Missing Notes at iTunes-10
Posted on September 1, 2010
In the movie Amadeus, Mozart eagerly asks the Austrian Emperor for his opinion of the composer’s new opera, The Marriage of Figaro. At first the Emperor is evasive but upon Mozart’s insistence he responds that “there are too many notes.” An offended Wolfgang sarcastically asks “which ones should I exclude?”
Download audio narration to iPod, iPad, and iPhone here.
Evidently somebody in authority decided the tenth version of iTunes that Apple released today would also benefit from a mystifying exclusion. It’s “Ping” social networking is probably the most significant innovation to promote artists and record labels in the last decade. New release popularity was suffering because digital music forced a decline in radio, the chief recorded music promotional vehicle of the past sixty years. As radio’s successor, Ping permits 160 million iTunes users to spontaneously join affinity groups enabling them to discover new music and artists from one another. They can share recommendations within invitation-only groups, or among people with similar tastes from anywhere in open groups. Read more…
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Monetizing TV Shows and Movies on the Net
Posted on August 6, 2010
Most film producers and other companies associated with conventional television fear the Internet. They don’t see how they can profit from it. Instead they worry it will erode revenues from conventional sources, replacing them with lower amounts. To date their concerns are well founded.
For audio to iPod, iPhone, and iPad click here (six minutes)
For example, few Internet users will pay a subscription fee for shows already on television. Moreover, the Internet provides no “carriage fees” like those paid by satellite and CATV operators to the networks — and indirectly the producers. While movie downloads admittedly provide revenues from sales and rentals, they are at least partly at the expense of DVD rentals and sales. Finally, online advertising revenues at video streaming sites like Hulu and YouTube are pathetically small by comparison to those available from conventional television. Much like the record labels, it’s likely that the Hollywood studios and television show producers wish that the Internet had never been invented. Read more…
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Apple’s New Move into Living Room
Posted on June 28, 2010
A couple of weeks ago Apple introduced a “redesigned” MacMini computer. It’s the unit’s biggest upgrade in five years making it especially attractive as an Internet gateway and media center for televisions.
Download audio to iPod, iPad, or iPhone.
A MacMini is a computer typically sold without a monitor. Increasingly it is often mated to an HDTV, just like a DVD player or video game console. As a result, the television becomes a gigantic computer monitor. Users often buy a wireless mouse and keyboard in order to control the MacMini from a convenient viewing distance such as the living room sofa.
The unit includes lightning fast dot-11n WiFi enabling it to connect over a home network to the Internet. Consequently, broadband ISP subscribers get high speed Internet right on their televisions. They can choose to watch conventional TV with a one-button click on their TV remote by selecting, for example, the CATV input. Alternately, they can chose Internet access on the TV with a one-button click on the same remote by selecting the socket where the MacMini is connected. Read more…
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The iDeal iPod
Posted on February 26, 2009
Suppose the iPod Touch had a fully functioning browser along with Bluetooth connectivity.
Such a device could connect to a flat-panel TV and display HD video on the TV screen. The on-board WiFi of the Touch would connect to the home network and thence to the Internet. Thus users could watch any Internet Video instead of only those at websites providing applications at the Apps Store. Bluetooth would enable a remote keyboard and mouse to provide a lean-back viewing experience 15 – 20 feet distant from the TV screen. Read more…
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Apple and Digital Living Room
Posted on February 13, 2009
If you would like to learn how Apple might take center-stage in the digital living room, this audio is for you.
Following our February 4th post about how the Mac Mini might be modified to provide Internet-Video-to-the-TV, there’s been a flurry of speculation about the company’s potential to enter the TV set business in a couple of years. The idea is that Apple would enter the category with a game changing product concept much like it did in the cell phone business with the iPhone. It’s not a bad idea. Read more…
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Boxee Improves on Apple
Posted on February 11, 2009
If you would like to learn how to use a simple remote with Apple devices to watch Internet Video on TV without being limited to iTunes content, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Avner Ronen who is the CEO and Co-Founder of Boxee. His company provides free software enabling Apple computers (and Apple TV) to display Internet Video on televisions using an interface only requiring the six-button remote that Apple itself manufactures. Read more…
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What Should Microsoft Do?
Posted on January 29, 2009
After its recent disappointing earnings report, Microsoft should give serious consideration to stimulating demand for PCs by fostering the next “Killer Application” for the Win-tel platform. Such an application is likely to emerge this year as consumers discover flat panel TVs and laptop computers have a number of common connection sockets. Once attached, the laptop functions as a Media Controller for flat panel TVs thereby enabling consumers to watch Internet Video on their televisions.
In such a configuration the TV acts as a giant monitor for the laptop. The laptop’s built-in WiFi connects to a home network and thence to the Internet. Given a remote mouse and keyboard consumers can watch Internet Videos on their TVs in a comfortable lean-back viewing experience.
This is good news for Microsoft for several reasons. Read more…
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Future of Recorded Music Business
Posted on September 29, 2008
If you would like to learn how the recorded music business will be generating revenue growth in the future, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is Greg Scholl who is the CEO of The Orchard which is a publicly-owned distributor of music for independent record labels, including one that it owns named TVT. The company also distributes over 3,000 hours of video and TV shows for clients who are the rights holders. Most of the files are distributed digitally to stores like iTunes, Amazon.com, and eMusic. Read more…
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