mediaor

[the listenerd] Video: The Hamilton Mixtape

Josh Kimball — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:52:38 -0800

Lin-Manuel Miranda does a poetry jam thing at the White House on Alexander Hamilton – founding father, creator of the U.S. treasury, killer of Aaron Burr, inveterate schemer and man of notably diminutive stature.

[fallows]

Tagged: alexander hamilton, lin-manuel miranda, mixtape, music, poetry jam, video, white house, youtube

[Lucas Gonze's blog] Got a better word than “unbundling”?

Lucas Gonze — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:32:22 -0800

I’m working on a pitch to explain the point that Playdar “unbundles” MP3 sources from discovery and management. The important thing is the benefit of unbundling, not that there is a mechanism called “unbundling.” That just sounds like a buzzword.

What it means that getting MP3s and other music media is distinct from referencing them, so that you use one tool for getting and another for playing or organizing.

The main benefit is the ability to use the best tool for the job. You should be able to have the best music player *and* the best source of music even if they aren’t from the same vendor.

The other benefit is convenience, in that people who prefer different music sources can share links to songs.

Ideas on how to express this in a more terse form? I’m looking for an elevator pitch — ten words at the most, one word at best.

[Medialoper] The Daily Loper – Nov 4, 2009

Lopy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:59:02 -0800

Today’s links of interest:

SU – Drunk Frenchman Opens Bottle Of Wine With Shoe (VIDEO)
This is the kind of important news we live to bring the world.
EMI sues US music website over Beatles tunes
Well, of course they’re suing. It’s really the only possible solution, right?
The Boss’ book bonanza
Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is expected to receive a $10 million advance.

[Billboard.biz - News] Lala, MySpace Land Exclusives

By Antony Bruno, Denver — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:24:35 -0800

[Engadget] 'Secret Knock' Door Lock defends home from rhythmically-impaired perps (video)

(author unknown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:14:00 -0800

[Hear 2.0] The Listener, not your Content, is the "Product"

mramsey1@ix.netcom.com (Mark Ramsey) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:45:44 -0800

The Atlantic recently posted a note on the slow death of the newspaper business, and one of the comments to that note was so perceptive (if not necessarily novel) that I thought I'd share it with you because it has consequences for the radio industry, too.

Wrote the commenter:

Newspapers were dying anyway but the Internet has hastened the process by exposing the newspapers lack of accountability.

The average schmuck buys a paper and sees it as a product designed to inform him, the customer, about the world around him/her. But in any financial transaction the customer is identified as the person who pays the money, and since newspapers only get 20% of revenue from subscribers this means the subscriber is not the “real” customer.

Newspapers get 80% of revenue from corporate advertisers, so they are the “real” customers. And since the corporate advertisers don’t take delivery of the newspapers it means the newspaper is not the real product. The real product is the reader, and the newspaper is just a medium (like radio waves or tv signals) that is used to “deliver” the real product (our eyeballs) to the real customers (corporate advertisers).

People are important in the newspaper financial model, just not in the way that they thought they were.

With the Internet, you can have news websites that have zero corporate advertising, which means they are ACCOUNTABLE to the subscribers who donate to the site. This is why the newspapers can’t simply transfer their business model onto the web and hope to survive.

It’s not about technology. It’s all about accountability.

Again, it's not exactly news that the "real" customers to newspapers - or to radio - are the advertisers and the real product currently being offered up is not the content on the air but the ears listening to that content - ideally as many as possible for as long as possible.

But thinking about the flow of dollars this way has important consequences for our industry at a time when there's a sudden disconnect (as there is) between the volume of listeners we attract and the amount of money our customers (the advertisers) consider them worth.

And what it means in the final analysis is that we must provide layers of accountability which add value to our product (the ears or eyes our content generates). That value, I must add (although it should be obvious) is in the eye of the customer (the advertiser), not in your eyes and mine.

It is not, in other words, about "monetizing our content" wherever that content may be found.

