Apple posted record computer and iPhone sales yesterday, Troy Wolverton reports, sending the company’s stock up 6.6% to a near-record high of $202.40. The iPhone maker’s sales jumped 25% year over year to $9.87 billion. The only quarter it recorded more revenue was last year’s holiday period.

Apple sold 3.05 million Macintosh computers, with sales boosted by the release of the Snow Leopard update to its operating system. It sold 2.3 million laptops in the period, up 35% from the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, rumors are that Apple is going to start releasing a “crap-ton of new products,” as CrunchGearblog reports. But Matt Burns concludes that although there’s a good chance the product line soon may be updated, he doesn’t think any announcement will be forthcoming today.   - Read the whole story…

By Gavin O’Malley

Wall Street Journal

If any company was unconcerned about net neutrality, we figured it would be Twitter. Really, how much bandwidth does a tweet require? Yet, along with Facebook and Digg, Twitter is getting involved in an issue that, for better or worse, is likely to fundamentally alter the entire digital landscape.

“We believe a process that results in common sense baseline rules is critical to ensuring that the Internet remains a key engine of economic growth, innovation and global competitiveness,” the group of 24 CEOs and Internet company founders, including Twitter’s Evan Williams, wrote in a letter to be delivered to the FCC Monday in support of the proposed net-neutrality rules.

“An open Internet fuels a competitive and efficient marketplace, where consumers make the ultimate choices about which products succeed and which fail. This allows businesses of all sizes, from the smallest start-up to larger corporations, to compete, yielding maximum economic growth and opportunity,” they wrote.

Wired Magazine:

Willie Nelson has tossed the satellite dish off the back of his corn-powered tour bus in favor of a little box that fuses wireless data cards from a variety of networks into a single connection.

Which is to say Willie is on the net again, seeing things he may never see again.

Satellite connections can be made anywhere, but they are expensive and have strict usage caps. Network data cards offer all-you-can eat broadband plans, but any given company’s — AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint — doesn’t work everywhere. The solution? Use an array of network data cards from several companies. What Nelson has done is to tie four wireless USB cards into a Mushroom Networks PortaBella 141, which makes them into a single, fast and robust connection that can power a roving or remote network.

FROM POLLSTAR:

Live Nation has reportedly dumped Public Strategies, a public relations and lobbying firm it hired to manage its image as the U.S. Department of Justice continues to probe its proposed merger with Ticketmaster.

A Live Nation spokesman did not respond to a request for confirmation or comment at press time, but the National Journal reports that the two companies issued a statement saying they are committed to the completion of the merger.

“We believe this merger will build a more efficient and effective company moving forward,” the statement reportedly said. The companies have long said they expect the merger to be completed by year end.

It is often seen as a harbinger of bad news to come when a company dumps its lobbyist or high-stakes PR firm as the “end game” approaches.

Earlier in the year, most wouldn’t have guessed it. The tone in the industry was pretty dismal — headlines were peppered with bleak economic outlooks, shrinking marketing budgets and widespread layoffs. Report after report forecasted the recession would force those already advertising online to funnel the lion’s share of shrinking ad budgets into search, ditching display in the process. However, the economic downturn only magnified the Web’s perceived weakness as a branding vehicle. Already, the rise of social media and its encroachment on traditional publishing and marketing models had complicated its promise for numerous brands, painting the Internet as a volatile place with no clear cut formula for success.

By Erik Sass:

Clear Channel Radio is continuing its aggressive expansion of digital content offerings with the addition of a daily video-on-demand service to its IHeartRadio app for iPhones.

The rollout of mobile video content builds on the earlier strong performance of the smart phone app, which saw high adoption rates among iPhone and BlackBerry users.

The new video service will allow smartphone owners who download the IHeartRadio app to view content from Clear Channel Radio’s “Stripped” series of artist performances, selections from its library of music videos, celebrity interviews and additional content created by Clear Channel radio stations.

The content can be accessed via the IHeartRadio app home page and the site’s format sections.

Earlier this year, the IHeartRadio app bowed its first exclusive sponsorship, with Fox Broadcasting’s takeover of the app site to promote its new show “Glee,” with “roadblock”-style or “gateway” ads that appeared while the app is loading, and then once every three user clicks during the visit.

The important question during a downturn isn’t whether or not the economy will recover. It will; it always does. What’s important to ask is whether your company will be in position to surge as the economy begins to grow. To a large degree, the level of your success will depend on your marketing efforts and capabilities — what you have done during the downturn and what you put in place now to win business during the recovery. You will need to make strategic decisions about choosing new media, entering new markets, and positioning music.

Success will also depend on the timing of your efforts. Now is the time to establish marketing plans for the recovery-formulate strategies, design campaigns, make media choices, justify expenditures — so you are ready to go with an approved marketing plan as  your company’s budgets open up and you have marketing funds to invest.

Bloomberg
Radio station owners such as CBS Corp. would have to pay new fees to play music on the air under legislation just approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The measure would establish a royalty to be split between recording artists and labels. (Satellite and Internet radio already pay such fees.) Broadcasters making less than $50,000 can pay a flat annual fee of $100, and stations making less than $1.25 million can also pay a flat fee, per the proposal. Similar legislation passed the House Judiciary Committee in May.

Music labels, including Warner Music Group, Vivendi, and Sony Music Entertainment, say their artists deserve to be compensated for the value their songs bring to radio stations. However, broadcast companies including CBS, Clear Channel Communications, Cumulus Media and Citadel Broadcasting oppose the legislation, saying that radio play promotes music and should remain free.  Click for more here

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Google said Thursday the worst of the recession has passed, as it reported quarterly profit and sales that rose from year-earlier results and easily trounced Wall Street’s forecasts.

“Google had a strong quarter — we saw 7% year-over-year revenue growth despite the tough economic conditions,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, on a conference call with investors. “While there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future.”

Google’s strong third quarter could be a good sign for the economy, as the company’s ad clicks serve as a kind of barometer of consumers’ willingness to spend. The more people click on ads, the more willing they are to buy things.

What Competition Means To Our Industry At The Development Level

Competition is necessary for our industry – with the exception of a few sectors, the music industry is primarily service based. Which means, for the most part, clients come and they go (and sometimes they come back again) and you can’t feel bad about that. It can be a revolving door at this discovery level as artist’s find the team that is best for them.

Once and awhile, you might find a gem that stands the test of time, but at the development level especially, more times than not, the artist is just starting to think about how they want their business to be run and, for better or worse, they feel they need to explore their options. They all ask themselves: Maybe someone else can do it better? Maybe someone else has better connections? It’s human nature.