Couldn’t fit everything I wanted to into that last post. So, here we go with even more from Demo on the big theme of sharing consumer-generated content.

Let’s start with the naming-challenged GarageBand.com. Everyone knows their name, but for the wrong reasons. No, they don’t have anything to do with Apple — except they wouldn’t sell their name to them when the latter wanted to launch its very popular software; they’d only license it. (But that must have been a nice chunk of financing for the smaller firm, or ongoing financing.) Now, however, GB.com is doomed to be perpetually confused with their much bigger namesake, while Apple, with their runaway sales and monster brand awareness, I’m sure couldn’t care less. Gargagebandcomlogo Anyway, GarageBand.com is a going concern on its own, “privately financed” (wink, wink), and wants to be your “free iTunes companion.” And CEO Ali Partovi boasted from stage that his software combined with the iPod “will replace FM radio.” His company’s Gpal software, now available for public beta testing (but Windows only — boo), is designed to work with iTunes and help you build and manage a music library. It creates and maintains play lists, discovers new music (caveat: only emerging/unsigned artists on their own service), and — coming soon (apparently the coders couldn’t quite get this part ready) — share your music tastes online. This last feature will create a self-updating, personalized list of your favorite tunes that can be shared online in blogs, on MySpace, etc. GarageBand.com also runs a service called Gcast, which lets you quickly publish your own podcast for free, from your cell phone(!). Partovi shoved his phone in front of me, let me talk, then went to his web site and played back my very first podcast. I was so proud of my new baby. [Actually not — I sounded like I didn’t have a fricking thing to say worth listening to.] So now people who can’t write, or don’t want to, can say screw blogging, and just can fill up their site with talk — all day long. [I can hardly wait.]

Switching gears back to photo-sharing, let’s talk about perhaps the most impressive presentation, visually and otherwise, at Demo 2006: Smilebox. I have to say as a marketer that, for a consumer service (and there were lots of them presenting), this outfit seems to really have it together. They get it — the branding is flat-out brilliant. Having just announced another $5 million round, on top of an earlier $1 million, I’d say Smilebox is coming out of the blocks with one heck of a flourish. The company says it’s inventing a new category it calls “creative messaging,” which combines features of related categories like photo services, scrapbooking, and greeting cards. It claims that its service will be “unparalleled in its ability to convey mood, thought and emotion.” Not familiar with scrapbooking? It’s a $1 billion-a-year business, friends. And when you roll it in with photos and greetings, the market is $15 annually, said Andy Wright, Smilebox founder. [Shown getting prepped for his Demo pitch. Photo: Seattle Times.] Smileboxseattletimes So, here’s how it works: a consumer wants to send a birthday card. She chooses, say, a three-page card design, then decides which of her digital photos goes on each page and chooses some music to play in the background. The recipient gets the card by e-mail and is able to view it without having to register or download any software. (It runs on Flash, already installed on most PCs.) How many designs will Smilbox have? (And note: these really are designs — they’re too good to call “templates.”) Wright said the company will have 200 online by March and upwards of a thousand by yearend. Granted, many firms are crowding into this photo-sharing business. (Forrester says photo sharing over e-mail is the fourth most popular online activity, after sending text e-mails, researching stuff to buy, and then online purchasing itself.) Yahoo is no doubt the gorilla, especially after its purchase of Flickr last year. See my earlier post about Yahoo’s presentation at Demo. (And Will Aldrich was one of the best, most high-energy pitchers on stage.) But there are a slew of other companies trying to find a place in the space — including a bunch of pitchers at Demo. Smilebox CEO Wright previously headed RealNetworks’ game service, which gave independent game developers a cut of revenue from their games sales. Now Smilebox will have the same model, wherein Flash developers get a cut from the designs they sell through the service. Hmmmm….shades of what Multiverse Network is doing with their gaming platform, per my earlier post on them. And another outfit I mentioned previously, Gravee, too — their whole existence is about sharing the wealth. It seems we have a Demo sub-theme going on here: revenue sharing. Is it finally time for the little guys to get theirs? (As Google stock continues to tank….)

Waiting to get some answers back from the Zingee guys in Australia — so more soon on them. (Let’s hear it for P2P.) I’ll also be taking another look in my next post at user-generated content plays TagWorld, with some comments from their CEO, and the very interesting LocaModa.

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[Written at Bloomington, MN.]