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Billboard reported Thursday that MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) has launched a new campaign titled "Roots of Rock" that offers free downloads for cardholders from Universal Music Group. Apparently the free aspect of the campaign is limited and after 100,000 songs have been downloaded, MasterCard will begin to charge $0.80 per track. Even after the credit card company begins charging for downloads, pricing for tracks is still lower than Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)'s MP3 Store ($0.89) or Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store ($0.99).

Cardholders who also make a purchase by August 31 will be "entered into a sweepstakes with a grand prize of having a meet and greet with Jon Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton or Kenny Chesney." MasterCard executive Amy Fuller told Billboard with the new campaign, the company has "created unparalleled music experiences with three of the world's most popular artists, providing consumers with an intimate perspective on these icons that few fans will ever have." But those fans will have to win the sweepstakes.

MasterCard's campaign to offer free downloads is like numerous other programs that are linked with music companies, but it offers to take the digital market to a larger consumer base. Lowered prices (eventually) for the campaign mean that Universal Music Group will continue to hold on to the lead in music sales, if only because the music company is the only one on board with MasterCard. Consumers that might not have ever downloaded a track may be enticed to try out the campaign and the sweepstakes. This type of growth is what the music industry will need if digital sales are ever going to replace physical sales successfully and completely.

Despite a 66% drop from first week sales of 721,000 copies, Coldplay's fourth album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends retains the top spot on the Billboard 200, selling 249,000 copies in the album's second week of release. Billboard reported the chart placement Wednesday and noted album sales are down 7.66% in the last week while dropping 13.2% behind the same week totals from one year ago.

The album was released in the United Kingdom three weeks ago tomorrow, while it has only been out in the United States for two weeks. It debuted big in the UK, selling 302,000 copies in the first three days it was out and selling 500,000 copies after ten days. Sales in the U.S. over seven days are obviously larger than the UK figures, pointing to rumored hopes from the band's music label EMI that the album would provide a significant boost for the company during the summer and possibly the year.

I've had the album since it was released, reporting that very day about the packaging of a vinyl and CD copy together that seemed to hint EMI was aware that consumers listen to music more frequently on MP3 players even if they prefer vinyl copies for nostalgia or the entire experience. Two weeks at number is impressive in today's market and even though sales dropped 66%, 249,000 copies is a nice figure for one week. If continued rumors are true that the band will release another album within a year and a half, the future of EMI may be more and more based on the success of one band.

One of Yahoo!'s (NASDAQ: YHOO) plays for showing that it does not need a deal with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is to find another large partner for a merger or joint venture. It is becoming more likely that the partner may be either Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL or News Corp (NYSE: NWS), which owns MySpace.

The structure of a deal with AOL might look very much like the one the firms discussed earlier in the year. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The two companies are talking about a structure they began discussing several months ago -- an arrangement whereby Time Warner would fold AOL into Yahoo and take a minority stake in the combined venture."

A transaction with AOL would give Yahoo! three important advantages. First, it would nearly double the size of its user base, giving it by far the largest audience of any company in the US. Yahoo! would also get AOL's Advertising.com network, the biggest display ad network in the nation. Finally, Yahoo! would get a substantial set of new customers for its search and search advertising businesses.

Wall Street wants to see Yahoo! sold. Any other alternative, including a deal with AOL, is likely to drive its shares down. But, if it wants any chance of staying independent, a transaction with Time Warner may be its only viable alternative.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

It's no secret that Talk Radio host extraordinaire Rush Limbaugh has revolutionized the alternative media. With his new contract, it appears that Rush is once again on the cutting edge of societal evolution, and has once again laid down the gauntlet that he is light years ahead of his competition. What's so amazing is that in an era when traditional media is having all kinds of problems, whether it's declining newspaper sales, or declining ratings for the nightly news, the man who sits behind the golden EIB microphone is forging ahead as if nothing is happening.

According to a press release, Limbaugh has signed a long-term contract extension:

Advertiser and affiliate demand is at an all-time high for Mr. Limbaugh. President of Premiere Radio Networks Charlie Rahilly stated, "The Rush Limbaugh Show enjoys an unprecedented platform of radio affiliates. Plus, advertisers harness the intensity of listener engagement -- no one's 'word of mouth' about a product or service delivers more impact than Mr. Limbaugh does. The Premiere team is proud to partner with Mr. Limbaugh deep into the next decade."

