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These Are The Good Old Days
July 18, 2008
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"Technology ... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other."
-- English physicist and novelist, C.P. Snow, New York Times, 15 March 1971Old habits used to die hard, but in today's tech world, they die fast and easy.
It seems the daily news items I receive in my e-mail about technological advances are now more numerous than those I receive from online drugstores offering great prices on Viagra, or those from Nigeria telling me I have millions waiting for me if I follow the instructions.
Of course, some of the tech announcements are not as important as others. The daily ones about changes and advances in messaging technology certainly aren't an endorsement of western industrial civilization, so those get deleted right quick. And just how many types of messaging do we really need?
The changes happening are of course affecting all media and entertainment companies, online or offline.
* Item: Young Mobile Users Embrace Video. More than half (55%) of those 29 and under would be willing to request mobile video content that interested them, according to a survey of 400 mobile customers (Source: http://tinyurl.com/666zlp )
* Item: U.S. Internet users watched 12 billion online videos in May, up 45% from a year ago and about 10% from April, according to comScore's Video Metrix service. ( Source: http://tinyurl.com/6zq7h8 ) That's 12 BILLION people.
* Broadband usage is growing at incredible speed as more and more people desire the best connections to fully enjoy the multi-media online experience, and more broadband options become available.
* Flash drives are the new rage and are making all other storage formats obsolete as more and more people realize they can keep their music, movies, and documents in these nice little devices, and in greater quantity than on other devices. (I've had all my important files backed on flash drives for over a year now)
These habits, already welcomed and adopted by consumers at large, present new and more difficult challenges to the music and film industries. And the problems of meeting these new challenges will never be diminished or completely solved. Why? Because meeting the challenges of today is old news tomorrow. "That was yesterday, and yesterday's gone."
Which, in turn, means the very survival of intellectual content providers is at stake.
When 12 billion videos are being viewed online on one month, it makes one ask the question "Who's watching TV anymore?"
Of course, there are millions watching TV, but the major networks are seeing their biggest shows lose audience year over year. More channels, more options, less audience for the networks. Television might still be the biggest in home entertainment for the family, but its power at holding audience is eroding as people flock online to YouTube and other online destinations to watch what they want when they want, and as often as they want. You Tube is TiVo online for millions.
Once again, the prophetic words of ex-HP Chairperson Carly Fiorina come to mind: "When you really think about it, revolutions are most often about giving power to the people. They've been about people taking control; they've been about the power of democracy ... the future is one in which consumers watch or listen to what they want to watch, when they want, at any time they want, on any device. This is a generation that will not wait for content to be delivered to them at a prescribed time."
How the music industry can generate revenues and survive in this never ending technological environment is the $64,000 question. Well, actually, taking inflation and the weak dollar into account, it's probably now the $64 million dollar question.
But make no mistake about it. The MUSIC will survive all these trails and tribulations. The industry, on the other hand, will be shattered and rebuilt on new models yet to be created by the innovators who have the vision to see where it all might be going.
What's grossly apparent is that time is moving at light speed and technology waits for no one.
Bob Dylan sang, "Ain't no use jiving, Ain't no use joking, Everything is broken." And when it comes to fixing yesterday's problems, everything will remain broken.
Hiring good consumer product marketing people (see the last few issues of the newsletter for those rants) just ain't gonna' be enough to fix all the problems. The issue isn't marketing; the issue at hand is adapting new technologies to distribute music to benefit artists, labels, and so on and so on, and scooby-dooby-dooby.
Churchill said, "The empires of the future are empires of the mind." That was never truer than it is today and will be tomorrow.
Enjoy today ... this minute. These are indeed "the good old days."
And Now This...
From attorney Ray Beckerman's website comes information about the newly announced "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video," which was developed by the Center for Social Media at American University, the same people who brought us a "Code of Best Practices for Fair Use" for documentary filmmakers.
You can read about it and download the file at Ray's site at:
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/#8576745218097987277.
Quote Of The Week...
"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious."
-- John Scully
Guitar Hero To Take On iTunes?
Financial TimesActivision Blizzard, formed as the result of a merger between video game publisher Activision and the gaming unit of media giant Vivendi, plans to launch an online music platform that could rival Apple's iTunes media store. Bobby Kotick, the company's new CEO, said that creating an online music platform for Activision's popular Guitar Hero line of games was "the natural evolution" of a franchise that generated nearly $1 billion in worldwide revenues.
