Prepping for Super Bowl XL: Radio Parody Songs from The Bob Rivers Show
One of the classic forms of radio that continues to entertain is the radio parody song. You know what they are...hit songs a radio show will re-do and re-produce with new topical lyrics, creating something that really makes you laugh on the way to work.
Some shows do a better job than others. Some much better. The best, in our minds here at the Jointblog, is The Bob Rivers Show, based on 102.5FM KZOK in Seattle, Washington. Bob Rivers calls them "Twisted Tunes". It's a perfect description.
His hometown team - the Seattle Seahawks -- are making it to the Big Game for the very first time. So what does Bob Rivers do to honor them? Create some terrific twisted tune parodies. He's been doing this form of high radio art for 25 years. If you're a fan of radio, I recommend you give them a listen.
To listen to the streams, just click the songs below (note: it takes you to a new page; just click the back button on your browser to come back to the Jointblog when you're done).
"My Hawks"
"50 Ways To Beat The Steelers"
"Hasselbeck"
To hear more Bob Rivers Show song parodies, click here.
posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, January 31, 2006,
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Truthiness Update Exclusive -- "Oprah Winfrey, On Existence of Stephen Colbert: "Yeah"
I saw the audio/video evidence myself tonight on "The Colbert Report". Yes, Oprah acknowledges that there actually is a Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central. He's fighting the good fight for truthiness...Fight on, Stephen, fight on...
posted by Unknown @ Monday, January 30, 2006,
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To TiVo or Not: Either Way, TV Has Changed
I know people addicted to the TiVo "blip". If you TiVo, you know who you are. And yes, you use it as both a noun and a verb.
We've clearly entered a new TV age: those that TiVo (or use any form of time-shifting DVR -- digital video recorders) and those that don't (some don't even use cable at all). Sure, both groups are still couch potatoes and studies haven't conclusively said one group watches more or less TV than the other.
In a report called "The End of Television As We Know It" (IBM Business Consulting Services), the TiVo'ing group insists on living an on-demand TV world, where they can watch "anytime, anywhere content through multiple channels." What this means for advertisers: overall advertising will increase, partly because DVRs "will increase content consumption", partly for experimenting with new buying patterns to see what sticks. But DVRs will also "decrease demand for traditional spots, as will video-on-demand."
Non-TiVo'ers will still be the traditional couch-potato crowd that sits back and views TV in the living room, being less insistent for "on-demand". But they still love having the choice when offered.
Either way -- Tivo'ed or not -- TV viewers are pulling what they want more and more...and pushing back what they don't want.
Related story
posted by Unknown @ Monday, January 30, 2006,
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Site lets listeners rate broadcast, satellite, and Net radio stations
Ratings systems are changing fast. And they need it. Both Nielsen and Arbitron - the leading ratings services for television and radio -- are frustrated by rising costs just trying to find people to participate in surveys. Particularly, they both are having trouble finding 18-34 year olds -- Madison Avenue's prized demo. Their joint electronic data-gathering gadget -- dubbed the Apollo project -- is still in development. Until that works, new methods of figuring out ratings keep popping up.
How about putting it in the hands of the people, Zagat-style?
A new ratings website has been designed for radio users who want to express their listening preferences and reviews (the good and the bad). It's for regular radio, satellite radio and even Internet radio (they even provide ratings for radio blogs). It's located at RadioRatingz.com.
This free website intends to give people a new way to vote for what they like and don't like. Anyone can post and read reviews.
For frustrated listeners, this could become a new forum to vent your feelings of displeasure. Visitors to the website can praise or pan the radio shows that are already listed, and even add listings for programs that don’t appear in the site’s database.
posted by Unknown @ Sunday, January 29, 2006,
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"Truthiness": A Vote For Word of the Decade
Tuesday night, Steven Colbert announced "I fixed Canada in 77 days!" No, Colbert is not Canada's new Prime Minister (that goes to conservative Steven Harper). Colbert's announcement was just another example of "truthiness", perhaps the biggest catchphrase of ALL time (okay, that's a stretch).
And that's the point. Stretch those truths!!!
When Steven Colbert first used the word Truthiness in his new show "The Colbert Report", it quickly became a catch-phrase. What a smart word...it reflects our times today. The American Dialect Society named "truthiness" as its word of 2005 (meaning "truthy, not facty", or, in other words, statements that have some fact in there despite some obvious fibs, satire or outright lies).
Seriously, "truthiness" should become THE descriptive term of the '00s, aughts, nils, or whatever you call this first decade of the new millennium.
The '30s had terms like "Radio", "The Great Depression", "Soup lines", "Fascism" and "Highway" (simplier days back then).
The '40s: "World War II", "The Great Generation" and "Post-war recovery" (fierce, fighting days).
The '50s: "Television", "Communism", "Suburbs", "Korean War", "Rosa Parks", "Integration", "Soviets", "Cold War", "Payola" and "Rock & Roll".
The '60s: "Transistor radio", "Revolution", "Johnny Carson", "The Beatles", "Civil Rights", "Baby Boom", "Color TV", "Invest in plastics", "Vietnam", "Great Society", "Psychedelic"" "Hippies" and "Space Age".
The '70s: "FM Radio", "Free love", "Terrorism", "Hijackings", "Me Generation", "Watergate" "Impeachment" and "I am not a crook", "Women's Lib", "Gas lines", "Inflation", "Saturday Night Live", "Farrah", "Polyester", "The Fonz" and "Disco". Oh, and "Airplane!"
The '80s: "Cable TV", "Trickle-down economics", "Greed is good", "Personal computers" (PC vs Mac), "Cocaine", "I Want My MTV", "Bad Saturday Night Live", "VCRs and video tapes", "Windows", "You looook marvelous", Iran-Contra, Madonna, "Double-digit mortgage rates" and "Video games". And more cocaine.
The '90s: "Nintendo/Gameboy", "Tabloid entertainment", "Corporate media", "Grunge", "Pixar", "Letterman vs Leno", "I feel your pain", "Better Saturday Night Live", "Pokemon", "Generation X", "The Internet", "email", "e-anything", "AOL", "Chat rooms", "Synergy", "Convergence" and "Dot Com Boom".
So what do we have so far in the '00s?
"Satellite radio", "On demand", "Irony/Satire", "The Matrix", "iPod/iTunes", "Broadband", "HD", "New Millennium", "MySpaces", "Google", "Blogging", "Blackberry/Palm/Treo" and "9/11" are all big media trends. "Gameboy" is still big but "PSP" has more buzz. "Harry Potter" has been a massive global phenomenon. And ringtones are hot. And fortunately, Britney Spears mania has died off.
If there is a theme in media and society, it just might be Truthiness.
Examples of "truthiness" in the '00s:
The "dot com bust" (there were no new business rules...a bad idea is still a bad idea...but the digital age showed the good ideas remain strong; and Dow Jones and NASDAQ have both recovered)
"Compassionate conservatism" (is that what we saw from our government days after Katrina hit New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast?, forgeting to care about actual Americans)
"Mission Accomplished" (really?)
"Jason Blair with the NY Times" (factual story about made-up stories)
"There are WMDs in Iraq" (again, really?)
"We're going to get scandal out of the White House and bring back professionalism" (cough, cough, I'm choking)
"Fox News talking head shoutfests" ('nuff said)
"Rush Limbaugh's statement that all drug abusers should go to jail" (when he, of course, has his own problems with abuse)
"Enron/WorldCom, etc" (hey, let's cook the books, no one will notice!)
"Reality shows" (come on, do you truly think those shows are real?)
"Scripted reality shows" (okay, maybe a little more truthy...but NOT reality!)
