Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders

Internet Video Direct to TV

Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on July 1, 2008

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If you would like to learn about a standards movement that will get Internet video into future televisions without going through a computer, this interview is for you.

Our guest today is John Gildred who is the President of Synctv.com which is an Internet video service based upon the Marlin DRM industry standard that enables consumer electronics appliances to get television programming directly from the Internet without going through a computer. Synctv.com is currently an invitation-only Beta website, but next year John expects televisions to be introduced into the market that will have the Synctv service built-in. Read more…

Protecting Video Streams from Piracy

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on April 14, 2008

 
 Audio Interview Barrett Lyon of BitGravity [16:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Barrett Lyon of BitGravityIf you would like to know how to protect video streams from piracy, this interview is for you.
 
Subject: Our guest today is Barrett Lyon who is a Co-Founder of BitGravity which is a video-centric Content Delivery Network (CDN). His company characterizes itself as a CDN for today’s Internet, as opposed to the older ones designed to deliver the static web pages of an increasingly bygone era.

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Implications of DRM-Free Distribution by Major Labels

Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on February 2, 2008

 
 Standard Podcast [17:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

David PakmanSummary: If you would like to get an industry executive’s perspective about the decision by all four major record labels to abandon DRMs, this interview is for you.
  
Our guest today is David Pakman who is the CEO of eMusic. His company is the largest seller of online music in the DRM-free MP3 format. However, the eMusic catalogue historically was limited to independent record labels. Now that the majors have decided to sell DRM-free tracks it looks like a good time to catch-up with David to see what the implications are for eMusic and the industry at large.  Read more…

Two Years Ahead of the Record Labels

Podcast Video | Posted by Phil Leigh on January 4, 2008

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About two years ago we published a research report entitled Digital Music Goes Mainstream concluding that it was in the best interests of the record label industry to abandon digital rights management (DRMs). You can get a copy of the February 15, 2006 report by clicking on the preceding link. 

Over a year later EMI decided to sell DRM-free tracks, followed by Universal in the autumn, and Warner Music just last month. Finally Business Week reports that Sony-BMG will be the last of the four major labels to throw in the towel sometime during the first quarter of this year.

In our analysis DRM abandonment will benefit the industry for two reasons. Read more…