Archives for November 2007

The Daily Loper – November 13, 2007

November 13, 2007 by Lopy

Magical Mystery Tourists Edition

Todays links of interest:

My fling with a Sony Reader
Oh how we want the Sony Reader to be the perfect ebook machine. Unfortunately, it isn’t.
Voices of Uncertainty
Another great WGA video about the hypocrisy of the major media companies saying that they want to study the impact of the internet prior to negotiating with the writers. The video shows major players like Rupert Murdoch & Sumner Redstone talking about how the internet is going to make them a shitload of money.
Radiohead: ComScore is Full of It
Radiohead responds to the news that not so many paid for downloads of their new album. Their response mirrors ML’s polling results.

The Daily Loper – November 12, 2007

November 12, 2007 by Lopy

Neil, Wallace, Sammy, Anne, Al & Me Edition

Todays links of interest:

Fresno residents pan Prius ads poking fun at Central Valley city
Now that Toyota has wussed out and apologized, we’re sure that Prius sales will skyrocket in Fresno. Which could certainly use as many Priuses on its streets as possible.
Screenwriters Seek Bigger Slice of Half-Eaten Pie
The NYT notes that one of the major hurdles in paying writers more in residuals? Hefty participations squeeze available cash.
Fox sees dollar signs in picket lines
FOX executives, of course, never ever ever pass up a chance to be totally and utterly evil in their utterances. That they hate all of the, um, messiness surrounding scripted programming is of no surprise to those of us who have watched in horror over the years as they’ve axed one great show after another in order to air reruns of "America’s Most Fucked-Up Shit." One can only hope that this is the year that the Death Star — American Idol — gets blown to smithereens.

360 Deals: The Musical Merry-Go-Round

November 12, 2007 by Kassia Krozser

Sometimes, you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Artists across the entertainment industries — publishing, music, motion picture — earn money from their efforts in slightly different ways. For musicians, who earn a pittance from record sales, the real money comes from touring and merchandise.

Naturally, as sales have dropped, the labels have looked far and wide to find other sources of income. They see radio as a new cash cow (“can you believe they’re playing our music for free?”). And they see those lovely t-shirt and ticket dollars as theirs to share. After all, you know how hard A&R guys work while on tour.

The birth of the 360 deal — where artists and labels (and artists reps such as managers) — share in the proceeds of all money-making efforts. The New York Times has a lovely storyabout how this process is working for a band named “Paramore”. Since I believe it’s never too early to explore the magical world around us…
[Read more…] about 360 Deals: The Musical Merry-Go-Round

Gearing Up for TOC 2008

November 10, 2007 by Kirk Biglione

This summer I wrote about a new industry conference called TOC — Tools of Change for Publishing. TOC is an O’Reilly Media sponsored event, designed to help the slow moving world of book publishing ease gently into the 21st century. It’s the place to be if you have any interest at all in the future of publishing. It’s also one of those rare events that will likely have a substantial impact on an entire industry for years to come.

TOC 2008 is shaping up to be every bit as thought provoking and inspiring as the inaugural event was. The sessions and tutorials are designed to get publishers up to speed on the latest developments in technology and new media that will shape the publishing business for years to come.

I’m happy to report that a couple of members of the Medialoper team will be appearing at the upcoming TOC conference. Kassia Krozser has been invited to participate in a panel discussion on LitBlogs, and I’ll be presenting a session titled DRM, Digital Content, and the Consumer Experience: Lessons Learned from the Music Industry (at this point I have no clue how I’m going to fit all of those lessons into one 45 minute session).

TOC 2008 runs from February 11 – 13 in New York City. Registration is now open, and Medialoper readers can use this special discount code to save 10%: toc08mlp

We’ll be writing more about TOC as the event draws closer. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to meet some of you at the conference.

The Daily Loper – November 9, 2007

November 9, 2007 by Lopy

This Earth is ruined! We’ve gotta get a new one! Edition

Todays links of interest:

Was Radiohead?s download experiment a failure?
No.
Why We Fight
If you aren’t supporting the WGA after watching this video, you obviously have a vested interest in seeing them continue to get screwed.
Big bright puffball Holmes is a comet like no other
RED ALERT!

Making Us All That Much More Stupid: Bad Movie Night at The Dark Room

November 9, 2007 by Sherilyn Connelly

Oh, we piss people off.

The schedule for the next few months is posted on flyers outside the theater, and on December 15, we’re doing It’s a Wonderful Life. There was already some internal conflict about it, and some anonymous wag wrote on one of the flyers: “It’s not a bad movie, you S.O.B.s!!!” With three lines under S.O.B.s, so we’ll know they mean business.