"Non-fiction memoirs detailing bad things and how to redeem yourself" (see Oprah taking on James Frey in posting below)
"Anorexic teen stars" ("I have no weight problem")
"Ashley Simpson's failed lip-syncing performance on Saturday Night Live" (SNL has gotten worse again, hasn't it)
ALL of it...TRUTHINESS!
So, as Steven Colbert might say..."Come on, America, when it comes to voting on Truthiness as Word of the Decade, that's right, it time for the Colbert Report".
--Chris Kennedy
To read on how Stephen Colbert (remember, he's American) takes credit for 'fixing' Canada: read here
posted by Unknown @ Saturday, January 28, 2006,
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Rolling Stone Rips The New Howard Stern Show on Sirius
Rolling Stone weighs in with their review of the new Howard Stern show on Sirius. The headline and tagline of their article says it all: "Howard's End - Stern's show puts the "um" in "tedium." In their mind, now that Howard has no enemies - no censors, no FCC, no Clear Channel - he also lost his edge.
In a scathing article, Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield pulls no punches. Some quotes:
"He sounds like he no longer has to deal with anybody who doesn't kiss his ass, and as a result he sounds like a bored, gloomy fifty-two-year-old man."
"Howard spends most of the mornings talking about how famous he is, how loyal his listeners are, how many millions of people are running out to buy Sirius radios, while his studio monkey-boys crowd around the mike to say, "Right on, Howard. You still the king." Fans call in to remind him he's still got it."
"If you thought his sidekicks were useless suck-ups before, get a load of them now. Robin compares him to Martin Luther King Jr. Artie says the main reason he wishes his father were still alive is so he could hear him on The Howard Stern Show. "We're making history," he gushes. And this was the first seven days. By next month, Howard will only be able to keep himself awake ordering the staff to do tag-team ass-to-ass action."
Hmmm, David Lee Roth is getting lambasted in the New York Post, Stern in Rolling Stone...sounds like radio does have something interesting to talk about in the morning.
RollingStone.com article
posted by Unknown @ Saturday, January 28, 2006,
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Public Flogging Through Media: Oprah's revenge
I thought watching American Idol tryouts would be the biggest public shaming highlight of the week. Skating With Celebrities came close. But neither could top what happened on Oprah this week.
The daytime queen and Book Club tastemaker didn't just expose the lies in James Frey's "memoir." She publicly shamed him -- and it was the right thing to do. If there is one thing Oprah Winfrey protects, it's her credibility. Her audience has high expectations of her because she keeps her own standards exceptional high.
So, good for her acknowledging what happened. Literally, it was a modern version of public flogging. And America got to watch.
Oprah found herself in a position she has never been in before on her show: having to apologize to her audience. "I regret that phone call," she said during a live taping of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in Chicago. She was referring to her Jan. 11 phone-in to Larry King, during which the daytime queen expressed support for Oprah's Book Club author James Frey, who was under the initial round of fire for having fabricated parts of his mega-selling memoir "A Million Little Pieces." "I left the impression that the truth does not matter," she said. "To everyone who has challenged me about this book -- you are absolutely right."
How often do we ever hear any famous person on TV ever apologize? We certainly don't hear it on the news, on the talk shows or from the White House. Maybe the occasional apology after a drug "incident"...but not really. We're in a victim society and someone else is to blame.
Admitting being wrong (such a breath of fresh air), as Oprah has no doubt counseled guests on her show many times, isn't an easy thing to do, especially in front of millions of people. Yet, in the wake of this week's New York Times reports casting even wider doubts on the veracity of Frey's memoir, she didn't have much of a choice. Besides the Smoking Gun's initial investigation showing that Frey lied about time he spent in jail and various run-ins with the law, some employees at the rehab center Frey attended have come forward to dispute his portrait of life there. No doubt her many, many followers have been waiting for Oprah to finally pronounce James Frey a fraud, and to distance herself both from the flimsy book that she made into a phenomenon, and from the lying man she made into a hero.
She did. First, she admitted her mistakes. And then took it to Frey, who wimpered and sounded like an 8-year old being punished for doing something bad. Oprah could have let the issue die on a vine; instead, she corrected the situation.
This is a case where public shaming actually was a good thing, not just an entertaining one.
referenced Salon.com story
posted by Unknown @ Friday, January 27, 2006,
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What's Big Media So Scared Of?
The questions on the minds of Big Media are heavy. What's next? Entire business models -- in place for decades -- are being upended. For most of modern media's history, the rules were straight-forward. Own a platform or delivery device, decide and create the content, then distribute it. The people would watch it, read it, listen to it...on the terms of Big Media.
With multi-media convergience and cross-platform distribution placing more and more control in the hands of consumers for an on-demand world, people get more choices in what, how and when they consume media. Technology gives consumers access to what used to be exclusively controlled by Big Media. Now, people can choose: consume what is delivered by traditional media (live or time-shofted for convenience)...or simply create and distribute what they want to consume.
Many are doing both.
It has all of Big Media scratching their head, trying to figure out what people will watch, listen to and do with these gadget machines now that they are becoming interchangeable and interconnected.
Old-line media companies' fears can be lumped into three Anxiety categories:
* Business-model anxiety. Will paid download services like Apple's iTunes, not to mention TiVo's and their ad-defying fast-forward buttons, undercut TV networks' huge advertising revenue? Can it help revenues in the future? Or is making content available through iTunes only putting a bandage on the mortal wounds? What will the Big Media platforms look like in 10 years? In 5 years?
* Creative anxiety. McLuhan's classic rule "The medium is the message" has been "mashed-up" in today's media world. Anyone who wants to tell a joke, spin a tale or report the latest White House news can produce any combination of video, text, sound and pictures for viewing on a 50-inch TV, a laptop computer or a cellphone screen. No one in conventional media is sure what audiences barraged from all sides actually want. Digital right management and figuring out how to control who owns what is causing a lot of creative agita.
* Control anxiety. Since the invention of the high-speed printing press, mass media have been created for the masses, not by them. It's been all push to the consumer. Now, it's pull. Consumers decide. The rise of Weblogs has given everyone a printing press (tah dah!). Now we can all be DJs, publishers, reporters and film directors, distributing our podcasts and movies online without groveling before a studio executive.
So if the mashup is the message, and control anxiety is keeping big media from profiting from convergence as they hoped, what are the traditional media companies to do?
It would be easy to dismiss them as dinosaurs, but it would also be wrong. The major media companies are not going away.
The solution remains the same. As father of modern management principles Peter Drucker states, "the purpose of business is to create a customer and innovate." Big Media needs to decide who the real customer is and can't try to satisfy everyone. Are current and potential shareholders (and anyone shaping Wall Street perceptions) the real customer? Or is it the public at large, regardless of investor status or potential? Can it be both?
Creating that new customer in these converged times and innovatively satisfying their media need(s) is essential in order for Big Media to find its next growth. Figuring out how to do that is the challenge. Sounds like some therapy sessions might be needed to cure that anxiety.
related article
posted by Unknown @ Friday, January 27, 2006,
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Search patterns, trends, and surprises for January
First month of January is almost done...what are people searching for online? What's hot?
If you look at Google's "Zeitgeist", you'd find that "Anna Benson" (Playboy cover girl and wife of former NY Met/now Baltimore Oriole pitcher Kris Benson) is the most searched query this week. Interestingly, she also was an in-studio guest on "The Big Idea" with MSNBC's Danny Deutsch. Coincidence? I think not...
Kate Beckingsale (new movie), Miss America, (new winner) and Jenna Elfman (new show) all made the Top 5...but Zac Efron at #2? Come on, a teen from the WB no one over 18 knows? American Idol was 8th? Hmm, smells like some press/PR agent working overtime typing in over and over searches for Zac...
