Jan 06 2010
So I just finished posting enough content to the site that I feel comfortable enough broadcasting it out…
Team USA vs The World can be found at http://www.usaVworld.com and if it doesn’t get you pumped up about international football then I don’t know what
will.
Huge thanks to Steve, Anthony, Alex & Nicole at USA Football … and Anshey at VPV Interactive.
Dec 31 2009
Bold prediction: Facebook is 24 months away from being as relevant as MySpace is in 2009.
The more stuff like Facebook Connect pushes every single action/comment power users do on the web into the site, the less people are going to use it. Tech companies are regularly recommending integrating it, and, while potentially good for the clients, it’s going to be tech like this that’s going to DESTROY Facebook.
It’s more fun to have an exclusive party than go to one where everyone has to stand in line at the bar. Facebook stopped being a cool secret.
Plus, Zuckerberg is obsessed with Twitter. … He turns over the home page of the site every 6 months. … He had a terrible time selling Beacon to the public and clearly had some hubris issues in the planning phase (though kudos for taking it behind the woodshed as quickly as he did). … People I talk to are calling it boring and the novelty of status the updates has worn off. It’s got a fantastic photo application but more and more people I know are “untagging” everything. The core group of users who started using it first came out in college are getting older and, from a technology standpoint, the new group of users are from a different generation (both way younger and way older). Kids don’t use AIM- they text instead. I never had texts in high school. …. Parents are starting to get profiles to get back in touch with old high school classmates and reconnect with old flames. (The site is being cited in divorce cases on a regular basis: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6857918/Facebook-fuelling-divorce-research-claims.html ).
It’s a different set of people doing considerably more (or considerably less) than the site was originally built to do. Twitter came out and people can bullshit with each other easier and faster. MySpace was supposed to last forever right? AOL?
…and from a revenue standpoint, the site has never been in a better position. It’s going to pass MySapce for social networking ad revenue. So why stop the train while the dough is rolling in?
24 months.
Update:
Unprompted, I found this on my news feed….
So you can add that to the reasons above: too many mobile alerts that just get annoying after a while.
Dec 31 2009
At our core, it’s a guitar and a voice.
Regardless of where you think music is going, you can rest assured that the opportunity to give a view of your own humanity in a performance is still there. It’s for the taking.
John Mayer, for all his talents, hasn’t been able to blend lyrics and blues with the same emotion as Chris and Rich Robinson (Black Crowes) do, and it shows every time they take the stage.
Taylor Swift, for all her talents, is subject to the same vocal corrections and studio musicians that make Kelly Clarkson a pop star - beige enough for everyone to enjoy.
If you want to be the next Bruce, you have to do Bruce things. If you want to be U2, you can’t write songs like The Fray.
The space is available if you want it.
Dec 22 2009
Is it really a mystery why there are problems selling the musical product* to people?
*For the sake of this conversation, musical product is the music itself, performances, and the stuff around music.
A week ago, I bought some Christmas presents at FYE. They upsold me on the Lil Wayne “Rebirth” CD with a $3 coupon and a $3 deposit (bringing the final price to $4 on the day-of) that I was told would be coming out in the next week or two. Then two days later, it was announced that the CD would be delayed up until February. [Keep in mind this CD was supposed to come out around the release of its first single: Prom Queen. That was January 2009.] Is it really that much of a mystery that retail outlets are having problems selling music when the biggest artists can’t get their focus groups’ opinions sorted out before they release their albums?
…
I tried to buy the Wale CD at Best Buy. Being about 20 minutes from Wale’s home base in DC, you would think that the BB would have extra CDs. After all, I had similar problems when trying to buy the Katt Williams DVD that was filmed in DC. That was a year ago… you would think that data would help drive future decisions. (Everyone has access to the same numbers nowadays.) Nope. Is it really that much of a surprise that the local demand for a product will be higher than national demand?
I eventually bought the Wale album on Amazon MP3, which is the best thing to happen to digital music since the iPod. When I tell people about it, it’s like they’re hearing about how I found a dragon in my living room. “What’s DRM?” they ask. “What about iTunes?” “You mean that you can actually pay LESS than $1.29 for a song I actually want??” “And it plays anywhere?” Is it any surprise that there are problems selling through a distribution channel that no one has heard about?
…
I tried to buy TicketMaster gift certificates for a present. When I went on the site to order, the options I had for shipping were:
| US $19.50 | by 12 noon in 2 business days - undeliverable to PO Box or APO/FPO addresses. | ||
| US $18.50 | by 7:30 pm in 2 business days - undeliverable to PO Box or APO/FPO addresses. | ||
| US $14.50 | by 7:30 pm in 3 business days - undeliverable to PO Box or APO/FPO addresses | ||
| US $25.00 | by noon on Saturday. Order must be placed by Wednesday prior - undeliverable to PO Box or APO/FPO addresses. | ||
| No additional charge | Your gift card(s) will be mailed to your billing address within 2 weeks from the date of purchase. |
Why doesn’t the last option just say “We’ll drop it in the mail. If it gets there, it gets there. If it doesn’t, it’s your own fault.” Two weeks? Is this coming from East Africa? Does TM need to formulate the plastic? Is it a mystery why people doesn’t want TicketMaster to succeed? Is it a mystery why I’ve never heard anyone say that they can’t wait to go to TicketMaster?
