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The Daily Loper – March 4, 2006

March 4, 2006 by Lopy

Todays links of interest:

  • Unconscious jogger identified through iPod
    His name was George W. Bush.
  • The pope gets an iPod
    You can tell a lot about a man by the sizes of his iPod. For the record, the Pope is a 2GB White Nano.
  • Guilds Cry For Share of ‘Lost’ and ‘Housewives’ Download Dollars
    After taking a pass on better DVD rates, the guilds are setting up for a major battle. Antiquated formula, indeed — it’s definitely out of the Dark Ages.
  • Web Directory of Congressional Bios Debuts
    Free if you want to download it. Maybe now Congressional aides will stop messing with the Wikipedia.
  • Patriot Act wins final approval in Congress
    Remember that joke you made in that email that one time? Better hope that they thought it was funny.

Filed Under: The Daily Loper

The Daily Loper – March 3, 2006

March 3, 2006 by Lopy

Todays links of interest:

  • MTV2 embraces YouTube.com
    Has YouTube begun the inevitable journey to the dark side or is MTV trying to recapture its youth?
  • Settlement Reached in BlackBerry Dispute
    It is not, after all the fuss, the end of the world as we know it. Carry on.
  • Settlement Reached in BlackBerry Dispute
    Text your friends!
  • Free Sci Fi Galactica in TV Guide
    The March 6 issue of TV Guide — which has reincarnated into a spoiler-heavy glorified gossip rag — offers a free "Battlestar Galactica" download from iTunes. Amazing episode, but still not worth buying the mag.
  • Six versions of Windows Vista
    Quoth a hardcore Windows user: "I hate when they do this …"
  • Channels bloom, and viewers pick
    People watch "channels"? Doesn’t TiVo take care of all that for us? Turns out the rest of the world only views a limited number of channels. And a surprising number of them are HGTV addicts.
  • Putting The Fans To Work
    Finally, an above-ground venue devoted entirely to fan fiction. We eagerly await the first lawsuit — it’s de rigeur for putting sites on the map.
  • Elle Catching Up To Vogue Online
    Magazine sites have been notably lame in the past, but finally the powers-that-be are seeing value in creating real destinations.
  • Shows on Web Have Been More Miss Than Hit
    First step to creating a hit on the web: define what a hit on the web is. Also look to the models that work for ideas.
  • Google upbeat, talks of 0 billion company
    Rule the world, no. Become extremely rich, yes.
  • Feds to Query Labels About Online Prices
    Price fixing? We’re shocked! Shocked! Though anyone who’s been paying attention shouldn’t be.
  • Proposed IPTV service under fire
    So it’s OK for cable companies to offer the Internet, but not OK for phone companies to offer TV?
  • Actress Alba demands Playboy pull issue over cover
    She believes that the mag is misleading those who might have hoped that her picture on the cover meant pix that would lead to another type of pulling.
  • Barry Bonds Reality Show to Air on ESPN2
    Rumor has it that he is going spend the entire season in Paula Abdul drag.

Filed Under: The Daily Loper

Major Labels Colluding? Same As it Ever Was

March 3, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Have you ever wondered why it costs roughly the same for you to purchase a CD of, say, Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde — an universally acknolwedged classic of 75 minutes of sublime music, and Bob Dylan’s Down in the Groove — a universally acknowedged piece of crap that barely breaks a half-hour?  As a music fan, of course, you’ve probably come to expect that all albums, then CDs, then downloads all cost pretty much the same. It’s just that some enrich your life forever and others get you maybe a buck and for sure a snide look from the guy at the used CD counter. 

In a lot of ways, this pricing is kind of like paying the same amount of money for a McDonald’s hamburger and a Prime porterhouse at Morton’s.  Only in entertainment do we risk essentially the same money for such wildly varying degrees of pleasure.  Part of that is wrapped up in our understanding of art:  not even the greatest are great every time out — and of course, to be fair, even Down in the Groove no doubt has its defenders — but part of that is wrapped up in the methods of those who control the distribution.  

In this case, that would be the major labels — these days they are configured as such:  SonyBMG, Universal, EMI, and Warner — in the past, configured differently, but it doesn’t really matter.  What matters is, no matter how they are configured, from the consumer standpoint they’ve artificially set the prices to be the same, regardless of quality, regardless of manufacture cost, regardless of length (except that a 80-minute double-CD could be sold for twice as much as a 78-minute single CD), regardless of just about anything.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end amen.