Here's this week's Top 15 from Google:
Week Ending January 23, 2006
1. anna benson
2. zac efron
3. kate beckinsale
4. miss america
5. jenna elfman
6. leif garrett
7. barrett jackson
8. american idol
9. tanith belbin
10. australian open
11. martina hingis
12. jill carroll
13. maria sharapova
14. seahawks
15. steelers
As a note, Google says "Pulling together interesting search trends and patterns requires Google's human and computing power together. Search statistics are automatically generated based on the millions of searches conducted on Google over a given period of time - weekly, monthly, and annually. With some help from humans, and a pigeon or two when they have time, these statistics and trends make their way from the depths of Google's hard drives to become the Google Zeitgeist report.
We should note that in compiling the Zeitgeist, no individual searcher's information is available or accessible to us." Considering the recent controversies with the US regarding protecting databases and keeping information secure, it is a good point to know.
For interest, what do you think we were searching for 5 years ago this week? Here's the list from the archives:
1. Chinese New Year
2. Australian Open
3. Chinese horoscope
4. Chinese zodiac
5. Year of the snake
6. Chinese astrology
7. Golden Globes
8. Hotmail
9. Chat
10. Warez
Google Top 15 searches this week
posted by Unknown @ Friday, January 27, 2006,
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Living A Purely Online Media Life
Could you set aside all your normal media connections -- newspaper, radio, TV, the telephone, magazines, cell phones, iPods, pagers -- and only living digitally online 24/7?
Someone is trying that experiment for one month right now...and so far, he seems to be holding up okay.
His questions and tests are simple ones: what kind of media outlet does the internet really offer? Can his appetite for video and audio media survive on internet-available rations? And if it can, does that mean his TV viewing experience will eventually be an extension of his internet experience?
Imagine trying that yourself and how much you'd have to adjust your viewing and listening habits to find out what was going on in the world and with your friends.
He started January 15th and continues till February 15th, only consuming media via the internet.
To check his progress, click here.
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, January 26, 2006,
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Ringtone sales are off the hook
Chris Brown's "Run It!", the Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" and Young Jeezy's "Trap Star" are alerting cellphone users to incoming calls, but the sound ringing in the ears of the music business is "ka-ching."
Ringtone sales are off the hook. And while the revenue stream is only a trickle in the $12 billion industry, it's growing feverishly as CDs slump.
In 2005, tones pulled in $600 million, 20% ahead of estimates and more than double the 2004 take. The year's leader, 50 Cent's "Candy Shop", sold 1.9 million downloads, more than the top-selling digital song: Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl", with 1.2 million.
A building trend: converting purchased mp3s into customized ringtones, including mash-ups ringtones, where two (or more) songs are blended together, using applications like Ring Factory.
full story
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, January 26, 2006,
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Forbes: Why Google Refused To Give Up Its User's Search Data
Google's refusal to cooperate with the U.S. government's request for user search data is probably motivated more by the desire to protect itself than to protect user privacy, according to a Forbes.com report. However, the result still ends up protecting privacy.
The government is seeking a week's worth of Internet search queries from a list of 1 million random Web addresses in an attempt to battle Internet porn and to help create a Child Online Protection Act. America Online, Yahoo! and Microsoft have all agreed to hand over the data, which they have assured their customers contains no personally identifiable information, but Google has refused, citing user privacy and the danger of revealing "trade secrets" to its competitors.
full story
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, January 25, 2006,
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Top 10 Consumer Complaints: Lies, Damn Lies and Consumer Fraud Statistics
Got ripped off last year? Got a complaint? Beside your local police department the perhaps the Better Business Business, the Federal Trade Comission is the ultimate place tracking society's biggest complaints and consumer problems.
Apparently 685,000 of you did file a report, saying you were among the victims throughout America reporting total losses of $680 million. That's almost $1,000 per person. Or second-row, left-center for a U2 show.
However, the reality is, as reported by the United Postal Service, identity theft is America's fastest-growing crime. Last year alone, they say more than 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft, a crime that cost roughly $5 billion.
That's a problem -- and a story -- trending bigger every year.
For the sixth year in a row, identity theft tops the annual list of consumer complaints collected by Federal Trade Commission. The list is strikingly similar to last year, with online auction fraud, sweepstakes, and advance-fee loans also in the top 10. But the number of consumers victimized via wire transfer has skyrocketed, tripling in the past two years, the FTC said. And child ID theft cases have nearly doubled in that span.
The Federal Trade Commission's 2005 report of most common crime complaints, ranked by percentage of total complaints. Last year's percentage is in parenthesis.
- 1. Identity theft 37% (39% in 2004)
- 2. Internet Auctions 12% (16%)
- 3. Foreign Money Offers 8% (6%)
- 4. Shop-at-Home/Catalog Sales 8% (8%)
- 5. Prizes/Sweepstakes and Lotteries 7% (5%)
- 6. Internet Services and Computer Complaints 5% (6%)
- 7. Business Opportunities and Work-at-Home Plans 2% (2%)
- 8. Advance-Fee Loans and Credit Protection 2% (3%)
- 9. Telephone Services 2% (2%)
- 10. Other 17% (12%)
full msnbc.com article
Information on identity theft
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, January 25, 2006,
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How Email Works And Thinking Twice Before You Search
Earlier this week, I watched an Oprah episode on "How Stuff Works". Yes, I admit it. It really got my attention. One of the subjects from the popular author of the book series was how email actually gets from computer to computer. During John Wiley's expert demonstration, he mentioned the thousands of subserver routers based in non-descript windowless concrete bunkers throughout the country. The subservers constantly look at Internet traffic and decide where the datastream zeros and ones need to go.
Oprah asked a series of key questions: "What happens to that data going through those servers? Does anyone ever look at it? Does it ever get deleted?" His answer: The data never gets completely deleted. You may delete the file, the person receiving the email may delete the file...but somewhere, in a routing server located someplace, that data will always remain.
Who owns those servers? Yahoo!, MSN, Google, AOL, Earthlink...all the companies which give you access to the Net. Being corporately owned, how secure and private does that information remain? And what if the government wanted access?
Which brings us to the next story...this time, from the New York Times.
Yesterday, The New York Times ran a story that just might get you to think twice before you search online. With the Patriot Act in place, the government actively uses many forms of modern media technologies in an effort to collect information assessing possible threats and keeping the country secure. That's the intent. But is that all it used for?
While all the recent controversy has focused on wiretaps unauthorized by the court systems, the bigger story may be the government's interest with those routing servers and the databases they contain. That's exactly what the government sought last month during the Christmas holidays, with all the corporations giving access except one -- Google.
In the article, The New York Times talked to a woman who found a story on the BBC's Web site about a British politician who was caught with a "rent boy"--a young male prostitute. The woman, not understanding what a rent boy was, looked it up on Google and became immediately afraid upon finding the answer that she could be held accountable for child pornography by the government.
She'll be fine, of course, but her story underscores the effect the government's aggressive efforts at obtaining user data have had on consumers. By now, many know that the government has subpoenaed user search data from the major search engines--Google, Yahoo!, America Online, MSN (and that all but Google agreed to hand over the information)--in its bid to bring back a law struck down by the Supreme Court banning children from viewing pornography.
Email data storage. Searches. Sounds like technical stuff. But it could get personal. In any event, the signs show that people are definitely starting to worry about our Big Brother in Washington.
Now that is a media trend worth watching...
How Stuff Works website
Read the NY Times Online article here (log on required)
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, January 25, 2006,
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From This Month's Wired: Stern Picked The Wrong New Broadcast Technology
Wired magazine continues to be right on when it comes to assessing the digital world. Great insights and a must-read.
