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Sorry, Mr. Diller ... You're Too Late To The Party
October 2, 2009
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
The Internet is turning economics inside-out. For example, everybody on the Internet now wants stuff for free and there are so many free services available. -- Uri Geller
This week, "IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO and self-professed opportunist, Barry Diller, rather impatiently told CBS News' Katie Couric earlier this week that the day is coming when people will regularly pay for content. As he has before, he trotted out the example of Apple, which has managed turn its iTunes store into a "multimillion-dollar business" based on the once-heretical notion of asking people to spend money on digital music and video."
(Source: http://tinyurl.com/ycwvzke )
According to Mr. Diller, we are all just waiting to buy our content as eagerly as we buy our entertainment. Basically, he said "Humbug" to the notion that the Internet and all its content is free.
I'm not as wealthy as Mr. Diller, and certainly not anywhere near his legendary business status and notoriety. I'm just a guy who has been an Internet advocate (long before Mr. Diller even looked at it) a long time. In 1991, I wrote a "white paper" on why Universal Studios (the parent company of MCA Records, where I was employed at the time) should invest in the Internet and why I believed it would become the greatest marketing tool ever created to reach consumers directly. I've also consulted media companies regarding maximizing Internet presence, and help set up websites for starting businesses.
None of that might qualify me to sit on a dais and debate Mr. Diller about why I think he's wrong, and since that chance will never happen, I thought I would once again go through the primary reasons why I disagree with those (Mr. Diller and Mr. Murdoch) who believe they can change the world we've been living in online for a long, long time.
* In reference to Mr. Diller's remarks about Apple's iTunes becoming a multimillion-dollar business, somebody should remind Mr. Diller that iTunes became the #1 music store in the world because Apple gave the consumer something that was a real DISCERNIBLE DIFFERENCE from anything out there. It was called the iPod. The iPod begat iTunes. And yes, iTunes has now sold almost seven billion songs, and I have given credit to Steve Jobs many times for actually getting people to BUY music rather than steal it. But alas, no matter how many billions of songs iTunes does sell, billions more are still stolen everyday all over the world. If Mr. Diller believes that people will suddenly stop stealing music (content of one sort) one day, he is delusional. (Note to Mr. Diller: Google "darknets" or "Intranets" for reasons why)
As I said in the new back in July, "Wired's Editor Chris Anderson was interviewed on TechCrunch about his new book, 'Free' and said "You know, why do people buy music when you can download it for free? Why does iTunes exist? Because it's easier and safer and faster, not really because people feel some sort of moral obligation to pay for music. Ninety-nine cents doesn't matter as much as one-click simplicity. So they're not selling music. They're selling simplicity." Has the music industry made engaging consumers a matter of simplicity? Hardly." (And even if they did, online theft would still occur.)
* I go back to the two words I mentioned just a bit above: DISCERNIBLE DIFFERENCES. That's the only reason people choose to pay for anything. That and price (of course).
If Mr. Diller and his cohorts really believe that the global community will roll over and play sheep, open their wallets, and just sign up for content left and right, he's in for a very rude awakening. People can get their news for free by listening to radio (online or in their cars), or by watching the 24/7 cable news channels (online or in their homes). I don't know what content other than that Mr. Diller believes people will pay for, but in a time when newspaper subscriptions are falling, book sales are declining year over year, it doesn't take a genius to see that most of the American public isn't reading as much as they used to. And if they are, they are reading online. But that doesn't mean they'll pay for it.
From the article I referenced above, "In due time, Diller said, content companies will be unburdened of "this mythology of 'the Internet is free,'" which was perpetrated by a seemingly prehistoric tribe that cared only about bandwidth and availability. "The Internet, you have to remember, was started by tech people," Diller said.
Yeah. But I don't remember any tech people ever saying or thinking, "What a great invention ... a whole new way to generate revenues from people who will ay for content." Nope. Looked far and wide did my Google search, never found any tech people talking about the development of paid content.
Paid Internet usage via ISPs, yes. Shopping online, yes. Nothing about paid content.
