Standard ads that play music: Startup F# (pronounced F-sharp, after the music note) has launched creative ad technology that puts a streaming music player inside an IAB-standard 300-by-250 ad box. The player is branded by the advertiser, and the music is curated in collaboration with F#’s recommendation research database. F# handles music licensing, and the units are DMCA-compliant, according to the company. It is easy to imagine strong engagement with these interactive ads, if they can overcome “ad blindness” which plagues the industry.
Video lead-in to an audio service: In an unusual marketing ploy, music service Rdio is dangling free access to Red Bull’s movie about Felix Baumgartner’s leap to earth from orbit, “Mission to the Edge of Space,” according to The Verge. Rdio operates a video rental site (Vdio), which is where the Red Bull relationship probably comes from,