In their latest issue, they weigh in about Howard Stern's move to satellite radio. They agree he needed to make the move to new media; they just say he chose the wrong medium. Instead of satellite, Wired thinks podcasting was the better way to go. This way, Stern would still be available for the masses without FCC scrutiny while generating an innovative new media revenue stream via podcast downloads through, say, HowardStern.com. In a sense, he could have become the first celebrity independent podcaster and truly show King of All Media muscle. Now, the King's domain is much, much smaller.
Here are some highlights from Wired:
"Satellite radio is a pretty good technology that's attracting a respectable audience primarily through excellent programming. But let's be clear — satellite doesn't hold a candle to podcasting, and not even Howard Stern can change that.
Sirius signed Stern for $500 million... It's hard to argue with a half billion incentives. But — aside from cash — it's hard to see what satellite could do for Stern that podcasting couldn't do better. If his primary motivation for ditching traditional radio wasn't money but escape from the FCC's censors, the internet would have been a better choice, hands down.
Podcasting's reach...towers over satellite.
To be fair, Stern claims Sirius is trying to offer an online stream of his show, but even then, there'll be no way to subscribe to it in a downloadable format. The promised stream will be delivered via a Sirius receiver, so it won't be available in a readily consumable form...
As for getting the show to users without computers, Stern could have set the wheels in motion to distribute his show via Wi-Fi hotspots to simple, inexpensive MP3 players... It's not a perfect solution, but neither is making people pay $100 plus $10 per month to listen to a show that was free a few weeks ago.
It's interesting to run some hypothetical numbers on what Stern might rake in as a podcaster — for example, through micropayments. If 3 million listeners paid $3.50 a month to tune in, he'd take in more than $120 million a year on subscriptions alone. That's $500 million in just over four years."
Did Stern make the right choice? It sure would be a helluva lot easier to listen to him with my iPod...
Entire article at Wired.
posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, January 24, 2006,
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New Deals Shaking Up Major Media Today
Time Warner has been busy lately shuffling the decks and sprucing things up.
Looks like the Google/Time Warner AOL deal and the Viacom/CBS split-off from last month were just a start...and their actions are sending out large ripples into the vast media pond for new deals to be made.
First, as announced just this afternoon, CBS and Time Warner decided to form a new TV network (dubbed the "The CW", combining "The WB" with CBS-owned UPN). This merged entity will officially launch this Fall. The WB and UPN will continue to broadcast their regular schedules until that time. It should give the formerly separate networks more muscle to compete.
Next, looks like ABC/Disney radio group sell-off possible may happen after all (which is rumored by many publications to be near a closed deal). If the 72-station deal affecting 25 top markets nationally is approved, it should provide fresh cash (projected by analysts at $3 billion) to help set up Disney's next move: fixing the lucrative but fractured distribution relationship with animation studio Pixar, which is scheduled to conclude later this year.
A number of publications, including The New York Times, are reporting that the Walt Disney Company is poised to announce a bid for Pixar, possibly today. Sources say the Disney board has approved an offer of about $59 a share for Pixar, valuing the company at nearly $7 billion. That would, at once, make Steve Jobs, Pixar's chief, Disney's largest shareholder and, according to reports, give him a seat on the Disney board.
(UPDATE at 5:50PM: According to the Associated Press, The Walt Disney Co. has announced it is buying longtime partner Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion in a deal designed to restore Disney's animation domination while also vaulting Pixar CEO Steve Jobs into a powerful role at the media conglomerate. Disney will buy Pixar in an all-stock transaction that makes Jobs Disney's largest shareholder. Jobs will also join Disney's board.)
For Disney, whose own historic animation unit has faltered lately, the acquisition of Pixar would add not just the luster of the industry's top animation company but also a promise of future characters for Disney's theme parks.
Bring one of the world's leading media innovators -- Steve Jobs -- officially into the Disney fold sounds like a very smart move. And it looks like many other agree. Jobs, who runs both Apple and Pixar, could, as a Disney board member, work to transform Disney from an analog company to one that is at the forefront of the new digital technologies. Almost every media conglomerate is seeking to leap aboard the digital express. Who better than Jobs--the guy who brought us the iPod -- to put Disney back at the front of the pack?
NY Times story (free log-on required)
Who Is Steve Jobs?
posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, January 24, 2006,
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Sirius Shuts Down Howard Stern Pirate Radio Streamers
Sometimes it helps to be a little less obvious. Broadcasting cops are always on the prowl looking for pirates illegally stealing their airwave booty. Streaming corporate-owned broadcasts of anything -- audio or video -- is an obvious no-no (unless, of course, it gets viewed as helping feed the publicity machine, wink, wink...but that's another story). Which makes me wonder about some news this weekend from Sirius. Apparently, some numbskulls decided to rebroadcast Howard Stern's new satellite radio show live on the web...without permission from either Sirius or Howard Stern. Is this for real or it is manufactured publicity? And how can we tell the difference?
If it is real, it may mark the first time a subscription satellite radio show was "pirated" to the point of forcing legal action to clamp down on illegal rebroadcasting over the Net (as opposed to what is normally done using some low-power local radio transmitter built from a kit).
Now, the Jointblog wouldn't be surprised if there are more of these sites out there. In fact, it's not a stretch to guess there may have been fan sites these last few years rebroadcasting satellite shows from either Sirius or XM with or without approval. That's what fans do and, in a way, it could have been viewed as a way to fuel more underground "buzz". If so, it appears those days may be over, at least for Howard Stern's show.
There could be dozens or hundreds of sites doing this illegal rebroadcasting "on the down-low" out of sight from the search spyders. Remember (for you in legal departments), we don't support nor promote this activity. With amazing quickness we applaud, after less than 2 weeks into Stern's new Sirius show, Sirius discovered two unauthorized Web sites that were rebroadcasting his subscription-only satellite radio show via a free Web audio stream. Immediately, cease-and-desists were issued and the sites were shut down over the weekend.
The sites? Hello, a little obvious. Not exactly "underground". HearHoward.org posted a notice saying that it has shut down due to the cease and desist letter it received from Sirius. The domain name of the second site, HearHoward100.com, is now for sale on eBay. The Boston Herald reported Friday that Sirius considered the audio streams "online piracy." The Herald said an unidentified Boston man was an administrator of the site. A blogger named Brad Beckett also claimed to be behind the site.
It does make you wonder, though...is this a real incident or a marketing incident? Could this be a new media trend with Internet marketing? Makes you wonder. Were the pirate's subscriptions refunded (since they must have need a subscription to receive the original broadcast)? Discuss...
posted by Unknown @ Monday, January 23, 2006,
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GPS Panties: The Best Product Launch of 2005 That Doesn't Exist...Yet
Here are panties with built-in GPS winning raves in Cosmo and "selling out" online. They just didn't exist.
To stay on top of media trends, we often have to read widely and weirdly in order to get a handle of what it beginning to happen. As media morphs in this electronic age, the opportunity to get new ideas out into the marketplace have never been greater. As we've been discussing this week on the Jointblog, products connect with potential customers when the idea maximizes media design. Key cues, "The Look" and search strength all make a difference. So does the idea itself.
Last year, a contest was started by a NYC art/science non-profit think tank called Eyebeam offering a $2,000 prize for the website that gained the most traffic in a three-week window without using paid advertising. It was an experiment for understanding how viral marketing works on the Internet now. It was a terrific example of showing the importance of media design, blending cue, look and search withing fresh ideas and thinking.