Back in July in my article I closed by saying ,"The questions that all content owners need to be asking themselves is, 'How come my marketing and creative people haven't developed ideas to generate revenues online?' Anybody who says they've explored all the options should be replaced. There's a whole bunch of young people out there with more ideas about what to do and what not to do online and many of them have better ideas than a lot of the high-paid marketing and creative people now employed.
I suggest Mr. Diller, Mr. Murdoch and all the others who still cling to the paid content will save us mentality, seriously think about replacing a whole lot of their people who shrug their shoulders when it comes to developing new ideas for online revenues.
THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 2
ONLINE ADVERTISING SURPASSES THAT ON TV IN THE UK ... THE U.S. IS NEXT
Internet ad spending has surpassed TV advertising in the UK. This marks a major moment for the "World" Wide Web, and has clear implications for the U.S. market. All told, it took the Internet little more than a decade to become the biggest advertising sector in the U.K.
"What this switch indicates is that a corner has been turned in consumer and advertising habits, and there's probably no turning back, given the relentless rise of the Web as an entertainment medium," writes Fast Company. "When the same corner is turned in the U.S. advertising business -- which equated to roughly $60 billion in the first six months of 2009 -- it'll have enormous after-effects for the future of TV and even other media like newspapers and magazines."
Guy Phillipson, the chief executive of the IAB, reckoned that there is still significant growth potential left in the Internet ad market, saying: "We could absolutely see it grow to being a 30% medium [of share of ad spend], to go past ($6.4 billion) to even ($8 billion) annually ... Online display advertising has plenty of room for growth."
(Source: http://tinyurl.com/yg5numv )
THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 3
APPLE'S APP STORE CLAIMS 2 BILLION DOWNLOADS FROM MORE THAN 85,000 APPS
Any company trying to cut into Apple's iPhone market share must have been discouraged this week when Apple announced that over 2 billion applications had been downloaded from its e-commerce store since July of last year, and there are now over 85,000 apps available.
The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half-billion apps this quarter alone," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. "The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it." (Source: http://tinyurl.com/yg6ddxf )
Jobs has said repeatedly that "innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." The numbers prove he's right.
Some comments from the media: "The rate of change is pretty astounding for a consumer product," marvels Venture Beat, which, it adds, "raises the question as to whether anyone can catch up with Apple in smart phone apps."
BusinessWeek's Byte of the Apple blog concludes: "It's hard to take too seriously all the complaints about the App Store being unfriendly to developers."
Regarding those developers, GigaOm writes: "On April 24, 2009, there were 35,000 applications in the iTunes app store, showing that despite new competition from folks like Google's Android, the company is not losing traction with developers."
And, as MediaMemo notes, "The velocity of apps Apple is delivering is increasing." It took Apple just over a year to serve up the first 1.5 billion apps, which it calculates averages out at 4.1 million downloads per day. But it moved the next 500 million apps within 76 days. That's a 6.6 million per day average.
The Times' Bits blog credits "the breadth and depth of Apple's app store" for continuing to maintain its lead against up-and-comers like the Palm Pre and the phones running Google's Android operating system.
THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 4
MARKETING WITH VIRAL VIDEOS
It's not news that clever, smart marketing people are using (and have used) viral videos in campaigns. Sprint is now undertaking the use of viral videos in a new campaign.
Depending on how irritating consumers find their current cell phone carrier, Sprint is making it a little more fun to say goodbye. As part of its new Any Mobile, Anytime feature, customers can get unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling from the Sprint Network to any U.S. wireless carrier, at any time.
To celebrate, consumers go to www.mobilegoodbye.com and select the carrier they want to ditch. People looking to lose Verizon get a spoof of Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings," those hoping to leave T-Mobile get a funny version of Madonna's "Like a Virgin," and the "Dear AT&T" letter is set to Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susannah."
(Source: http://tinyurl.com/ygykjzl )
And Now For Some News ...
A New Report Asks The Music Industry If Users Are Experienced
Forrester Research music analyst Mark Mulligan is calling for a radical overhaul of the music industry, beginning with a product manifesto of consumer rights.
"Future music products will need to adopt a platform-agnostic worldview that encompasses powerful and social interactivity to empower consumers to create their own unique experiences," Mulligan writes in a new report.
