Archives for category: Internet

The dawn of Music 2.0 and collapse of music labels?

April 5, 08 //

We are truly living in an exciting period. We are about to experience a major transition that will shake the very foundation of all music labels, music consumers and sharers around the globe. I am talking about the dawn of Music 2.0 as coined by Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. Music 2.0 refers to the transition from conventional business models to new not yet proven models based revolving around the internet and most importantly file sharing. Only until now have music executives started to realize that file sharing is actually beneficial to the industry. They have yet to implement a working model where sharing of files is possible while still making a revenue.

That is exactly where Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal have stepped in to make it possible. They have partnered with MySpace to create the MySpace Music service, yet another iTunes killer. It will offer DRM-free downloads, paid for videos, free music streaming and a host of music-related activities like tickets sales and music merchandise. Shaaaweet!

The internet is where the future lies for the music industry. Guess who the biggest dealer of music in the nation is? It’s not Tower Records or Sam Goody (both defunct). It’s not Target, Amazon, or Wal-Mart. Not anymore. The number one is Apple’s own online store, iTunes.

EMI, one of the top music labels took a bold step on Thursday and hired Douglas Merrill, Google’s former Chief of Information, to run the label’s digital unit. Mr. Merrill has no prior experience with the music industry but he understands the internet and the role it will play in the upcoming years.

According to CNet “record companies are going to have to morph into smaller entities that represent fewer acts and then oversee their total output: music, video, concerts, and merchandise.”

Record companies will still play a big role in the game but only if they play their cards right. We have seen several artists breaking away from their labels and embrace the power of the internet to distribute their music.

In the words of Greg Sandoval from CNet: Long live Music 2.0!

A Tribute to BjÃ¶rk’s Post: Enjoyed

April 2, 08 //

Stereogum has put together an amazing compilation in tribute to BjÃ¶rk’s album Post. They have asked the bands Liars, Dirty Projectors, No Age, High Places, Atlas Sound, El Guincho, Final Fantasy & Ed Droste, Evangelicals, Xiu Xiu, Pattern Is Movement, Bell, White Hinterland to create their own renditions of BjÃ¶rk’s tracks. These are all original covers by the bands which have taken time off their tours and personal schedules to participate in the project. The album is available for free download at Stereogum’s BjÃ¶rk page, make sure to check out the track notes and interview with BjÃ¶rk!

Bjork Enjoyed

East Coast is the place to be, men

April 2, 08 //

The odds seem to be in our favor when it comes to meeting girls here in the East Coast. According to this map by Richard Florida, there are 210,820 more single women than men in the New York and northern New Jersey area. Single women seem to be concentrated in large metropolitan cities around the world, always outnumbering men. Very important information which will help you decide where to move next ;)

Elf-Yours-Elf

December 20, 07 //

As if x-mas wasn’t close enough, office Max has a pretty damn cool game where you put your face on a dancing elf and watch it dance. Great time waster for those lame afternoons at work: www.elfyourself.com

Flickr adds online photo editing tools

December 6, 07 //

Just today Flickr, one of the best online photo sharing sites, has introduced online photo editing capabilities. They partnered with Picnik to provide the tools necessary to make simple yet handy and fun changes to your pictures.

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Once you click on the ‘Edit Photo’ button on top of any image you will be taken to this screen. From here you can crop, rotate, change the exposure, sharpen or fix red eyes just to name a few. Under the ‘Create’ tab, you add fun photoshop like effects, text, and frames to your pictures. Some of these features are only available under a premium service which is almost as much a year as your Flickr subscription but there is plenty of free options make your pictures look their best. Flickr even gives you the option to save your changed image as a different version and keep the original, very handy for archival purposes.

Overall its a great addition to an already great photo service. Make sure to check it out.

Indie is the new business model

October 14, 07 //

The internet has completely come to revolutionize the music industry from the way we discover new artists to how we acquire their music. Millions of music files are shared back and forward everyday between listeners, most of them shared illegally and freely. The music industry has tried everything from protecting their songs with DRM encoding to making public examples of those who have shared music illegally. But it is like swimming against the current, it seems impossible to win. Instead of fighting it many artists have realized they need to embrace the torrent (no pun intended) and use the internet to their advantage. Recently bands like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and even Madonna have realized this and have decided to go “indie”, that is, ditch their music labels and look for alternative means of promoting and selling their music.

First it was Radiohead that announced on October 7th that they will be selling their album at whatever price you felt like paying, be it $15, $5 or ever $0. Soon after, Trent from Nine Inch Nails announced that he will be giving his new album for free too. These artists are turning their backs on the labels and going their own way. The way this works is, since a lot of music is being shared for free, why not just give away the music and reach a broader audience, artists will then make up their money by touring, selling merchandise and endorsements. Signed artists make very little from every album sale, about $1 – $1.50 when they could be filling 10,000 to 20,000 seat arenas for about $50 a ticket and keep 80% of the money, not bad at all. The business model seems ideal but it is still being tested, not everyone is sure how it will work out on the long run and if artists will actually make a profit. Radiohead and fellow bands are taking a big risk by doing this.

Not before long we could see a lot more artists jumping on the bandwagon, not just well known and established artists but upcoming and underground artists. In the near future there might not be music labels anymore, many bands such as the Arctic Monkeys have made their name through word of mouth and the internet, not from the help of a major label promotional campaign. We can only wait and hope for the best, in the meantime go listen to Radiohead’s new album “In Rainbows”, here is the link, and don’t be a cheap ass.

My body can power 101 iPods

September 17, 07 //

Here’s a fun link, this small web app measures your body’s wattage output and gives you some real life examples of what you could be powering. So, how much electricity does you body produce?

Here are my results:
bodywatts

Save the Internet

January 7, 07 //

If you didn’t know, the internet is under threat by big corporations planning to split to the internet into two. As it stands, the internet is one big highway with all sorts of traffic with different sized cars all in one road. What these corporations aim to do, is divide this highway of information into two lanes:

“Cable and telephone companies are talking, however, about creating a two-tiered Internet with a fast lane and a slow lane. Companies that pay hefty fees would have their Web pages delivered to Internet users in the current speedy fashion. Companies and individuals that do not would be relegated to the slow lane.”

This split will forever impact the internet. Please support net neutrality so this does not come to be.

This clip will further explain what net neutraily is all about and why it is important to you:

Reminder…

December 31, 06 //

To all you Flickrites, make sure to renew those subscriptions. Flickr mail

The New Digg.com

June 26, 06 //

For those who don’t know, digg.com is was a technology news website, but unlike other new sites it has no editors to censor and pick out the stories, it is all run by it’s users. It’s a collective community that submits and promotes their own stories. It started as a technology only news site rivaling veteran sites such as slashdot.org expanding to such heights that stories linked from their site have been know to shut down other websites due to massive traffic. Today on June 26th marks a new era for digg.com as they venture forward to include World, Science, Enterntainment and Politics news, amongst others. Make sure to check out the site and start Digging those stories.