Posts Tagged ‘New Media’

Music and New Media Frontier

Friday, June 4th, 2010

If you haven’t noticed, the music industry has changed. It’s challenging to go to a store and find an artist’s album to buy on CD anymore. Because of that, music industry managers like the guys who rep Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are looking for ways to make the most of new-new media. 

Troy Carter is Lady Gaga’s manager and Scooter Braun manages Justin Bieber. Together, they presented a panel “Success Strategies for Musicians in the Digital Era,” at the recent TechCrunch Disrupt Conference.  What qualifies them? Both know the power of social media to build a following for their artists. On Twitter, Lady Gaga has 4.3 million followers, Bieber has 2.8 million. On YouTube, combined viewing of Lady Gaga’s top three videos just passed the one billion views mark, and Bieber’s VEVO channel shows 380 million views. 

They’re hoping to strike up some partnerships with the up-and-coming platforms to truly redefine the music industry. Braun said backstage after the panel,  “I went out and flew out to San Francisco and spent two weeks just meeting with new, young entrepreneurs out there because I want to know who’s next and [I] realized that the power that our artists have created for themselves on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube are very, very valuable for launching these new platforms.” TechCrunch reported that Braun sees it as a symbiotic relationship in which the artist brings visibility to a company and gains a new way to engage fans.

Check out the video interview on TechCrunch’s site, and see if you can come up with the next big thing to deliver music to the world with internet speed!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »

Entertainment for a New Era

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

We’ve got another great example of how entertainment is changing with internet speed– it’s called The Bob Bendick Podcast. A podcast, as defined by Researchers at the Center for Journalism and Communication Research at the University of Texas at Austin, is a digital audio or video file that is episodic; downloadable; program-driven, mainly with a host and/or theme; and convenient, usually via an automated feed with computer software.

Bob Bendick, in case you don’t already know, is the comic host of a weekly one-hour interview chat show. Recorded in front of a live audience at ACME Comedy Theatre in Hollywood, their focus is mainly comedic actors, but Bob interviews all types of entertainment professionals about their journey to achieving the level of success they’ve enjoyed so far.

It’s interactive too—by keeping up with the show via the website, Facebook or Twitter, you can see which guests are coming up and ask them your own questions. The Q&A portion of the show includes questions from the live audience members as well as listeners from all over the world who can be part of the recording via Skype, Twitter or Email. Once recorded, the show is posted on iTunes for download, and photos are posted to the web.

Right now on iTunes you can download any or all of five past shows with guests like Adam Carolla and Robert Forster. Check the website for info on upcoming guests. 

It’s a great hybrid of live theater, worldwide participation and the convenience of listening whenever the heck you want. It’s also a wonderful resource for comedians around the world to learn how they might build a career upon their comic wit!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »

Pirate Bay and The Man

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Yahoo Tech Blogger Christopher Null gave us an update on what’s happening with The Pirate Bay, the latest haven for file-sharers, and it’s battles on the cyber-sea.  His post, “The Pirate Bay goes down, returns with a vengeance” gives us a good overview of the situation, explaining that though Swedish authorities (AKA The Man) imprisoned the ringleaders and then shut the site down, the site cleverly resurrected itself and is back online again with internet speed.

Apparently this contingency plan was put into effect after their offices were raided in 2006 and their hardware was confiscated.  When you’re fighting the power, backup plans tend to be important.  Since it was initially established in November 2003 by the Swedish anti-copyright organization Piratbyrån, meaning “The Piracy Bureau”, they’ve been involved in a number of lawsuits .

The Electronic Frontier Foundation –an organization that confronts cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights–has criticized the recording industry’s litigious approach to combating illegal file-sharing.  Instead it suggests a more sustainable system where the music industry would form “collecting societies” that would charge consumers a “reasonable regular” fee to download and share content across any platform.

Going to the Pirate Bay.org page, you’ll see that at the bottom that they say they “love free software” and recommend Mozilla’s Firefox and Miro video player, both of which are open-source programs.

So what it boils down to is that there’s a revolution underway, and each battle helps to fine-tune  the rights and responsibilities of the citizenry and leadership of cyberspace.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »

Cyberspace is all A-Twitter

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

“As Ashton Kutcher becomes the first to collect 1 million followers on Twitter and Oprah Winfrey sends out her first tweet, tech observers are debating: Does Friday mark a new peak for the microblogging service? Or the beginning of its demise?”  CNN began it’s concession article, bowing  to Ashton Kutcher who edged them out for the first to gain 1 million Twitter followers. 

In case you’re afraid to ask what Twitter is, here it is from the horse’s mouth (or rather, their  Home and About Us pages):  Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices… all around the world, people access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends.

It feeds our need for speed, so why would its newfound popularity bring about its demise?  Overhype? “It’s really about everyday people having a voice,” said Ashton Kutcher, Twitter Millionaire. And that’s good, right?

Kutcher also realized it could be used to mobilize people to do some good in the world, so Kutcher challenged CNN, saying he would donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity for World Malaria Day in late April if he beat CNN, and 1,000 if he lost. CNN agreed to do the same.

Winfrey joined in the fun, tweeting Friday morning that she would donate 20,000 mosquito bed nets to charity, and then another popular Twitter user, “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest, agreed to donate too.

So all in all, Twitter is changing the world and with incredible speed!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »