Wednesday, December 30, 2009

4 Easy Steps for Making Free Ringtones for iPhones

Ever wanted to make a ringtone for your iPhone, but didn’t want to pay again for a song that you already own?  Well, now you can…..Simply use Quicktime Pro (not the new dumbed-down Quicktime 7 player)

 

STEP 1 - Open your music source file and select the desired ringtone portion  

STEP 2 - Crop to that selection and then "Save As iTunes Movie" with some name like MyZippyRingtone.  QTPro will save it with the .m4v extension

STEP 3- Change the extension to .m4r and drag the file to iTunes, where it will be added to the library as a Ringtone 

STEP 4 - Sync it to your iPhone and select it from the Settings screen

 

 (Thanks Tom N. !)

Friday, December 18, 2009

Is there a model for success selling content?

Great post by Mike Shatzkin on his Idea Logical Blog about the downfall of the publishing business…Couple of direct quotes below…[btw - I don’t think he’s being pessimistic, just brutally honest!]

 

  • So far, all that is clear is that publishers that stick to an audience fare better in the digital world than the ones who don’t. Their marketing costs are lower and their reach to the audience is both more effective and less dependent on intermediaries

 

  • Publishers have always focused primarily on the content. Survival in the future will require focusing on the market

 

  • If you don’t own the audience, the cost of reaching it for one book at a time will be prohibitive

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Urgent note to book industry: There's a better way to window eBooks

HERE is a great post by James McQuivey over at Forrester...I haven't read a better blog post than this for quite a while and I really appreciate his honesty and bluntness to the Publishing industry!

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

eBook Research

Here's some recent research from Mediamark related to eBooks...

- 2.1 million U.S. adults own electronic book readers
- Mostly well educated with high incomes (i.e.  Bachelor's or post-graduate degree and earning over 100K)
- Adults ages 35-54 are the "sweet spot" for this product
- E-book owners are particularly Web-centric

http://www.mediamark.com

Friday, November 20, 2009

Open Road Media's Jane Friedman

Here are a few nuggets from Jane Friedman's recent speech at NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing, who is Open Road Media's CEO. (Thanks to Alyssa Léal for blogging it)
  • With 70% of the population having access to the internet, 30% of all books in the U.S. being purchased online, and 96% of young adults being connected to a social network

  • In addition to publishing electronic editions of the literary giants, Open Road will create “e-riginals”, a term Friedman has coined for books that will be born in digital format.

  • Although, Open Road will not provide author advances, Friedman feels the profit sharing model could be extremely rewarding to authors.

  • Friedman said she though the value of an e-book should be roughly the same as a trade paperback, and cited $14, possibly more for premium content.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Fight the Telemarketers !!

Don't let the telemarketers get you!!! I just did this and it only takes a minute. REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month..... all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. .... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS  To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Stats of the Day

  • Smartphone penetration is at 19 percent according to Palm, and will double by 2013
  • Listenership for Internet radio was up almost 40 percent in 2008 over 2007, hitting 6.67 billion hours last year, according to AccuStream iMedia Research
  • Pandora claimed more than 9 million downloads to the iPhone, and half of those users listen to Pandora in a car
  • 4 million people have downloaded Pandora to a BlackBerry, Android or Palm Pre
  • Pandora has been adding a total of 2 million registered U.S. users (including PC users) per month
  • 4G/LTE won't be fully deployed until 2014 or later (iSuppli)

Word of the Day - MALAPROPISM

malapropism: an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, esp. by the confusion of words that are similar in sound; a verbal blunder in which one word is replaced by another similar in sound but different in meaning. (Example - "Lead the way and we'll precede.")

Monday, November 09, 2009

2009 PMA U.S. Consumer Photo Buying Report Stats

According to the 2009 PMA U.S. Consumer Photo Buying Report:

- 73 percent of U.S. households own digital cameras
- % of households without any internet access has increased over the past few years, from 8 percent in 2005 to 12 percent in 2008
- As digital cameras grew in pouplarity, camcorder ownership has remained steady (i.e. 34% of digital camera owners owned camcorders in 2005 & 36% owned them in 2008)

pmaforesight.com/2009/11/09/pma-data-watch-activity-of-digital-camera-owners.aspx

Thursday, September 10, 2009

What's Internet Radio's Latest Listenership?

