Saturday, December 30, 2006

AACS is Unbreakable!

It's pretty amazing when you think about how hard Hollywood has fought to lock down video content and then a video like this shows just how easy it really is to make a personal copy or backup of DVD's that you buy...

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

P2P Digital Video Downloading Outpacing Legal Alternatives 5 to 1

The NPD Group posted a press release last week that confirms what everyone already knows - Adult-oriented content is the most popular genre among those who dowload video files via P2P. The research also indicates that:
  • Among U.S. households with members who regularly use the Internet, 8 percent (six million households) downloaded at least one digital video file (10MB or larger) from a P2P service for free in the third quarter of 2006.

  • Nearly 60 percent of video files downloaded from P2P sites were adult-film content, while 20 percent was TV show content and 5 percent was mainstream movie content.


Friday, December 15, 2006

New Radio Study Completed by FOMC

(Via press release) The Future of Music Coalition publicly released its report this week documenting the effects of radio station ownership consolidation on musicians and the public.

Data in the 116 page report shows that station ownership consolidation at the national and local levels has led to fewer choices in radio programming and harmed the listening public and those working in the music and media industries, including DJs, programmers and musicians.

Key points included in report:

* The top four radio station owners have almost half of the listeners and the top ten owners have almost two-thirds of listeners.

* The 'localness' of radio ownership – ownership by individuals living in the community -- has declined between 1975 and 2005 by almost one-third.

* Just fifteen formats make up three-quarters of all commercial programming. Moreover, radio formats with different names can overlap up to 80% in terms of the songs played on them.

* Niche musical formats like Classical, Jazz, Americana, Bluegrass, New Rock, and Folk, where they exist, are provided almost exclusively by smaller station groups.

* Across 155 markets, radio listenership has declined over the past fourteen years, a 22% drop since its peak in 1989. The consolidation allowed by the Telecom Act has failed to reverse
this trend."

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

New Akamai Index Measures Real-Time Global Consumption of Online Music

(from press release) The Akamai Net Usage Index for Digital Music is the world's first and only daily Web traffic benchmark that tracks where and when digital music is being consumed on a global basis. Key to the relevance of the index - is the fact that Akamai is the delivery platform for many of the leading global digital music companies - giving it a unique view into the daily Web traffic of music streaming and music download websites.

Akamia's index tracks and benchmarks global Web usage patterns of visitors to more than 40 digital music websites, including music download sites, music destination sites, and live radio broadcast services, such as XM Satellite Radio, Clear Channel, Premiere Radio, MTV, Rediff.com and Napster, among others.

According to Brad Rinklin, vice president of Marketing, "The Net Usage Index for Digital Music data will help the industry by providing empirical data on consumer behavior and online music."

Data collected from the Index over the past three months shows key geographic patterns and insight into Web traffic trends associated with downloaded and streamed digital music:

  • North America, Asia, and Europe represent the bulk of visitor traffic to these sites
  • Daily peak traffic worldwide is more than half a million visitors per minute
  • Traffic peaks in North America and Europe tend to occur mid-week, while peaks in Asia and Australia come toward the end of the week
  • Sunday is consistently the slowest day for visitors to these sites

The Index provides a global aggregate view of total visitors per minute, as well as a detailed view by continent, from a collection of digital music sites delivered by Akamai. All of the sites included in the index provide digital music streaming or downloads as their core business. Akamai's Net Usage Index offers businesses real-time information about the usage habits of visitors to their sites, and an industry benchmark to measure against. Anyone interested in data from the Index can view an aggregate, real-time view of Web traffic patterns online.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Superdistribution = ZUNE's Compensated Sharing + WEEDSHARE

With all the ZUNE-bashing lately, here's an interesting article from last Wednesday's Good Morning Silicon Valley, which talks about one of the most innovative and distinguishing business models out there called WEEDSHARE and Microsoft's recent desire to use it....no...copy it....umm...I mean share it :-) It's been updated twice since the original post (with some inquisitive patent comments at the end) and also picked up by Gizmodo.

The key point here is that the folks over at Weedshare are now sitting in the pole position to fully "exploit the intellectual property on which a core feature of a major Microsoft product is based."