So here is what happened with the winner:
Back in the spring of '05, a curious new product began popping up in blogs and then in mainstream publications such as Rolling Stone, the Guardian, the Observer and Australian Cosmo. Forget Me Not Panties, a line of women's underwear with a built-in global positioning system (GPS), was advertised by its creators as a way to keep track of girlfriends, wives or daughters. It was an instant hit. The website noted it was sold out. Close to 2,000 people put their names on the waiting list. Companies such as Target, the giant U.S. department store, clamoured to distribute it.
It would have been one of the most successful product launches of 2005 -- if there had been a product. But Leba Haber Rubinoff and Katie Marsh had created the website as a hoax. It was an entry in the Contagious Media Showdown...and it won the competition hands-down (or is that panties down?)
For Haber Rubinoff and Marsh, the concept was a humorous way to get people talking about gender. "Initially, our intent was to make people kind of angry, get a passionate response," says Haber Rubinoff. "We thought we were going to get a lot of women and feminists who were upset, but in fact a lot of the women who emailed us wanted to have a male version of the panties." The duo, who call themselves the Panty Raiders, won the competition -- and garnered mass amounts of press. "People wrote about us without doing a lot of research," says Haber Rubinoff, noting that most articles have talked about the panties as if they were real. "If you just Google us you'd find out that we're part of a competition."
The competition is a perfect example of how ideas spread virally across the Internet. When people hear about it they need to tell other people about it. They forward to friends, it gets linked on a blog, a reporter reads the blog and writes something, and then all of a sudden it snowballs.
GPS panties...a wacky idea. But so is the Burger King catching touchdown passes on TV...you notice it, you talk about it and you increase brand awareness. Let's just hope the BK King doesn't start wearing panties.
--Chris Kennedy
full GPS panties story
Contagious Media Project website
Forget-Me-Not Panties
posted by Unknown @ Friday, January 20, 2006,
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Howard Stern's Search Impact
It seems Howard Stern's status as "The King of All Media" stretches even into the digital world of organic search online. Since he left traditional radio for Sirius satellite radio last month, the #1 search result bringing readers to the Jointblog has been after a Howard Stern posting.
Through the last year, Howard Stern has been a top search inquiry, placing him as one of the top celebrities sought on the web (8th most-searched male celebrity, right after Michael Jackson)(!). In NYC, he strongly beat out Jon Stewart, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien for favorite on-air host (sources: Yahoo! Buzz Index). Overall nationally, while XM Radio was #6 on Yahoo's Electronics search buzz item, Sirius was #10 despite far fewer subscribers -- and Stern wasn't even broadcasting on Sirius yet. (By the way, iPod was the top buzz item for electronics and #3 product overall, behind the generic "digital camera" and "flowers"; talk about a hot brand name!)
According to Hitwise.com -- a site that tracks search inquiries on the web, visits to SiriusRadio.com almost doubled last year, with Howard Stern the top draw (shows he's really earning the stock bonus).
The market share of visits to Sirius and increased 99 percent and 61 percent respectively for the week ending December 17, 2005 versus the same week last year (week ending December 18, 2004). In September, with Howard Stern's departure imminent, the market share of visits to Sirius Satellite Radio surpassed XM Radio, which claims more than twice the number of subscribers as Sirius.
For more search stats on Howard Stern, go to the website for Hitwise United States and sign up for their free newsletter. For the top Yahoo Buzz Index searches of 2005, go to here.
--Chris Kennedy
posted by Unknown @ Friday, January 20, 2006,
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American Idol Back On Top Of Online Buzz
The Jointblog nation's long slog without the joy of watching Paula Abdul's frequent bouts with lucidity is finally over. American Idol returned to Fox this week, and as you might expect, buzz is hitting a high note. Personally, I'll never hear "I Shot The Sheriff" quite the same way ever again, thanks to one contestant from North Carolina.
Buzz is high with online searches for the show -- up 89% in advance of this year's fifth installment, and it was back in the Yahoo! Buzz Index top 10 TV searches before even airing an episode. As of Thursday night, American Idol was the top search item overall, up 44 rank slots from a week ago (reference: Yahoo! Buzz Index, January 19, 2006)
The show's Search demographics haven't changed much over the years -- females still dominate interest in AI searching, with about 70% of Idol searches. And while the show attempts desperately to appeal to teens (the people who actually buy music!), queries reveal that the folks most interested searchwise are in the 35-44 age bracket. This might help to explain why most of the Idols don't exactly set cash registers ringing across the land (except Kelly, Clay, and possibly Carrie).
Related searches on "american idol 2006" (+91%) and "american idol winners" (+95%) are on the rise. too. Multimedia titan and Idol host Ryan Seacrest has dipped a bit in searches, but he'll be rolling in hair gel and buzz by the end of the season, as usual.
Yahoo! Buzz Index
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, January 19, 2006,
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Apples Makes Fast iTunes Music Store "Spy" Fix
This week the Jointblog has discussed the importance of media design. If design includes form and function, then Apple's issue response team gets high marks in form and function. In brief, their response was nimble, quick...and perfect, long before a possible problem could snowball out of control.
Responding to concerns first raised by Apple user/bloggers less than 10 days ago, Apple Computer quick updated its iTunes software to fix the problem. Privacy concerns over a new spy-like song-recommendation feature in the music jukebox program met with fast negative concerns.
Apple switched its "Mini-Store" so users now have the choice of turning it on the feautre, rather than having it automatically activate with its new version update of iTunes. The intention was to help customize the product offerings seen by each online Music Store user.
The feature requires that the information on the songs being played be sent back to Apple, which in turn churns out related music titles. It's a type of customization that an increasing number of digital services are adopting.
This differs, however, from, say Amazon.com, where product recommendations emerge as users shop the site, and they presumably understand that whatever data they are inputting online is being sent to Amazon.
What is so interesting about this story is when it is compared to the Sony rootkit controversy from last year, where purchasers of Sony CDs unknowingly had rootkit files installed on the computers designed to block file sharing. It took Sony months to address and fix the problem. With Apple, only a few days.
The big fear was the concern Apple might be collecting information about a user's private listening session. Apple says it was not storing any of the user data.
According to the Apple press release, Apple says "We've listened to our users and made access to the MiniStore an opt-in feature,"(Tom Neumayr).
full story
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, January 19, 2006,
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Old Media and Dealing With Its Lost Control
The old gatekeepers are losing control by the day.
Like the SUV precariously balancing on the edge of this bridge, traditional media has suffered from a loss of control. It's often seems like old media saw the accident coming but still couldn't avoid it. The crashed happened. So now what? As consumers, some of us are rubber-necking at the damage. However, many simply don't care and are moving on, finding the best new media to take care of needs.
There is still a need for the community-building, consensus-shaping role that the best of the media gatekeepers -- radio, TV, cable, newspapers, magazines - can play.
Some may survive and thrive. But they'll have to do without economic advantages they enjoyed in the past. Newspapers in particular are in a panic right now. It's not so much that readers are abandoning them (they get an awful lot of traffic online) as they've lost their stranglehold on classified advertising.
For those who place classifieds or read them, the new era of Craiglist, Monster.com, and the like is undeniably better than the old newspaper-dominated one.
The biggest difference between old media and new media is this: old media pushes product to the customer; new media is pulled by the consumer. Old media decided what was cool and created trends; for new new media, what is cool and trendy is decided by the consumer at the grassroots level, one person at a time.
While many media gatekeepers like commercial radio stations are losing out to more select, consumer-generated sources like iTunes playlists, "there is still a need for the community-building, consensus-shaping role that the best of the media gatekeepers can play," writes Justin Fox in a thoughtful essay this week in Fortune. "The question is, who's going to play it? And how are they going to make it work economically?" Fox contends that getting music or other media recommendations merely from other consumers has its drawbacks: "The main one is that it can hard to break out of whatever subculture--of music or any other kind of media--you've decided to join."
