A while back we posted about Amazon tightening their relationship with NBC. It seems like Amazon has been quite busy lately as they have just opened their digital music store. Amazon’s digital music store already contains over 2.3 million songs of your favorite artists and the best part is that none of the songs are protected against copying!

By shopping at Amazon MP3 you can purchase individual songs as well as entire albums. All of the files that you download [for a price] can be transferred to discs, other computers, and is compatible with the Microsoft Zune and Apple iPod. Songs at Amazon MP3 range from 89 cents to 99 cents and the price for albums range from $5.99 to $9.99. This is a giant step for Amazon considering the fact that Universal, EMI, and thousands of independent labels have already signed to sell music on Amazon.

The great thing about Amazon’s music not protected against copying is that buyers will be able to play music on many more devices. “Although digital rights management helps to stem illegal copying, it can frustrate listeners by limiting the types of devices or the number of computers on which they can play music. Copy-protected songs sold through iTunes will generally not play on devices other than the iPod, and iPods will not play copy-protected songs bought at rival music stores.”

“To help stop music piracy some record labels add a digital watermark to MP3 files that indicate what company sold the song, and Amazon adds its own name and the item number of the song for customer service purposes.” - Bill Carr Vice President for Amazon MP3

Now that Amazon has entered the market they will be a serious competitor for Apple. However, to play a major competitor they will need to “do a good job at building their store.”

Tags: Business, Amazon, Amazon MP3, Music, MP3, Entertainment, Online Music, iTunes, Apple

[viw NYTimes]

On Monday a new report surfaced from the Bush administration announcing that Social Security is facing a $13.6 trillion shortfall and by delaying reforms is not fair to the younger workers.

A way to fix this shortfall the Treasury Department said that there would need to be a combination of benefit cuts and tax increases. However, the White House has said that President Bush is opposed to raising taxes.

The report also said, “Social Security can be made permanently solvent only by reducing the present value of scheduled benefits and/or increasing the present value of scheduled tax increases.”

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Bush’s point person on Social Security reform had said that he has had a number of discussions with members of Congress from both parties regarding the issue of fixing the problems in Social Security with the looming retirement of 78 million baby boomers.

Even though Democrats have been fighting to protect the current benefit levels, the Republicans have been adamant that taxes should not be raised to cover the Social Security shortfall.

[via CNN]

Tags: Business, Social Security, Debt, Baby Boomers, Economy

The Euro reached a record high yesterday (Thursday), which was worth $1.4065. The Canadian dollar also reached a record high, which was at par with the American dollar for the first time in 30 years. Traders are now foreseeing a slower American economy and a more economic growth overseas. The falling dollar has had an impact on many things. It has helped “lift American exports by more than 11% in the first 8 months of the year. Businesses with large foreign operations can expect a lift in profits when they convert their overseas earnings into dollars.”

“The market is pricing in a shift in Fed policy downward, and the rest of the world is not matching. That can only mean a cheaper dollar” - Carl B. Weinberg, chief global economist at High Frequency Economics

Many businesses are experiencing growth because the weaker American dollar has made them more competitive in the world market. Jason Meyers the chief economist of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters stated, ““It makes a lot of people feel pretty good. They can go on trips to the States again; they can go on trips to Europe. After 16 years of always seeing their currency in an inferior position, Canadians now have strong buying power.”

[via NYTimes]

Tags: Business, Currency, Dollar, Economy, Fed, Investing, Trading

My brother and I started researching how we could start a business about a year ago during winter break. We both love weight lifting and know a substantial amount of information on this niche, such as how to gain weight, weight loss, and nutrition. Our main goal was to create a website where we could resell supplements and vitamins online while creating an online community where you could come ask questions and give answers. However, our main focus is to provide you with the best and healthiest nutrition supplements out there without jacking up the price to make profits.

