It's the music that is important.......

Digital Music News Daily Snapshot reports that Nielson Media Research revealed “iPod owners spend a relatively small amount of time viewing downloaded videos.” These results are understandable considering the “multitasking” of individuals today. It is the music, Nielsen concludes, that is the most important component for most iPod buyers, even the iPods with video capabilities.

These results are reassuring for music2work2.com. They are consistent with the thinking of music2work2 and reaffirm the premise on which it is based. Individuals at work and play spend so much time during which focused attention to action on a screen is impractical. But, background music, which does not require focused attention, makes the task more pleasant, enables concentration on what is necessary, or prevents boredom while performing repetitive tasks. Looks like music2work2 is right on the mark!

Zune vs iPod

In spite of the big budget marketing campaign and months of pre-release hype, Microsoft’s Zune was released on Tuesday with disappointing results. Digital Music News reported that it was available in 30,000 retail outlets, “more than any other Microsoft product." Even Bill Gates himself gave it a push by extolling its virtues.

Apparently, however, it was not well received by everyone – there were complaints about it’s size – larger and heavier than the iPod and its sharing capabilities possibly hurt by the refusal of some big names, such as the Rolling Stones, to license their music for Zune-to-Zune sharing.

So, what is the message here? Perhaps that success can’t always be bought. Regardless of how much money Microsoft has spent on the Zune, it’s popularity and success ultimately lies with the consumer.

Easy Viral Marketing

According to Womnibus Weekly #2.09, Levi's jeans has begun a viral marketing campaign in which customers are encouraged to make their own customized advertisements by adding their own photos and text to a commercial on Levi's web site. This campaign, created by Personiva, has been done before with other companies, but the unique part of this one is that the customer is encouraged to email their customized ad to their friends. As an incentive for doing this, the customer is given free shipping on any purchase of $75 or more at Levi's e-commerce site, when their ad is viewed by three or more people.

This sounds like a great idea to me. Letting individuals add their own creativity to an ad is a way of getting the public involved, but adding the incentive to share their creation and the product sounds like marketing at its easiest. More companies should jump on this idea, I think.