Reuters reports today that Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has signed up Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) to its "Comes with Music" phone service and music store. Nokia is the world's top phone manufacturer and will be making a direct challenge to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store, according to numerous reports. The "Comes with Music" service is the first from a phone manufacturer to "push heavily into content" and "differs from other packages on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded" while in yearly contracts with Nokia.

WMG executives allowed the music company to join up with Nokia since the service "is the first global initiative to fundamentally align the interests of music companies with telecommunications companies." Nokia already secured the support of fellow music companies Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment in April, and "Comes with Music" launches later this year. Reuters speculates that the agreements with three of the top four music companies (EMI Group has not signed up yet) will "help Nokia attract smaller music companies and challenge the dominant pay-per-track sales model for digital music." Last year, download sales totaled $2.9 billion; if the 146 million Nokia phones had featured "Comes with Music", those sales would have surpassed the digital market.

Record labels have consistently looked for new methods to challenge Apple's grip on the music industry, and subscription models like "Comes with Music" may finally provide that challenge. Subscription models give the music industry more shares per download since users typically are not allowed to keep tracks downloaded during the subscription. "Comes with Music" is betting against that model since users will be allowed to keep music downloaded, and Nokia and the record companies are no doubt hoping that dynamic will keep those consumers renewing contracts with the service. Reportedly, the subscription for "Comes with Music" will only cost $20 per phone, which on a yearly basis would not be too expensive for unlimited downloads.

Seth MacFarlane is the genius behind News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Family Guy animated television series. But why should News Corp. have all the fun programming cool content? That's apparently what Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was thinking when it signed up Seth MacFarlane to produce a series of short animated clips for the Google Content Network.

According to The New York Times, MacFarlane has created something called Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. Little two-minute clips will be distributed to various websites that key in on the youthful male demographic which loves Family Guy. When users click on the clips, they will perhaps see an ad before the thing starts or some sort of banner attached to it. They might also simply see the name of the presenting sponsor before watching. Google will split monies generated by the ads with MacFarlane, the website that features the clip, and Media Rights Capital, the entity which sells the inventory.

I love the idea of the Google Content Network and I think that, over time, it should be a great success, but as with any novel platform, it all comes down to the word in the middle -- content. Google will live and die by the quality of the content because, although lesser-quality stuff might still find an audience in other mediums, the web has such intense competition for eyeballs that have minuscule attention spans. If the clips don't grab the viewer right away, then the ad inventory won't be as valuable to the buyers.

Ford (NYSE:F) is going through its worst sales period in over 20 years. Its flagship during most of that period has been its F-Series pick-up. The truck has sold like mad and it is highly profitable for the car company.

The F-Series trucks are heavy and eat a lot of gas. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Ford has started searching for answers to a question it never used to pay much attention to: exactly who drives big pickups and why."

Ford figures some of the people who buy the pick-up don't need it to haul things or tow things. They are people who want to look tough and have that working man image. The car company is trying to find a way to keep these people even though they could drop down to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

If gas hits $5, and it may, the probability that people will buy pick-ups to be "cool" goes away very quickly and Ford will almost certainly lose a lot more of its F-Series customers.

Of course, if gas hit $5, Ford has much bigger problems.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Despite criticism by Irish band U2's manager Paul McGuinness over Radiohead's method for releasing In Rainbows last October, U2's lead singer Bono has published an open letter in NME disagreeing and applauding Radiohead for the album and how it was released. McGuinness told the BBC in early June that the method was "a failure and backfired" because "it still resulted in over 60%-70% of listeners acquiring the album through illegal channels."

Bono's letter to NME, printed in last week's issue, takes a sharp left turn from his manager's opinion, calling Radiohead "courageous and imaginative in trying to figure out some new relationship with their audience." Bono also remarked how "blessed" he feels "to be around at the same time" as "a sacred talent" like Radiohead. U2 have recently taken steps to reach their audience, joining forces with Live Nation Inc. (NYSE: LYV) in a deal that will market their music and concerts with related products from one location.

U2 is still signed to Universal Music Group for the band's record releases, which may have been one reason McGuinness came out against the method Radiohead used last year. Neverthless, the disagreement between manager and lead singer is insignificant compared to the applaud Radiohead continue to receive from fellow artists. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, a band that was also signed to Universal Music Group, has also come out in support of Radiohead's method, even though he, too, took issue with some aspects of it. Reznor has since released two NIN albums the same way.