"In the post-media-meltdown world, product innovation will trump programming and marketing as media companies' most valuable asset -- and the music industry is no exception," he adds. The recorded music sector is in desperate need of exciting new products upon which it can build a sounder future. (Editor's note: Again, those DISCERNIBLE DIFFERENCES I mentioned above)
Read more about it by clicking here.
Can Vevo Monetize Music Videos and Help Save the Major Labels?
From Advertising Age
The plot to save digital music -- or one of them anyway -- is being hatched in midtown Manhattan, where Vevo, a digital joint venture between two labels representing nearly 60% of the U.S. recorded music market -- Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment -- is gearing up for a planned December launch.
Announced earlier this year, Vevo is the label's latest attempt to mine a vein of revenue from digital music. Initially backed by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, Vevo was dubbed the "Hulu for music," and while there are many similarities, there's one key difference: Vevo will be built on YouTube's infrastructure, but it will control the distribution of videos from participating labels on YouTube and sites around the web, from Yahoo to MTV.
The venture has quite a bit riding on it. The sale of physical CDs is in decline, and the sale of digital music through stores such as Apple's iTunes is flattening out. There are those who believe music itself is moving from the sale of a product -- such as a CD or digital file -- to a service -- such as Pandora, Last.fm or Imeem -- but subscription services remain a niche phenomenon.
Read more about it by clicking here.
'The Official Michael Jackson Opus' Book to Feature Unseen Photos, "Augmented Reality"
The publishers of The Official Michael Jackson Opus, an enormous multi-platform biography dedicated to the King of Pop, appeared on the Today show to showcase the project's large scope and the groundbreaking technology that helped Kraken Opus secure Michael's approval in the weeks before he died. The book was also sanctioned and approved by Jackson's estate following his death. Kraken Opus previously published Prince's "21 Nights" book. The Official Michael Jackson Opus will be released on December 7th.
But the biggest draw is something called "augmented reality," or "Opus Reality" as the company calls it. By heaving some photos in this 26.5 pound book in front of your computer, via Webcam, the pages will come alive, with both video and music appearing on your screen.
Read more about it by clicking here.
The Decade In Indie
From PITCHFORK.com
Another terrific article from PITCHFORK (thanks, Justin), this time about about Indie Rock music and its trickle-down effects on popular culture.
Insightful and educational, and a must read for anybody in the industry.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Is Dynamic Range Compression Destroying Music?
From Cnet.com
Dynamic range compression isn't new, it's been used by recording, mixing and mastering engineers for many decades. A little bit of compression is fine, but over-compression can sound downright ugly. Most of today's music, whether it's on LP, CD, the radio or iTunes, is over-compressed. Most remastered CDs are over-compressed.
Read more about it by clicking here.
If You Like 'Rock Band' And 'Guitar Hero', Why Not Get The Sheet Music And Play For Real?
From Cnet.com
Sheet Music Plus sells sheet music and songbooks for guitar, piano and other instruments, and in a recent press release, ties that into the popularity of The Beatles: Rock Band and similar games, saying, "As music-driven video games continue to explode in popularity," the company aims to "help gamers channel their passion into becoming active musicians."
Read more about it by clicking here.
WMG And YouTube Make-Up
Gee, what a surprise. The Warner Music Group people must have realized that with billions of people watching YouTube videos every day, they might as well come to some agreement and get their videos back on there.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Free All Music To Offer Free MP3s, And New Ad Model
From Cnet.com
Free All Media, an Atlanta-based start-up, is the latest company to propose an ad-supported music downloading service. The company, which just announced its first seed round of funding Wednesday and expects to begin public beta testing by December, hopes to differentiate itself from flameouts like SpiralFrog with a unique advertising model that asks users to participate more directly in choosing the ads they'll see.
Read more about it by clicking here.
PETTY SET COMING
On November 24th, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers will release their career-spanning "The Live Anthology," a four-disc set that features some of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers' best onstage performances from 1978 to 2007.
EXPENSIVE FOOT
When Britney Spears accidentally ran over a photographer's foot in 2007, he sued the star but never specified the figure he was seeking. Now TMZ reports the pap is demanding $195,000 in general damages, $16,533.59 in medical bills and $10,000 for future foot problems.
