 Next year could make or break booming music widget trend ·Dec 31, 11:06 AM From Billboard: “This year saw the emergence of a new buzzword in the digital music space — widgets. Next year, we’ll see if they do any good. “An offshoot of the global social networking trend, widgets are small applications that users can place into their blogs, profiles and Web sites, and thereby extend the functionality of an otherwise separate Web site or service… “The concept gained prominence in 2007, picking up momentum once Facebook opened its platform so “These widgets have opened the door to a whole new style of selling content and services online, called ‘distributed commerce.’ Simply put, rather than making customers navigate to a specific site to buy a concert ticket or a music download, widgets allow bands and their fans to sell the same from their own Web sites. If iTunes is the Wal-Mart of music, widgets are more like vending machines. “As a result, several styles of widgets related to the music industry have popped up. Some attempt to sell digital downloads, others concert tickets, still others merchandise. Some serve as fan club applications, while others are music discovery and playlist-sharing tools… “Word-of-mouth has always been one of the best ways to discover new music, and perhaps the most popular category of music widget available today are those that let users share their musical interests. Sites and services like Last.fm and Imeem received the bulk of the press in 2007… “UPlayMe has quickly gained critical acclaim in the blog community for its focus on user interaction. Both a desktop application and a social network widget, UPlayMe… reads the music stored on users’ computers or iPods to “Pronounced ‘cloud’, Qloud is an iTunes plug-in and a Facebook widget that allows users to play any song in their iTunes library through Facebook, and allows others visiting Facebook profiles to do the same. Users can also exchange playlists and add friends’ songs to their online libraries, but not actually download the file to their hard drive. “It attracted more than 1 million Facebook users during its beta trial, and officially went live November 1. Investors include… former Yahoo Music GM David Goldberg.” Read the entire article Reuters online. share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
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that any developer could write an application using its user data and connections…
match them with other users who like the same music. But it also gives users the option of setting up an instant-message conversation or sending a message through the system…
