napster

Will Success Spoil YouTube?

September 21, 2006 by Jim Connelly

In the past several months, YouTube has gone from “wha?” to something mainstream enough to be the source of Jay Leno bits. The mainstreaming of YouTube has been formalized by the deal they struck with Warner Music, the first of no doubt several they will be striking with the music labels, despite the bluster from Universal.

Of course, they only faced two choices: go legit or go the Napster route. They went legit, and I get that. We all know what happened to Napster when they fought the power. And yet, I wonder if this means that YouTube has peaked in terms of cultural influence.

Will Spiral Frog Leap Into Our Music Collections?

August 30, 2006 by Jim Connelly

[Lopy notes: Spiral Frog finally launched, and we finally reviewed it]

Free legal downloads!! From a major label, no less. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? It’s supposed to be a reality, as a site called Spiral Frog has contracted with Universal Music to provide free downloads starting in December.

Of course, there is a catch — you are going to have to deal with advertising while you download. Here’s how they describe it:

6 Books You Should Read Right Now If You Wanna Get Some Insight Into This Whole “New Media” Thingy

August 7, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Wanna know the philsophical underpinnings of some of our posts here at Medialoper? (I’ll pretend you said “yes.”) The following books have helped me work out some of the concepts that infuse nearly everything that I write about what we are calling the “new media.”

Here they are, alphabetical by author:

Apple Calls the iTune

May 4, 2006 by Jim Connelly

We love our iPods and iTunes here at Medialoper, so here’s some team coverage on one of the bigger stories of the week. As you probably know by now, Apple won its latest round with the music industry by refusing to move from their flat-rate pricing model to a more tiered model where new releases are significantly more expensive than long tail catalog product.

And while yesterday Kirk had a real nice insight as to why the record companies backed down, I have a slightly different take.

YouTube: Rattle and Hum

March 1, 2006 by Jim Connelly

Lots of recent sabre-rattling directed at YouTube, who have come out of nowhere to be the one of the most-trafficked video web sites. In the past couple of weeks, they’ve been hit with a pair of high-profile “get that thing off of your site” letters from uptight copyright holders, making people wonder if they can avoid being tagged the “Video Napster.”