Digging into the Macworld Expo video vault on this holiday Monday (in the US, we're celebrating Presidents' Day), here's a quick interview with Paul Scandariato from Intelliscanner showing off the Intelliscanner mini hardware. The demo shows how quickly you can use the mini to scan your media or books; it's easy to plug back in and offload your scans to Intelliscanner's Media app or to your collectionsapp of choice, just the thing for your spring organization projects. You can also get preprinted barcode stickers for your own inventory planning, or print out your own if you like.
The mini was a big hit with showgoers who shopped at the booth, and it's available online from Intelliscanner for $179 (with the Media Collector software package) or $249 (adds Assets, Kitchen, Wine and Comics collector modules). While both Delicious Library and Bruji's Pedia series of organizers support scanning of barcodes via the built-in iSight, for substantial collections a standalone scanner is going to save you time and aggravation.
File under "It was only a matter of time": The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Nevada gaming authorities are warning casinos to be on the lookout for blackjack card counters getting an assist from their iPhones. While card counting itself is not banned in Nevada, the use of an assistive technology is a felony (!), and apps like Card Counter or A Blackjack Card Counter make it much easier for the math-impaired. ABCC's 'stealth mode,' which uses vibration to alert the user when the time is right for a big bet, is particularly head-achey for casino security.
Nevada casinos don't have any instances yet of gamblers being kicked out or arrested for iPhone use -- the initial warning was from California authorities, who spotted card-counter apps in use at a Northern California casino and thought it prudent to raise the alarm. The lure of easier blackjack winnings may be too tempting for some people to pass up, but the consequence of this iCheating may be that we all have to check our iPhones before heading to the blackjack tables.
Aside from the logistical challenges of an iPhone ban in casinos ("Sure, I don't need my phone, my family knows that I'll be here at the quarter slots for the next five hours"), this is a fascinating example of how the App Store is turning us all into denizens of the Matrix, with skills and information on demand and jacked in, literally at our fingertips. Need to level a bookshelf? Fine. Want to identify local birds? Done. Get your garage mojo in gear? Can do. Learn a language? Of course. Adding the ability to move money from the casino's pocket into yours with better odds than usual seems like a natural next step... and another 'disruptive technology' is going to come into conflict with a long-established, politically and economically powerful industry. Let's watch.
Update: Commenter 'brainopera' contributed his "Matrix moment" -- have you had yours yet?
Chris writes: "Gratis can be a good business. How? Pretty simple: The minority of
customers who pay subsidize the majority who do not. Sometimes that's
two different sets of customers, as in the traditional media model: A
few advertisers pay for content so lots of consumers can get it cheap
or free..."
Back in late 2008, I wrote something very closely related to what Chris is saying, here: "To me, the bottom line is that most of what used to work just fine in a disconnected world of 'totally segregated consumers and producers' will simply not work in the future". In other words, the traditional media model will not work in Online Media, going forward - the mechanics are entirely different. And this is where Free or Freemium plays a crucial role - and it's a huge mission to figure out how this ecosystem will generate rivers of cash, not just data. And it will involve Collaboration between content companies and creators, telecoms, social networks, search engines and device makers.
Chris goes on: "With physical stuff, samples must be doled out sparingly -- there are
real costs to be paid. With bits, the free versions are too cheap to
meter and can be spread far and wide. That's why so many people
businesses (expensive!) are turning into software businesses (cheap!),
which is why your cranky tax accountant has morphed into free TurboTax
online, your stockbroker is now a trading Web site and your travel
agent is more likely a glorified search engine..."
Yes, indeed: this is why I think that the content business - starting with music - is turning into a software business, too - witness the explosion of app stores for mobile devices, and how much $$ people are paying for iPhone apps. Now imagine that content (starting with music) will be bundled into such apps, and people will perceive it as BUYING SOFTWARE or buying a cool app for their phone but in fact the content is included (yet paid for i.e. packaged). I think that if permitted by the rights-holders Pandora could easily sell a mobile device application that could include video, audio, feeds and images - I am dead certain people will pay for that. I will have a separate post on this sometime later this week.
Chris then hits the nail on the head: "Expect the shift toward open source software (which is free) and
Web-based productivity tools such as Google Docs (also free) to
accelerate".
Totally. Then, Chris warns (and I agree - that's why I am also hard at work on next-generation advertising models): "The standard business model for Web companies that don't actually have
a business model is advertising...Two problems have
emerged with that model: the price of online ads and click-through
rates. Facebook is an amazingly popular service, but it also an
amazingly ineffective advertising platform..."
