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?

Toronto, Canada - Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM), maker and developer of Blackberry devices, outlined his vision for the company as leveraging the convergence of social networking and multimedia in a morning keynote at the Canadian Music Week's digital music & media summit. His vision involves moving beyond facilitating text-messaging and email communication to bringing multimedia content and social networking together on mobile devices. He also challenged the music industry to embrace social networking to reach fans of all genres and sub-genres of music:
"Don't disintermediate yourselves as hit machines", Balsillie said to the room of music industry professionals.

Los Angeles, CA, February 12, 2008 -- Digital Media Wire, the leading digital entertainment publisher and events company, and Rogers MusicStore CANADIAN MUSIC WEEK, Canada's leading annual entertainment event dedicated to the expression and growth of Canada's music, media and entertainment industries, today announced an impressive line-up of speakers for Millennials Toronto, a youth-focused media and marketing conference at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto on Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

We are very happy to announce a partnership with Canadian Music Week (CMW), Canada’s leading annual entertainment event dedicated to the expression and growth of the country’s music, media and entertainment industries, to host the next edition of our youth-focused media conference The Millennials in Toronto on March 5, 2008, as an integrated part of the CMW (Pictured from left to right Ned Sherman, CEO and Publisher, DMW, Neill Dixon, President, CMW, Gary Taylor, CMW, Joakim Baage, VP, Content, DMW.)

Los Angeles - Following a trip up north this week by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Canadian government said it will introduce legislation aimed at stemming film piracy in the country, Variety reported.

Santa Monica, Calif. - Video game publisher Activision's Beenox studio said on Tuesady that the company expects to triple its workforce over the next two years, creating over 200 new jobs in the Quebec area. Founded in 2000, Beenox has more than doubled its staff over the past 18 months, and will focus on developing titles for next-generation consoles.

Washington - The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), which represents U.S. software, music, movie and video game firms, has asked the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to add Canada to the U.S. "priority watch list" of countries considered havens for piracy, which includes China, Russia and Venezuela.

Toronto - Sirius Canada, the Canadian unit of the subscription radio service provider, announced on Wednesday that it has surpassed 300,000 subscribers, with more than 100,000 joining since November 22, 2006. Sirius radios are now available in more than 3,500 retail locations in Canada. New York-based Sirius Satellite Radio claims a total of more than 6 million subscribers.

New York - Two Canadian men who founded the U.K.-based online money transfer company Neteller have been arrested by U.S. authorities and charged with laundering billions of dollars in illegal online gambling proceeds.