In its latest bid to become a multimedia platform, Twitter has officially announced Twitter #music, a web and app-based platform that allows users to stream trending music from the site. 

The company Jack Dorsey founded in 2006 now has over 200 million monthly users tweeting over 400 million time a day. After announcing multiple improvements to its API earlier this year, Twitter’s ad revenue is projected to generate $583 million this year and $1 billion in 2014, according to eMarketer. Now, as it builds channels to stream video content and music, the microblogger is setting itself up to become the golden-child of the emerging dual-screen media phenomenon. 

Rumored to have been soft-launched at California's Coachella festival, the Twitter #Music app is now available for download in the Apple App Store and can also be accessed on the web. “It uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists," according to Twitter's blog. "It also brings artists’ music-related Twitter activity front and center: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists. And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app.”Continue reading...

Atari once ruled the home video-game console industry. First kids sprinted home after school to play Pong in the mid-’70s and then they threw their books down to grab their joysticks and take all the bricks of Breakout, blow up oncoming Asteroids, or take Activision’s Pitfall Harry through a jungle maze.

These days, of course, digital games are everywhere and Atari has been feeling the financial strain for more than a decade, as hinted on its Facebook page on January 17th (above).

Fast forward to January 21st, when its U.S. division announced it's filing for bankruptcy in order to separate itself from the French-owned Atari S.A. (formerly known as Infogrames), which is deep in debt, and focus on digital and mobile gaming.Continue reading...

Hasbro's iconic game of Monopoly has taken on a bit of the feeling of Clue these days. Before the year is out, Monopoly players will need to say goodbye to one of their beloved playing pieces. Will it be the wheelbarrow, the thimble, or the shoe? Surely, nobody would willingly toss the dog, top hat, or racecar. Do the clothes iron and battleship have what it takes to stick around?

Like Clue, this mystery will be solved by those playing the game. Hasbro is fans consumers to weigh in on the Monopoly Facebook page and decide not only which playing piece isn’t even good enough to set itself on the lowly Mediterranean Avenue, but which one should replace it. The choices vary from diamond ring, guitar, toy robot, cat, or helicopter. Fans worldwide (the game is available in 111 countries and 43 languages) can vote once a day through Feb. 5.Continue reading...

Tide Pods are providing a robust helping of good news for Procter & Gamble in a year when its brands, products, strategy and even CEO have been taking a beating.

The company is projecting $500 million in first-year retail sales for pods, according to Ad Age. That's a major feat, given that of the 1,500 new consumer-packaged-goods launches tracked by SymphonyIRI in 2011, only 21 percent reached one-year sales of even $50 million.

Hungry for a big win at a time when nearly everything about its long-running formula for victory has been questioned, P&G has seen Tide Pods become a relatively rapid success since launching in February with a colorful campaign — with a few speed bumps along the way.Continue reading...

UK ad tech startup Captive Media, as its name implies, is looking to reach captive audiences — which may explain why it's looking to bring marketers into the loo. The Chelmsford, England-based firm made a splash last year when its urinal-mounted-and-controlled game console appeared on the British version of Dragon’s Den as the first hands-free video gaming console of its kind. That appearance prompted Ogilvy and other British companies to sign up for a trial.

It just raised $700,000 in seed funding to expand its network of interactive units to even more bars, hotels and airports. How they work brings a whole new meaning to P.O.S. — the game action is controlled by aiming left and right. An infrared beam enables simple games and quizzes to be “pee-controlled” with nothing installed on the urinal itself other than washable stickers as points of desired interaction. According to its research, the average man spends 55 seconds at a urinal – 55 golden, undivided seconds with eyes focused straight ahead — so why not onto your brand or campaign?Continue reading...

Game developers are hoping that consumers will continue buying game consoles for their TVs as well as separate mobile gaming devices for their needs when they are on the run. But the work of one gentleman who has made a veritable boatload of cash from the gaming world may help bring those worlds together, much to the chagrin of gaming companies.

Charles Huang is the co-creator of Guitar Hero and now he’s at the helm of Green Throttle Games, which is “creating a new virtual game console for the television based on mobile phones and without the actual game console,” according to VentureBeat.com.

The plan is for the controller, which should hit store shelves next year, to work with Android smartphones and tablets. The controller will connect wirelessly with the smartphone or tablet, which will be connected to the TV with a cable. That way, gamers can play the same game on their phones as they are playing on the TV.Continue reading...

One more proof of Marshall McLuhan’s adage that "the medium is the message," The Huffington Post’s latest incarnation, HuffPost Live, launched yesterday. Proffering 12 hours of live weekday programming, the streaming web channel is a mash-up of hosted segments and user-generated content.

In combining the immediacy and reach of the Internet with the power of live television, the effort evokes buzz phrases like "engagement through second-screen vision." “We’re at this moment where people are much more interested in participating than they are in sitting back,” says Roy Sekoff, HuffPost’s founding editor and longtime Arianna wingman. “Engagement is more important than consumption. We decided to double down on that engagement, make it our North Star.” 

Huffington introduced the live stream with the hoopla of yore suited to a cable network launch, setting forth the mission and paying tribute to itself. “Seven years ago, HuffPost disrupted the way people engage with news. And now, with HuffPost Live, you’re invited to be part of a different kind of conversation, whoever you are, wherever you are.”Continue reading...