Saturday, September 19, 2009

Radio Capability on the new Apple iPods

Apple just announced that they are adding broadcast radio capability to the new iPod nano. Local radio already reaches over 200 million people each week. I think that the most popular mp3 player connecting to the local radio stations will increase the amount of people listening to the radio. Since kids now a days just ususally listen to their iPods, this can introduce them to even more and new music though their iPods. When they hear a song on the radio using the new iPod, then they can download the song from iTunes instantly. This benefits broadcasters, apple, musicians, record lables, and the American consumer.

The entire letter can be read in PDF format here

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Music publishers: iTunes not paying fair share

It seems like everyone I know "shares" music, except me. If you actually meet the writers themselves and see how much of their heart and soul they put into each and every song, you might have the same view as me. Unfortunately, not everyone can meet song writers and artists and witness what an actual talent it is to write and perform music. So when you "share" their music without paying for it, you are truly stealing something the worked very hard to produce.

I saw this article about how writers, producers and publishers are wanting to one day collect a performance fee from Apple.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10355448-93.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1
When we talk about television, there's the over-the-air TV station content and then there's everything else. Cable channels, premium cable channels (HBO, etc) and even recorded content--DVDs--are seen on the television. Consumers think of the TV as the appliance they view. Here are some thought points for you to consider about television viewing habits and preferences. Certainly you should think about your own habits but focus on understanding what is going on at a larger level. What will consumer changes mean to your job/career prospects?

Click here for the full article...read the tease paragraphs below.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=113701

Here's a shortened link: http://predictingtv.notlong.com



Predicting TV's Future
Dave Morgan, Sep 17, 2009 03:17 PM

Television is undergoing an enormous technology-driven transformation. This fact is well known to all in the industry -- and is even obvious to all those who watch TV. Yesterday, I spoke about some of the effects of this transformation at the Collaborative Alliance, an important television industry group focused on "advanced TV" issues. The Alliance was created and run by Mitch Oscar of MPG (a regular contributor to MediaPost's TV Board).

Here are some of the points that I made, based upon nine months of intensive analysis by my team at Simulmedia of anonymous, second-by-second set-top-box viewing data, representing millions of U.S. viewing households:

TV has a "discovery" problem. The explosion of choices

Monday, September 14, 2009

Is Twitter Making A Mistake?

Now I will tell you right off the bat that I do not know jack squat about Twitter. I have talked with a few people who use it and have checked out Twitter's website for information, but I am still not confident in all it provides.

However, looking at an article that I found on Mediapost I wonder if Twitter is going to make a mistake? According to many, Twitter has been significantly growing for a couple of different reasons. First of all, when you go to search for someone, such as the NBA star Shaq, you know it's really him. Secondly, Twitter is not crammed with all that "media garbage". You know...all the gifts....farmtown....mafia wars....ADVERTISEMENTS! MySpace and Facebook are very popular but they are bombarded with all this "media garbage". This is one reason that Twitter seems to have been doing so well.

But this article talks about the possibilities of Twitter placing advertising on it's site. Is this going to be the beginning of a downfall for Twitter? Is this the first of more to come? I realize that you have to make money in order for your company to grow, but are we making a mistake? People like it how it is. Do we need to change it...what do you think?

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=113373

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Places to go...

If you're going to work in media/mass comm/PR/entertainment/journalism/online content...whatever you want to call your future work area, you should begin to read about and understand the issues that surround your future career area.

Here are some sites that can link you to news and events about your field. This is not an exhaustive list...these are just a few of the places I go for content.

Browse the websites...or better still, subscribe to their daily or weekly emails.

TVNewsCheck
http://www.tvnewscheck.com/index.php

TVWeek
www.tvweek.com

BroadcastingandCable
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/

Billboard
www.billboard.com

Mediapost
http://www.mediapost.com/

NATPE (National Association of Television Programming Executives)
www.natpe.org AND
NATPE Video Nuze: http://natpe.org/natpe/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=286&Itemid=449

National Association of Broadcasters
www.nab.org

Advertising Age
http://adage.com/

Brand Week
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/index.jsp

Any major newspaper:
The New York Times
www.nytimes.com

The Los Angeles Times
www.latimes.com

The Wall Street Journal
www.wsjonline.com
(Some of the WSJ content is available only to subscribers.)

PC=TV???

The LATimes carries a short article today contrasting Nielsen's report on computer/online television consumption.

Here's the link: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-online-tv9-2009sep09,0,3144574.story

The article title asserts, "the PC is becoming the new TV" as more people watch content online.
The article data appears to be self-reported...people have to remember how often they watch.

What is interesting: nearly 25% of the respondents indicate they watch online TV. And, the sample includes about 10,000 households. The Conference Board is vague as to actual methodology--a real problem when journalists believe the survey results are "facts" instead of responses by a group of survey participants who were selected for participation by a less than transparent means--even if the Conference Board normally gets high marks for what they do.

The two biggest issues for me: the potential end of appointment viewing TV and the possibility that programs may break through network distribution routes to find audiences among online viewers.

Here's the full link for the Conference Board article...it's more interesting than the LATimes article.
http://www.conference-board.org/economics/consumerBarometer.cfm

Thursday, September 3, 2009

More than 141 hours per month

You'll hear me talk a lot about the growth of new media distribution outlets....online video and even mobile video viewing. But, television is still king with 141 hours of viewing per person per month! The Nielsen Company's most recent viewership estimate puts online video viewing at an average of only 3 hours and 11 minutes per viewer. How does this compare with you? As you grow older, do you think your viewership habits will change? If so, will you watch more regular TV or do you expect regular TV to change to match the habits of today's 20 - 25 year old viewer?

Read the article here:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=112844