerflix receives, its focus on creating a communal experience for its members has created an engaged and quality member base that exceeds that of Peerflix. Lala extends its functionality beyond pure trading to additional content, such as streaming radio, and successfully creates a sense of community with its members. In addition, LaLa asks it members to market the service themselves and provides a nice referral incentive.

Community is where Peerflix falls short. Peerflix’s offering is focused almost exclusively on DVD trading functionality and little is done to create a sense of community. We like the intention of both services, but applaud LaLa for its careful and successful execution. Now if I could only get rid of this Willennium CD.

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• peerflix.com
• lala.com

With the Holidays ahead, many parents are flocking to get the “must-have” toy on their child’s wish list. Hopefully, safety is taken into consideration when deciding which toy makes it underneath the tree. Last week we showed you the hottest gifts the kids crave. Conversely, W.A.T.C.H. put out a list of the top ten “Worst Toys” to get for your youngster.

World Against Toys Causing Harm is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating parents and children about potentially hazardous toys. Every year since 1973, the organization has put out a list ten toys that they deem to be most dangerous. The criterion to make the list is based on the potential to cause bodily harm or fatality to a child by that toy or toys of its kind. Popularity of this list continues to grow significantly each year, attracting over 65,000 unique visitors during last year’s release.

Among the top toy offenders was the latest skating trend, Heelys, which was noted for its possibility to result in head and spine injuries. The organization also stressed the known dangers of toys with small parts. Trailing the list is the Fear Factor Candy Challenge, which begs the question “Is fear factor for you?” . This lovely candy pack is full of tasty treats such as “Spine-Chilling Spiders”, eyeballs, and “Mystery Meat” (yummy!!). The W.A.T.C.H. top ten worst toys list (below) will help you decide which types of toys you should scratch off your children’s wish list.

Can you smell the pumpkin pie? Well you shouldn’t, because Thanksgiving isn’t until Thursday; however, we can already detect people’s intentions of stuffing their bellies with an assortment of traditional dishes and a couple of new spins. No one likes burning the turkey or serving a forgettable apple pie, so people are flocking to recipe sites to get their culinary cheat sheets. Allrecipes.com has emerged as one of the top recipe resources providing its visitors a list of its Top 20 Thanksgiving recipes. The site, which averages about 4 million visitors per month, is full of great ideas for meals that will get others begging for second helpings. The recipes were submitted by members, and the list contains reviews and ratings from people who tried the recipes at home. Below are the top 10 recipes that based upon visitors since the beginning of November.

Although the Banana Sour Cream bread had the most reviews this month, it trailed the Top 10 in terms of attracting the most people. The thought of combining bananas and sour cream apparently scares off a lot of views, but WOW the people who had the courage to try it loved it. Conversely, the Perfect Pumpkin Pie recipe gained the most interest, and reviews show that it’s fairly easy to make!

The Food Network also put out a Classic Thanksgiving Menu that is full of 8 great recipes from different TV episodes.

The Good Eats Roast turkey, which had the most interest this month, will be airing on the Food Network channel Thursday at 11am. Check it out if you need some last minute help.

Get SnapShot’s of sites mentioned in this post:

• Allrecipes.com
• Foodnetwork.com