Medialoper

We're Not Who You Think We Are

Jim Connelly

Red Hot Concert Tickets

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Apple Computer — last seen in an UK court of law trying to prove that it really isn’t in the music business, and therefore violating a 1991 agreement with Apple Records — is now getting deeper into the music business.

It works like this: if you pre-order a download of the new Red Hot Chili Peppers double album, Stadium Arcadium, from iTunes, you get a code that will allow you to purchase tix from Ticketmaster four days before they go on sale to the general public. This type of concert ticket pre-order isn’t so different from what a lot of artists do on their fan sites, sometimes not so smoothly..

A couple of things strike me about this:

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NBC Moves Into The On Demand World

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Following CBS’ lead, NBC is working out a deal with Comcast to make nearly a dozen of their of their shows available on demand.

NBC’s deal is more comprehensive than the CBS one because it features a wider variety of shows, and includes non-primetime shows like Passions and Late Night, as well as shows from NBCU’s cable properties, most notably Battlestar Galactica. Interestingly enough, customers would be charged US$0.99 for the prime-time shows, but the non-prime and cable shows would be free.

The perception, of course, is that the prime-time shows are worth more than the non prime-time shows, which is weird: it would seem that culty shows like Monk and Passions are worth way more to their cults, no matter where they are originally broadcast.

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TeeVeePedia

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As ever, there were dozens upon dozens of April Fools sites up this year. Many of them involved new looks for established sites, or new products or services. While we would never mess with our audience this way, we sampled several others — no way to get them all, of course — but one I really enjoyed is the TeeVeePedia, done by the people at TeeVee.org.

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Watercooler Shows On-Demand

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Time-Warner Cable has initiated talks with the big 4 TV networks about a on-demand TV service — but only for the top-rated shows.

It’s an interesting twist: while previous on-demand concepts have concentrated on categories of shows(sports, porn) or specific shows themselves (like HBO’s or Showtime’s on-demand services) — this is the first one with a capability of on a regular basis, based upon what what Neilsen has decided that various pluralities of the American Public deem worth watching.

Call it The Watercooler Shows On-Demand service.

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A Download a Day Keeps the Lawyers Away

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Apple Computers and Apple Corp are returning to court today, as The Beatles (or as the MSNBC headline currently has it, “The Beattles”) are accusing Apple Computer of trademark infringement. Again.

Like everything else on the planet, this is centered around iTunes and the iPod, as they represent Apple Comp’s movement into the music space, which Apple Corp says violates the agreement they brokered last time they were in court, 15 years ago.

To Apple Corp, Apple Comp going into music infringes on the value of the Apple record label, which to me, brings up an interesting side point: in the day and age of downloading, what is the value of a record label to a consumer?

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The Weekly ‘Loper – March 26, 2006

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While you were trying to figure out what exactly the deals were with Tony Soprano and Chef, here’s what we were talking about:

  • LaLa Love You You can’t swap digital musical files that you have legally purchased, nor can you swap digital musical files ripped from physical CDs that you have legally purchased. But you can swap physical CDs that you have legally purchased. For now.
  • The New Music Model: DIY – Let’s all give a big amount of applesauce applause for Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah, and other bands are totally doing it their way.
  • Press Room? I Said Rest Room! – A hard-hitting investigation into the need for a Press Room at SXSW. Never underestimate the importance of comfortable chairs.
  • Radio Killed The Radio Star, Part One – A deep long look at a SXSW panel called “The Future of Radio,” and how the music industry and the government continue to find ways to make that future seem bleak, at best.
  • Radio Killed The Radio Star, Part Two – Who needs radio, when we have become our own musical gatekeepers. And: Signs of life, but are those exceptions or precursors to a new way?
  • TV Shows on DVD I’d Like To See – And why, sadly, we might never see any of them. As usual, rights issues (read: the need to squeeze every last penny from something) get in the way of consumer desires.
  • Television Without Potty – Finally got to use that headline!! And for exactly the type of post I knew it would accompany: the FCC continuing to run roughshod over free speech.

Monkeynews: Downloading Kong in Europe

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King Kong is coming out on DVD on April 10th. In and of itself, that isn’t extraordinary — it’s been a few months since it hit the theatre, and now those interested in Peter Jackson’s take on the tale, but didn’t want to be bothered with sticky floors, ringing cellphones, commercials and overpriced vats of food can watch it in the privacy of their own homes. (Why they even had wait a few months is another discussion for another time).

That week, millions of people will trundle off to their local Best Buy or Blockbuster or rip open a package from Amazon, and pop King Kong into their DVD player. Unless they live in Europe, where instead, they can download it.

For the first time ever, a major Hollywood movie will be available for downloading on the same day as the DVD release. A non-self-destructing file, unlike other downloads in the past; and while it is more expensive than just purchasing the DVD, they will also send a physical copy of the DVD. Right. A physical backup copy for the downloaded digital file. And also, to give the consumer more choices on when and where to play the movie.

If successful in Europe, it’s only a matter of time before they try it here: and that will be long after shared copies of those downloads have already made it here. Given the time difference between here and Europe, it’s possible that a shared download of Kong will be played on some college kids laptop before his local DVD store even opens.

But maybe, just maybe, the movie studios will look at what they call “piracy” as indicators of demand — what people are willing to pay for if it was only available — as opposed to indicators of just how contemptible their audience actually is. If so, it’s another major step to anything, anytime, anywhere.

Television Without Potty

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A couple of Time-Warner companies are going to great lengths trying appease the FCC, who — running scared from (or worse, in cahoots with) anti-free speech groups like the American Family Association and the Parents Television Council — continue to levy unprecedented and quite possibly unconstitutional fines at the drop of a skirt.

First of all, Time-Warner Cable is bundling a bunch of hopefully non-offensive channels into a “Family Tier,” which they also hope will stave off the call for a la carte programming.  No problems here with a “Family Family” tier, though the skeptic in me figures that the tiers are a way to end up charging more for those channels.  Also, one of the “family-friendly” channels is the Food Network, which is 100% about stimulating the senses in every way possible. Watch it with the sound down and it’s a whole different experience.

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My TV, Anywhere

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The Slingbox — that cool little device that allows you to watch your TV anywhere that has a computer with a broadband connection — has just taken a huge leap forward into the world of anything, anytime, anywhere.

They’ve created a version that will send the contents of your TV to Windows Mobile palmtops and cellphones.

That’s all. 

And yet that’s everything. This trumps all other TV content made for mobile devices for one simple reason: it’s your own TV.  It’s “your own” content. It’s content that you’ve chosen to record.  

So cool that it almost makes me wish I had a use for it in my real life.