It's about enhancing the value of our product (our audiences) to our customers (advertisers).

[P2Pnet] File sharer at UK Digital Economy meeting?

(author unknown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:42:27 -0800

p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- When Billy Bragg and I started a2f2a.com, we intended it to be both an advocacy site, and a channel through which musicians could talk directly to fans, and fans could talk directly to musicians.

We thought we were being optimistic when we tentatively slated it for a December launch. However, it’s been online for a month, now, and it’s forging ahead with the tenet musicians want to be paid, and fans want to pay them, as the cornerstone.

“The British Government’s Digital Economy Bill will be debated by Parliament within a few weeks,” says Billy in an a2f2a post, going on »»»

This is the legislation which will mandate the ISPs to cut off internet users who download illicit files.

I am not going to go into all the ramifications for individual liberty as they are well known to everybody here. What I do want to know is whether or not we want to take our complaints about this nasty piece of legislation beyond this blog?

I was recently invited to come and have chat with a friend of mine who used to be a professional musician and is now a Member of Parliament. He wanted to pick my brains about p2p. We had a long chat about the potential benefits that the internet has brought musicians as well as the problems.

The reason he called me in is that he hopes to be a member of the committee who will hear evidence on the Digital Britain Bill sometime in the New Year. Like many MPs he gets his information about p2p activity from his kids. He freely admitted that Parliament have great difficulty in finding anyone from the file-sharing community whom they can question about the issue.

He didn’t know anything about a2f2a.com, but he was interested to hear that this dialogue was ongoing. Would it be possible, I asked him, for someone from a2f2a to give evidence to the committee? He said it shouldn’t be a problem.

Here’s a genuine opportunity to take our arguments beyond the dark pages of a2f2a and into the public arena. If we can we formulate a consensus that shows legislators that artists and fans are on the same side in this debate, it would seriously dent the credibility of the UK record industry.

So how about it Jon? You’re a British citizen. Would you be willing to come back to the UK in the New Year to appear before the select committee?

I answered »»»

@ Billy: “So how about it Jon? You’re a British citizen. Would you be willing to come back to the UK in the New Year to appear before the select committee?”

Of course I want to be there. When we started a2f2a.com, I said I was really happy to be actually doing something having been writing about it for nine years. This would be taking things a much bigger step further.

In another post Crosbie says “I’m not trying to represent a constituency, I’m trying to help everyone understand what’s happening.”

Me too. I may not be representing the P2P/file sharing constituency which, lest we forget, comprises not only men, women and children in England, but also a hundreds of millions of other people around the world, but I definitely see myself as an active member of it.

The Featured Artists Coalition will be at this meeting, as will corporate music industry lobbyists, politicians, and others. The only people who won’t be there will be the ones it’s all about – – the fans. If I go, I’ll be representing myself and p2pnet, the site, and I believe I could add an element that’s missing.

Crosbie also says

p2pnet and its community aren’t representatives of an association. They are members of the public particularly interested in technology that liberates people from anachronistic constraints of the 18th century, and particularly interested in its enablement of greater cultural exchange. They are also interested in ameliorating the depredations of corporations struggling to preserve an anachronistic and dying business model.

He’s correct. However, ‘Anachronistic constraints of the 18th century’ also means the continuing application of archaic laws which prevent people from freely speaking out, and with that in mind, I’ve been sued three times: once by a wealthy businessman; once by a Sharman Networks, the multi-million-dollar owners of Kazaa, the P2P file sharing application; and, once by its CEO, Nikki Hemming. Sharman eventually dropped its end of the case, but Hemming hasn’t. I won the first case in a precedent-setting decision with major implications for online freedom of speech. The case Hemming launched against me is due to go to trial this February. I’ve also been threatened by lawyers acting for four other rich corporations. Fortunately, when I ignored them, they went no further.