AMERICAN IDOL VERSION 2.0?
Fox and "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell are hammering out a deal to launch an American version of the British "X Factor" -- while locking in Cowell as an "Idol" judge for two more years, through the 2011-12 season. Cowell, in the final year of his contract on "Idol," has been open about his desire to bring to the U.S. the mega-hit British format that he created. The deal has not been finalized, but Cowell could earn about $50 million a season for "Idol" and, in success, "X Factor" might bring him an additional $50 million a cycle.
HER MAJESTY'S A VERY NICE GIRL
An essay written by a 10-year-old Paul McCartney has been discovered in a Liverpool library, the AP reports that the handwritten piece about Queen Elizabeth II won a prize and was quite "advanced" a researcher said.
MANSON SWINED?
Marilyn Manson has proclaimed he has swine flu, but his reps disagree. His tour promoters have issued a statement contradicting the rocker's blog posts about his illness, which have since been removed from the Web, the AP reports
BON JOVI DOC TO SHOWTIME
Showtime will air the Bon Jovi documentary, "When We Were Beautiful," on October 24th, according to Variety. The band reflects on its history in the film, which was shot on the 2008 Lost Highway tour.
THIS BUD (LIGHT) IS FOR KIMMEL
Bud Light and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" have struck a wide-ranging deal that will see the beer brand sponsor the show's concert series and be featured in a series of live commercials. The deal replaces Kimmel's previous concert sponsor, Pontiac, a brand that has been discontinued.
MACCA DVD ON WAY
Earlier this summer, Paul McCartney christened Citi Field , the new home of the New York Mets, with a sold-out three-night stand in Flushing, Queens. Those shows will be the focus of an upcoming 2-CD/1-DVD set titled "Good Evening New York City." Each night's 33-song, two-hour-and-40-minute hits-filled set was filmed with 15 high-definition cameras, plus an additional 75 flipcams were distributed to the audience to capture all angles of McCartney's performance. "Good Evening New York City" will be released on November 17th via Hear Music.
BIG TIX SALES FOR JACKSON DOCUMENTARY
International ticket sales for the Michael Jackson documentary, "This Is It" are continuing to astonish box-office experts, Variety reports. For the 24 hours after tix went on sale, "This Is It" racked in 80% of online ticketing in the U.S., and more than $1 million in sales in Japan.
FAME KILLS INDEED
The Kanye West/Lady GaGa 'Fame Kills' Tour has been cancelled. No reason was given for the cancellation, but I'm wondering if all of Kanye's negative publicity had something to do with it.
Quotes of the week
"That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite, as they've done on side two, seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying. No, on the contrary, they've achieved here the closest thing yet to Beatles freeform, fusing more diverse intriguing musical and lyrical ideas into a piece that amounts to far more than the sum of those ideas."
-- Rock critic John Mendelsohn, in his 1969 review of The Beatles 'Abbey Road' album"I'm very peeved Halloween only comes once a year."
-- Drew Barrymore, wishing she could go out in public more often without being recognized, to InStyle. If you really want to stop being recognized in public, Drew, stop making a dozen movies a year.The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
Nation Demands Fresh Celebrity Meat
HOLLYWOOD, CA-Like famished dogs salivating before a warm and steaming carcass, a coalition of bloodthirsty Americans demanded this week that the entertainment industry provide them with newer, fresher celebrities to mercilessly devour.
"Our most sumptuous celebrities have been picked to the bone," a statement by the group, Citizens for Renewed Celebrity Consumption, read in part. "We can no longer subsist vicariously on the travails and public deteriorations of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. These fetid idols are mere shreds of their former selves, and we, the American entertainment consumers, grow ever hungrier for a new crop of stars on which to feast."
"We need meat!" the statement continued. "Raw, bloody meat!"
Read the rest here and laugh: http://tinyurl.com/yeo8rrr.
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 Jerry Del Colliano's (the founder of INSIDE RADIO) daily blog, by clicking here: http://www.insidemusicmedia.blogspot.comWebsite
Check out attorney Ray Beckerman's website at: http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com where he prints news about the RIAA's ongoing activities
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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