And Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Embedding photos from Melophobe.

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:28:00 -0500

Embedding photos from Melophobe.

Looking back at Tech Deals that Defined the Decade

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:18:51 -0500

Looking back at Tech Deals that Defined the Decade

Photo

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:05:41 -0500

mikehudack: artistspaid: This is the graph the record industry...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:45:54 -0500

mikehudack:

artistspaid:

This is the graph the record industry doesn’t want you to see.

Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing?

It shows the fate of the three main pillars of music industry revenue - recorded music, live music, and PRS revenues (royalties collected on behalf of artists when their music is played in public) over the last 5 years.

Nobody knows how (if) Google Wave will transform how we...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:09:35 -0400

Nobody knows how (if) Google Wave will transform how we communicate, but I like his creativity.

140 Character Conference: Do We Still Need Music Critics? Chris...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:13:33 -0400

140 Character Conference: Do We Still Need Music Critics? Chris Weingarten dissects the state of music criticism.

Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:18:54 -0400

Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them.:

I know this is personally true for me.

charliepark:

“Tests done since 1933 show that people who talk about their intentions are less likely to make them happen. Announcing your plans to others satisfies your self-identity just enough that youâre…

"When will this happen? Over the next 5-10 years. And it will leave today’s TV industry looking like..."

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:35:20 -0400

“When will this happen? Over the next 5-10 years. And it will leave today’s TV industry looking like today’s newspaper industry.”

- Sorry, There’s No Way To Save The TV Business (via mikehudack)

More thoughts about the web and pay television

Thu, 28 May 2009 15:34:54 -0400

mikehudack:

bijan:

Just last week I wrote about internet & pay television (cable & satellite).

Few things since then:

1 - Live web video is just starting to emerge as I pointed out in that post.

Even since my earlier post on the subject I’m seeing new technologies that will deliver high quality, live online video at a low cost and faster than I thought. That’s huge.

The day I can see live sports online in good/great quality is the day that my cable tv bill becomes endangered. And that day is getting closer. Already I’m addicted to MLB video (by the way, my yankees are now tied for first place. oh yeah). Next, I want basketball, football and golf.

2 - We are discovering over and over again that the younger generation values the internet over pay tv. My kids would rather play games online then watch tv. They would rather do lots of things online than watch tv. Current television (with dvr, vod, hidef, etc) isn’t as important as it used to be. Check out this video of these 14 year old girls talking this very subject. It’s striking.

3 - Today the WSJ has an article titled “More Households Cut The Cord On Cable”. Here’s the money quote:

“The reality is, we’re starting to see the beginnings of cord cutting where people, particularly young people, are saying all I need is broadband,” said Glenn Brit, president and chief executive of Time Warner Cable

We are going to see more choices on our big screen. And powered by the open web.

Is he serious? In this video Congressman Tom Price argues Obama...

Wed, 27 May 2009 19:48:11 -0400

Is he serious? In this video Congressman Tom Price argues Obama is being “divisive” by taking a hard line against investment bankers. Sir, you are a political moron.

The Journalism Now Podcast | Episode #16 – The Hype Machine

Tue, 26 May 2009 18:11:14 -0400

The Journalism Now Podcast | Episode #16 – The Hype Machine: Interesting to hear about how Hype Machine is making money and where they see it going in the future.

gtmcknight:

Dave Stanton and I chit chat about music, the entrepreneurial spirit and finding a niche.

Distribution ... Now

Sun, 17 May 2009 14:45:16 -0400

Distribution ... Now

Brilliant.

Mon, 11 May 2009 12:33:43 -0400

Brilliant.

Music Pricing Points: A Case Study (The Motion Sick)

Sun, 10 May 2009 18:18:00 -0400

Here are all the different ways you can purchase the most recent album from The Motion Sick.

Amazon

$8.99 for mp3 download

CD Baby

$10.00 for physical CD

$7.95 for mp3 download

iTunes

$8.91 for mp3 download

Rhapsody

$7.99 for mp3 download

Their Website

Free for mp3 download

$12.00 for physical CD

Talk about chaos. And why aren’t any of the prices in the $1-$7 range?

Seriously? Another social stat for me to obsess over. How about...

