Internet Changing: Can you imagine the internet becoming obsolete? Well, it may not be far off. The scientists who pioneered the net have built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds. At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.
Blog Till You Drop: The around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment are causing bloggers to go insane. Bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, and exhaustion which are caused from nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.
“There’s no time ever — including when you’re sleeping — when you’re not worried about missing a story,” said Mr. Arrington the co-editor of TechCrunch. The “pay-per-click” economy has put the emphasis on reader traffic and financial return, not journalism.
This Week Sales: R.E.M.’s Acclerate first week sales are expected to top 100k according to Hits. They need it as the band’s relevancy was in jeopardy by having a long period of weak album sales. I’m rooting for R.E.M, I believe the new single Supernatural Superserious is the perfect comeback song to put them back in the public eye.
New Music: South Florida’s hard rock band Stonehigh has posted a brand new track from their upcoming album “This Calling” at this Clear Channel Radio Site. This is quite good actually and a bit refreshing which modern rock desperately needs. The album is due out May 20th, 2008.
Music services pay high price to labels: SpiralFrog, an advertisement supported service, paid more than $3 million in advances to Universal Music Group (UMG) before it went live. Ever since, it has paid even millions more in licensing fees. Imeem is rumored to have paid $20 million in advances and also gave labels equity in the company. “What was once considered a major advance — $500,000 or $1 million — is becoming a $2 million or $5 million advance and really over-the-top requests for equity,” EMI digital executive Ted Cohen said.
1. I’ve heard about this new hi-speed internet. Supposed to be just for scientist and then colleges.. kind of like the original. It probably won’t be that long before we’re all surfing it.
2. The labels getting these new companies hand over foot. Again, I wonder how much of it the actual artists are seeing every time someone “listens” to a track. I can’t see Spiral Frog lasting more than another year tops.
It’s hilarious to me that a company that poses as the “future” of music is pc-only. If you aren’t even in the present, how can you be the future?
On top of that, anyone who thinks an ad-based model is going to float hasn’t looked into online advertising. The inane per-click rate system totally defies the concept of branding & almost completely undervalues online ad real estate. For instance, if I see a well designed Tide banner ad at the top of every page of a website that I have a positive view of, I’m going to be drawn to Tide when I’m in the detergent isle at the grocery store. However, I have no reason what-so-ever to visit a Tide website. I would never click on a Tide ad, so the website would never get paid for advertising to me.
I always loved the idea of ad-supported legal downloads, but until advertisers begin to properly develop & invest in their online campaigns in the same way that they invest in traditional campaigns (which is beginning to happen) & payouts begin to reflect exposure as opposed to clicks, it’s not going to happen. I just don’t see a start-up having the leverage to demand exposure-based rates.
And even when that is sorted out, you have to contend with iPod compatibility, without which no service is going to have any real success.
I just can’t wait until the G3 iPhones come out. My Safari-friendly Rhapsody account will get a whole lot more use.
“It’s hilarious to me that a company that poses as the “future” of music is pc-only. If you aren’t even in the present, how can you be the future?”
Totally agree. I’m a Mac User, and as such couldn’t even use the service. Hell, I didn’t care. But I feel the same about services such as Pass-A-Long which tie themselves to one browser (Internet Explorer). In this day and age… nothing should be browser specific as this only demonstrates “bad programming”.
Stonehigh rocks, check them out at myspace.com/stonehigh
Just re-read your response.
“The inane per-click rate system totally defies the concept of branding & almost completely undervalues online ad real estate. For instance, if I see a well designed Tide banner ad at the top of every page of a website that I have a positive view of, I’m going to be drawn to Tide when I’m in the detergent isle at the grocery store. However, I have no reason what-so-ever to visit a Tide website. I would never click on a Tide ad, so the website would never get paid for advertising to me.”
Wow! That’s powerful. I must admit to never really thinking about it in those terms. In this type of instance.. a CPM might work better that a CPC based system.
Read about you guys mentioning Stonehigh in their blog. Been a fan for a bit, and know they have worked hard to get where they are. Plus aside from rocking like crazy they are very down to earth and cool which is a major bonus compared to alot of other artists. If you get the chance to see them live you wont be disappointed