If current weekly listener rates were 17% in April (about 42 million), I wonder how many more Americans over 12 years old have tuned in to Internet Radio since then....? (Thanks Matt!)



http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007264

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Sony's Plan for $40 Movies at Home

Been posting primarily to my Social networks lately and have somewhat neglected this blog....Sorry...I'll try harder to keep this updated and will repost the better finds such as the link below.  I'm pretty encouraged that Sony is considering altering the tightly controlled theatrical release windows to experiment with a new business model and create a new, niche sales channel..

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2009/db20090830_267810.htm

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Ipsos’ TEMPO Digital Music Discovery & Purchase Process

Here's some recent research findings from Ipsos' TEMPO Digital Music Discovery & Purchase Process.  Evidently, subscriptions and paid downloads are barely outpacing ad-supported services like MySpace Music, but once newer innovative services like Spotify are legalized in this country - I think ad-supported will dominate as the preferred legal distribution and consumption model.

""The fee-based digital music market has likely reached a state of maturity in terms of who is paying to download and stream. The goal, now, will be to expand recurring revenue streams and to attempt to increase the volume of content that is purchased among those already making digital music purchases. Meanwhile, the ad-supported models are proving to be an effective means of expanding the broader, legitimate market beyond just the fee-based realm."

Monday, July 27, 2009

QOTD - Quote of the Day

"It's important to share your failures and admit when you're wrong. People will respect people more who can openly admit their vulnerabilities." - Robert Kayehttp://htxt.it/D1T7

Friday, July 24, 2009

Quote of the Day

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain."
   - Unknown

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Quote of the Day...

"The Internet radio industry is in the first inning and currently represents less than 5% of most radio station revenue.  However, this is one slice of the advertising pie that is growing."  Robert J. Maccini, CEO of Ando Media, LLC
 

Monday, June 08, 2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Today's economy is a 'scissors economy'...meaning that everyone is a middleman and can be cut out...if you can't explain your value, you get snipped out. You will thrive if you offer value." - Todd Buchholz

Monday, June 01, 2009

Quote of the Day: DOCTOROW's LAW

"If someone takes something that belongs to you, and puts a lock on it that you don't have a key for, that lock isn't in your best interests."
        - Cory Doctorow

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Quote of the Day...

"One overpowering trait distinguishes exceptional people from the masses who live and die without making their mark in the world . . . without accomplishing significant achievements. That trait is the drive to learn, to grow, to identify new and more effective ways of engaging in their personal and business endeavors. Those who are determined to escape the bounds of gravity will find that God has created a profound blueprint for success."  
  -  Mark Stevens: God Is A Salesman

Friday, May 15, 2009

Feeding Off of Twitter's Exponential Growth

Some Mind-Numbing Stats from COMPETE:

Sure, we all know Twitter is growing exponentially, and has no real business model, but one fact often overlooked is that many other sites also rely on it. According to the latest numbers from Compete, fast movers in April included tweetmeme.com (up 338% to 1.68 Million Unique Visitors), tweetdeck.com (up 69% to 915,000 UVs), twittergadget.com (up 56% to 100,000 UVs), twitpic.com (up 37% to 3.33 Million UVs), and bit.ly (up 53% to 1.81 Million UVs).

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Quote of the Day


"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler"
  - Albert Einstein

Monday, May 04, 2009

RAIN: Internet Radio Summit 2009

After 2 weeks of playing catch up and another reminder of why I don't like to be away from the office for an extended period of time, I finally scratched off a few "To-Do's" on my list and sat down to reflect on my recent travels as several friends and colleagues have asked me for a recap...So, below is a quick summary of my trip to the NAB Show in Las Vegas on the way back from Seattle two weeks ago. My main focus was to attend the RAIN Internet Radio Summit as a guest panelist, but I also made time to walk the show floor for a half day and had a few ad hoc meetings...so needless to say it was a super busy - but VERY productive week!

