iknowthe.net | Internet and Ecommerce Consultant

The market for downloaded music is strong enough to take a price rise, according to the major music labels.
Several big labels are in talks with online music retailers to get them to increase prices,according to the FT. The labels are looking to increase the wholesale prices shops pay for tracks. Sites in the US typically sell tracks for 99 cents each. The wholesale price is currently 65 cents per track, according to the FT.

Universal and Sony BMG are less keen to put prices up. EMI and Time Warner refused to comment on the FT story. Some observers are concerned that increasing prices would push people back to peer-to-peer networks and dodgy copies of songs.

The music industry is apparently unhappy with Apple’s increasing share of the market – the firm sells about 65 per cent of songs sold online. The arrival of cheaper iPods is likely to give the firm an even larger share of the market. Apple refused to comment on the FT’s story but Steve Jobs is reportedly deeply unhappy with the attempted price hike.
One suggestion is that labels want to introduce variable pricing – so they can charge more for top selling tracks.

Shares in TiVo, the digital video recorder pioneer, have risen sharply on speculation that it could be bought by Apple Computer.

TiVo shares shot up 17% on Wednesday after financial analysts said the US firm could be a takeover target.

Apple, Time Warner, Comcast, Sony and Liberty Media have all been suggested as potential buyers.

TiVo has become a household name in the digital video market but is facing competition from cheaper rivals.

Analysts said TiVo’s relatively small stock market capitalisation – its shares are valued at $300m (£157m; 226m euros) – meant it was an attractive target for larger media and technology firms.

“What we hear on the street is that Apple is interested in their business and that they are a takeout target,” Steven Kroll, from Monness, Crespi and Hardt, told Reuters.

Neither TiVo nor Apple were prepared to comment on the speculation.

Google has released a trial tool which is concerning some net users because it directs people to pre-selected commercial websites.

The AutoLink feature comes with Google’s latest toolbar and provides links in a webpage to Amazon.com if it finds a book’s ISBN number on the site.

It also links to Google’s map service, if there is an address, or to car firm Carfax, if there is a licence plate.

Google said the feature, available only in the US, “adds useful links”.

But some users are concerned that Google’s dominant position in the search engine market place could mean it would be giving a competitive edge to firms like Amazon.

AutoLink works by creating a link to a website based on information contained in a webpage – even if there is no link specified and whether or not the publisher of the page has given permission.

If a user clicks the AutoLink feature in the Google toolbar then a webpage with a book’s unique ISBN number would link directly to Amazon’s website.

It could mean online libraries that list ISBN book numbers find they are directing users to Amazon.com whether they like it or not.

Online shopping is booming in the UK, according to a new retail report.

Market analysts Verdict found the internet was the fastest growing retail sector last year, attracting one in four shoppers.

With growth rates at 27.4%, the figures for buying online are six times better than for the traditional retail market over the last year, it says.

Part of this success is because of the trebling of shoppers using broadband connections, the company says.

The analysts suggested that people were not only shopping in greater numbers but were also spending more as companies improved the quality of their online offerings.

More people are also shopping through their televisions and channels like QVC, which grew by nearly 15% last year.
Yet in the high street, the amount of goods ordered in-store for home delivery dropped by 16%, in spite of the overall increase in the home delivery market.

The Verdict report calculated that £1 in every £7 spent in the British retail sector in 2004 was on goods delivered to the doorstep.

A survey of 2,000 adult shoppers suggested the most popular goods for home delivery were books, music and videos, with 20% of those questioned having ordered such items.

The next most popular purchase was electrical goods – 19% – followed by clothing. The Verdict report says: “The home delivery market has been transformed from the days when it catered largely for catalogue-shopping, cash-conscious housewives.”

A Lancashire-based PC hardware site has become the victim of a sophisticated and disturbing new online fraud.
Laptop Bits Ltd managed to get the bogus web site – laptopexpress-ltd.com – shut down last night just hours after being alerted to the scam by a regular customer.

What make the scam so “scary”, as one security expert has already described it, is the time and effort spent by the fraudsters developing the fake site.

In effect, they’ve assumed the identity of a legitimate business with a very professional-looking site. Contact and company details were lifted from Laptop Bits Ltd and even the domain was registered in the name of a director at the company. The site was so complete and professional-looking it would be very hard to spot that it is bogus.

Although the fraudsters assumed the identity of a legitimate business, the give-away is that the goods have to be paid for by “money transfer” rather than by cheque or credit card.
At this stage it’s not known if anyone has fallen for this particular scam, which is only thought to have been up and running for a couple of days before being unearthed. Initial investigations suggest the scamsters are based in the UK.
“Whoever is behind this faked a complete company web site and assumed their identity,” said Andrew Goodwill, MD of online security experts Early Warning UK Ltd. “This is taking phishing to an all new level.”

Having managed to get the rogue site pulled, he’s now working to getting the fraudsters’ bank account shut down too.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this,” said Goodwill. “This is scary.”

And the reason it is so scary is that fraudsters appear to be willing to go to such extraordinary lengths to hoodwink consumers.
Tony Brocklebank of Laptop Bits Ltd said: “We’re extremely concerned. Almost anyone anywhere could try and do the same thing tomorrow. The fraudsters have put time and effort into this. It is very worrying.” ®