Chasing the long tail of new media
Gypsy! Edition
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In case you haven’t seen it, the next Rolling Stone magazine has the girls from MTV’s The Hills on the cover.
Really? The girls from The Hills? That’s the best Rolling Stone could do this week? Wow. Really?
Look, I realize that criticizing Rolling Stone for abandoning their original music-oriented mission by putting actors, models and other non-musicians on the cover started in earnest over twenty years ago, when Jann Wenner started putting his Hollywood buddies on the cover, so this isn’t about that.
I don’t really have an issue with their long-ago morphing into a general pop-culture magazine. After all, had they stuck to just covering music, we wouldn’t have had Hunter Thompson or Tom Wolfe or PJ O’Rourke or Matt Taibbi, just to name a few non-music writers that they’ve featured over the years.
Nor do I have an issue with them trying to stay relevant for what is now the third generation of kids they’re trying to deal with. New generations have new popular culture icons, I get that. Maybe these girls are the Kurt Cobain or Johnny Depp of the Millennial Generation.
Maybe. So why does this week’s cover feel like a new low?
[Read more…] about Rolling Stone Goes to Hell, er, The Hills
Cambot! Edition
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Robot Roll Call! Edition
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Okay, I really don’t like the ABC video player. As we continue our living-without-cable/satellite/rabbit ears experiment, we’re trying out all the video services being offered by the major players. I’ve grudgingly conceded that Hulu does a good job, though it still has problems.
The CBS Innertube, while cleverly named, was a rank disappointment. Friends have assured us that you can pause without reverting to the beginning of a show (or a middle that makes no sense), so we might give it another go. I simply wasn’t that fond of the experience beginning to end.
Last week, in honor of the return of Lost, we decided to check out ABC’s version of free online video service. Like the others, this does what it does in an okay manner. Streaming video, especially across a cable connection, isn’t going to be perfect. We are in the nascency of this technology.
[Read more…] about ABC: More Lost Than You Think
Suck It Monkeys, I’m Going Corporate! Edition
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Pudding Power Activate! Edition
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A while back, Kirk wrote an article called “Prepare for the Worst: 4 Simple Digital Media Backup Solutions.” One of the options was the digital Music Locker at MP3tunes, where you could upload your music and store it, secure and password-protected.
This is not file-sharing. File-sharing is, of course, the digital equivalent of what music fans have been doing since the dawn of time: turning other people on to music they love. This is really the exact opposite: it is more akin to locking your music in a safe deposit vault, where only you have the key.
Apparently, EMI didn’t think so, and sued MP3tunes, essentially trying to shut down online storage of music for any purpose whatsoever.
Making Plans . . . Very Slowly Edition
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What Are We Gonna Do? Edition
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