Revenue from Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store is declining at an alarming rate, according to Forrester Research. Since January, monthly revenue has fallen 65% and the average size of transactions is down 17%. But Apple is not alone; the sector overall should experience flat or declining revenues for the next three consecutive quarters, according to Nieslen Soundscan. Plummeting digital music sales come despite healthy growth for media players like the iPod and Microsoft's Zune. Only 3.2% of online households bought at least one download from iTunes last month, Forrester says, making 5.6 transactions on average. "There's …

There's a prevailing but misguided notion out there among big media firms that the status quo is best. This is dangerous thinking in the digital age, where innovation is the key to survival. The adoption of this conservative strategy has led to the departure of several high-ranking media executives, most notably Yahoo COO Dan Rosenweig, and Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media. "In the Internet, more than any other media business, it's all about risk-taking," Levinsohn said. "And when you kill that spirit, you lose your strategic focus, and that can lead to product degradation and the …

YouTube, MySpace, Facebook. It's all anyone in media can talk about, but Time Warner COO Jeff Bewkes believes the next great Internet land grab will be for an ad network that delivers ads to thousands of third-party Web sites--while being careful to keep advertisers' away from publishers of suspect content. Whatever happened to the ad network, the Web's advertising workhorses? Has the business simply become a commodity not worth talking about? Well, one thing that is work talking about is the fact that Advertising.com is driving resurgence at AOL. Bewkes, talking at the UBS conference last week, said …

It's a busy buying season, but made easier by the Web, which can double as a shopping mall. Several sites help navigate this crowded marketplace. Sites like Offertrax, StyleFeeder and Mpire don't actually sell anything; instead, they improve customer purchasing intelligence by crawling the Web for bargains and notifying subscribers, via RSS feeds. On Offertrax, users create "tracks," a simple collection of bookmarks that are checked for updates every hour. As new offers come up, they're sent out to subscribers. Mpire, a plug-in for Firefox users, shows competitor prices no matter what shopping site a user …

When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in October, critics came said it was only a matter of time before lawsuits started pouring in. They haven't. Aside from a relatively irksome copyright suit filed by a French documentary filmmaker, not a single major media company has brought litigation against Google and YouTube. As always, this has something to do with Google playing the friend/foe card, ensuring each of the majors that the online site will soon offer something mutually beneficial for all. Its also been widely reported that Google fronted each of them cash in the hope that …

According to Ernst & Young, the volume of money being invested by venture-capital firms is expected to top $32 billion this year, the highest total since the dotcom bubble. VCs in the U.S., Europe, China and Israel have already pumped $24.5 billion into the first three quarters of the year, and another $7 billion is expected to come in the fourth quarter. But this time, we shouldn't worry about a bubble bursting, says Gil Forer, a global director of E&Y's venture capital unit. "The quality of technology is much better, and that is driving more investment," he says. …

Microsoft's Zune music player has been out a month, but the software and technology giant is already considering upping its ad budget to help spur sales of its supposed iPod killer. Now that the hardcore set has probably gotten their hands on the new device, Microsoft's next plan of attack is to lure the young hipster crowd. It's hoping the ability to share songs with the player's built-in Wi-Fi connection is enough to spark a Zune movement. Microsoft is pitching its product in TV spots, outdoor ads, print and online promos, mainly to get into the …

News Corp., Viacom, CBS Corp. and NBC Universal are discussing the possibility of building their own YouTube competitor. The four media companies' would unite to create a Web site that would be the official destination for video content from their respective TV studio networks. They have also discussed building a Web video player that could play video clips from across the Web. While talks are underway, an actual deal remains a long way off. Conspicuous by its absence from the talks was Walt Disney, which said it wanted to rely on its own resources to get its content …

Not only are the networks planning to launch a YouTube competitor, but they also plan to sue YouTube and Google for copyright violations in conjunction with the launch, forcing them to pull content off YouTube. One caveat: discussions have stalled. Google is waving $140 million a piece in front of the noses of News Corp, Viacom, CBS and NBC to license their content for several years. This is definitely more money than would come in from their own online departments--at least for the next several years. For openers, CBS and others would rather not have to go through …

Advertisers beware: some publishers are now artificially inflating their traffic numbers by aligning with adware firms that pop their articles up when users surf the Web. Entrepreneuer.com is the example cited by the New York Times, which found that the site was able to triple its reported traffic due to news pop-ups. The fact that some publishers are willing to distribute their content as news-pops underscores how fierce the attention is for eyeballs and ad dollars on the Web. To say the least, news pop-ups are an aggressive step to get people to consume your content. Ben Edelman, …