English rock band The Verve, famous for the hit single "Bitter Sweet Symphony" and the ensuing struggle over the rights to the song (eventually awarded to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards because the song sampled a short snippet of a Rolling Stone song), are set to return in August with a new album -- the band's first since 1997's Urban Hymns that featured that bitter sweet single. Billboard reported last week that the new album, titled Forth (Billboard cites it incorrectly as Four) will be released on August 18 in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States.

While the band had not worked together in nine years before reuniting last year to commence work on new music and play a number of festivals, lead singer Richard Ashcroft had enjoyed a semi-successful solo career built on the success that the band had enjoyed in the nineties. He joined Coldplay onstage at Live 8 in 2005 to perform "Bitter Sweet Symphony" to an elated Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay) and cheering crowds. The first single from Forth, "Love is Noise", was premiered on British radio June 23 and will be released a couple of weeks before the album. It is currently streaming from the band's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) MySpace page.

In the United Kingdom, The Verve are signed to EMI Group and will release Forth via Parlophone, but in the United States, a unique release scheme will be utilized, somewhat similar to Radiohead's deal in the U.S. for In Rainbows earlier this year. The band has set up a label, On Our Own, and will release the album through a distribution deal with RED Distribution and Megaforce Records. Previously, the band's albums had been released through EMI's Virgin Records imprint in the United States.

Conceding that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iPod will be the digital music player of choice for the foreseeable future, online music downloading service Rhapsody is rolling out a $50 million marketing effort to convince iPod users currently using iTunes to make the switch to Rhapsody. Partner sites include Yahoo, Verizon Wireless and iLike, and the downloads will be in the mp3 format so they can be played on iPods.

Rhapsody is a joint venture of Real Networks and Viacom, so it's one of the few online music providers that has the muscle to compete with Apple. But I doubt that they'll be able to. In just a few years, Apple has made itself the biggest seller of music in the country, and sales of music downloads grew about 35% in the most recent quarter, according to the company's 10-Q.

iTunes seems to be pretty entrenched, and I just can't see anything compelling coming from Rhapsody that would motivate anyone to switch from iTunes. Rhapsody vice president Neil Smith told Reuters that "We're no longer competing with iPod. We're embracing it."

But now they're competing with iTunes, and consumers seems to have overwhelmingly embraced that. You really have to question Rhapsody's -- and every other also-ran mp3 seller's -- reason for existing.

The Financial Times reported last week that representatives for The Beatles, Activision Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), and MTV Games, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), are in talks about developing Beatles-themed video game versions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band "in a move that could pave the way for a broader licensing of the Fab Four's catalog." Although the final deal would eventually be worth several million dollars, it would have to win over both Apple Corps and the EMI Group, the two companies that oversee the band's business interests and the master recordings.

The Beatles have been one of the major artists to resist any move into the digital world, but if such a deal were to occur it would likely happen simultaneously with any move by The Beatles into digital stores and the digital market. In the past year and a half, numerous rumors have appeared that cited 2008 as the year that would see the move, including comments made by Olivia Harrison, George Harrison's widow. Unfortunately, no such appearance by the band into stores like Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes or Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AMZN) MP3 Store has happened even with a new management team led by former Sony BMG executive Jeff Jones.

Any deal would send a massive shockwave through the music industry and no doubt come with numerous marketing and advertising techniques that have become popular and successful in recent years. Although many Beatles purists and fans might be put off by an iTunes-themed commercial featuring The Beatles and the band's music, the exposure provided by such a method would increase awareness of the band to younger and newer audiences.

Burger King (Burger King Holdings, NYSE:BRC) has made good headway recently by constructing sandwiches large enough to bring down a New York crane and marketing tied to video games and hot movies. Therefore, it would have been the last company I would expect to unveil a $190 hamburger.

Actually, the burgers aren't widely available, yet- only in one location, in West London, and only once a week, by reservation. I suppose the burger, Wagyu beef piled high with white truffles, Pata Negra ham, white wine/shallot mayo, Himalayan rock salt and a soupçon of Iranian saffron. The combo includes Cristal champagne onion straws, a limited edition bottle of Coke, and Cabernet Shiraz wine from Australia .

