I'm on my soapbox again about the changing landscape for entertainment marketing and sales. I want to do a quick follow-up to my last article about the challenges that face Habbo Hotel, the popular virtual world for teens, when trying to cut a deal with the record labels to feature and sell their music. Today, the popular German teen rock sensation, Tokio Hotel, did an appearance in Habbo's Canadian Hotel and they are not alone. So far over 300 celebrity guests have visited Habbo to chat with fans and promote their projects. Clearly the artists as well as the record labels see the promotional value of following the fans to their online hang-outs. Habbo was subsequently the first virtual world to sign a deal with William Morris Agency. So why not set up a system to easily monetize music in this new media channel?

Seattle - Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX) announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store to launch a Pick of the Week promotion, which will see 1.5 million free iTunes song and music video download cards distributed each week to customers in 7,000 U.S. Starbucks locations. The downloads will be selected by the Starbucks Entertainment team and iTunes. The first pick is the Counting Crows' new single, "Washington Square"; other artists on deck include Carly Simon, Adele, Sia and Hilary McRae. The companies said their previous Song of the Day promotion in October 2007 resulted in over 6 million downloads.

Los Angeles - Rock band Motley Crue said on Tuesday that it is the first group to release a new single, "Saints of Los Angeles," for sale through the video game "Rock Band." The song will be made available for purchase as an add-on to the game for 99 cents through both Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace and Sony's PlayStation Store.

London - Fring on Tuesday said it has launched what it says is the first application that allows owners of "opened" Apple iPhones to conduct VoIP voice and chat conversations over a WiFi connection. Fring users can conduct free mobile calls over WiFi, as well as communicate with contacts from Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo and AIM. Fring was developed in conjunction with the Holon Institute of Technology in Israel; a full release version of the technology is due later this year.

London - U.K. supermarket chain Tesco on Tuesday announced plans to abandon its current Windows Media-based service and launch an MP3 store in May. Tesco Digital will initially offer 3.3 million variably-priced tracks -- 1.6 million of which will be in MP3 format -- and plans to offer all tracks in MP3 format by the end of the year. The site will also offer over 100 free online games, and eventually expand to include downloadable TV shows and movies, as well as paid game downloads.

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace on Tuesday announced the launch of a new localized version of its service in Korea, and said that another site for India will launch later this week. The Korean-language version of MySpace will compete with Cyworld, currently the most popular social network in the country. When the company launches its site for India, MySpace will count a total of 30 localized versions available in 15 languages.

New York - Women-focused Lifetime Network on Tuesday announced plans to launch more than 15 original webisode series, as well as a number of online games and new blogs. The initial slate of webisode series include "Hollywood Tails," "Mommy Madness" and "Street Doctors." The company said that its MyLifetime.com site, which claims 2.5 million registered members and is also a top-25 online games site, will launch a new makeover game, Dressupchallenge.com, later this month. A new broadband video channel launching in June will feature full episodes of Lifetime series -- including its recently acquired "Project Runway" -- and full-length Lifetime original movies.

New York - Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) BET Networks on Tuesday announced a deal with Microsoft to offer a selection of full-length BET television shows for download to the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live online service. Shows offered will include "College Hill 4," "American Gangster," "Comic View" and "Iron Ring." Currently, the Xbox Live Marketplace features more than 4,200 hours of premium entertainment content from more than 40 studios and networks.

Foster City, Calif. - Sony Computer Entertainment America on Tuesday announced the launch of a redesigned PlayStation Store for its PlayStation 3, which is now a native application on the game console rather than a Web-based storefront. The store now features quicker navigation and an expanded library of nearly 900 pieces of content, including over 70 downloadable games, as well as game demos and videos, and HD movie trailers. Sony counts more than 3.6 million registered PlayStation Network accounts in North America.

Philadelphia - Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation's largest cable TV company and a provider of high-speed Internet to 13.2 million subscribers, on Tuesday announced that it will lead an industry-wide effort to create a "P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities," which would "clarify what choices and controls consumers should have when using P2P applications as well as what processes and practices ISPs should use to manage P2P applications running on their networks." The company said it partnered with Pando Networks, a provider of peer-to-peer based content delivery network services, on the initiative, and will work with the company to help migrate to a protocol-agnostic network management technique by the end of the year.

Bath, England - The Filter, a new media recommendation and discovery service, announced on Tuesday the launch of an invite-only private beta, and the raising of $8.5 million in funding, from backers including musician Peter Gabriel's Real World Group and Eden Ventures. "We believe one of the many joys of the internet would be freedom of choice, but many of us are now drowning in an ocean of options," said Gabriel.

New York - The digital music market may be bigger than previously thought, as a new report from market research firm NPD Group found that only 10% of customers at Amazon.com's (NASD: AMZN) new MP3 store had also purchased songs from Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store. "The fact that Amazon's early growth does not appear to be at the expense of Apple iTunes is a healthy indication that the digital music customer pool can expand into new consumer groups who have not yet joined the iTunes community," NPD analyst Russ Crupnick.

Reston, Va. - Platform-A, the online ad unit of AOL (NYSE: TWX) formed last fall through the combination of acquired firms such as Advertising.com, Quigo and Tacoda, ranked as the No. 1 ad network in March, according to a new report from market research firm comScore.

Sunnyvale, Calif. - RGB Networks, a developer of digital video processing tools that help service providers deliver targeted video content, said on Monday that it has raised $20 million in a new round of funding, led by new investor Institutional Venture Partners.

Dulles, Va. - AOL (NYSE: TWX) announced on Tuesday that it has acquired San Francisco-based Sphere Source, a developer of contextual search tools which offers related content to publishers.

Menlo Park, Calif. - Cuill, a stealth-mode start-up developing "a new approach to search," announced on Tuesday that it has raised a $25 million second round of equity financing, led by Madrone Capital.