"I don't think there have been a lot of credible alternatives to iTunes, but Guitar Hero certainly has that potential," Kotick said, adding that the merger with Vivendi, owner of Universal Music Group, would help Activision Blizzard realize that goal. However, to compete with iTunes, FT notes that the recently formed company would have to strike licensing deals with the other major music labels.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Rock On: Last.fm Pays Royalties To Indy Bands
Last.fm is officially launching an unusual new Artist Royalty Program that will pay royalties to unsigned or independent musicians and bands. The program was soft-launched in January, but the official launch marks another step in the evolution of a new model for the music business -- and it's located almost entirely online.
The online music platform, owned by CBS Corp., is the first Internet radio service to offer royalties to unsigned and independent artists. Musicians and bands can register for the royalty program when they upload music to the online platform, meaning that they will begin receiving royalties whenever their songs are played on one of Last.fm's dozens of streaming radio channels, or selected for on demand play by an individual.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Limited Edition Beatles iPod Coming To Bloomingdales,
$1 Million For Sgt.Pepper Drum SkinThough the Beatles' music remains unavailable on iTunes, Bloomingdales may play host to the first official meeting of the Fab Four and Steve Jobs' device. Apple will also produce a limited-edition Beatles iPod stocked with every song in the band's catalog.
In other Beatles news, the iconic drum skin on the front cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band went to auction yesterday in London, fetching over $1 million.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Daily Video Entertainment in 2013 Will Be Less Than 50% Traditional TV
According to the Multi-platform Video Report released by Solutions Research Group, an average American consumer aged 12 and older with Internet access now spends 6.1 hour daily with video-based entertainment, up from 4.6 in 1996. Of this 6.1 hours, 63.9% (nearly four hours per day) currently comes from traditional television, including live, DVR and video-on-demand viewing. Video games, web and PC video, DVDs and video on mobile devices account for the balance.
TV accounted for a lower share of video-based entertainment among younger Americans, coming in at 42.4% among those 12-24 (vs. 63.9% total population average).
Read more about it by clicking here.
Viacom, YouTube Agree To Mask User Data
YouTube will be allowed to redact usernames, IP addresses and viewing histories from data it must hand over to Viacom as part of a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit.
Read more about it by clicking here.
CASH CONTRIBUTORS
Snoop Dogg, Pete Rock and Alabama 3 will contribute songs to Johnny Cash Remixed. The album, which features Snoop doing "I Walk the Line," is out October 14th.
OLD FACES NEW AGAIN?
According to the Faces' keyboardist Ian McLagan, the band is "serious" about reuniting. Earlier this week, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood reportedly met to discuss to discuss getting back together.
GRAMM INSPIRED
Former Foreigner singer and born-again Christian Lou Gramm has completed recording his first Christian rock album. The album is due out in the fall.
WHO'S TOURING? THE WHO
The Who have announced the beginnings of a U.S. tour in the fall. So far, only a pair of dates have been announced: a two-night run at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre on November 8th and 9th. Fan club tickets and VIP packages for those dates go on sale July 14th at the band's official website.
GUNS N' ROSES VIA ROCK BAND 2
The New York Times reported this week a brand new Guns N' Roses song will make its debut via Rock Band 2, the sequel to the hit video game that allows players to contribute their own guitar, bass, drums and vocals to hit rock songs. "Shackler's Revenge," a new track from Chinese Democracy (though not included with the recently-leaked supposedly finished tracks), will get its world premiere via the game, also suggesting that an autumn release for Chinese Democracy is inevitable.
MARTIN HONORED
Famed Beatles producer George Martin was honored with the Grammy Foundation Leadership Award by the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison at a ceremony Saturday night in Los Angeles.
ICE CREAM FOR A GOOD CAUSE
Ben & Jerry have concocted a new flavor dedicated to Elton John called "Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road," with all proceeds benefiting the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The ice cream is described as "an outrageous symphony of decadent chocolate ice cream, peanut butter cookie dough, butter brickle and white chocolate chunks." (In other words, if you're not already taking cholesterol medication, after eating this you will, but you'll feel good about it since your money went to a good charity)
MOVE OVER ROVER, AND LET JIMI TAKE OVER
Jimi Hendrix is finally coming to the Guitar Hero game franchise. The next edition of the game, Guitar Hero: World Tour, hits stores October 27th.