The question for old media is this: can it shift its gears from "push" to "pull" and still save its revenue expectations? To get off the ledge and prevent a deathfall, "pull" just may be exactly what it needs.
Fortune.com story
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, January 19, 2006,
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HD Radio Rollout Begins
Yesterday the HD Digital Radio Alliance announced that 264 new HD2 channels would be announced by radio ownership groups around the country this week. The rollout officially began this morning, with companies revealing which stations and formats are on the way.
Clear Channel has begun its rollout today in New York and San Francisco, with 25 stations launching their over the next five days. All of the new HD2 channels will also stream online. Clear Channel plans to give away new HD radios on-air.
CBS Radio has also kicked off its HD Radio plan, with over 60 HD2 channels announced today in 17 markets. Some markets, like Chicago, began test broadcasting last Spring. Many of the new Free FM stations, such as WYSP/Philadehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giflphia, WFNY/New York and WHFS/Baltimore are using their HD2 channel for Modern Rock.
Emmis has announced its HD2 plans for New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Indianapolis, giving listeners new, free, fresh format choices on the airwaves.
Greater Media also revealed its HD plans today for Philadelphia and Boston. It already has three HD multicast stations up and running in Detroit. Its five Boston HD2 channels will begin broadcasting within weeks, while the Philadelphia stations will debut in the next two or three months.
Bonneville's San Francisco stations will begin their HD2 simulcasts on January 23, while ABC/Disney's KLOS/Los Angeles is launching an eclectic HD2 channel for Classic Rocker KLOS described as "Fusion Hispanic/Anglo Rock."
fmqb.com story
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, January 19, 2006,
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Media Design: What It Is, Why It Should Matter To You (Part 3)
Defining media design -- and why it matters now more than ever
Part Three: Seek and Ye Shall Find (The Importance of Search in Media Design)
Parts 1 and 2 in this article series discussed the value of audio cues and the split-second "look" for successful media design. Today's installment covers the importance of search optimizing.
When thinking media design, search optimization has always been critically important. This is true for all forms of marketing: if a product can't be "found", it can't be sold. So, to begin, realize the concept of "search" as it applies to brands and media trends isn't new. It's centuries old. Only the platform and technique has changed.
The classic Yellow Pages has connected people to business for nearly a hundred years. Ads on TV or radio serve as search "pointers" helping influence purchasing decisions, specifically identifying business locations and sales. Books, newspapers, leaflets, flyers and magazines -- the original forms of media -- are society's traditional template for media search. When we need to know about a certain subject, we picked up the printed form of media to guide our search for knowledge, obtained at the newsstands or libraries. The Dewey decimal system was the Modern "search engine" for 150 years...and publishers needed to "optimize" consumer search based on that system.
Of course, the Internet is the new Modern search engine...and it is changing the way media get optimized for search. Traditional search tools still work and have their own importance; however, optimizing search online is still not fully understood. Plus, how it works is still evolving, making it even more challenging to optimize it.
While paided/sponsored search results have gained popularity (especially as a revenue source), it's not how people generally find websites on the Internet. Organic search -- results found from spyders and searchbots based on keywords, published content and link usage -- is still the best way for average internet users to find what they seek. It's how more than 9 out 10 searches are conducted on the Internet.
Generally, search engines from the Top 8 (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Ask/Ask Jeeves, Excite, Lycos, Altavista) are what most people use. However, there are some good upstarts (Dogpile, Clusty, Alltheweb). Gaining in popularity are the sub-search engines within popular communities (the overwhelming, difficult-to-navigate MySpace -- which is expanding at too fast a rate to easily catalogue -- is a perfect example).
The key for successful search online -- as supported by many theorists as well as researched studies (and even demonstrated by this Jointblog) -- is to make sure media design is simple, effective and "search-friendly". All media design search strategies should have this common objective: be a top-result (either first or second in organic search results) for keywords (and "tagwords") easily and simply describing "who" and "what" define your media product. When it comes to media design and search, "fancy" usually does not make a difference; search engines are not style snobs.
A website can be designed by the most fabulous Madison Avenue ad house but still fail miserably in attracting traffic, value and use if its media design doesn't satisfy the basic requirement of helping people find something they need. And before that can even happen, you have to first of all have your media design found first.
Remember the adage: if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
So, if search engine strategy is important for effective media design, which search engines are most effective and should design be tailored for the best search engine?
Absolutely, it should....and Google is still the best.
For the second year running, a Customer Experience rankings study of Search Engine Sites (from Keynote Systems) says Google provides the most satisfying search experience among North American users, despite competitive maneuvering from all of the other major search services.
The study captured more than 250 metrics for each site and benchmarked 13 key business success measures, including user satisfaction, home page design and appeal, future usage and other factors. In addition to looking at general web search, this year's study also looked at local and image search.
Google outperformed its competitors in all 13 business success drivers measured in the study. Yahoo put in a strong second place showing in 12 of the 13 drivers measured. The top "impact drivers" that affected user perceptions were general search quality, home page appeal, special features and perceived site performance.
Ask Jeeves ranked third, followed by MSN Search and AOL's public web search site. The study also looked at AOL's member-only search and it would have tied Ask Jeeves in third place had it been available to all users.
This on-going series will cover the top success drivers for media design in its next installment.
--Chris Kennedy
related research article
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, January 19, 2006,
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Media Design: What It Is, Why It Should Matter To You (Part 2)
Defining media design -- and why it matters now more than ever
Part Two: The Blink Value of Correct Design Starts At Home
Lauren Bacall had "The Look".
We are often told to not judge a book by its cover...but we often do anyway.
The inner romantic in most of us hope to fall in love at first sight.
Many companies -- Apple computers and iPods, pro sports teams, uniformed UPS drivers, McDonalds et al -- have distinct "looks" with the products and designs.
It's a natural human instinct to quickly judge and assess new first impressions. Our brains need to categorize and decide what to file for future use, put it to use right away or simply throw it away to forget about it. Successful web site (and all media, both old and new) designs follow exactly those same principles.
Malcolm Gladwell "Blink" readers surely would understand the importance of making sure the "look" of a website design means everything in the first few seconds of viewing it. Think of the calming reassurance you have when you go to your home page. There is a reason it is called a home page -- it makes you feel "home" on the net. Just looking at the image of Norman Rockwell's famous Thanksgiving dinner transports you to your own thoughts and memories of home.
With millions of blogs being updated and/or added on the Net every day, every blog you breeze by instantly "tells" you whether or not you'll be interested in its content. Building a brand you want to use, you want to engage with, requires an understanding of sensory connection. Yesterday's post on the Jointblog discussed the value of audio cues. Another important element is "the look"
Branding and Web site design, apparently, mean everything to consumers, according to a new study. In one-twentieth of a second, the Canadian Behavior and Technology Journal found, consumers make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with a given Web site. The study's author tells Retuers.com that the response is actually physiological -- meaning Web designers must be sure not to offend users visually, or they'll simply leave. Yet the results don't show designers what leads to like or dislike -- perhaps just personal taste.
Think for a moment about your company's media "look": Do it have a look? Is it distinctive? Does it connect with your desired customer? Is the company investing enough to protect and enhance its "look"? What can you do to help?
All good questions for those challenged with managing media design and interested in media trends (that's you!)
So, dear Jointblog reader, how does this design make you react? We welcome your comments. Write us with your thoughts: Jointcom@aol.com.
Look for Part 3 on media design in the days ahead.