 

[Read more…] about Major Labels Colluding? Same As it Ever Was

Filed Under: iTunes, Music Tagged With: downloads, iTunes, major-labels, Music

The Return of the Mix Tape

March 3, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

Whether you like it or not, you’re going to be hearing a lot about social networking this year. For a supposedly lonely place, the Web has a lot of ways to bring humans together. With very little effort, you can find a like-minded soul. . .or at least someone who shares your feelings and took the time to create a playlist to reflect them.

As noted in the Washington Post, song-sharing (not to be confused with file sharing) is poised to change the music industry:

IMixes — as well as playlists on other services such as Rhapsody, Musicstrands and Soundflavor — are the online cousins of amateur cassette-tape and CD mixes created over the years by countless music collectors as soundtracks for parties and road trips. Many of the playlists focus on a theme — and many of those on a personal one, whether the subject is a lost love, a class reunion, a nasty breakup, duty in Iraq or a new romance.

Consumers don’t trust radio programmers. Not enough variety, not enough information. Station playlists are too limited and decisions about what gets played and what doesn’t get played is subjected to a pseudo-science that seems almost random (for a great example of this, check out Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink for a story about an artist named Kenna).

[Read more…] about The Return of the Mix Tape

Filed Under: Unexpected Results Tagged With: blink, imix, iTunes, mix-tapes, musicstrands, social-networking, soundflavor, webjay, Yahoo

Blogs to Books: Still Not Busted

March 3, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

For those who thought the blogger-to-book phenomenon had passed, we bring you this from Publisher’s Lunch:

“Gawker Media’s The Gawker Guide to Conquering Media, a humorous, inside look that pulls back the curtains on the horror stories, unspoken rules and power players in big media, to Peter Borland at Atria, in a pre-empt, by Daniel Greenberg of Levine Greenberg Literary Agency.”

As soon as the ‘loper team can hire a ghostwriter, we will be shopping “The Medialoper Guide to Ruling the World”.

Filed Under: Publishing

The Daily Loper – March 2, 2006

March 2, 2006 by Lopy

Todays links of interest:

  • Phone, media firms see mobile ads soon
    Which means I’m already waiting for my cellphone TiVo. CeVo?
  • Opening up the Intel Mac mini
    Medialoper loves product autopsies
  • Microsoft says better than Google soon
    Noted without comment.
  • UCI Psychiatrist Bilked by Nigerian E-Mails, Suit Says
    Have you ever wondered who actually responds to those Nigerian emails? Apparently, it’s this guy.
  • Radio: Why wasn’t CBS sterner prior to suing Howard?
    CBS Desk: What took so long? If the execs couldn’t bring themselves to listen to Stern’s show, they could have asked random teenage boys on the streeet about the show.
  • FCC Chief Presses Cable Firms
    In a twist, the FCC thinks consumers should be reimbursed for channels they don’t want, that cable companies should bend over backwards to redefine their business models, and is ESPN really family-friendly?
  • AOL hanging up on dial-up customers?
    Dial-up? What in the world is dial-up?

Filed Under: The Daily Loper

“I heard that we’ve sold over a million downloads”

March 2, 2006 by Jim Connelly

That, my friends, is a million downloads of a television show — the U.S. version of The Office, which in its second season, has come into its own, both critically and commercially.

It’s always great when quality and popularity intersect, especially when they intersect in a show that nobody really gave a chance to succeed. So how did the U.S. version of The Office get to be so great? In a long interview with Television Without Pity’s co-founder Wing Chun, writer and actor B.J. Novak (he plays Ryan, the temp) holds forth on such topics as:

  • Living in the shadow of the Ricky Gervais version
  • All of those downloads.
  • Improvisation on the set.
  • Michael’s man-crush on Ryan.
  • Why their move to Thursday nights makes sense.

Nothing, alas, on the Prism Durosport. Nevertheless, from my standpoint, it’s beginning to look like The Office is going to end up being the greatest cover version of a stone-cold classic since Husker Du’s “Eight Miles High.”