From my perspective, there appeared to be a lot of buzz overall and lots of new enthusiasm and optimism about the Internet Radio category in general, especially with the latest numbers just released (i.e. 42M U.S. listeners = 17% of the population, up from 33M in 2008). Speaking of research, there were 3 very excellent presentations given by Edison, Ando Media and Jacobs Media (btw - The Infinite Dial PDF slides can be downloaded for free HERE). The latest research clearly shows strong growth and consumer interest with 69M Americans reportedly listening to Internet Radio as of last month (mostly on PC's and at work), but the reality is that even taking into account the poor economy, there just have NOT been any home runs yet on the device side and very few retail placements.

At the end of my DEVICES panel, I asked the audience why mass consumers aren't out buying more tabletop or desktop Internet Radios if awareness and usage is so high and the 2 answers I remember being belted out were: "prices are still too high" and that "they're too complex to set up and use." I would agree with both of those answers as potential barriers to adoption and growth, but another reason might be that the 'early adopters' are simply using their iPhones and Blackberrys with unlimited data plans to simply stream it for free. However, that's just a subset of the overall population and I firmly believe that many people still prefer a dedicated device when listening to music at home...and that there's a huge under served market for average consumers who don't have a data plan and just want to use their free Wi-Fi connection at home or at work...(Time will tell if 2009 is the year Internet Radio truly grows legs, but I'm obviously biased as part of the Product Development team for Acoustic Research's Infinite Radio.) From my perspective, the Summit sponsors and audience seemed to be predominantly Radio-centric, (which was no surprise since it was an NAB event) but there was no denying a huge presence from the advertising side of the house....(a necessary evil that no one can deny because someone has to make a profit in order to help finance thousands of free broadcasts and effectively subsidize the ridiculous royalty rates...)

The event organizer, Kurt Hanson, seems to be one the industry's biggest evangelists lobbying for the proliferation and success of Internet Radio and from my view, is trying to organically build a lobbying group similar to what the Internet Media Device Alliance (IMDA) is trying to do. In my opinion, it would be great for the entire industry if the IMDA and and Kurt could get together and join forces to jointly promote the space for all stakeholders!

SOCIAL: The unofficial gathering the night before at the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant was surprisingly NOT super packed, as most people probably hadn't arrived in town or checked in yet, and so it was a great chance to mingle with other attendees and panelists...in an informal setting. The super talented singer/guitarist Gaby Moreno was the featured performer both days and she was incredibly original and totally awesome!!

As you can see in the photo, it was pretty much standing room only at the Summit and the closing cocktail party by the pool was a blast with the live band and cool weather, etc....One final note: As well attended as it was, there definitely seemed to be a lack of PRESS and content providers (i.e. rights holders) in the room.

I highly recommend attending this event next year and want to thank Kurt, Paul and Jennifer for the wonderful opportunity to be a part of it...
If you're interested, I posted some more photos HERE...

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

iPhoners Love Facebook & Weather


I'm not surprised to see Facebook the most popular app, but I found it interesting that iPhoners are SO interested in weather...http://htxt.it/QMsy

Monday, April 27, 2009

Primates on Social Networks


Interesting ECONOMIST article on Facebook behavior...Cameron Marlow, the "in-house sociologist" at Facebook, found that the average number of "friends" in a Facebook network is 120, consistent with Dr Dunbar's hypothesis, and that women tend to have somewhat more friends than men.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Quote of the Day


Great article about simplicity in product design (thanks Stu!)

"...The whole point of human-centered design is to tame complexity, to turn what would appear to be a complicated tool into one that fits the task, that is understandable, usable, enjoyable..."
   - Don Norman

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Teen Music Behavior

Interesting new research results released by NPD on Teen music behavior...although I think it’s pretty hard to get teens to honestly admit they steal music in a survey….We all know CD purchasing is declining (down 27% for 13-17 year olds), but surprisingly, digital downloads are also down 13%.  “Another unexpected move was the 6 percent falloff in the number of tracks downloaded from peer-to-peer music sites and the 28 percent decline in the number of CDs borrowed from friends to rip or burn.”

 

So what’s the deal?  Is this trend just a result of all the free alternatives or is Gen-Y just so connected, that streaming has replaced the need to download and “playback” local content?  Personally, I think music has become such a commodity that an entire generation has forgotten what it feels like to take the shrink wrap off of a new CD or read liner notes…Cherry picking singles is the norm now and the act of buying music is simply foreign…I feel sorry for those still in the business trying to sell recorded music as their primary revenue source.  Those days are over and monetizing music (for any age group) has never been harder.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Friday, March 06, 2009

Quote of the Day


"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."  - Thomas Jefferson

Buy the Physical & Get the Digital....


