Anita Elberse, associate professor at Harvard Business School, shared some interesting stats today at Google's ThinkMovie event in Hollywood, Calif. She says in the U.S. 6.4 million songs released in digital format in 2009 sold at least 1 digital copy. About 25% of all songs in 2009 sold one copy only of which 79 songs accounted for 11% of units sold that year.

Toyota and brand partner EA are partnering on Millionaires experience on Facebook. The 12-month partnership integrates Toyota's Prius into the virtual game in support of the recent launch of the Prius family of vehicles.   The 12-month partnership features the Toyota Prius and Toyota Prius Eco-Greenhouse as giftable virtual items within Monopoly Millionaires, the first free-to-play social gaming version of the board game. As players navigate around the game they can collect and display the Toyota Prius mover and Toyota Prius Eco-Greenhouse.   EA says that the game, released in February was the fastest growing Facebook game during the …

Most social media campaigns are aimed at getting people to "friend" a product or brand. Environmental organization Greenpeace is doing the opposite. The group is launching a social media campaign to get people to "unfriend" coal. The effort includes a 30-second spot via motion504, currently on Facebook, which will air nationwide this month in anticipation of Earth Day. You can see it here: http://motion504.com/work/greenpeace/

Mobile barcode scanning was up 800% in the first quarter, according to new data from barcode technology company Scanbuy. Scanning surged 16-fold during the holiday season last year after increasing 700% for the first three quarters of 2010. For the first time since the second quarter of last year, scanning of 2D codes surpassed that of traditional UPC codes. Retail and media companies generated some of the most popular 2D campaigns in the quarter. Among mobile operating systems, Android continued to generate the most scans, while the iPhone accounted for the most scans from a single device. "The …

April 22 is Earth Day, so it's only appropriate someone weigh in on how much Americans are shopping with their conscience these days. A new poll from NBC Universal's four-year-old initiative "Green is Universal" suggests consumers are a lot more willing to separate themselves from their cash in exchange for a smaller footprint, carbon or otherwise. The poll says 78% of consumers think buying green is a way to shop with their values and ethics, which is a 9 point increase versus the inaugural poll two years ago. The new study, "Green in the Economy II" shows brand loyalty …

Nissan has signed a deal with the Puerto-Rican government around ways to foster the introduction, use and expansion of electric vehicles in Puerto Rico. For Nissan, that means the Leaf electric car. The program involves a study group of Puertorican Government officials and Nissan representatives toward a pilot program for the use of the Leaf and incentives for consumers who buy the car. "Today, we take one more step toward the Green Puerto Rico initiative by signing the agreement aimed at evaluating several ways to foster the use of electric vehicles in Puerto Rico. This agreement allow us …

Popular software blog Download Squad became the latest casualty in AOL's post-HuffPo content "consolidation," ZDNet reports. In an email issued late Monday, Download Squad's staff was effectively told to gather their personal belongings. "From that moment, no further blog posts were made on Download Squad," ZDNet writes. Editor Sebastian Anthony then tweeted, "In a world where software is moving towards ubiquity, AOL-HuffPo has seen fit to shut down the best software blog on the Web. Insane." Regarding layoffs, AOL head Tim Armstrong assured last month: "There will be job changes ... There's no way around it, but we'll do …

How is NYTimes.com fairing since the debut of its paywall? According to Experian Hitwise, visits to the site were off between 5-to-15% during the 12 days after the paywall’s launch. As paidContent notes, visits were actually down only slightly on Friday and actually up on Saturday, “possibly because of interest in the budget showdown.” Traffic depreciated most severely – 15% -- on the last day of March, when the greatest number of visitors to the site would have reached their monthly article limit, according to Experian Hitwise. Under the New York Times’ new paywall plan, visitors can read 20 …

Video asset management software provider KIT Digital this week announced the acquisition of Ioko, a software and technology services provider for multi-screen video delivery. KIT has agreed to pay $91.4 million in cash and stock. As TechCrunch explains, Ioko provides an end-to-end managed cloud-based platform for multi-screen video delivery over connected IP devices to telecommunications cable, media and entertainment companies around the world, with a particular focus on North American, Northern European and Australasian markets. Ioko currently generates approximately $54 million in annual revenues related to IP video asset management, through a combination of recurring managed service fees, software …

Who says advertising has no place in the future of paid content? Amazon just unveiled a $114 Kindle, which requires owners to view ads in exchange for the new low price. The Kindle With Special Offers, so-called, costs $25 less than the current lowest-priced model, according to Amazon. "Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is counting on the Kindle, unveiled in 2007 for $399, to capitalize on digital-book demand," writes Bloomberg. "With the new approach, he gains a bigger price advantage over rivals and opens an additional source of ad revenue." General Motors' Buick, Procter & Gamble's Olay skin products …