Daily Marauder

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Although music subscription service Rhapsody‘s customer base is down to 1.85 million from 1.9 million earlier this year, analysts predict that a recently signed deal with Verizon Wireless could help the company tap into a new market. Unlike the popular iTunes, Rhapsody users do not own the music they download but can only access it as long as they pay for a subscription, which has been a difficult sell, according to this analysis. USA TODAY (8/5)

Apple’s iTunes store held onto its lead as the No. 1 music retailer in the U.S., despite gains from Amazon after the launch of its MP3-download store. Runners-up to iTunes were Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Amazon and Target. The NPD Group surveyed music customers ages 13 and older who purchased music in digital or CD form. PC Magazine (8/5) , CNET (8/5)

Comcast reportedly has agreed to pay $125 million for DailyCandy, an e-mail-based newsletter covering fashion and culture for upscale, urban women. The newsletter, currently owned by investment firm Pilot Group LLC, will become part of Comcast Interactive Media, which includes sites such as Fancast, Fandango and Movies.com. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (8/6) , The Hollywood Reporter (8/5)

The Pew Internet Project has released a report detailing the search habits of Americans, and they confirm what many of us already know: Internet search has become a part of daily life for many people, to the point that it is challenging the dominance of Email, the web’s longstanding killer app. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/06/search-challenges-email-as-most-popular-daily-online-activity 8/6)

VH1 muscled its way into the crowded landscape of celebrity news with Scandalist, a celeb/pop culture blog launching with – you guessed it – a list of the Top 100 Celebrity Scandals of all time. In case you’re curious, The Murders of Tupac and Notorius B.I.G. edge out the Monica Lewinsky Affair and the death of Princess Di. (Cynopsis 8/6)

Federated Media Publishing and Microsoft teamed up to launch CrowdFire, a social networking platform for uploading, sharing and remixing music and musical performances with the festival scene as a sweetspot. (Cynopsis 8/6)

Hulu increased its HD Gallery of shows adding a few full episodes of shows such as Heroes, The Office and 24 as well as nature programming, movie trailers and the entire Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. (Cynopsis 8/6)

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has tapped MySpace to create an online portal for the upcoming election season that will include live streaming video and real time polling. The site, called MyDebates.org will be open to anyone (you don’t need to create an account), and will launch as we get closer to the first debate on September 26. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/05/myspace-to-offer-official-web-portal-for-presidential-debates 8/5)

The web is full of hipsters scouring the indie music scene for the next big thing. And while there is no shortage of communities where these trendsetters can share their picks, they’ve never stood to gain anything from being ahead of the crowd (aside from a slight sense of superiority). Popcuts, a Y Combinator-funded music store that launches today in public beta, is looking to reward these early adopters by paying store credit to the first people who buy a song that later goes on to become popular. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/06/y-combinators-popcuts-pays-you-to-find-good-new-music 8/6)

Google’s DoubleClick division is utilizing NBC Universal Digital Media’s herculean Olympics coverage to showcase In-Stream, a new capability to serve video ads within the Microsoft Silverlight 2 platform. The IAB-compliant system is designed to integrate with the reporting features of DART for publishers, provide a full complement of tracking metrics and accommodate a range of video ad effects including Shadow Ads, Bugs, Telescoping and Interactive Video elements. (Cynopsis 8/6)