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Don’t feel close enough to Eminem after watching the pseudo-biographical “8 Mile”? Get even closer by posting a bid for his boyhood home. The Warren, Mich., home where Eminem spent part of his childhood has passed the $1 million mark in just one week on eBay. The bidding began at $120,000 last Thursday and passed a million Tuesday afternoon. Bidding will continue until Dec. 14, leaving plenty of time to spiral still higher. That makes the $45,000 paid by current owners Sebastian Lucido and Roland Fraschetti look like the buy of a lifetime. The two purchased the house earlier this month from Eminem’s uncle, Todd Nelson. EBay has already registered nearly 20,000 page hits for the “item,” a three-bedroom, two-bathroom affair that’s been in the Mathers family for 50 years, according to the listing. For comparative pricing purposes, consider this. The house had hit $1.1 million by Wednesday night. Eminem’s mother’s car is selling for a mere $35,000.
AOL fights teen sinning with shopping ban
America Online knows that it has enough problems without being blamed for encouraging underage drinkers. The company has announced that it will no longer permit customers younger than 18 to shop via AOL with its partner stores. Apparently those crafty teens had found ways to buy pornography, alcohol and tobacco by going in under a parentally-controlled screen name. Previously, AOL allowed such teens, aged 13 to 17, to shop. But the company says it’s now completely blocking teen access to the shopping areas, with the holidays on the way no less. About 16 million users log on with parentally-controlled screen names, which could mean revenue losses for the Christmas season. Microsoft’s MSN already allows parents to block shopping sites by designating content filters.
Universal offers 43,000 paid downloads
Clearly customers like the easy music downloads offered on the internet. In an effort to reach out to them and still make some money, Universal Music has become the latest label to throw open its virtual doors. Starting this week, 43,000 songs are available for download, from 99 cents for singles to $9.99 for albums. Analysts say that companies will continue in this vein in an effort to show consumers that they can be flexible -- and keep them from turning to sites like Kazaa or Morpheus, second-generation cousins of the now-defunct Napster. However, some analysts are criticizing Universal’s choice of technology. Downloads are available via Windows Media or Liquid Audio, the latter of which has gotten some bad press lately following an attempted liquidation by shareholders.
Sega back in black as Microsoft goes Live
In video game news this week, Sega returned to profitability while Microsoft reveled in the early success of its Xbox Live launch. Sega still didn’t have the sales it had hoped for in the first half of the fiscal year, but did earn 1.01 billion yen ($8.3 million). That’s in contrast to the 20.87 billion yen it lost during the same period last year. Sales were down about 3 percent total, with Japanese sales up 6 percent but those abroad falling 36 percent. In total, Sega moved about 3.37 million games worldwide, falling short of its 4.74 million target. It has been producing games for other companies’ machines ever since being driven out of the console business by Sony’s wildly popular Playstation 2. The Xbox, one of its other former rivals, became the first game to market on online version last Friday. Sales have apparently been moving briskly, with tens of thousands of machines available in the U.S. Microsoft plans similar Xbox Live launches in Asia and Europe next year.
Watch 'ultramercials,' get Salon premium free
Salon.com has come up with an inventive way to attract more readers at less cost to them. Salon Media Group has introduced “ultramercials” for readers willing to watch interactive commercials rather than pay the premium access fee, which ranges from $18.50 to $30 per year. About 52,000 subscribers have signed up for premium access in the year and a half since the service’s launch. For a limited time, Mercedes-Benz will foot the bill for a 12-hour “free pass” to the premium services, designed to entice even more subscribers to the 20 percent of the site that’s not available for free. Salon says the response has been better than expected. The ad takes about 10 seconds to click through, and the company will consider continuing the promotion with other advertisers.
November 21, 2002© 2002 Media Life
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