Sound Ctrl ally FADER Media announced a partnership with Insound to handle exclusive ad sales for the latter brand. The deal includes direct links to purchase Insound merchandise below relevant posts in thefader.com music section; ROS banners across all FADER Media platforms and on Insound.com; a one-week download to each of The FADER’s free PDF issues; and FADER-designed and curated merchandise powered by Insound.com

Thanks to the advent of blogging and social media services, the normally copacetic relationship between advertisers and product reviewers has been compromised and the government is now stepping in.

Yesterday, the FTC announced that its revising its rules concerning endorsements and testimonials that have been in effect for almost 30 years. According to the official statement, “the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.”

The FTC’s move is of course receiving some backlash. In a statement to the New York Times, Linda Goldstein–a partner at law firm Manatt Phelps & Phillips that is representing three marketing groups including the Word of Mouth Marketing Association–argues, “If a product is provided to bloggers, the F.T.C. will consider that, in most cases, to be a material connection even if the advertiser has no control over the content of the blogs. In terms of the real world blogging community, that’s a seismic shift. We would have preferred the F.T.C. to work closer with the industry to learn how viral marketing works.”

Of course, bloggers aren’t the only target of the guideline tweaks; celebrities and advertisers themselves are in the government’s crosshairs as well. The FTC says, “celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.” Meanwhile, if advertisers “refer in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.”

Eighteen months after unleashing the fictional rock star White Gold unto the masses, San Fran-based agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners has resurrected the character for the next phase of its enduring “Got Milk?” campaign on behalf of the California Milk Processor Board. This time around, White Gold–a cross between Ziggy Stardust and Spinal Tap–goes on an intergalactic mission in the Battle for Milkquarious.

In essence, it’s a 20-minute rock opera sprinkled with some Rocky Horror influence where our milk-loving, guitar-wielding hero must save his hometown Milkquarious from a milk shortage while rescuing his gal Strawberry Summers from the evil Nasterious. It’s not quite as Saturday morning cartoonish as you’d think since the campaign is aimed at the high-school set. In fact, on the site, Goodby has added the “White Gold Milkdonkulous Giveaway“,  whereby teens 14-18 can recreate one of the scenes from the rock opera and win up to $20,000 for their school’s arts program. The agency itself created five 30-second spots to drive viewers to the website as well a print component for the overall campaign.

From his dozen or so books to his humorous lectures to his entrepreneurial endeavors, Seth Godin has always found a way to teach without preaching and break down the complexities of marketing to make it digestible for the masses. Not only was his blogranked #1 on the AdAge Power 150 in the marketing category, but he founded the info-sharing site Squidoo and his tome Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable has sold over 150,000 copies and is published in 23 countries.

I recently read Seth Godin’s book Tribes and it spoke to me a lot in regards to SoundCtrl. SoundCtrl in itself is a tribe, a movement, a mission!

Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness later. You believe that innovation can change things, that heretics can break the rules, and that remarkable products and services can spread. The secret of leadership is simple: do what you bleive in. Paint a picture of the future. Go There!

In a lengthy interview with Robert S. Levin of New York Enterprise Report, former DoubleClick CEO Kevin Ryan, who helped build said company into a $3 billion entity that was eventually snatched up by Google, discusses among other things his latest business venture AlleyCorp.  Keeping it within the family, Ryan teamed up with former DoubleClick CTO Dwight Merriman in 2007 to form the company, which is essentially a conglomerate comprised of blog network Business Insider, the private fashion/lifestyle-focused online community Gilt Groupe and search engine ShopWiki.

AlleyCorp aside, Levin–who fondly refers to Ryan as the “Keith Richards” of the tech set (minus the heroin)–digs into everything from man’s storied past as creator of Dilbert.com, his leap to DoubleClick and why New York is just as much of a force in the Internet sector. You can read the full story here.