  • The B.J. Novak Interview

Filed Under: Television Tagged With: downloads, durosport, iTunes, Television, The Office

Yahoo Decides Against Original Content

March 2, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

It’s so hard to keep up — one week it’s all original content, all the time. The next it’s, well, why do the work when someone else will do it for you? Yahoo has decided to focus its energy on acquired content — either from established media outlets or users.

Yes, users. They’re going to provide the fuel that makes a corporate giant look good to stockholders. It’s one thing for a nervy start-up like YouTube to look to do-it-yourselfers; it’s another to expect something for nothing (not that we believe for one second that Yahoo! will forego appropriate compensation).

Of course, making yourself look like competition for the major studios isn’t great either. Even if it’s exactly what the studios need.

And poor Lloyd Braun, not only does he look wishy-washy (tune in next week for the portal’s change of heart), but he’s apparently not playing nice with Terry Semel. Braun may or may not be the dude making these announcements in the near future.

[Read more…] about Yahoo Decides Against Original Content

Filed Under: Services

Origami “Debuts” – Exclusive Video On Google

March 2, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

The blogosphere is buzzing today about Microsoft’s delayed announcement of the “mysterious” Origami product. The Origami Project website has been updated with a March 9 launch date. Apparently today was never intended to be a launch date — or was it?

A lengthy video of the product has turned up on Google. I’m assuming that today’s date was intended to be the official “leak date” of this new product video. How clever of Microsoft to use Google to promote their latest product.

Based on a PC World report, it’s now not clear whether or not the product will be released anytime soon. Apparently Microsoft is new at this viral marketing thing and isn’t quite clear on the part where it’s also important to manage expectations.

A few observations after watching the video:

  • As anticipated the product is a portable tablet-like device that does just about everything.
  • It’s clear from the action scenarios that Bluetooth and WiFi will play a big part in all of Origami’s magic.
  • This is clearly not an iPod killer.
  • Man this thing is big. They call that a portable?

This, apparently, concludes Microsoft’s first attempts at product secrecy and viral marketing

Watch the video:

  • Microsoft Origami Trailer

Filed Under: Google, Marketing, Microsoft Tagged With: Bluetooth, Handheld, Microsoft, Origami, Portables, Wifi

Pre-Blogging the Microsoft Origami Announcement

March 1, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

What’s better than live blogging Microsoft’s unveiling of the mysterious Origami project? Pre-blogging the Origami announcement, of course.

Earlier this week I tried live-blogging the live blogging of the Apple product announcements. To be honest, it was all just a bit too meta — even for me. Instead, I’ll take this opportunity to do one last round-up the various rumors surrounding Origami:

  • It’s a portable media device that plays music, video games, and performs handwriting recognition. In other words it’s a portable game machine that you can also use as a tablet PC. Or maybe it’s a tablet PC that you can also use as a portable game machine.
  • It’s larger than Sony’s PSP and may cost more than $300. Or maybe it’ll cost more than $500. No one really knows. And really, how could they, what with the legendary ultra-secrecy of the Microsoft Marketing Machine.
  • The device will come in either black or a truly weird shade of lime green that has a certain glow-in-the-dark plastic look about it.
  • Early suspicions that the Origami might be a Roomba killer may have been greatly exaggerated. There’s no reason to believe the Origami will have the ability to crawl through plush shag carpeting sucking up cat hair.

Regardless of what Origami turns out to be, it’s unlikely to make a serious dent in the lead Apple has taken in the digital convergence race. Unless Microsoft announces a new online media store and partnerships with several major film studios, they’ve got a lot of catching up to do. A single device is only the first step if Microsoft hopes to compete. It’s a new millennium and Microsoft is now the underdog. The sad thing is I usually root for the underdog.

Filed Under: Hardware, Marketing, Microsoft Tagged With: Apple, handhelds, Microsoft, Origami

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2629: Talking Heads – “What A Day That Was (Los Angeles 12-1983)”
  • Certain Songs #2628: Talking Heads – “Slippery People (Los Angeles 12-1983)”
  • Certain Songs #2627: Talking Heads – “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)”
  • Certain Songs #2626: Talking Heads – “Burning Down The House”
  • Certain Songs #2625: Talking Heads – “Crosseyed and Painless (Cherry Hill 11-08-1980)”

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