--Chris Kennedy
related story
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, January 18, 2006,
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Media Design: What It Is, Why It Should Matter To You
Defining media design -- and why it matters now more than ever
Part One: The Value of Audio Cues On The Internet
Radio is the originator of the "audio cue" -- those little sounds introducing features, starting shows or alerting listeners to something special. It's designed to attract attention and distinguish the product; often the radio station itself. Those audio cues become important "markers" helping define the personality of the station.
One of the greatest examples is the 3-chime "boing boing boing" NBC audio cue...it first started on the radio for nationally broadcast shows out of New York City.
When TV began broadcasting, many successful radio tools -- like audio cues -- were used, including the NBC chimes.
Today, audio cues are still highly effective in helping consumers sort through thousands of advertising messages every day.
For example, when you think of Pentium chip, you think of their audio cue. Anytime a Classic Rock song is used as a music bed to help sell a car, that's an audio cue ("Who are you?" A rocking Cadillac driver).
Another great is example is from TiVo. Their chirpy clicks and "dwops" are a familiar and even welcome sound to millions of consumers addicted to the ad-zapping set-top. But the system's ad-skipping feature and ability to time-shift television viewing aren't the only things that appeal to devotees: TiVo's intuitively and elegantly designed interface make it an easy-to-use no-brainer for most consumers. Even its long-form sponsor/content showcases -- basically infomercials for advertisers and promotions for TV shows and films -- are well-designed and executed.
To the consumer, the TiVo chirps and dwop audio cue signal "easy-to-use", convenient and favorite shows...very powerful word associations. That is the essence of high-level media design in brand development.
As the Internet continues to expand and evolve, as more TV, movie, video and audio content is made available for consumption, the need for new custom, unique "audio cues" specifically for Internet usage. Yahoo! has it with their yodel for advertising...but not for their actual streaming or download audio/video usage. AOL has it when "you've got mail" and "welcomed" online...but not for the Top 5 TV picks from last night (they keep changing their generic setup music intros).
More and more, the Internet is becoming channel-driven, not just web-address driven. Audio cues helps clarify different channels and different features. When thinking about media design and brand/customer relationships, consider how new (or freshened) audio cues on your web site can enhance the experience and make your site more memorable.
Expect more on this topic of media design in the weeks ahead.
--Chris Kennedy
posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, January 17, 2006,
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Biggest Internet Marketers Rate Best & Worst Tactics of 2005 + Reveal 2006 Plans
Every December ad:tech and MarketingSherpa partner to survey the heavy hitters of online marketing to look back at what’s worked, and ahead at planned spending.
This year 680 marketers responded to their late December survey. On average, these leading marketers spent 44% of their total advertising and marketing budgets online last year. 44%! Here's what they had to say:
#1. What worked (and what didn't) this year in online ads & marketing
Over the past few years, search and email have been neck and neck in the race for top performer among online marketing tactics. Until now: in 2005, 52% of marketers said that search performance is ‘Great – outperforms other tactics’ compared to 47% for house email.
Why? One reason may be that keyword prices have stabilized. At the same time, top marketers are increasingly using more sophisticated methods for identifying high performance keywords.
Meanwhile, email to house lists remains important.
What didn't work so well in 2005?:
• Rented (non-house data)
• Banner ads
#2. 2006 budgets – where’s the money going?
Search jumped from 24% up to 38%, and online ads saw the largest increase of marketers projecting substantial increases – from only 16% in 2005 to 36% for 2006.
#3. RSS, blogs and video will see significant action in 2006
Podcasting and ad placement in video games are still in the early adopter phase. Others, like blogging and video ads, seem to be moving into the mainstream of marketing.
New Tactics for 2006
ad:tech also asked marketers how they’d experiment if given 100k for that purpose. There was a tie at the top between mobile and video. Looking at the charts in concert, it appears that mobile will be the next tactic to make the jump to the mainstream, following video, RSS feeds and blogging.
So ask yourself, Mr./Ms. Marketer in 2006, how would you spend 100k on experimenting with new tactics?
full story
posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, January 17, 2006,
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MTV's New MHD Launches...High In The Air
The new high-def channel for MTV -- called MHD -- launched Sunday from its Vail, Colorado studios. Nope, not NYC or LA -- Vail, Colorado.
MTV says 17 percent of the country's 110 million households with TVs have an HDTV, and that number is expected to gain another 8 percent by 2008. While sports content is currently said to be driving the lure of HDTV, MTV execs believe music is the next hot genre.
For the viewers who can actually view it, MHD means more music videos and more live music shown in the best visual technology available. The network launched on Cox Communications television as well as Verizon. MHD may be viewed in parts of Florida and California so far.
The state-of-the-art glass walled studio overlooking Vail's renown slopes will serve as homebase for new MHD programming. MHD programming will feature a conglomeration of shows shot in high definition for various MTV Networks Music Group's channels including:
• "Two Dollar Bill," a live music series featuring indie rockers like My Chemical Romance and System of a Down.
• "Storytellers," a show feauturing legendary artists talking about their songs and music, like Coldplay's Chris Martin describing naming his song "Yellow" because he was sitting on the Yellow Pages.
• "Crossroads," which features hip rocker pop groups and matches them with a country group, like Bon Jovi and Sugarland or John Fogerty and Keith Urban.
• "UnPlugged," which showcases live acoustic performances by artists like Alicia Keys.
• Award shows, like "MTV Video Music Award" and "CMT Music Awards."
• "MHD Uncompressed: Top 10 High-def Countdown.
• Themed Video Hours, introducing high-def hip-hop, rock and country videos.
full story
posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, January 17, 2006,
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Among Top Brands, Apple Gains The Most
According to C|net News, Apple has replaced Google and Amazon as the fastest growing Web site among the 10 top Internet brands, according to traffic measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings. The number of visitors to Apple.com rose 57 percent from its November 2004 total of 19.6 million to 30.8 million a year later -- a 50% growth surge.
Google's traffic rose 29 percent in the same period, while Amazon grew 16 percent. MapQuest, an online mapping service, was the fourth strongest traffic gainer at 13 percent. Analysts noted that robust growth is often the result of a company frequently releasing new products. Both Google and Apple have released a slew of new products in the past year. Of course, Apple's 14 million unit sales of iPods in the 4th quarter really kicked in traffic flow into overdrive.
full story you may have missed
posted by Unknown @ Saturday, January 14, 2006,
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Free Radio on Free FM
CBS Radio's new format concept -- Free FM -- is on the air and off to a good start for the most part. For brand new programming reliant on talk and interaction, there's been surprisingly few glitches (a very unusual happening and a good sign for Free).
Some shows are broadcast on multiple CBS/Free stations across the country, such as former Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth, who's also gone by the nickname Diamond Dave when he hijacked MTV programming back in the mid-'80s. He's now broadcast on a half-dozen major markets. Also on multiple stations: Cleveland's Rover in the Morning (not in NYC, mostly in the midwest), West Coast Adam Corolla (from Comedy Central and Jimmy Kimmel's buddy) and Penn Jillette (a one-hour show known from the Penn & Teller Vegas magic/illusion busting group).
In addition, older shows are back. Leslie Gold (The Radio Chick) - formerly part of WNEW when it was Hot Talk 5 years ago and most recently on Sirius - is back in afternoons. And Booker -- formely on KRock and Z100 -- moved from afternoon to evenings, where he sounds best anyway. 2 new shows to the NYC region airwaves are JV & Elvis -- longtime successes from San Francisco radio for late mornings; and Jake and Jackie overnights...New Yorker comedy writers for TV.
There are four things most promising so far, from these ears at least:
1) They aren't broadcasting in a bubble. They take complaints, they acknowledge the old format, they talk about Howard Stern and wish him the best. The personalities aren't hiding from the 800-lb gorilla past...and that's good.