And I also like his conclusion (and this is the first time that I see it spelled out like this, from Chris): "Does this mean that Free will retreat in a down economy? Probably not... "Free" has as much power over the
consumer psyche as ever. But it does mean that Free is not enough. It
also has to be matched with Paid. Just as King Gillette's free razors
only made business sense paired with expensive blades, so will today's
Web entrepreneurs have to not just invent products that people love,
but also those that they will pay for. Not all of the people or even
most of them -- free is still great marketing and bits are still too
cheap to meter -- but enough to pay the bills. Free may be the best
price, but it can't be the only one"
I call this challenge the '21st century content economics' challenge (yes... borrowed from Umair Hague's brilliant post on this topic), and it's the main topic for my work this year. If we can figure out how to generate many new revenue streams based on Feels Like Free access to content, then we can start modeling the business plans for the next 5 years. More soon! But what do you think? Comment below.
MUSIC NEWS - To celebrate Warner Bros. Records' 50th anniversary, the label will release Covered: A Revolution In Sound; an eclectic compilation CD that features such contemporary WBR artists as The Used, Mastodon, The Black Keys, Against Me!, Missy Higgins, and James Otto performing new versions of classic songs from WBR artists, including Madonna, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Joni Mitchell, Talking Heads, and Black Sabbath.
Each contemporary artist chose the songs themselvers from Warner Bros. Records' catalog. Highlights include The Flaming Lips performing Madonna's "Borderline," Disturbed on Faith No More's "Midlife Crisis," The Used covering Talking Heads "Burning Down The House," The Black Keys taking on Captain Beefheart's "Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles," and actor/comedian Adam Sandler giving his rendition of Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane" (check out the video below of Sandler performing the tune on Late Night with David Letterman).
Covered: A Revolution in Sound will be available both digitally and in CD form exclusively from Amazon.com, beginning March 10th, for two weeks (oreder your copy here) . The digital version will be available from all other online shoppes beginning March 24th and the CD will be in stores on April 7th. Sandler's "Like a Hurricane" is available now for purchase on iTunes.
"Going through Warner Bros. Records' back catalog of music and picking a favorite song wasn't easy," says Missy Higgins. "There have been so many classics over the years, and it was particularly intimidating to attempt to cover a song that was so perfect in its original form. For that reason, I chose one with a real '80s sound so that I could make it my 'folky' own. It's funny how the meaning of a song can change suddenly with its musical interpretation."
"We were really excited to be asked to record a song for the Warner Bros. Records' 50th anniversary compilation album," says The Used's Quinn Allman. "We were in the studio working on our own album and one day in September we decided on the spot to do "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads. We liked the natural energy of the song so we kept it pretty simple and just had fun with it."
Track-list for Covered: A Revolution In Sound is as follows:
1. Mastodon: "Just Got Paid" (by ZZ Top)
2. The Black Keys: "Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles" (by Captain Beefheart)
3. Michelle Branch: "A Case Of You" (by Joni Mitchell)
4. Against Me!: "Here Comes A Regular" (by The Replacements)
5. Missy Higgins: "More Than This" (by Roxy Music)
6. James Otto: "Into The Mystic" (by Van Morrison)
7. Adam Sandler: "Like A Hurricane" (by Neil Young)
8. Taking Back Sunday: "You Wreck Me" (by Tom Petty)
9. The Used: "Burning Down The House" (by Talking Heads)
10. Disturbed: "Midlife Crisis" (by Faith No More)
11. Avenged Sevenfold: "Paranoid" (by Black Sabbath)
12. The Flaming Lips With Stardeath And White Dwarfs: "Borderline" (by Madonna)
Adam Sandler performing Neil Young's LIKE A HURRICANE on Late Night with David Letterman -
The German music industry magazine "Der Musikmarkt" ran a colum with an interview with me, last week. Here is the PDF (in German language). I am addressing the need for the industry to generate new revenue streams that are not based on COPY but on ACCESS. If you speak German...enjoy: Download Leonhard_072009
Rollo & Grady Interview // Gerd Leonhard - Los Angeles Music Blog - Good read. Here are some of the best snippets:
R&G: Can the labels regain the trust of “people formerly known as consumers?” Gerd: They may not be able to, and this is the
Number One problem. I think it’s a very tough road. The only chance
they have – and that goes for everyone, not just the majors, but also
the indies – is to drastically open up, put their cards on the table
and start doing business like everybody else. This means being
transparent, sharing, putting deals on the table and making them
public. They need to create real value rather than pretend to do so.
