MetaFilter posts tagged with business and online

A decade of digital music

skylar — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:30:34 -0800

A decade of digital music Vaguely styled as a timeline, this end-of-the-decade blog post (from UK digital music news source Music Ally) could prove valuable to anyone studying the music business or the intersection between entertainment and technology. The piece links to ten years of stories on digital music - from Napster through to Spotify - allowing us to look back on the issues without the 20/20 vision of hindsight. Gems include the Bluematter scheme from Universal Records in 2000, which comprised 60 non-transferrable, non-burnable tracks for $1.99 each.

The business of online loyalty programs

Nelson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:10:01 -0800

A US Senate Committee just released its report on online loyalty programs. Combined, Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue have made $1.4 billion in the past ten years charging customers $10-$20/month for marketing program memberships. Unfortunately, many of their customers (4 million this year) have no memory of authorizing the charges. A key enabler for signups is merchants passing credit card numbers directly to the loyalty program; the customer never has to enter billing data. Such "card on file" transactions have a conversion rate of roughly 4% (compared to 1% without). Many well-known Internet brands such as 1-800-Flowers, Classmates.com, Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Fandango, Buy.com, eHarmony, and Yahoo are paid $10 to $30 per signup to entice their customers to join the marketing programs. There's been a litany of lawsuits and settlements for years about these programs. In response the marketing companies have promised to change their practices, in some cases meticulously documenting page layout changes.

free online courses and education

nickyskye — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:25:48 -0800

10 Places to Get a Free Business Education Online

Is Vivid going to go out of business?

bigmusic — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:12:12 -0800

"DVD sales are in free fall. Audiences are flocking to pornographic knockoffs of YouTube [NSFW], especially a secretive site called YouPorn [NSFW]. And the amateurs [NSFW]are taking over. What’s happening to the adult-entertainment industry is exactly what’s happening to its Hollywood counterpart—only worse."

trendwatching

stbalbach — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:19:03 -0800

Trendwatching reports on "emerging consumer trends and related new business ideas." It is packed with ideas and links for new online business concepts that are currently emerging. The language is marketingpersonbuzzspeak, but the ideas (with supporting website examples) are fascinating.

RobertLoch — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 00:24:25 -0800

What is the future of online news. Will subscription eventually win through? Is there a viable business model that will allow independent publishers (such as Salon) to survive, or will we see further media consolidation? Where does blogging fit into this spectrum?

ZachsMind — Sun, 09 Dec 2001 09:49:54 -0800

Kali.net (once one of the world's largest Internet gaming networks) is created. Makes money. BeTech buys Kali to impress investors. BeTech stops paying for upkeep. ISPs get peeved. No more Kali. Or is there? Is this a funeral or a phoenix? And is there anything else on the 'Net about this? I'm coming up with bupkus.

Calebos — Tue, 23 May 2000 21:16:37 -0800

A former Boo.com employee describes some of the challenges they faced . Multiple currencies, multiple languages, on-the-fly tax calculation, integration with multiple fullfillment partners, no development plan, and ignorance of technology issues on the front end. Blech.