merchandise

Music retailers sound ready to uncork the champagne on the news that overall sales for the music industry rose for the first time in seven years.

Overall sales were up just a modest 3 percent in 2011, Nielsen Soundscan reported yesterday, but from the music industry's point of view, any increase is manna from heaven. It was common during the 7-year slump to see double-digit declines.

Jim Donio, president of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, the trade group representing music retailers, called the yearly sales figures "significantly positive."

According to Nielsen, digital album sales came in … Read more

Two privately owned stores in Queens, N.Y., accused of peddling unauthorized Apple accessories have agreed to surrender any fake Apple products in their inventories, according to a proposed settlement registered today in federal court in Brooklyn.

The settlement, if approved, would resolve a trademark-infringement lawsuit filed in July against defendants including Apple Story Inc and FunZone Inc, two shops in the Chinatown section of Flushing, Queens. The shops--which sell cases, headsets, and other accessories for Apple products--still say they haven't violated any Apple trademarks.

According to the trademark infringement suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York, Apple frowned upon the news that there were "Apple stores" in New York that the company didn't know about back in Cupertino. And it was probably a less-than-Lex Luthor/evil genius move for the owners of said stores to name one of them "The Apple Story." That may have been a bit of a giveaway, unless we were supposed to think the shop was a museum dedicated to the history of Granny Smiths. … Read more

Oh please, don't try to take Jim Donio down memory lane again.

During an interview with Donio, president of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), I wanted to reminisce about buying the Clash's "London Calling" at the Tower Records store on Sunset Boulevard or discovering Caetano Veloso at the Virgin Megastore on San Francisco's Market Street. Donio smiled politely.

He well knows that in addition to owning property in some of America's most fashionable neighborhoods, traditional record stores once commanded prime real estate in the hearts of the country's most-devoted music fans. … Read more

As we headed to a Disney preview of toys and gear for the upcoming "Tron" movie sequel, "Tron Legacy," we were reminded of what Yogurt said in "Spaceballs": "Merchandising, merchandising!"

While we're as excited about Disney's upcoming "Tron" sequel as anybody, it's clear the merchandising push will be fierce and all-encompassing. But if our preview of a few of the upcoming items is any indication, some of them are actually kind of cool, too.

Among the very many pieces of Tron gear available for your shopping pleasure … Read more

We've been promising you guys 404 stickers for the past year now, and we're happy to report that we finally have them in the office! We literally have 15,000 of them in boxes at our desks just waiting to ship out to our faithful listeners, so if you want a stack and a handful of 404 temporary tattoos, all you have to do is send a self-addressed stamped envelope with the appropriate postage to CNET NY (address in link), care of "The 404 Podcast - STICKERS.

A note to our international fans: we're happy to send stickers and tattoos out to wherever you live, but please make sure the postage on your envelope is correct, or they'll get lost in limbo somewhere. Thanks for your patience in advance, we prepare and seal each envelope ourselves so it might take a little time for them to get back to you.

It's our second day back in the office, but it's also the first time we're back together for a normal episode. There's a ton of voice mails to get to, but we get right back into our usual fare with the death of Spiderman 4. Sam Raimi just announced that he's pulled out of the directing role and some speculate that the studio will use James Cameron's screenplay for the next movie in the arachnid-superhero franchise. Speaking of movie news, we also check out the new A-Team movie trailer featuring Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson, and Jessica Biel- oh my.

Big thanks to everyone who sent us happy new year voice mails over the break, and keep them coming. Now that we're back, we're anxious to play more on the air, so phone us up at 1-866-404-CNET and give us a piece of your mind! Stay tuned during the second half of today's show to learn about the back end technology behind JDate and other popular online dating Web sites.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

The Transformers are hitting the big screen this July 4, and that means a whole lot of merchandising going on. Among the hordes of Transformers toys are Hasbro's Real Gear Transformers, a series of toy electronics that turn into robots. Remember Soundwave, the Transformer that became a tape deck? This is the next generation. Click for a slide show of all six Real Gear Transformers, plus the real-life gadgets we think they most resemble.

If you've looked at a television, a movie screen, or a billboard at any time in the last year, you're probably already aware that Transformers is coming. And if you've done any of those things in the last 20 years, you probably already know the story: transforming robots from another planet fight other transforming robots while Earth hangs in the balance.

Let's see...robots, cartoons, new movie coming out...yep, this means merchandising and lots of it. The Transformers movie is going to get toys, toys, and more toys. Transformers is getting everything from action figures … Read more