Sunday 16 December 2007

Million Dollar Book

Amazon.com has purchased J.K Rowling’s hand-written book of fairy tales for a boat load of loot.

We’re incredibly excited to announce that Amazon has purchased J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London. The book of five wizarding fairy tales, referenced in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.

I have no clue if the stories are good or not, but the I really dig the idea of a handwritten book. Visit Amazon.com for more images of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Thx to The Short Fat Kid

Wednesday 12 December 2007

Music Contest Makes a Copy of the 'Million Dollar Homepage' Idea

Like the million-dollar homepage before it, Audio Uprising asks people to buy little advertising plots on a big grid; the twist is that each plot links to a band profile page rather than to a sponsor's website. Each 10 pixel X 10 pixel block on the site costs $10, and there's no limit to how many blocks a band can buy, although they can only upload one song per grouping.

Visitors vote on the bands, and the winner gets between $10K and $50K (depending on how many other bands buy in to the system) plus a showcase concert in their home town. Unlike OurStage, an online music contest that has safeguards in place to stop bands from gaming the system, AudioUprising was designed with the opposite notion in mind, so the winning band will be the one that can pull the most votes towards the site: