This is a real add I saw on a you tube clip from the movie Garden Party. This is a bad sign for the ad market, or a great sign of alignment between you tube and the untapped add market for people making crystal meth!
Category: Uncategorized
IMEEM vs LALA UPDATE
I was discouraged to see the Imeem widget default to :30 clips. I guess the business model can not support free streaming, legally liscnesed into a widget (trying to use only liscemsed tools and players here).
So I hopped over to LALA. Remmber the big difference between Imeem and LALA embedable Widgets:
I am paying .10 a song for web streaming rights, so people who come to my blog can hear full length.
You can only stream for free in full one time – then it will default to :30
If your looking to stream free music on your site, the LALA model seems fair in absence of true ad suppported model that works (R.I.P. Imeem widget). LALA also added a nice facebook connect implementation I’ll write more about later!
Try the LALA playlist here, original imeem playlist below:
ASHLEY TISDALE AND TWITTER
Multiple press outlets picked up a piece about the campaign for Ashley Tisdale’s new album “Guilty Pleasure”. I’ve been working on the music side of Ashley’s campaign since her first album in 2006. She is hard working, and cares about her fans! One of the highlights of this campaign has been her use of Twitter. Ashley took to it right away and she understands how important it is to communicate direct.
The key is it’s all her. And that’s why her Twittering is generating lots of buzz and traffic to her site and store! Even a star as big as Ashley needs to understand the first key principle for successful twittering – authenticity.
This article from Reuters poked a little fun at her Tweets, and it somewhat diluted my point about the importance of Ashley’s’ communication with her fans:
“Tisdale is an especially avid Twitterer, with more than 750,000 followers.
“She’s very protective of it in terms of it sounding authentic,” according to Warner Bros. senior VP of new media Jeremy Welt. “There have been a couple of times where we’ve said to her, ‘Hey, why don’t you mention so-and-so?’ and she’s told us, ‘I wouldn’t say that.'” (What would she say? One recent Tweet read, “Happy fathers day!!! Goin to dinner with my family and the most amazing dad ever! I love you daddy!”)”
You may not see the connection in Ashley Tisdale twittering “happy fathers day”, but her 940,000 followers do. The series of seemingly simple tweets provide basic insights into her life (She’s subtly letting her fans know family is important to her), and it all adds up to a lot for her fans. They peak into the everyday activity. You don’t see overloaded shameless promo, or re-purposed press releases. It is exactly this type of communication that makes it Authentic, and why Twitter itself has grown so fast.
7 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE “REACHING FANS” PANEL AT SF MUSIC TECH
I had a great time at the SF Music Tech summit today. My panel was entitled “Reaching Fans” with Sean, Dave, Pano, Aaron, and Dave.
Thanks to Brian for a great day! Here is a recap of some of the key points I wanted to discuss:
We are past the tool phase – and into the “Romance the Fan” era
There are than enough tools to reach fans, no matter how advanced or basic. Know how to use them to communicate your passion, listen back, and your fan base will grow!
Your Music is the most important asset and the best way to “Reach Fans”.
Not all Artist’s are meant to connect to Fans all the time.
Fans are going to seek what they want, when they want it – if your going to connect to them, be preapred for this!
You dont only have to give it away – selling great products from your site IS a way to connect with your Fans.
Many artists think they’re connecting to their Fans but are just pushing info out. There is a difference.
Avoid communication and data black holes – make sure your aware of what everyone else on your team is doing with your Fans. You need someone to QB your direct to Fan strategy across all areas.
The other panelists made some great points, couldnt write them all down. Search twitter #sfmusictech and youll get the best recap of the day!
MAVERICK RECORDS TOP 10 ARTIST PLAYLIST
I spent five years running new media for Maverick Records from 1999-2004. It was a time of transition where new media was gaining steam and the labels were taking heat. I rember fighting with people alot to do the right thing.
While new media was my focus, we put out some great music too! These Maverick Artists make a great mix, with a thread of quality throughout. We had the right concepts to break them on-line but the social infrastructure of web 2.0 and the blogosphere wasn’t quite in place. Some of these songs and bands should have been bigger, and i can see them actually doing better today with more place to get the word out!
LIGHTS TALKS FACEBOOK CONNECT, TWITTER!
You saw my post about how cool LIGHTS was at SXSW. Ill let her speak for herself! Follow her @ http://twitter.com/lightsnoise
LIGHTS' VIDEO BLOG 24
LIGHTS PERFORMS AT SXSW FACEBOOK PARTY
While SXSW is mostly know for music, I’ve found the interactive portion is much more exciting. It is the ultimate in music and social networking, as everyone here is twittering, blogging. It’s the only time all year, I fell like I can’t keep up with it all! There are so many people here using leading edge social technologies that it gives you a taste of what it will be like if they catch on. SXSW interactive was the first place i discovered Twitter several years ago – and it only got me excited because everyone here used it – so you got a taste of what it COULD be. So more than just the panels, it’s a chance to be a part of a hyper connected future, while enjoying some good music.
This year, “LIGHTS”, one of my favorite artists on Warner Bros, is playing at the invite only Facebook party. It will be a great party, and a great show, so if your down at sxsw, hit me via twitter, and I’ll see what I can do to get you in.
NOKIA MUSIC EVENT AND WHY IT MATTERS!
Not much coverage in the US music press about the nokia muisc event today.
It wasn’t groundbreaking but it was siginigcant:
1.) Three new music phones – any company the size of Nokia producing cool phones with an attempt to monetize music is a big deal. The phones are cool!. Music service may need some work, but its a great start.
2.) Nokia is Planning a Virtual Music Store in India – india is a very tough market to “Sell” music in, so again when someone like Nokia is opening any type of Music store – it’s is a good sign. Nokia launched a similar service in UK and got a good response.
And where will “Comes With Music” launch next? If your an iphone user, stay tuned for the 5800 review, and see what your missing!
NOKIA, IPHONE AND THE FUTURE OF MOBILE MUSIC
Nokia is a close second to apple when it comes to gadget lust. They seem to pump phones out so fast and there is always a new model that seems to challenge convention. Bad ass, like a mac, yet uniquely “Nokia”.
And performance wise they score – GREAT battery life, and usually better than aveage reception.
From a US perspective, they don’t get enough respect. The next series of posts will examine Nokia’s newest designs, music capabilities, and potential role in the future of the business of music.
It was the 6800 in 2003 that first hipped me to the fact nokia was trying to innovate outside the box!
Such a simple design – a small functional Nokia “candy” bar style, but access to full keyboard when needed. Great engineering to solution!
Nokia made video a focal point of their designs very early. This thing flipped my mind when it came out 3 years ago. Definitely pushing limits of a phone/camera combo.
And this n90 never got the repsect in the US for beautiful design of a music phone.
Next up my look at the 5800 – the first nokia touch screen phone / music device:
TOP 5 CONCEPTS FROM FROM DIGITAL MUSIC EAST 2009
Capturing Some important concepts from the discussion, presentations, and panels at DME 2009.
1.) Music in the Background – increasingly music is a background activity (while surfing, while playing video games). Online activity and music fuse into a “new” “combo” state of mind between communication and music. Important to understand this context.
2.) Hard Drives are filling up? Russ Crupnic from NPD floated that some stats may indicate people are loaded up with more music than they can handle on their computers and devices. If Hard drives and devices get full, watch the change in acquisition behavior. I think this was the first i’d heard people discussing the reality of this concept in 2009.
3.) Power of Radio – still massive motivator of top downloads and social net discussion of music. Shows up as top source fro music discovery in many demos. Traditional radios power is a reminder that no matter where you are in digital music, online strategy must take into consideration all media. Online radio’s untapped potential – people like radio as a medium if done right. Explosive growth could be starting.
4.) “It’s a fact of life: If your business model depends on controlling or getting paid for copies of zeros and ones, you may need to look at a new business model” (Jim Griffin).
Increased discussion about charging at the isp level from Jim Griffin (transcript here) , and The Isle of man project.
5.) Sometimes when it comes to music, you just have to get lucky in the studio (Richard Gottehrer, CEO of the orchard digital service, and a songwriter whose hits included “My. Boyfriend’s Back”)
If you twitter search Digital Music East, you’ll get a good sense of what everyone else there was thinking!
Ted Cohen’s intro was brief but accurate, and the presentations were all interesting.
My panel “The State of the Digital Union” was after the first hour intro. The twiiter feed from the audience was streaming behind us, and I made sure to watch it a few times during the panel. Problem was no ATT service at all in the room, so I couldn’t participate later on.
Hyebot posts a recap of the panel and my Metalica example – some liked it some didn’t!
HERE’S HOW TO CRACK THE SKYE WITH MASTODON!
Start with an amazing new album from Mastodon (out 03.24.09)
Get a team of people to run Mastadon’s site who LOVE the band and LOVE the fans
Create an amazing direct to fan piece that ties directly into the concept of the album
Get Paul Romano to help design it 🙂
Make a kick as web site that contains the experience of the package and the album!
I’m so excited to work on stuff like this every day. Something special is happening with this band, and getting to make their web store, a special fan piece, and their site, all tie to the concept of the music is a dream – and we’re almost sold out of all of the special pieces 5 weeks before street date!
Check out Pitchforks review “Mastodon LP Gets Release Date, Badass Special Edition”
Pre-order the package here
Check out the Cracke the sky experience site here (ok it takes awhile to load, but we decided to sacrifice load time to give fans something they could feel!!)
MY SPACE AND AUDITUDE LAUNCH NEW MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE VIDEO FROM WATCHMEN
Streaming tied to myspace video and the auditude platform, linking fans to amazon for mp3’s and the bands own store for vinyl and merch.
THE BEST WAY TO HEAR THE TOP TEN SONGS FOR FREE EVERY WEEK!
Hear the top 10 songs for free every week, across itunes, p2p, and radio.
I make the playlists from the radio charts, big champagne (p2p file-sharing), and itunes. The top 10 doesn’t always represent the best music, but i think its interesting to keep up with what the gatekeepers are playing, and what the fans are buying (and stealing). Some of its really good, some of its really funny, And over time the top lists do flow with different sounds.
TOP 20 FILE SHARING (BIG CHAMPAGNE)
TOP 20 P2P/FILE SHARING DOWNLOADS (WEEK ENDING 1-29-09)
TOP 10 ITUNES SALES (WEEK ENDING 1-29-09)
RADIO – TOP 10 ROCK FORMAT
RADIO TOP 15 URBAN
RATATAT BIZARRE VIDEO MASHUP
I found out about ratatat through some random surfing. I dont know much about him, but hes a producer and remixer and I like his style!
But what really caught me were these videos on his site. They both have a very simple effect added to the exsiting clip, repurposing it into somethign startling, and bizarre.
I recognize the paul simon video, but not the first one.
And from his myspace, you findAudio Dregs, a record label and DIY music and art collective with a myspace page worth checking out!
NEW MEDIA EVANGELISM – LINKS FOR 01/13/08
Part of my job is to make sure I distribute info on trends and the changing new media landscape to the rest of my company. Change is constant. You need to put the info, trends, and new thoughts in front of people EVERY DAY. As “New Media” has speed up it seems as soon as people in more traditional role get into a concept it shifts. A few years ago it felt like you had 3-6 months to get your head around a new trend or partner, but no more! Heres what I am sending today:
Time Magazine on future of Media
“ In other words, the media business needs to see that the shovel it got whacked with–the change in the way people communicate and the spreading of that power–is not necessarily a weapon or a means to make our graves. It’s just a tool. Time to start digging.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1869219,00.html
Here are some numbers that show how big the numbers are and how important the net is to the music biz or any artist!
http://www.thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/social-media-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/
Mobile – good illustration of how powerful mobile is. Most music fans wont be this aggressive, but this is “engagement” gone crazy. Clearly the next horizon for music biz:
GIRL, 13, SENDS 14,528 TEXTS IN A MONTH
http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2009/01/022295.htm
A FUTURE LEANING LOOK AT SUBSCRIPTIONS AND ISP’S
Information Age: How the Music Industry Can Get Digital Satisfaction – WSJ.com