Our Reason
Our reason to provide you with cheap supplements is that local supplement stores here in Bakersfield have jacked up the price 20% and even upwards of 60% on certain supplements. They claim that prices have gone up and that they are barely making a profit which is complete bull. Right now things are going very slowly on getting our ecommerce website up and running. I don’t really mind in waiting because I don’t want to rush into things that I’m not caught up in researching and understanding (in how to run an ecommerce website)

Other Business Ventures
My brother and I got into blogging (where we thought the money was at) through the infamous JohnChow. We thought we could make thousands of dollars blogging to fund our ecommerce website. In reality blogging is probably one of the hardest ways to generate money with. So we started researching other methods such as PPC, CPM, and CPA advertising. During summer I was getting tired of running my personal blog (glennhawkins.com) and wanted another way to earn money quicker and easier. That’s when my brother and I had the idea to make a fansite for MTV’s Newport Harbor.

How it Started
We were laying in bed after the first episode had aired and it was about 1:00 am in the morning (we were exhausted and tired). The lights were off and we were almost asleep. But, we found enough energy to get up and purchase the domain name we had thought of – NewportHarborFans.com. We spent countless hours putting up content and getting everything how we wanted it to be. Just through PPC advertising by using Google Adsense we have generated about $480 and just in the last week alone have made $268. We have also sold over $1,200 worth of music for iTunes through their affiliate program, however, we only get a small percentage of that which is about $56. I’ll tell you, I never thought I would have started making money easy as this. I had been blogging for about 7 months and only earned approximately $10. In less than a month I have earned $480.

Goals
Even though I’m learning the ins and outs of affiliate marketing slowly, I know there is a ton of money to be made. We both are currently researching the best possible ways and creatives to make the best possible landing page for incentivized ads. Our goal is to make at least $30,000 by Christmas and $100,000 by next summer.

That is all we can think of now, but we will keep you guys update on our business ventures. We also have more websites we are creating to make more money, so stay tuned and will keep you informed on what is going on.

On Saturday, Barry Bonds’ 756^th home run ball, the one breaking the all time home run record by Hank Aaron, was auctioned off for $752,467. How would you like to have bought a $12 dollar ticket for $100 on game day just to be the lucky one to come up with Barry Bonds’ record breaking home run ball? Matt Murphy, a 21 year old student and construction supervisor in New York did just that.

“I had hoped to keep the ball, but when I determined that was not the best strategy at this stage of my life, this definitely was the right decision. It is an honor to be a part of baseball history and I wish the new owner well with whatever they elect to do with the ball.” – Matt Murphy

Barry Bonds’ 755^th home run ball only sold for $186,750, which analysts predicted would sell for $200,000. If you’re a San Francisco Giants fan keep on attending those games because Bond’s last home run ball is expected to sell for a whopping $1 million.

A $100 dollar expense for a $752,467 dollar, record breaking, home run ball. Quite a nice little investment if you ask me.

[via BusinessWeek]

Tags: Business, Barry Bonds, Baseball, Hank Aaron, Home Run Record, Sports, MLB

However, Bank of America has decided to raise their fees to $3.00 for non customers. They have made the change in most markets in July and August so if you didn’t notice you should now.

Right now Bank of America is the largest ATM network in the nation, and the higher fees can affect millions of people who currently do not have an account at Bank of America.

Spokeswoman Betty Riess said, “The fee itself and the amount are disclosed on the ATMs, so customers can opt out and cancel their transaction.” And added “We really want to make our ATM network convenient for our customers. In order to maintain that, it is appropriate to charge people who aren’t our customers for accessing our convenience.”

Consumers are worried that this might be a trend for other banking giants (just like gas). However, Chase, another huge bank says that they have no plans in increasing their fees on their 8,700 ATMs.

Bank of America’s higher fees are mostly at ATMs in financial centers and grocery stores. This is where most users are bank consumers. Out of bank of America’s 17,000 ATMs these higher fees affect roughly 10,700 of the ATMs.