R&G: You’ve talked about how the record industry should adopt Twitter. Can you elaborate? Gerd:Twitter is a mechanism of micro
communication, like RSS feeds. Therefore, it becomes something that is
completely owned by the people who are doing it, rather than by the
people who are making or receiving it. It’s a completely viable
mechanism that is cost-neutral, at least to us. It becomes a very
powerful mechanism for peer response and viral connections. That is the
principle of what music is all about. It’s word of mouth, connecting,
forwarding and sharing. A musical version of Twitter would be a
goldmine. It already exists to some degree in blip.fm,
but the music industry should use that mechanism to broadcast directly
to fans. They’re starting to do that, but the problem is that many
music companies perceive their primary mission as gatekeeper for the
artists rather than getting the music out. That is a big problem today,
when you’re in an economy where everybody wants a snack before buying a
sandwich.
R&G: What other technologies do you think are necessary for the do-it-yourself artists and managers of the new music world? Gerd: Widgets and syndication have made YouTube the
world’s leader in video. 60% of videos are not played on YouTube.com
but on blogs and other people’s sites. Music has completely overlooked
that very powerful tool. That is this whole idea of syndication –
getting people to transmit music to each other and then reaping the
attention on the other end.
R&G: Are you saying they need to recognize any revenue stream they can generate from their content? Sell CDs, subscriptions, etc.? Gerd: The flat rate is the next CD. Its simple
mathematics. If you charge or indirectly earn one dollar from each user
of a network, that dollar can be ad-supported. It can be supported by
bundling, so the user won’t feel it, so to speak. If you look at the
total number of people who are active on digital networks, which is
somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 ½ billion people, they’re not all
going to pay a dollar because they’re in different countries. But the
money that comes in from such a flat rate is humongous.
Much buzz today surrounds the launch of video downloads on its YouTube service, which includes the ability for its content partners (including labels) to charge for those downloads.
Users will pay using Google’s own Google Checkout system, with the content owner setting the prices - $0.99 is a popular price so far, according to TechCrunch. There doesn’t appear to be any DRM involved, which may put labels off. However, it’s the latest attempt by YouTube to enable its content partners to make money from the service, following the introduction of advertising and click-through links to Amazon and iTunes.
It may be no co-incidence that Sony Music Entertainment has apparently become the first major label to re-sign with YouTube, although details of the deal’s finer points are predictably scarce.
It’ll come as no surprise that the major negotiation points were an upfront payment from YouTube to Sony, the size of the minimum payment per play of its videos on the site, and the exact revenue share from related advertising. Sony has more than 93,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel (plus more than 2.3 million views). Sony’s decision to re-sign contrasts with Warner Music Group’s recent decision to pull its videos from YouTube.
Here’s another of those ‘reasons to jailbreak’ type apps, for those who are big GPS users anyway. The developers of the xGPS app - for jailbroken iPhones / iPod Touches - are promising that the next update to their app (to Version 1.2) will bring voice navigation to the iPhone.
The new version is currently at beta testing stage, but the xGPS folks have got a YouTube video demo up of the turn-by-turn feature. Check it out HERE. This will be the first time turn-by-turn is offered on the iPhone, as it is not allowed by the iPhone SDK.
The xGPS update to Version 1.2 looks huge - in addition to adding voice navigation, it includes a heap of fixes and some other notable new features, including wireless transfer of map files. You can see all the details on what the update will contain at the xGPS blog site.
The 1.2 update is due to be out on Cydia on February 20th. It requires an external GPS module on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch.
The $1,149 price is good through March 6. Overnight delivery options are an extra $29 to $99, depending on whether you ship it yourself to them, drop it off at a shipping center, or have it picked up.
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Digging into the Macworld Expo video vault on this holiday Monday (in the US, we're celebrating Presidents' Day), here's a quick interview with Paul Scandariato from Intelliscanner showing off the Intelliscanner mini hardware. The demo shows how quickly you can use the mini to scan your media or books; it's easy to plug back in and offload your scans to Intelliscanner's Media app or to your collections app of choice, just the thing for your spring organization projects. You can also get preprinted barcode stickers for your own inventory planning, or print out your own if you like.
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