But seriously, Viddy — which makes an iOS app that has attracted celebrity users like Snoop Dogg and Linkin Park, and limits video clips to 15 seconds — has now raised a $6 million Series A round led by Battery Ventures and including Greycroft Ventures and Qualcomm.

Viddy CEO Brett O’Brien says his company is stronger than the competition, for a few reasons: First, Viddy’s in-app editing effects — which include 99-cent premium promotions for content from partners like the Muppets and Linkin Park — help make compelling, shareable content.

Second, the Venice, Calif.-based company is trying more of a public Twitter-like approach than a private social network, so the star users it recruits can bring in their fans.

And third, Viddy seems to have already built a pretty significant audience — with a reported 40 million video views in January.

Some of Viddy’s recently funded competitors included Mobli (where Leonardo DiCaprio is an investor), Socialcam and Klip. Also, though mobile social apps seem to be doing better than ever before, this isn’t a new category; older mobile video start-ups included Kyte.tv and Qik (bought by Skype).

Viddy, which has 10 employees, also took investment from Bessemer Ventures, Sky Dayton, Jarl Mohn and Christina Brodbeck, and is advised by Biz Stone.

Here’s a Viddy shout-out from Snoop Dogg, who is rocking a great Angry Birds hat:

Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Mobile Roadie has developed a platform that makes it easier for brands, musicians and others to build applications for the various mobile platforms, like Apple’s iOS and Android. Many of the applications provide access to news, streaming music, live or recorded videos and photos. They can also offer the ability to purchase music, video, tickets and merchandise.

From Michael Schneider’s position as CEO of Mobile Roadie, he has a 30,000-foot view of how consumers are making purchases from mobile applications.

In several instances, he’s seeing the applications power thousands of downloads, and in at least one circumstance, generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues. “[The iPhone is] like an ATM machine in the pocket. It’s incredibly easy for fans to spend money. You just have to enter your iTunes password.”

Country pop star Taylor Swift’s applications have generated more than 600,000 downloads in the U.S., totaling more than “six figures” in digital merchandise sold, according to Mobile Roadie. Nine months ago, when the Taylor Swift apps were released, 10,000 fans tried to buy concert tickets in the first week, but not all succeeded because they were sold out.

Likewise, Linkin Park’s application directs people to a mobile optimized store, where large, easy-to-tap buttons are used to complete purchases. Fans of the multi-platinum rock band have spent more money per purchase over their phones via the apps than on purchases made on the full Linkin Park Web site, Schneider said.

These mobile commerce trends are not just occurring among musicians; top retailers are seeing the trends pick up, as well. EBay expects $1.5 billion in gross merchandise sales via mobile this year, which is three times the amount from 2009. And Amazon said in the summer that it had sold more than $1 billion in products over mobile devices over a 12-month period.

Still, Schneider says these are early days. Apple’s devices, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod, are the best at generating sales because of the easy integration with iTunes and one-stop billing.

Meanwhile, Android offers a less polished experience, leading Mobile Roadie to recommend to clients that they direct customers to Amazon.com’s MP3 store, or other third parties. The billing systems are also out of whack. Users may have to use Google’s or Amazon’s own billing platform, or be bumped out to the browser, where they might be offered a choice of PayPal, Visa or MasterCard. “Android doesn’t have the iTunes equivalent, and therefore hasn’t been as successful at monetizing digital content,” he said.

This week, rap mogul Diddy, a.k.a. Sean Combs or Puff Daddy, is releasing an app using Mobile Roadie’s platform in coordination with his upcoming new album release on Dec. 14.

It will have links to all of his previous albums to encourage fans to complete their album collection, but it also will include the ability to scan so-called QR codes. Fans will be able to find these barcodes on promotional materials, such as posters. If scanned, they’ll offer users the ability to download the app, or if it’s already installed, they will be able to unlock full tracks or other content for free.

Schneider said the experiments in mobile commerce are just beginning to happen. “Right now people are just wrapping minds around mobile being a critical and important part of selling and the fact they can do really big numbers,” he said.

It’s nice to hear enthusiasm on the part of Linkin Park band member Mike Shinoda about an innovative-for-the-music-industry effort to give fans a chance to be part of the iconic Grammy-winning rock band.

That’s because most artists or content creators–while making all the right sounds about the Internet’s impact on their business–often privately cringe at the ongoing flood of user-generated material that has drastically changed the industry.

Not Shinoda, who is certain he will find some real talent via a new online contest, called “Linkin Park, Featuring You,” that gives anyone an opportunity to collaborate with the band to produce an original song based on some of the tracks from the forthcoming single “The Catalyst.”

The song is on Linkin Park’s next album, “A Thousand Suns,” to be released September 14.

“We looked at it as both risky and fun to save a spot on the record that could be just anything,” he said in an interview with BoomTown earlier this week. “It’s creative, lets the fans be heard and, of course, is a great way to promote the album.”

Of course it is, but Shinoda said he is not expecting to have to put any bad-quality music on the record just to sell more music.

“The album could not be any more sacred to us and this is certainly an X-factor, which is kind of a move against the grain for us,” he said. “But the Internet has actually given a lot more people a chance to be heard and, as it has turned out, amateurs are so much better than we ever expected.”

So far, Shinoda said, he has just sampled a few dozen of the thousands of submissions so far, either selecting randomly or via a popularity ranking system the contest uses. He said he’s also using a range of people who are part of the Linkin Park team to filter material.

But, ultimately, Shinoda and his bandmates (pictured here) will pick the winning submission, with either the song to be included on the band’s new album or the winner to be invited to perform with the band on a song on the upcoming record. Either way, a pretty good prize for an aspiring musician.

Shinoda said he is hoping to hear a lot of different sounds from electronic music to keyboards to guitars and even horns (“No one has submitted a horn version so far,” he laughed. “But I hope someone does.”)

Linkin Park is using a group of Internet companies to carry out the massive user-generated effort, including: MySpace Music (platform, promotion and direct fan messaging); Indaba Music (hosting the MySpace application that allows musicians to auto-syndicate their remixes on MySpace); Top Spin Media (using their email for a song widget to deliver audio stems to all participants); and Ning (the back end to Linkin Park’s Web site, where they are also distributing the audio stems to push back to the contest)

There have been remix contests online done before, such as Snoop Dogg’s “That Tree” Remix Contest, which had 8,000 entries and generated a lot of fan interest.

But this effort is clearly more ambitious, perhaps because Shinoda is clearly a techie, with an ongoing interest in filling the Linkin Park Web site with puzzles, games and other interactive features.

In fact, Linkin Park had already conducted a smaller contest for fans to submit designs for characters used in a game the band released in April, called “8-Bit Rebellion,” for the Apple (AAPL) iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. And, after the game was completed by a player, it unlocked a new song, “Blackbirds.”

Shinoda said the band hopes to do even more digitally, trying to involve and engage fans in ways that they never would have tried before.

“There is a huge unknown factor and this is not something we would have done five years ago,’ he said of the latest collaboration contest. “But I am not afraid of my fans being good at music, even if it turns out they are better than me.”

Until a winner is selected, here’s a most excellent music video of my favorite Linkin Park song, “Shadow of the Day,” because I wish I had written the perfect and simple line, “Sometimes beginnings aren’t so simple/Sometimes goodbye’s the only way” (maybe some fan will write something as good):

And here’s a blog post by Sam Wick, SVP of marketing at MySpace Music, about its partnership with Linkin Park:

Linkin Park Wants To Put You on Their New Album

Linkin Park is arguably one of the biggest rock acts in the world with more than seven million fans on MySpace and iLike, two Grammy wins and a boatload of accolades from the music community. So, needless to say, we were more than a little excited to help the band launch their next album, “A Thousand Suns.”

This is a band that’s almost as passionate about social media and technology as they are about the music they create–and they came to MySpace, because we have a proven track record of successfully architecting custom album campaigns that uniquely marry music to innovation on a global scale. With this in mind, we knew we had to do something that not only raises global awareness of the new album, but really plays into the intimate artist-to-fan connection that Linkin Park has been cultivating on our platform for years. And so “Linkin Park, Featuring You” was born–a multi-phase program that each of our 30 territories across the world are rolling out locally.

Linkin Park, Featuring You begins on MySpace with a music application that allows fans to create their own original version of the band’s new single “The Catalyst” and ends with the rare opportunity for one worthy fan to have his or her song stripped onto the next album. SERIOUS. To make this happen, Linkin Park and MySpace Music brought together Topspin Media, Ning and Indaba Music–a true technology trifecta–to allow fans to interact and play with the music before it is even released. Again, SERIOUS.

Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park has this message to share with his fans on MySpace and across the Web:

“In the lifetime of Linkin Park, the evolution of community and music technology has blurred the line between artist and fan. With the release of our new album we want to push it even further and so we are making a commitment to our fans that is a first of its kind: We are blindly dedicating a spot on our new album to something unknown. That space is reserved for you and we’re confident that you will create something that we can be proud to include on “A Thousand Suns.” This is not just a “fan-remix” contest; we want to collaborate with you. This effort is made possible by the global 360 music platform of MySpace, and the dedication and talent of our incredible fans. Thank you. We look forward to hearing your submissions.”

Here’s how it works: By installing the Indaba Music-powered app on MySpace, fans have access to five stems from “The Catalyst” that they can use to re-arrange and re-imagine the song using either their own Digital Audio Workstation or with Indaba’s free, Web-based software. Once submitted, users can vote for their favorite versions and help the band in their quest to identify new talent and ultimately pick a winner.

“Linkin Park, Featuring You” is just the beginning of a much larger partnership between the band and MySpace Music that will provide Linkin Park fans with recognition worldwide with access to live shows, exclusive content and premieres as well as opportunities to connect and interact with the band in ways that only MySpace Music can offer.

Be sure to get your entries in by July 25th and don’t forget to spread the word about the contest to your friends around the world–and go buy the new single on August 2nd.

“Nu metal” rockers Linkin Park did indeed play a secret concert at the Apple store in SoHo last night. But it was a just a concert–nothing more. There were no big announcements aside from news that the show was recorded and videotaped for release on the iTunes Store. Said Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, “This is the best show in an Apple store we’ve ever played.“

Or a carefully orchestrated leak.

Incidentally, Linkin Park’s tour schedule puts the band in New York City on Thursday.

Or a carefully orchestrated leak.

Incidentally, Linkin Park’s tour schedule puts the band in New York City on Thursday.