I'm wondering if the struggling brick-n-mortar Book market can take a play from an innovative segment of the music industry and add real value and offer "convenience" to increase sales.. .
http://hellotxt.com/nv1wz3

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Quote of the Day

“Balance your time, value it and manage it because Facebook can become your Crackbook… not a good thing.”

            - Maurice Castle

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Favorite Quote of the Day - (What's Next.....Bedtime Story Royalties!?)


"...No, the Authors Guild does not expect royalties from anybody doing non-commercial performances of "Goodnight Moon." If parents want to send their children off to bed with the voice of Kindle 2, however, it's another matter."
     - Roy Blount Jr. [President of the Authors Guild]

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Latest In-Stat Research Reveals Low HDTV Uptake

According to a recent report from In-Stat titled Worldwide HDTV Households: 36 Million and Growing, despite the growing penetration of HDTV sets in U.S. households, a significant gap remains between HDTV ownership and households utilizing HD programming.  “In the U.S., there are more than 39 million households with an installed HDTV set…However, only 22 million of those are HDTV households, meaning that 17 million U.S. households with an installed HDTV set are not watching HD programming.”  Or put differently, only 7% of Americans watch HDTV at home.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Quote of the Day....(and 1 of the reaosns for the music industry's continuing decline)

“The topics were a lot different, because people were closer in their relationships.  They went out, they danced close.  You had something you could hum into someone’s ear, or something you could remember and hang onto when things got bad.  I’m not putting today’s music down.  It’s just that I can’t hum it.”


    - Lonnie Lester (R&B Singer)

Monday, February 09, 2009

Quote of the Day


"As a writer, the last thing I want to do is diminish the value of content. But even the brontosaural music industry is ahead of publishing. It has learned that giving content away actually works as a business model. (People will ultimately willingly pay for something they like -- for a variety of reasons. Giving it away doesn't cut into that, but it does help get the word out.) "
        - Michael Hickins

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Mac OS Gains Marketshare


"Last month according to Information Week, Apple's Mac OS X was in 9.93% of the machines accessing the Web, while Microsoft's Windows dipped to 88.26%, according to Net Applications". This is not to be taken lightly and is a major feat!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Digital-music Buyers - Don't be Fools!

I had a good chuckle this morning over an excellent Anti-DRM rant over at CNN.com...(http://hellotxt.com/l/PU5M).
Blogger Chris Pirillo says it like it is - and very succinctly!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Internet Radio is not 'The Future'

http://www.shortlink.in/?39e6r

"We aren't really particularly interested in 'internet only' radios – radios which are only there for streaming – because we still see that as relatively niche the foreseeable future," Pure's marketing director, Colin Crawford told TechRadar.

I couldn't disagree more with the statement above, but obviously Colin is talking specifically about the UK market.... In the U.S., the sky is the limit for this nascent category and I think 2009 is the year Internet Radios (tethered and protable) get legs!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

MIDEM Slides

Here are 7 great MIDEM slides from Robert Andrews over at PaidContent. (Viewing them full screen makes it easier to read!)

The survey of 1,300 US, UK and French music fans was conducted by The Leading Question and it found that "streaming music websites, and not paid-track downloads, are the most common means of music consumption for users - meaning more revenue for labels through licensing rather than purchases."

It's too bad though that the labels and the publishers haven't figured out an easier way to do this so that the industry can flourish again :-)

Friday, January 16, 2009

Better Than Free

Here’s a great article by Kevin Kelly (also from WIRED) on his Technium blog called “Better then Free.”  Definitely a must read and it really made me stop and think!

 

“A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, and/or nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced. It is generated uniquely, in place, over time. In the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold.”

 

Eight Generatives Better Than Free:

 

  • Immediacy
  • Personalization
  • Interpretation
  • Authenticity
  • Accessibility
  • Embodiment
  • Patronage
  • Findability

 

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

TargetSpot Adds Eight Radio Groups


TargetSpot has added eight more radio groups to its growing Internet radio advertising network. With these latest additions, TargetSpot represents websites of more than 1,000 radio stations, both terrestrial and online-only....