In other words, I’m saying I believe I’ve paid my dues as a member of the online P2P constituency and I’d dearly love to be at the meeting Billy refers to so I can report on it, and so I can speak as at least one of the people accused of being a filesharing criminal and thief.

It’ll be in the UK, but it’ll echo round the world

“What do you think?” – I added. “Would it be OK for me to go to Britain and talk to the committee members?

“I’d really like your opinion.”

And I really would.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

a2f2a post – The Digital Britain Bill, November 4, 2009

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[Digital Media Wire - Music] Apple: App Store Counts 100,000 Apps, Hits 2 Billion Downloads

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:32:27 -0800

[Digital Media Wire - Music] Report: Apple Stores to Utilize iPod Touch as Checkout Scanner

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:31:04 -0800

[P2P Blog] Survey: 50 percent want to legalize file sharing through monthly fee

(author unknown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:46:27 -0800

[Techdirt] Grammy Winner: If You're A Good Musician, You Have Nothing To Fear With Piracy

(author unknown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:11:00 -0800

[L.A. Times Tech Blog] Is the iPhone romance fizzling out?

Mark Milian — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:04:51 -0800

You can almost hear David Guetta's "Love is Gone" playing on iPods around the world. Have iPhone marriages hit a rough patch?

Apple announced today that the iPhone's App Store broke the 100,000-software mark, and app fever rages on. Heck, there's now an app for driving a car.

But maybe apps aren't enough anymore.

We were taken aback when readers flooded a post about AT&T improving cellphone service in Southern California with comments spitting venom at the telecom and threatening to jump ship to Verizon -- iPhone or not. Funnier still, complaints about AT&T kept rolling in even as T-Mobile was experiencing a full-on outage that affected an estimated 5% of customers.

Could it just be lust for Verizon's Droid, the telecom's first smartphone based on Google's Android operating system?

Either way, it's comforting to know that we here in the States are not alone. CNet UK called the iPhone "the worst phone in the world" on Tuesday, adding that it was a great mobile device but terrible for making calls. CNet lays much of the blame on O2, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone 3G S; other carriers offer the older models.

On top of that, a survey released Tuesday makes iPhone owners look like shallow jerks.

Among the damning statistics, Apple phone users are more attracted to other gadget owners rather than those with a college education, according to the Retrevo survey of 247 iPhone owners nationwide. Oh, and they also end relationships via text messages and e-mails, according to the survey, which is caused by their significant others spending too much time on their phones a quarter of the time.

Of course, there haven't actually been any signs showing that iPhone users are tossing away their beloved devices -- not even of slowed growth. AT&T reportedly added 4.3 million 3G-enabled devices in the third quarter and 3.2 million of those were iPhones.

But the iPhone's public perception is no longer pristine. And Verizon, with its iDon't marketing campaign, wants to keep it that way.

-- Mark Milian

Twitter: @markmilian

Photo: Apple's Steve Jobs with an iPhone. Credit: Peer Grimm / European Pressphoto Agency

[Fast Company] Digital Music Arms Race: MSN Joins the Fray

(author unknown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:02 -0800

[Hollywood Reporter] No Doubt sues Activision over 'Band Hero'

By Alex Dobuzinskis, Reuters — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:50:00 -0800

[Hollywood Reporter] Jackson's 'This Is It' hits No. 1

By Keith Caulfield, Billboard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:14:00 -0800

[Hollywood Reporter] Beatles remasters heading to USB

By Andre Paine, Billboard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:06:00 -0800

[Hollywood Reporter] Whitney Houston to perform in Russia

By Andre Paine, Billboard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:02:00 -0800

[Hollywood Reporter] Springsteen to play more full album shows

By David J. Prince, Billboard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:53:00 -0800

[Hollywood Reporter] Chris Brown album release moved up

By Sarah MacRory, Billboard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:25:00 -0800

[Hollywood Reporter] Janet Jackson booked for ABC interview

Associated Press — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:05:00 -0800

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