Tags: Business, Banks, Bank of America, BOA, Fees

Google Inc. is funding a contest worth $30 million to any person or company that can successfully build and land a lunar rover on the moon. However, the rover must be able to beam back at least 1gigabyte of images and video back to earth. “The winning spacecraft must be tough enough to survive a landing and be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras. And it must be smart enough to trek at least 1,312 feet on the moon and send self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real-time videos back to Earth that will be streamed on Google’s Web site.”

“I hope that a … very ambitious team of people will allow us all to virtually go back to the moon very soon. I couldn’t be more excited about that.” - Google co-founder Larry Page

Whoever can fill the requirements by the year 2012 will receive 20 million. If the requirements are not fulfilled by the year 2012, the purse will be dropped to 15 million by the year 2014. Google believes that the private sector can fund a lunar mission for much less than the government, which can cost up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

[via NYTimes]

Tags: Business, Digital, Google, Lunar, Space, Technology, Moon, Science

This deal became effective on August 1st, but NASA’s Ames Research Center didn’t announce the agreement until this week. Using Moffett Field for private aircrafts is usually off limits. But I guess the geeks are Google are not only taking over the internet but airfields as well. The agency made an exception in exchange for the right to carry scientists and their equipment on planes used by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin are both 34, and each worth about $17 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s most recent rankings of the world’s wealthiest people.

Their jet, the Boeing 767-200 is an airplane that usually carries 180 passengers, however, after remodeling for Page and Brin the plan can fit about 50 passengers.

12 year old: Mom are these fries?
Mom: Yes, now eat them!
12 year old: …they taste like apples…

Burger King is the second largest hamburger chain and has started advertising kids meals that are less than 560 calories, less than 30 percent of calories from fat, and no more than 10 percent of calories from added sugars. Doesn’t that sound healthy or what?!? However that is still better than having a ‘Venti’ Starbucks or an ‘Original’ Jamba Juice which have 1,000+ calories. Or even better than Chipotle who’s burrito has over 50g of fat and 1,500+ calories. Yet people still think they are getting ‘healthier’ food from these places…Right.

Burger King plans to launch the flame broiled Tenders, organic unsweetened applesauce, and low-fat milk which has a total of 305 calories and 8.5 grams of fat sometime in 2008.

The Apple fries which will be cut to resemble French fries will also be served in the same containers as fries, but aren’t fried and are served skinless and cold.

“We not only want to better inform parents and kids about these new menu options but also to demonstrate through product innovation that better-for-you foods can be fun and taste good.” Said Burger King’s chief executive John Chidsey.

The difference in nutritional value between the Apple fries and regular French fries is that the Apple fries will have 35 calories as to a small serving of French fries with 230 calories and 13 grams of fat.

Even though Burger King has been changing the way it offers food, it is still the responsibility of the parents to teach their children healthier eating habits. The children in this country have never been so unhealthy and fast food has played a big role in this. I’m glad to see that Burger King is working harder to provide healthier foods to the people in society unlike Starbucks who wants to add new sizes to meet the needs for kids.

Tags: Business, Burger King, Nutrition, Diet, Starbucks, Marketing

Starbucks has been recognized as a place that lures young kids and teenagers to drink their highly caffeinated and sugary drinks. Even though the Seattle based chain only has a handful of drinks it says that “the under-18 set has become part of the coffee chain’s customer base.” Brandon Borrman, Starbucks’ spokesperson stated that they are considering whether or not they should add new drinks or new sizes that meet the need of kids.

John Owens of Morningstar said, “While Starbucks hasn’t actively marketed towards that demographic, I think the Starbucks brand has appealed to teenagers, and so there’s certainly an opportunity there for the company to increase business.”

Starbucks’ drinks have 3 times as much caffeine as a soda and others have more calories than a McDonald’s Big Mac. If a change is made Starbucks will have to be careful when serving these drinks to kids, such as the soda companies. “Starbucks has lots of sweetened, cold, high-calorie caffeinated beverages that in some cases will contribute to weight gain, (and) in other cases are replacing healthier foods in the diet,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

[via MSNBC]

Tags: Business, Starbucks, Coffee, Caffeine, Starbucks Challenge, Marketing