Tomorrow April 29, one of the most anticipated video games of the year, Take Two Interactive (NSDQ: TTWO) and Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto IV," will hit store shelves. Analysts predict that it will top last year's record-breaking $300 million first-week sales of Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) and Bungee Studios' first-person shooter "Halo 3", according to the Associated Press.

Digg Dubb: Groove Is In The Heart from Trammell on Vimeo.
A new viral lip dub video has appeared (embedded above). This time courtesy of the staff at Digg. I would say it's a worthy follow-up to the video done at the offices at College Humor and Connected Ventures (see below). Revision3 has also joined the party with a lip bud video of their own (embedded at the bottom, gotta love INXS). Think about it, these videos are not just viral branding for the companies but also smart recruitment tools...

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?

1. Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton proposed the creation of the office of the co-president of the United States.

2. Dave Winer joined Mahalo as the vice-president of marketing.

3. Michael Arrington announced a conference called Kemo featuring startup life-science companies demonstrating medical cures in six minutes.

4. Steve Ballmer donated $100 million to the Jane Goodall Foundation.

The South By Southwest conferences and festivals in Austin, Texas, have already kicked off and will go on through most of this week. On Sunday the conference buzz was about a keynote interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in which the interviewer, BusinessWeek columnist Sarah Lacy, was heckled for rambling non-questions. For those of you that are going, DMW is happy to once again bring you the hottest list of buzz bands and parties, courtesy of music publicist Fiona Bloom: