Business 2.0 looks at their “Next Net 25,” for the second consecutive year.

Web 2.0 startups making the list this year include: Stumble Upon, Slide, Bebo, Meebo, Wikia and Joost, to name a few.

While there’s a lot of excitement and venture capital swirling around these companies, here’s a bit of sobering data…

There are already more than 200 video sites trolling the Web for viewers. Most will not even come close to billion-dollar buyouts; more likely they’ll end up as feature buttons in someone else’s service - if they’re lucky. “Your barrier to launching is low, but your barrier to success is high,” says Bill Nguyen, CEO of music site Lala. “People are really going to feel that this year.”

The losers are likely to be those companies that try to make money by pouring old-media wine into the new Web bottles. The winners will be the players that invent new ways to tap into what the Web brings to the party: instant feedback, instant analysis, and the collective wisdom of a billion users.

Paul Worley, writing in The Observer, warns against the musical hype machine stoked by a 24/7 media cycle and the rise of push-button publishing.

There is so much blog-illuminated new music of such definite competence, so many attractive new fusions, hybrids and agile, academic rewirings, and so many enthusiasts writing about this new music, needing to demonstrate that they are the first to find it, and make a claim for its magnificent, idiosyncratic freshness. Now that everything is scored, and the results collated on websites as if this is helpful, as if this is sport, and there are so many competitive, boastful sound-spotters desperate for us to know exactly what they think as soon as they think it, there is, to put it mildly, a tendency for albums to be over-rated.

Everyone, from the agitated home diarists and half-crazed fans with time on their hands to the proud, pedantic newspaper rock critics, is desperate to tell everyone else that they alone have found the new thing. Sometimes their discovery is the same album or artist, made at exactly the same time, and this explodes into what is not so much hype as hysteria, as if everything that happens, every week, every moment, has to be the Beatles, the Pistols or Patti Smith. Perhaps we should all just agree to shave off a star or two here and there, to control our initial excitement, to keep our thoughts to ourselves until we are absolutely sure.

Here’s a quick list of the musical pontificators I regularly enjoy hearing from: Muzzle of Bees, Brooklyn Vegan, Stereogum, Gorilla vs. Bear, Aquarium Drunkard, Pitchfork Media and You Ain’t No Picasso.

[via Largehearted Boy]

What happens when a music writer runs for mayor of a major American city?

If he’s smart he puts out a Benefit CD featuring the local artists he regularly covers, which is precisely what Zac Crain of Dallas, TX has done.

Here’s a bit of sell copy from Crain:

The Zac Crain for Mayor campaign is already doing right by the city, with 32 great songs for one low, low price. Featuring rare and previously unreleased tracks from Ben Kweller, Tim DeLaughter of the Polyphonic Spree, Rhett Miller, the Paper Chase, and Centro-matic, and new songs by Pleasant Grove, Red Monroe, and Pikahsso (among others), this double-disc set is a pretty swell return for a relatively cheap campaign contribution. But it also works just fine as a survey of local music. So enjoy. And vote!

Britney Spears is bloggin’.

Hello to all of you, This is really me. Not some fake and not my manager, i made this myspace to get out there and reconnect with my fans. I realize that i have been throguh alot of ups and downs with in the last 6 months, and i have done some outrageous things, but you learn from your mistakes, so Thank you to you the fans who have been there and stuck beside me this whole way. My Journey is only going to get better as time passes, after all my comeback is coming really soon, and i hope you all enjoy it,as much as i will! And as for me shaving my head this past weekend, it was something that needed to be done, its a way to start over fresh, as my new saying goes

“This Is The Rebirth Of The New Britney Spears”

Love you all,

Britney Jean Spears

The whole idea of a bald Britney is intriguing, in that it’s a form of transparency (not something pop stars are known for). One could surmise that the MySpace page she started is also about transparency. It seems we’re now looking at Britney 2.0 in all her raging glory.

Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State, offers us a look at our online selves.

[via E-Media Tidbits]

According to Ars Technica, BlackBerry owners work longer hours—a fact which seems to refute the efficiency claims made by the manufacturer.

19 percent of BlackBerry-owning survey respondents reportedly worked more than 50 hours a week, compared to only 11 percent of the general population. A higher percentage of BlackBerry owners also felt that they didn’t have enough personal time in their lives—53 percent, compared to the 40 percent average. Finally, the average household income of BlackBerry owners was nearly 50 percent higher than the national average, at about $94,000, indicating that those who own BlackBerry-like devices may share some more overachieving personality traits.

“Contrary to shiny happy ads suggesting we do more in less time, in fact, there is evidence to suggest that we simply do more, more of the time,” analysts Kaan Yigit and David Ackerman said. “While being ‘always on’ in a social context is a natural for young people, many of those in the 25-54 age group with families and corporate jobs are struggling with work-life blending.”

Donna Hall, Director of Marketing Strategies for Solutions Research Group spoke with Ars and expanded on why BlackBerry owners may feel chained to work. “Many have been given a BlackBerry by their employers. The expectation on the part of the employer is that once they have it they will be accessible at all times. There are no more boundaries or times when they are unreachable, even on vacation,” she told us.

Here’s a bit of copy from the company’s web site: “BlackBerry helps you simplify your communications and streamline your lifestyle so you get more accomplished and have more time to do what is important to you.” To bring the copy to a more truthful place, perhaps it should read, “BlackBerry helps you over-achieve and earn more coin, so you can vacation at ever more exotic locations without missing any random forwards from your colleagues.”

Laura Howard started a new ice cream brand–Laloo’s–in 2004. Last year she sold 20,000 pints (at $6.99 a pint) of Vanilla Snowflake and Chocolate Cabernet thanks to an assist from Whole Foods Market.

What makes her ice cream special enough to fetch that price? It’s made from goat’s milk.

According to Los Angeles Times:

“Some people see goats’ milk ice cream and they sort of wrinkle their nose,” said Howard, who traded Hollywood for the country charms of Petaluma to start her Laloo’s Goat’s Milk Ice Cream Co. “After they try it, it’s a different story.”

She says Laloo’s tastes like premium ice cream — it’s a myth that goat milk has to carry the smoky tang that conjures up visions of Heidi in her grandpa’s hut. Milk flavor is mostly the result of what the goats eat and how they’re managed.

You’ve seen the California cheese industry’s commericals about happy cows making better cheese? Laloo’s employs a similar tactic. Here’s a bit of copy from their web site:

We let our goats play on 350 acres of rolling hills in Sonoma County, California, where they graze on green grass and thistleberry in the warm Pacific breeze. It’s the good life. And the good life makes magical ice cream that’s low fat, low lactose and spoon-lickingly delicious to the last scoop.

The creamery’s newest flavors–Capraccino and Rumplemint–will be available nationwide in May.

Kevin Maney, USA Today’s tech columnist, sheds some light on the reality of online music purchasing. What he finds there isn’t pretty.

The online digital music business stinks.

iTunes, Rhapsody, Zune Store, Napster — you name it. They’re all failures.

Nearly six years after the introduction of iTunes and the iPod, online music has failed to interest the vast majority of the world’s music consumers. Which is no doubt why Steve Jobs recently called for an end to copy-protection software on digital songs. Something has to change, or iTunes and its ilk will never break into the mass market.

Here are some sobering numbers from the story:

• Only 3% of songs on a typical iPod are bought on iTunes.
• Just 3.2% of all “online households” — homes that have computers and Internet connections — made an iTunes purchase over a one-year period.
• About 10% of buyers purchased just one track during the entire year.
• About one-quarter of buyers spent $5 or less for the year.
• Most iTunes users, Forrester says, own fewer than two CDs’ worth of iTunes music.

Personally, I love the convenience of push-button purchasing. Last year, I spent hundreds of dollars at the iTunes store. Yet, at the dawn of ‘07 I did pause and consider paying a premium for the physical packages.

[NOTE] We ran a contrasting report from the Digital Music Association in January. But that group has a vested interest in promoting online music, whereas USA Today does not.

Just when you thought it would be tough to catch an old episode of “Gumby,” YouTube steps in and saves the day. 

YouTube has entered into a distribution deal with Digital Music Group, Inc. (DGMI), a company that owns or controls the rights to more than 4,000 hours of video. That includes classic TV episodes of “Gumby,” “I Spy” and “My Favorite Martian,” which will soon be ready for viewing from the comfort of your computer.

The deal will also allow YouTube access to part of DGMI’s music catalog that’s made up of about 40,000 recordings.

You can afford to go to Ozzfest this summer. It’s free.

Some may think Ozzy Osbourne and his wife and manager Sharon are “going off the rails on a crazy train.” But I don’t. I thnk the couple are savvy business people. As such, they’ve decided to make tickets for this summer’s annual Ozzfest free of charge. In the past, fans have been asked to pay up to $150 for Ozzfest tickets.

According to the BBC:

Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert trade publication Pollstar, said this is the first time admission has been free for a US touring festival.

“It’s a phenomenal idea,” he said.

I have to concur. Who doesn’t love free?