Emma Hall, who reported on the experience for Ad Age, found the meat 'not perfect', due to the health code's requirement that it be cooked to 165 degrees, but liked the mayo, ham and truffles. Other diners she interviewed were pleased, but mostly not $190 worth of pleased. Personally, for $190 I'd expect the King to detail my car while I ate.

This mother of all burgers was created as a PR stunt to help recast the BK brand as a higher-quality product, with proceeds benefiting a local charity. The company plans to expand the limited-time program to Spain and Germany. For now, I'll have to drown my longing in a Whopper, sans truffles, sans saffron, and Cristal-free fries.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) said yesterday that it would be changing the logo at its U.S. locations by this fall. The current logo, which is simply the company's name with red lines above and below it, has been in use since 1992.

Wal-Mart continues to integrate the slogan "Save Money. Live Better" into everything it does. That saying is the retailer's current tagline, and even the announcement of the logo change mentions this: "This logo update is simply a reflection of the refreshed image of our stores and our renewed sense of purpose of helping people save money so they can live better." If that isn't a pre-scripted message from the corporate underbelly, I don't know what is.

It appears that the hyphen will be going away in the company's name-based logo. The hyphen was replaced a long time ago by the star anyway, so it's a moot point. According to rumors reported by the WSJ, the new logo will show the retailer's name in white letters on an orange background, followed by a small starburst. I guess orange is less confrontational than blue? Anyway, the image makeover of the retailer's logo comes at a good time. Sometimes breaking the mold and starting over can implant a new image in the mind of the consumer, and if all that is required is a logo change (and the millions of changes on signage it will require), so be it.

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

Pilgrim's Pride's home roots in the small town of Pittsburg, Texas, perhaps explain why it is the largest chicken producer in the U.S., even ahead of competitor Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) in Arkansas. In 1946, Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim dressed like a standard Pilgrim and tucked a small chicken under his arm when completing orders for customers. He gave away free chicks when he sold chicken feed as a way to expand his market for chicken feed. As of today, Pilgrim's Pride operates chicken processing plants in 13 states and Mexico and processes 44 million chickens per week, resulting in 9 billion pounds of chickens per year and over 528 million chicken eggs per year.

Pilgrim's Pride's operations are almost exclusively located in the U.S. close to its farms, and it has become the second-largest chicken supplier to Mexico as well. It does have processing plants in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Along with such huge chicken-producing numbers come a few problems, as a huge product recall in 2002 due to Lysteria contamination killed seven people and made over 40 customers sick. In 2004, more than 24,000 hens were destroyed after a strain of avian flu was found in Hopkins County, Texas.

Pilgrim's Pride is still based in the same location where it was founded over 60 years ago, but today stands as a completely vertically-integrated company: it owns every process and facility from egg to table, as it says. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Publix Super Markets (OTC: PUSH) and KFC, a division of Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) ,can be counted as some of Pilgrim's Pride's largest customers.

Be sure to check out more Big Company, Small Town posts.

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

In a remote section of Louisiana, nearly 140 miles west of New Orleans, lies the land of Tabasco. Avery Island is home to McIlhenny Co., the family owned and operated makers of Tabasco since 1868. The island is home to only 160 residents, mainly McIlhenny workers, as well as the McIlhenny family. Paul McIlhenny, the current president, is the sixth McIlhenny to continue the Tabasco legacy of its founder, Edmund McIlhenny.

McIlhenny Co. is a leader in hot sauce products, labeled in 22 languages and dialects, and is sold in more than 160 nations. According to Jeffrey Rothfeder, author of McIlhenny's Gold: How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire, the private company earns nearly $250 million in annual revenues. In addition to Tabasco, McIlhenny also co-brands and produces various forms of products, from salsas and Tabasco lollipops to cookbooks and clothing. They even make a 1-gallon glass jug of Tabasco for all of those who can't get enough of the hot sauce. This spicy condiment can be found in millions of restaurants around the globe, in soldiers' rations overseas, and is proudly used in my kitchen.

Two of the three main ingredients of Tabasco -- Avery Island salt and Capsicum frutescens peppers -- are found on the island. The pepper sauce is still made practically the same way it was 140 years ago, except the aging process has been extended to three years, not 60 days.