CAPITOL STUDIOS SAFE
Though the city of Los Angeles has approved the building of a new condo development near the famed Capitol Records building, the planned condominium building must provide measures ensuring the recording studios underneath the building are not damaged.
GET WELL WISHES TO
Natalie Cole, who has been diagnosed with Hepatitis C, likely contracting the liver disease from drug use 30 years ago, her publicist said.
Quotes of the week
"I want to thank the Beatles for letting us use their room,"
-- Billy Joel at his goodbye to Shea Stadium concerts this past week, which included surprise appearances by Tony Bennett, Don Henley, John Mayer, and John Mellencamp. Billy also segued from "River of Dreams" into "A Hard Day's Night," and later included "Please Please Me" and "She Loves You" as a tribute to The Beatles, who were the first rock'n'roll artists to ever sell out the stadium."She's happy with me. She lets me eat meals now."
-- Mariah Carey, speaking about her personal trainer, to Elle magazine"This is the Great Lawn in the greatest park, in the greatest city in the universe."
-- Jon Bon Jovi, while performing one of the biggest concerts New York City's Central Park has ever seen."These guys changed my whole world. It's a big part of why I get to do what I do."
-- Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder at The VH1 Rock Honors Concert honoring The Who this past week."We will never appear on stage again. There is simply no motivation to re-group. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were. Young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition. I remember Robert Plant saying Led Zeppelin were a cover band now because they cover all their own stuff. I think that hit the nail on the head."
-- Abba's Bjorn Ulvaeus in the UK's Sunday Telegraph"It's such a dumb name. I wish I would have had the common sense to take five more minutes with it."
-- Lead singer John Rzeznik, expressing regrets on naming his band the Goo Goo Dolls when he was 19 years old, to New York magazine."If you really want to be an ongoing band, you have to keep putting yourself out there. It's whether you want to, and that's Pete's dilemma."
-- Roger Daltrey in the N.Y. Times"When I was a child I would kill small animals and wear their teeth as necklaces. True. Print that. And I've always felt deep down that I was born a woman."
-- John Mayer, mocking the media's intense coverage of everything he says, at his St. Louis concert"One good thing about music, when it kills you, you feel no pain."
-- Brandon Flowers of The Killers who performed at Miami's Ultra Music Festival last weekend.
The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In
WASHINGTON-A panel of top business leaders testified before Congress about the worsening recession Monday, demanding the government provide Americans with a new irresponsible and largely illusory economic bubble in which to invest.
"What America needs right now is not more talk and long-term strategy, but a concrete way to create more imaginary wealth in the very immediate future," said Thomas Jenkins, CFO of the Boston-area Jenkins Financial Group, a bubble-based investment firm. "We are in a crisis, and that crisis demands an unviable short-term solution."
The current economic woes, brought on by the collapse of the so-called "housing bubble," are considered the worst to hit investors since the equally untenable dot-com bubble burst in 2001. According to investment experts, now that the option of making millions of dollars in a short time with imaginary profits from bad real-estate deals has disappeared, the need for another spontaneous make-believe source of wealth has never been more urgent.
Read the rest and laugh here: http://tinyurl.com/5jgfha.
THE RADIO INTERVIEW on 'THE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE' - From newsblaze.com
"Steve Meyer is on the front line of global music sales and distribution which he expects will soar to pocket-bursting levels. What's more, he shares his insight and ingenuity with us. Steve gives us both historical perspective and futuristic vision as he chats with Judy about the love of his work, trends of the business and his personal points of view about success, happiness and blending life with the lust for life. Steve joins Judy and helps us discover the thrill of having it all with a sense of balance and purpose. "
You can listen to an interview I did with Judy Piazza of 'The American Perspective' by clicking here: (It runs about 15 minutes)
http://www.thesop.org/index.php?id=10306.
The Blogs
Check out a great blog by Jerry Del Colliano, the Director Executive Programs, Clinical Professor Music Industry & Recording Arts, at the Thornton School of Music,University of Southern California, by clicking here: http://www.insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com.
Box Office
Check The Daily & Weekly Box Office (and more film info) at: www.boxofficemojo.com.
TinyURL
Check out www.tinyurl.com where you can make a smaller URL that will work for any webpage you wish to link to or reference. (As you can see, I'm using it in my news stories above!)
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