2) They are podcasting all of their shows and archiving old shows for iPod listening or aimply to listen to on your computer. Makes it more convenient to get to know the new shows whenever wanted. Also, there's easy instant feedback IMing straight to the on-air shows to bypass busy phone lines.
3) Every show is "morning show quality". The content, the style, the interaction between two or more hosts, the listener involvement, the topicality, the weirdness...24 hours a day, each of the Free shows would normally be only broadcast in the mornings. Now you can hear morning-style radio any time of the day. My favorite: The Chick.
4) Free FM has created something different that wasn't on the air before. It might sound a little like Howard Stern but it's not...it's just different. The real test will be to see what it sounds like 6 or 10 months later, when it is no longer new and heavily-scruntinized. Will it relax more? Get more or less bawdy? Will Roth Radio or any of the new shows create enough ratings and advertising results?
But, for now, Free is off to a good start...much better than the long, slow death of KRock of 2005 as Howard was walking off to space.
A negative: the website is actually too graphic/flash-heavy, bogging down your computer even with fast micoprocessors and high-speed broadband. Can't imagine you'd see much at all if you tried it with dial-up...which still is more than 50% of internet users nationally.
Funny side story: For an example of how the Internet can confuse new branding opportunities, try looking for www.free923fm.com. If you were a New Yorker, you'd think this would be the website for the new radio station. Actually, it's not. The webaddress gets forwarded to "www.douce100.com" selling website items and addresses to Howard Stern. Oooops!!
In reality, the proper webaddress is www.923freefm.
--Chris Kennedy
web site
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, January 12, 2006,
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The High Cost of Email Interruptions
E-mail and cellphones help us multitask, but they also drive us to distraction.
How much of your day has been wasted doing email today?
A huge media trend "under the radar" is the widespread misuse of email. Sure, it's important. It's addictive. It makes us feel connected and on-top-of-things. It gives the impression "we're on it" and "we're getting the job done". In fact, it often generates a high cost on productivity simply because it interrupts so much.
This week's Time magazine has a terrific article on the impact today's electronic gadgetry has on our ability to focus on tasks effectively. Everyone multi-tasks to get the job done. But to many, the reliance on emails can drive multi-taskers to distraction, wasting time and money...and, more importantly, the ability to stay on the right task and focus.
If you are a typical emailing American, you may be spending 2 hours a day sorting through, reading, filing, writing and sending emails every work day. That's 2 hours a day that formerly might have been spent doing other tasks, such as thinking, planning, prioritizing or simply doing expected job assignments and functions. Chance are your job description doesn't list email communications (including the interruptions they create) among your job's responsibilities. But you respond to your email anyway. What's the cost on business productivity?
Measuring just workers classified as "knowledge workers" (those who handle information, making them the busiest of emailers at work), the Time article reports Basex -- an information-technology research firm in New York City -- found in a study of 1,000 officeworkers from top managers on down that interruptions now consume an average of 2.1 hours a day, or 28% of the workday. The two hours of lost productivity included not only unimportant interruptions and distractions but also the recovery time associated with getting back on task, according to their report titled "The Cost of Not Paying Attention". Their calculated workplace interruption cost for the U.S. economy? $588 billion a year.
The stress you are feeling everyday after a long day may be due to one thing: how much you let your email control you instead of maintaining priority control over your email. A simple decision of staying on task till the task is completed may help you reduce stress loads and increase job performance.
--Chris Kennedy
full Time article
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, January 11, 2006,
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Closing In On One BILLION iTunes Music Store Downloads....And That's Not All...
14 million new iPods were sold over the holidays (3 to my immediate family alone). So far, iTunes counts over 850 million song downloads. At their combined sales rate, Apple should hit the 1 BILLION song download mark by sometime this spring. Who will get credited with THAT historic purchase?
Adding to that news (iPods are selling 3 times faster now than there were a year ago and it's expected to keep getting hotter), it was also announced Apple Computers has begun siphoning customers from the Windows camp. After years of hovering around 3 percent, Apple last year cracked 4 percent of the U.S. PC market. And that was done before the release of the brand-new iMacs and Powerbooks powered by the ultrafast Intel double microprocessors which are 3 times faster than any other PC chip.
The result?
Apple shares leapt to an all-time high on Wednesday, boosted by its decision to unveil 6 months earlier than expected its first two machines with Intel's Core Duo. Here's the most amazing news, despite the impressive new chip processing performance: Apple said it would not thwart users who would seek to run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system on the machines. With Intel processors inside the new Macs, their owners could run Microsoft Windows and software designed for it at full speed. So, people will get a choice...they can run a Mac with full Windows usage OR with with regular Mac OS X software.
"Now consumers can buy a Mac that is three times faster and for the same price," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight 64 research firm.
Apple shares soared $3.04, or 3.8 percent, to close at a split-adjusted record high of $83.90 on the Nasdaq Stock Market Wednesday. It's increased 10% just in the last month.
full story
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, January 11, 2006,
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Radio: You Just Got iPod Real Estate
It's about time. Radio has now been officially embraced by Apple's iPod. They just announced the "iPod Radio Remote" - which lets users of the Nano, video iPod and fifth-generation iPod listen to FM stations and view station and song information on their screen. You can also use the wired remote to change tracks and adjust the volume when it's in a pocket or backpack.
"Radio" now becomes an option on the main iPod menu. Tuning takes place right there in the color display with the Click Wheel, just as we used to "turn the dial" with classic analog radio. The best part (stations, take note here and encourage your audience to "bookmark your station in your iPod"): iPod users will easily be able to mark a favorite station for quick access later, and switch between favorite stations using either the iPod or the remote.
For those stations using the Radio Data System (RDS) digital display standard (for in the car, etc.), you can even see song title/artist or radio station information right there in the iPod display.
Radio, you suddenly have real estate on the hottest music gadget on the planet. Don't give away iPods without including the Radio component with it!
posted by Unknown @ Tuesday, January 10, 2006,
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Playing it by ear: Howard Stern's Sirius debut
After weeks of test sounds and months of anticipation, a synthetic heartbeat pounded. "Join the revolution" scrolled across the screen followed by 1-888-9-A**HOLE. Farting sounds to the theme from 2001: Space Odyssey played for more than a minute.
Howard Stern's Sirius radio show had hit the satellite airwaves.
After dealing with about 20 minutes of technical glitches that forced him to play music for the first time in years, Stern hit his stride touching on topics from his purported marriage to the war in Iraq.
Though technically uncensored, Stern used little profanity. However, he didn't shy away from X-rated material peppered with bad language, and his staffers frequently cursed. From 6-10 a.m., approximately 172 swear words were counted.
Here's a look at the top news from Monday's opening show:
•After much build-up in the press and on the show, Stern first announced that he had married longtime girlfriend Beth Ostrosky over the holidays. Just five minutes later, he recanted: "No I am not married ... I wanted to see the reaction around the room." He continued: "Beth and I are on a roll. I am in love. She appears to be in love. It's a nice feeling that we get along great. We don't feel that if we got married it would enhance the experience anymore. We don't want to f—- it up."
• Stern paid off the bit he wanted to do before leave Infinity Broadcasting last month (but was denied from doing by management) by introducing the segment called "Revelations," where the staff anonymously reveals deep secrets and listeners and staff try to pair revelations with their confessor. The payoffs come in shows ahead.
•Star Trek star George Takei, a long-time frequent guest for Stern, was announced as the new show announcer.
• Stern attempted to contact David Lee Roth, his replacement on CBS Radio (formerly Infinity), to offer advice...but couldn't get through.
• Stern hosted a 90-minute-plus press conference featuring national and local press.
full USA Today recap story
posted by Unknown @ Monday, January 09, 2006,
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