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While record labels might see mp3s and the downloading of these are the big problem, last fm, pandora and spotify are already busy at making mp3s a thing of the past. Having a big record collection took up shelve space. A big collection of mp3s takes up disk space. And no matter how big your collection is, it will never have everything, and it requires constant maintainance to keep it updated. But with online music services you have all the music in the world wherever and whenever you need it, constantly updated and properly indexed.

In a couple of years, having 60gb of disk space filled up with music will seem just as old school as having 500 cds on a shelve.

Last night I ran into this clip of Jeff Jarvis:

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And it was kind of an eye opener to me. He actually somewhat said some of the same things that I have said before (which could mean that I have a point) but his words just kind of made the whole problem crystal clear to me.

The businesses that are currently struggling are the ones that are desperately trying to keep their media of distribution. Again – distribution is the key word here, because that is the one thing  the internet can do better than any distribution network or channel have been able to before – it gives every single person the ability to chose exactly what he wants, when he wants it and in what form.

As I have previously mentioned Record companies are struggling because they still see themselves as “record distributors” – they have been, and still are, focused on the media of distributing the music. But the actual product that they are selling is not records. It is music, and if people want that as an MP3 or on their cell phone, that shouldn’t really matter. But if you focus all effort on maintaining music on cds because that is what used to make you money, then you will fail miserably.

Newspapers are struggling because they still see themselves as “papers” – they have been, and still are, focused on the media of distributing the news. But the actual product that they are selling is not paper. It is journalism, and if people want that in an RSS feed or on their cell phone, that shouldn’t really matter. But if you focus all effort on maintaining news on paper because that is what used to make you money, then you will fail miserably.

Advertising agencies are struggling because they still see themselves as “advertisers” – they have been, and still are, focused on the media they reach consumers by. But the actual product that they are selling is not advertising. It is telling companies how to best reach their customers, and if people want to be reached on blogs or on twitter, that shouldn’t really matter. But if you focus all effort on maintaining talking to your customers through advertising because that is what used to make you money, then you will fail miserably.

The list is long but you catch the drift.

In fact every single thing the major records labels have done the past 10 years have been focused on one thing: Preserving their CD-sales. Digital Rights Management, changes of copyright law, spreading fake mp3s online, lawsuits against people who download, shutting down sites … everything is aimed at bringing the CD back.
Of course the real problem is that nobody wants CDs anymore. Not because you can get music for free online, but because downloading an mp3 is more convenient!
And when you realise that convenience is the number one reason people download their music instead of buying it on a cd, then it is very clear why all the things the record labels do in order to maintain their CD-sales are failing.
Digital Rights Management are designed to make it impossible to copy music off a cd, or in case of a legally purchased mp3, make it impossible to copy your mp3 to other devices. In other words DRM is by design an inconvenience.
The changes to copyright law the record labels have lobbied through Congresses and Parliaments all over the world is meant to do exactly the same: Outlaw distribution of music on anything else than a disc.
But none of the things the record labels do, are facing the actual problem at hand: If you listen to your music on your laptop at home and on your iPod when you are out, then it makes very little sense to travel to a store in order to buy your music on a piece of plastic.
It all comes down to very basic business knowledge: It is very hard to sell people stuff if you have a lesser product than the competition.
Record labels have ample opportunity to offer music fans a product that is far superior to what pirates can offer on peer2peer. They just have to forget about making money on distributing CDs (I wrote about that here some time ago)

Anyways … that whole rant came from a little experience I had recently. I wanted to show a friend a video of the inmates of a correctional facility in the Philippines dancing to Soulja Boy. And what do I see?

“This video was muted and deleted after getting 7M+ due to copyright issues with WMG. It can’t be put up unless i swap the audio. Sorry guys … i’ll add a link to another site later to view the original video and audio” See the edited version here:

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This made me absolutely furious. (And it is not because I am a big Soulja Boy fan).
Let me break down for you why this is both outrageous, stupid and disrespectful!

• First of all it is outrageous because Soulja Boy started on youtube. He was an online phenomenon before Warner Music ever heard of him.
  Check out video of how Soulja Boy started here (it is excerpt from a presentation presented at the Library of Congress by Michael Wesch – the entire presentation can be seen here)
• Secondly it is stupid not using the channel that already loves your artist. 7 million people watched these inmates dancing to the song without any marketingdollars being spent. Furthermore (as the original poster of the youtube clip also write) the clip won’t go away because you get it removed from youtube, it just moves somewhere else. But you just pissed off the community that created your artist for you.
• Thirdly is it disrespectful towards the online communtiy. He had a huge fanbase and hype that was in part created by this very video of the inmates dancing – before they even signed him! So in reality WMG got all the hype, fans and viral marketing they could ever dream of for free. Created by people on youtube. And then after you sign him, you go back to that community and say “hey, you can’t use that music – we own that!”.

Record labels! You need to wake up very soon. Before the artists realise that they dont need you either.

Found this site that has some pretty good quotes.

Obama on the other hand is very articulate, seem genuine and comes through as a person that wants to change the world. Biden is a little more old school, but compared to Palin he is just in another league.

But the most important difference – from my point of view – is that McCain and Palin seem focused on winning the election, no matter how. So their campain are mainly about just that – bashing Obama and telling everyone how dangerous he is. Very little they say are about what exactly it is they want to do if they get elected.

Obama (and Biden) on the other hand seem like he don’t really give a hoot about the election or the presidency itself, but is totally focused on what he will do to make a better society (and world) if he gets elected.

I sure hope you Americans vote for Obama.

This little app lets you select when you dont want your mac to start saving power og screensaving. That is all it does but man it is nice to have. Caffeine to the rescue

Arstechnia.com

Downloadsquad.com

Lockergnome.com

And Vanity Fair even had seven advertising professionals give their view on the campaign

Now it seems like they have decided to stop the Seinfeld commercials because of the bad responses.

Yes. I said “it seems” because I believe this has been the plan all along.

I am willing to bet that this massive negative reaction, and all the people saying “i told you MS are old and out of touch” is EXACTLY what Microsoft and Crispin+Porter have been aiming at all the time.

One of the hardest things in advertising is getting people to care about what you tell them. But now they have the full attention of everybody – Windows and Mac users alike.

First they have affirmed the old myth about Microsoft being older and less fun than Mac while getting an amazing amount of attention. And now they open up the second part of the campaign showing people that in fact Microsoft is not Jerry Springer and Bill Gates trying to “get in touch with ordinary people” – in fact PCs are used by all kinds of smart, trendy and young people and thus are very much in touch with everything.
It will be interesting to see what happens on this.

A lot of it is mostly just fun or amazing to look at, but some artists manage to really make you think. One of my absolute favorites is Banksy.

Go check out his New Orleans feature here

Check them here:

Part 1. Google Maps and Street View:

Part 2. Google Moon:

Part 3. Google My Maps:

Part 4. Google SMS Search:

Part 5. Google Mobile:

I think this goes to show that a video explaining a somewhat complex service or feature do not have to be boring or technical. The production cost on these videos can’t have been high, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that after watching these four videos I bet even my mom could explain what all four five google services do.

One of the things he made that I relly like are these glasses that are either permanently half empty (filled with air) or permanently half full (filled with caster resin).

I don’t know if you can actually buy them, but i sure hope so.