Sat, 09 May 2009 18:31:03 -0400

Seriously? Another social stat for me to obsess over. How about instead I email stats to Tumblr each day with the number of people who use Blogger and Wordpress. Seems fair.

"The music companies that are successfully shaping the Internet era are recognizing that the real..."

Wed, 06 May 2009 23:45:00 -0400

“The music companies that are successfully shaping the Internet era are recognizing that the real value is in making it easier to buy music than to steal it, helping consumers find other people who share their music tastes, and serving as a trusted source for discovering new music.”

- Peter Rojas

Music is not like water but it's sure starting to remind me of a flying car

Tue, 05 May 2009 22:29:00 -0400

Music is not like water but it's sure starting to remind me of a flying car:

I’m not sure I agree with Anthony, but it is an interesting read.

fascinated:

by Fingertips Music

This is the the best essay I’ve read on the “future of music” in a long time.

Intercommunication in the Music Industry Sucks

Tue, 05 May 2009 10:05:51 -0400

Publicists/Labels to Blogs

At Melophobe we receive hordes of emails each day from publicists trying to get our attention. Nearly all of them fail. Why? Because the deluge is too much for any one human to read, compounded by the fact that inevitably the emails are sent to every member of our team. This “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” approach is strangely reminiscent of spam (although we signed up for most of these emails at one point). It’s a low-conversion method for getting your information out to the music blogs.

There’s got to be a better way. We genuinely want to develop relationships with publicists. They genuinely want relationships with us. How can we raise the discourse from its current pathetic state of them mass emailing us and us bombarding them with requests for passes so we can cover their shows?

Blogs to Publicists/Labels

Blogs want access to the latest music and passes so they can cover concerts. As a blog, Melophobe’s strategy is to email people at the PR company or label until we find somebody we can work with. Once a relationship is established, we generally try to stay with the same person until they inevitably leave for the next job. Time consuming and not efficient.

Understandably, publicity people need filters to sort the blogs that can generate real exposure for their bands from the blogs just interested in the latest freebie. Tools like Quantcast, Compete and Technorati(?) are blunt tools for guestimating a blog’s influence but it’s unclear if PR people even take the time to look at this information. I suspect they respond to the most aggressive people who want passes. Again, not efficient.

Blogs to Bands to Blogs

MySpace? Horrible. Twitter? Better. For those bands not on Twitter though, it’s pretty difficult to get a genuine connection with somebody in a band. This is unfortunate since we’re trying to promote their music and they probably want to talk to us.

Email seems like the only solution for all these problems so far. Is there a better way?

The newspaper industry can’t say it didn’t see its...

Mon, 04 May 2009 17:18:00 -0400

The newspaper industry can’t say it didn’t see its demise coming. As early as 1981 they were experimenting with Internet technology. That’s a lot of time to “modernize” and all the chatter about Amazon’s new Jumbo Kindle isn’t going to save them either. (Maybe they shouldn’t have agreed to lifetime job guarantee clauses.)

I think Amazon’s smart enough to see this and that the new Kindle is actually a first step aimed at the lucrative textbook market. There’s a lot of money to be made in selling textbooks to students and if Amazon can do it cheaper while reducing the weight of a backpack, they’re going to find success.

I am reading Dan Ariely’s fantastic book Predictably...

Sun, 03 May 2009 22:04:00 -0400

I am reading Dan Ariely’s fantastic book Predictably Irrational and was struck by how adding irrelevant choices can influence consumer behavior. Take, for instance, the above chart which offers consumers three subscription choices. Which would you choose? Not surprisingly, out of 100 MIT Sloan students a total of zero people chose “Print Only.” 84 chose the “Print and Electronic” subscription, while 14 chose “Electronic Only.” So why even have the dumb “Print Only” option?

Here’s where it gets interesting. If you reduce the choices to just two: $59 for an “Electronic Only” subscription or $125 for a “Print and Electronic” subscription, a staggering 68 picked “Electronic Only” and only 32 went for “Print and Electronic.” At work is the mind’s preference for comparing two like objects and having a deep attraction to getting something for free. (That “Print and Electronic” subscription looks like an absolute steal compared to the “Print Only” subscription).