 Tuesday, September 23, 2003
The Trickle up Economics of Radio
"From Criminal Records, an article from the Sunday Times Magazine on UK pirate radio:
'There is a studio mobile too. It vibrates every few seconds like a faulty alarm clock, as listeners call and text. Scrolling through its inbox, I notice scores of 'missed calls'. Big N explains that this is how pirates gauge a record's popularity. If listeners like a tune, they call in and then ring off, so the studio mobile registers a "missed call". This costs callers nothing. If Xtreme receives over 20 missed calls from different numbers before a track ends, the DJs play it again. This is why teenagers listen to pirate radio: it's interactive in ways legal stations can't match. Some tune in on their mobiles - on the bus, in the high street, even at school.' " [kottke.org]
"Open Studios has initiated a project it calls, SONG STORM.
The web site will be based on the theme of a running contest, with ever-increasing prize values, as traffic increases. Contestants will submit their favorite non-RIAA playlists (one or two hours) and win a prize.
The playlists will serve to feed established webcasters and college radio stations, as well as encourage the startup of new webcasters. There will be playlists that utilize free downloads from artists' websites, along with providing downloading for those songs licensed with the Creative Commons.
Launch date is still in limbo, but should occur shortly. Will keep you posted. In the meantime, should anyone have an interest in coming on board to join our core group developing this project, we'd enjoy hearing from you. Contact me at: tompoe@studioforrecording.org. It should be a lot of fun."
Is there an online catalog that will start collecting all of these songs and letting users search or browse them by genre? I see a niche popping up....
Geek Eye for the Luddite Guys
"This is no ordinary reunion of the nerds. These geeks—as different from nerds as orcs are from trolls—have been assembled as part of an audacious experiment: Can they deliver digital happiness to a small part of America and enable FORTUNE to ride the success of the hit reality show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?...
So we assembled a Fab Three, headed by Heistad, and paired it with the most typically tech-less family we could find: the Burkes of Sterling, Va., who consist of a salesman father, a stay-at-home mother, and two small children. Heistad grilled them on their tech needs—really, all they wanted to do was send digital pictures of the kids to Grandma. Heistad came back with a shopping list that would get them that, plus a home theater, a wireless network, new computing, a tricked-out music system, and GPS positioning capabilities. FORTUNE's requirements: The products needed to be practical, easy to use, fully installed, basically idiot-proof, and very, very cool. We'd pick up the bill for the Burkes, paying a set media rate when companies offered it, retail when they didn't. (We let the geeks pick their own uniforms, though: They chose The Matrix: Reloaded T-shirts and Tevas.)
For three days the Fab Three took over the Burkes' home. And at the end, it was nearing digital nirvana. But, O, Fortuna! It is not so easy being geek." [Fortune]
Update: Ernest Miller over at LawMeme fleshes out the thoughts I didn't have time to write myself earlier.
Entertainment Gadget Makeovers
"However, I do think that this points out a concern for DRM systems everywhere. If people get this frustrated with a consumer device that doesn't operate the way it should simply through the manufacturer's error, how frustrated will people get with consumer devices that don't operate as they should due to specific and intentionally crippled design implementations? I think consumers will soon wonder why they have marvelous media servers that provide their MP3s to every stereo in the house, but don't have a similar device for DVDs."
Gain New Readers Through Mobile-Phone Services
"Some 6,700 new newspaper subscriptions via mobile phones from August 1999 through July 2003: That's a quite an impressive number for a completely new sales channel that Takashi Ishioka, project manager for the Asahi Shimbun Electronic Media and Broadcasting Division, presented at the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) Younger Readers conference in Helsinki, Finland, earlier this month.
At least some newspapers finally seem to be getting the message that they have to adapt to the behavior of their readers -- if not of their current ones, then at least their future readers (if they want to have any) -- and try some really new ideas.
Asahi Shimbun, for example, with a circulation of 12 million copies (Japan's -- and therefore the world's -- second largest newspaper), operates a successful and profitable mobile service. It started delivering news through mobiles in 1999 and meanwhile has 1.2 million subscribers to its various mobile services (priced at about 0.73 Euro/month), which in the last few weeks even began to include streaming video delivered to mobile phones. More information about newspapers' mobile strategies and the conference is available from WAN's website." [E-media Tidbits, via textually.org]
Emphasis above is mine. This one blows even me away, as I didn't think subscribing to content such as this on a cell phone was really available, even though this could only be taking place in Japan right now because they've adopted this technology and culture so quickly.
Back in the Blog!
"Greetings! Approximately one year ago, I turned over 'The Handheld Librarian' to Tom Dennis of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center. I worked at OSF until August 2002 when I left to become Director of the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center. What do you know - I am still working with handheld devices and digital content - in a different way - but I decided, why not jump back in? Thanks to the generousity of Tom Dennis, I am back with The Handheld Librarian - this will be a collaborative blog with several contributors as it was when I left a year ago." [The Handheld Librarian]
Whoo-hoo, patented happy dance! Spread the word - Lori Bell is back blogging at THL!
Later in her [re-]inaugural post, she describes her current eAudio project:
"The Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center is a sub-regional library serving residents of central Illinois who have a visual, physical or learning disability which prevents them from comfortably reading regular print....
The eAudio project lead to a 5-state collaborative digital talking book project with Audible and using the Otises, called the Lobe Library. Illinois, Mississippi, Hawaii, Montana, and New Jersey are participating in a shared digital library. We are about 3 months into the project, and it has gone surprisingly well. I think that the leadership from the Illinois Regional Library by Sharon Ruda is big reason why the collaborative project has gone so well.
We own the Otises we are lending out to people. We would like to be able to allow people to use their own devices, but this has not happened yet. Digital audiobooks are new to many of our patrons and although they want to try the service, some of them are not ready for a device of their own. Some who have tried our service have gone on to buy their own devices and get their own listening plan. One of the problems of eAudio and Lobe Library is we have many more people who want to try the service than we have Otises."
I'll just add that thanks to Lori, I had a very interesting discussion today with a representative from the audiobook division of a major publishing house. And it was a refreshing discussion, because this rep was very clued in about audio ebooks. It would be great if she is able to move her company forward and work closely with libraries to make even more content available in this arena. Here's hoping....
On a side note, we need to get an RSS feed back up for The Handheld Librarian. How about using the LISFeeds RSSify service?
|
|
