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Key Articles of the Week...
Posted in IPTV, Music, News on December 7th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
Internet Video Producers: Have a Plan
TVWeek downplays the ability for independent producers to come online and make money with their independent online ventures. That’s understandable. I won’t ascribe to them an unspoken bias against New Media, since only the absolutely most informed Web 2.0 denizen is probably aware of exactly all the monetization opportunities out there. None the less, it is a bit annoying to continue to see the analogy of independent online video producers to “the old Hollywood dream of being discovered.”
Warner Music Group: Going the Way of the Dodo
While piracy groups have been recently taking repeated kicks to the keister, it also seems that the major record labels are also finally learning first hand that they may have missed the boat on this whole “series of tubes” thing.
Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr. led the earnings call this morning showcasing the “music-based content company’s” extremely meager profits (profits, by the way, that wouldn’t exist if they hadn’t won a settlement from the old Napster lawsuit). Warner was only able to bring in a profit by a scant $5 million on a total revenue of $869 million. The cause of the gap is obvious: Warner hasn’t adapted well to online music sales.
Key Articles of the Week...
Posted in IPTV, Citizen Journalism, Long Tail, Internet, News, Pro Am Journalism, Free on November 30th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
A flight across Europe for $10 is indistinguishable from magic
Is there really such a thing as a free lunch? Actually, there sometimes is. Craigslist really is free. Wikipedia really is free. Nobody is “monetizing your attention”. It’s all thanks to a combination of the falling technology costs of Moore’s Law with the Gift Economy.
Other times, there are strings attached. Advertising clutters your page. You’re pitched upgrades. Limits are imposed. You’re upsold to different products or locked into something very much not free. The difference is this latter category used to be the only category of free. Now it must compete with really free. And the newer category is growing fast.
MTV To Give South Park Episodes For Free
MTV Networks will make every episode of South Park available for free online next year. The important part of this news is the fact that MTV is not doing this to make you happy; they’re doing it to make money.
Key Articles of the Week...
Posted in Publishing, News on November 23rd, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
Everyone at Amazon’s Kindle press conference (which I liveblogged earlier today) received one of the electronic book readers. I played around with mine while I was waiting to interview Jeff Bezos. My initial impressions (…)
(…) The fact that it has a functioning Web browser, though, means that you can follow links in the feeds you subscribe to. More importantly, it opens up the world of linking to book authors. Now books can have links, and not just for citations. Authors who take advantage of the electronic book format will start to include hyperlinks for curious readers to follow, and books could become more tightly interwoven with the culture of the Web in general. Reading a book will no longer need to end with the final chapter. Rather, it could literally open up a whole world of information on the Web, just as blog posts or online news article do today.
Key Articles of the Week...
Posted in IPTV, Television, Music, News on November 17th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.
Rebuilding Hollywood in Silicon Valley’s Image (via Digg)
“The writers’ strike, and the studios’ response to the strike, may radically accelerate a structural shift in the media industry — a shift of power from studios and conglomerates towards creators and talent.”
“I believe the entertainment industry is in the early stages of being rebuilt in the image of Silicon Valley.” (more…)
Key Articles of the Week...
Posted in Television, Publishing, Mobile, News on November 11th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.Google Launches Mobile Phone Platform, Android: What it Means, What Experts Think
A fully integrated mobile “software stack” that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. It will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products.
Trends in Media: Freemium...
Posted in Television, Publishing, Music, Mobile, News, Free on November 2nd, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.Freemium is business model that works by offering basic services for free, which potentially attracts a large customer base, and then charging a premium for advanced or special features. Let’s see how this Web 2.0 trend is working (or could potentially work) for media, from mobile platforms to publishing. (more…)
Key Articles of the Week...
Posted in IPTV, Television, Mobile, News on November 2nd, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.The Google Phone: The Story So Far, Some Launch Details & What’s Next
The Wall Street Journal has been reporting on Google’s mobile phone efforts and how it is beginning to draw some interest from carriers, especially in the United States. Sprint (S) and Verizon (VZ) are in talks with Google (GOOG), according to the Journal, and an announcement by the company is expected sometime in November. Here is what I have been able to gather from my sources:
The Radiohead Aftermath...
Posted in Music, News on October 18th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.Last week Radiohead started distributing their latest album on DRM free MP3’s, but most importantly, they let users name their price. Almost 2 million downloads later, this week, the theme of the most interesting media & technology articles and blogposts still was Radiohead. Here’s the highlights and the best of them. (more…)
Great News From The Music Industry...
Posted in Television, Music, News on October 13th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.Since the Internet became mainstream about 10 years ago the music industry has been unwillingly ahead of all other media. The situation today is clearly polarized: On one side we have the record labels, fighting to maintain the status quo they held 10 years ago. On the other side we have music consumers, mostly pirates (according to the labels & the RIAA’s around the world). They are listening to more music than ever before, but not in the way copyright law originally intended. This week’s major stories show this polarization but also reflect a trend pointing to the side that will probably win this battle and decide how media should be understood and consumed. (more…)
YouTube & Joost, One Year Later...
Posted in IPTV, Television, Internet, Advertising, News on October 4th, 2007. By Eduard F. Vinyamata.A year ago, on October 2006, Google announced that it had reached a deal to acquire YouTube for $1.65 billion. That very same month Skype founders revealed “The Venice Project” or what would later be known as Joost. What has, and what hasn’t changed since then? (more…)