Yeah, some people don’t like Bad Movie Night so much.

Me, I do. It’s my baby. I didn’t create the show—that honor goes to Jim Fourniadis and Ty McKenzie—but I was there on the first night: Red Dawn, March 27, 2005. Coincidentally, I broke up with my girlfriend of seven years earlier that afternoon. As a result I almost didn’t go to the show at all, but I was looking forward to it, and the point of the breakup had been (among other things) so I could go do the stuff I wanted, and Bad Movie Night was very much the stuff I wanted to do. I became a frequent co-host, eventually ~~weaseling~~ working my up to de facto curator. It’s still the most fun thing I do on a regular basis.

The Daily Loper – November 8, 2007

November 8, 2007 by Lopy

Hootenanny in E-dition

Todays links of interest:

Hold Steady, Husker Du Guys in Replacements Book
This might be the greatest headline ever. Of course, we’re already reading it, but we haven’t yet got to the part where the ‘Mats play the Star Palace in Fresno. Which is, of course, wishful thinking. But given the stories we know about just that one night — not to mention other two times they played Fresno — we already know that no single book could ever encompass the messy, fucked-up all-time greatness of The Replacements.
A Trade Publication Alters a Rule, Lifting an Eagles Album to No. 1
Much hate for the Eagles, and much more hate for Wal-Mart, and so they deserved the exclusive deal they made to sell the Eagles reunion album. Yet, it’s a good thing that Billboard changed their rules to allow for that album to top the charts — isn’t the whole point of the charts to at least try to represent the reality of sales? What makes this story funnier is that it came at Britney’s expense. Oh, and that there are now stories of other retail outlets selling Wal-Mart’s "exclusive."
Battlestar Galactica Producer Talks Strike
Ron Moore on how Universal fracked him over with the "promotional" Webisodes and how this all affects the next season of "Battlestar." At this point it seems a given that we won’t see the final episode until 2009, at best.

MLB and DRM: A Match Made in Hell

November 8, 2007 by Kirk Biglione

The World Series may have wrapped up last week, but there’s still plenty of action in the world of baseball. Owners are considering the use of instant replay, A-Rod is looking for a $350 million pay day, and MLB is finding new ways to torture fans with the careless use of DRM.

The off-season can seem excruciatingly long for baseball fans. With months to go before pitchers and catchers report for spring training, hardcore fans often turn to MLB.com for a quick fix of baseball action. Some fans even shell out a few bucks to download videos of their favorite games. Recently though, fans who have built substantial libraries of game videos are finding out that their video collections have become unplayable.

Allan Wood’s experience is a classic example of the risks involved in buying DRM protected media products. Over the years, Wood has purchased nearly $300 in game videos from MLB.com. He’s recently discovered that those videos are now worthless. Major League Baseball has apparently changed DRM providers — in the process, they’ve deactivated the DRM license servers that validate previously purchased videos for playback.

The Daily Loper – November 7, 2007

November 7, 2007 by Lopy

A Long Time Ago Edition

Todays links of interest:

United Hollywood
This is the WGA site about the strike. One of the incredibly smart things that they are doing is filming videos with people from shows like The Office and Lost discussing why they are on strike.
Veronica Mars DVD Extra: Pitching Season Four – Episode Recap
Sigh. Were totally skeptical about the whole Veronica Mars Season 4 pitch — until we saw this DVD Extra. It maybe coulda worked. That is had they been able to stay away from the "CSI-meets-Gray’s Anatomy" path that the CW would have wanted them to go down. Right now, you should do yourself a favor and get ahold of a DVD of the first season, which is still a thousand kinds of awesome.
Did anyone sign off on the racy Hitman movie poster with Olga Kurylenko?
The answer is yes, pretty much everyone did. It’s always awesome when something like this gets past all of the censors. Still, nothing will ever top the infamous Little Mermaid video cover. Thanks Disney, for that!!

Six Unanticipated Consequences Of The Writers Strike

November 7, 2007 by Jim Connelly

As you obviously know, the Writers Strike started this week. And it looks like it’s going to be a long, hard slog that may not be resolved for months — maybe not even until the Actors and Directors contracts are up next June. That’s a long time, and while there are any number of articles discussing the anticipated consequences of the strike, what about the unanticipated consequences?

By definition, of course, those are impossible to predict. Which is why I’m going to predict them. So, without any further ado, here are six unanticipated consequences of the writers strike.