…
For those who didn’t know, I DJ. I really love it. It’s challenging enough to stay interesting and I like being able to expose people to new music. Sometimes they don’t like being exposed to that new music. Maybe it’s the crowd, maybe it’s a nature of the beast, maybe it’s that the radio plays about 40 songs on rotation and that’s it. If I play music outside of those 40, I’m taking a risk. Why? Because it’s highly likely, that even if the song was released as a single, with a video and a solid marketing effort, that there was limited buy-in from radio. Radio play resembles the schedule for infomercials: if people aren’t supporting you right away, you can count on being dumped. And with more and more shows going national (think Seacrest), there is even less regional separation. If you don’t have national appeal, you don’t have a platform to stand on! Is it any surprise that when you make ringtone artists, you sell ringtones and not albums? And then, is it any surprise that having a population that only buys ringtones doesn’t value albums for those who do choose to put them out?
…
The culture of the business needs to change.
It makes me think about what Mos Def says in “Fear Not of Man”
People be askin me all the time, “Yo Mos, what’s gettin ready to happen with Hip-Hop?”
I tell em, “You know what’s gonna happen with Hip-Hop?
Whatever’s happening with us”
If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out
If we doin alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin alright
People talk about Hip-Hop like it’s some giant livin in the hillside
comin down to visit the townspeople
We (are) Hip-Hop
Me, you, everybody, we are Hip-Hop
So Hip-Hop is goin where we goin.”
The industry is what it sows. In the late-90’s / early-2000’s, when the industry was able to churn out pop stars like hamburgers, there was no worry for the future. Create a culture in which style trumps talent, this is what happens. Do people value Us Magazine or the content it publishes? If the magazine went away and was replaced by “Them Magazine,” would anyone really be heartbroken? Jessica and Nick were replaced by Spencer and Heidi (who, incidentally, are better at being Jess and Nick than Jess and Nick were). If U2 went away, millions would be disappointed - there’s only one U2. … Tiger the Golfer is substance over style. He lasts. Tiger the Celebrity is (media created) style over substance. Soon enough, the Celebrity will go away and be replaced by someone else.
The hubris of the music industry is that consumers need it to survive. … Apple sells its logic software for $500. Another $100 gets me a mic, and another $100 gets me a keyboard. Capitol, Atlantic… do not think people will always need you. You are on the wrong side of this war until you get your act together and work with the new distribution channels, work with the energetic people from their basements, work WITH the customer base. The day is coming when a new artist will sell 500,000 without you.*
So the next time you ask yourself where Hip-Hop is goin
ask yourself.. where am I goin? How am I doin?
Til you get a clear idea …
*Drake could have done it. You are going to be very very lucky to be getting a cut of that.
Dec 07 2009
I get the idea of the pretzel vendor but a notable difference in digital vs. physical property is the assurance of being able to return a physical product. If I think my coffee-maker stinks, I can just return it to Target for another one. If I think YourSoftware stinks, there’s no promise that I can un-license it.
It’s another reason I think the cloud is going to be where everyone ends up. As great as desktop software is, a ubiquitous internet is inevitable. (It costs too little to deliver data on a per-unit basis for a big company to swoop in and make our lives a bit more connected for a “nominal fee.”) It’s conceivably easier to “return” the product if it doesn’t work.
I don’t think this is an automatic thing though… it’s going to take more than a minute for companies who operate in the digital space that the concerns of the physical space extend to their offices. Customer service will always be a priority of the customer, regardless of the opinions of any overtaxed 4-person staff.
Dec 05 2009
The FCC is nicely asking Verizon to get their stuff together regarding two really questionable biz practices that have been in the news lately - a $350 early termination fee for “advanced devices” and $1.99 mobile web data transfer fee.
Related Links:
- Engadget: FCC Give Verizon 3rd Degree
- brianfeener: Verizon isn’t Too Keen on Letting You Leave
While I’m sure that Verizon isn’t too happy about government intervening in their business, I read this news this afternoon and how, as a consumer, could you not be happy about some governmental intervention in this case? More and more, consumers are being asked to subscribe to this - Netflix, cloud storage, “premium” TV… in a lot of cases we’re getting nickle-and-dimed to death.
It’s no secret that cell phones are replacing landlines. That’s no news.
What is interesting is that “smart phones” - the email-centric, web-centric, download-$.99-apps-centric ones - are beginning to take over the entire market. When is the last time you saw Verizon, ATT, whatever advertise a flip phone? They’re still available and at the store, but they’re the black sheep of retail. It’s no stretch that every phone in their line is going to be an “advanced device.”
It barely makes sense to even let the customer know the “dumb phones” are available. The cost of bandwith and data transfers for the advanced phones are microscopic against the rates the companies are charging customers. (A reason that I think the Consumer Reports’ reported ATT network troubles are going to be a short term issue.) And with price-over-life-of-device monies pushing $2000 for these power phones, it makes perfect sense that every device goes “smart.” What’s not fair to the customer is that every device eventually becomes a situation in which the only way to get out of these contracts is death… and even then I’m not too sure.
Big thanks to the FCC for the effort and looking forward to seeing an update when it happens.
Nov 26 2009
It’s easy to see why some people can make so much money out of being smart. It’s mostly practice, but it’s partly just practice in having the ideas in the first place.
Good web design doesn’t have to come from “traditional web designers”. It can come from the commonsensical among us like Seth Godin.
Good blues doesn’t have to come from “traditional blues artists.”
Good phones don’t have to come from traditional phone makers. (Tell 2004 that Apple will make phones.)
Cut across the grain and fray the edges a little bit - regret and success share a common thread.
