For just a second there is sounded like something vaguely cool coming out of Sony – full-length movies available over your cell phone. Sure, tiny screen but nice to have the option. Except, that as Engadget points out:
“It’s more the prospect of sitting in front of that tiny mobile screen to watch a full-length film without the ability to pause, fast forward or rewind. This is live broadcast folks.”
That’s right. Like HBO or Showtime, movies will just be playing whether or are watching or not. No control for the viewer. Oh, and it will only be available to AT&T customers.
Not that anyone will ever watch.
Karina Longworth has written a really excellent critique of the supposedly “off-the-cuff” web show featuring tween sensation (and, according to South Park, the next victim of our society) Miley Cyrus.
“The most recent episode, in which Miley and Mandy answer questions from their fans, nullifies any pretense that The Miley and Mandy Show is, at this point, “just for fun” or even put together off the clock. We learn in the first few minutes that Mandy, Miley’s “best friend” for two years, is actually her employee, a back-up dancer who is about to make her debut in a girl group put together by Miley’s team, described as “like the Pussycat Dolls meets the Spice Girls, but a little more age appropriate.” Suddenly, it all makes sense: YouTube is the venue through which the back-up dancer can be aligned in the minds of the fans as existing on the same plane as the superstar, thus easing Mandy’s transition from faceless element of Miley’s brand to a moneymaker in her own right.”
That’s just a taste of the her thoughts. I know it is naive to think it could be any other way but it is scary to see that Miley isn’t really bothered by the seamless interweaving of herself and her product. I doubt she even notices it.
Really, maybe it is just an age thing – I remember when I was younger it was generally thought that any actor who went from film to TV was falling but that’s no longer the case. And every rock band in the world is now free to sell their music to the highest brand-bidder with no risk of loss of cool factor.
Maybe being a corporate shill has simply become ok.
Yikes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb_HXgPlgEs&hl=en]
Steve Rubel over on MicroPursuasion is calling for an end to the use of the term “social” media:
“Folks, it’s time for all of us, especially “The Joes,” to give ourselves the self-respect we deserve by calling all of this work “media.” Otherwise, by continuing to propagate the term “social media” we’re just reserving our seat at the kids table for our little cut up pieces of chicken. it’s time to feast on drumsticks like the adults do. Google doesn’t delineate. So why should we?”
One can easily make the same arguement for “New” media (as my only comic strip points out) or “Alternative” media.
The problem is that all media isn’t the same. What we really need to do is evolve our vocabulary so that we can become more specific, not more general. When someone says they work in New Media it just doesn’t mean anything anymore – if it ever did.
Tech-news leader, the NYT is reporting that XBOX is partnering with Hollywood producer/manager Peter Safran (reps P Diddy among others) to create a series of short-form scripted entertainment exclusively for the XBOX:
“In an interview at his office in Los Angeles last week, Mr. Safran said his first round of programs would all be scripted, as opposed to reality shows, and would probably run under 10 minutes. He said he planned initially to focus on genres, like comedy and horror, that appeal to the Xbox 360 audience, which is heavily concentrated from the ages of 14 to 34, and tends to be more male than female. The first shows are expected to be available to viewers by the fall.”
Considering how much time that key demo seems to be on their game systems, and with XBOX already wired for delivery of content, this doesn’t seem like a terrible idea. I am not sure I’m going to be excited about what they eventually make but I like that it opens the door to even more potential content windows.
(via NewTeeVee)
There is a totally interesting (and slightly puzzling) post over on TorrentFreak regarding the recent change of policy by UK’s Virgin Media:
“Virgin Media in the UK has announced that it is working with the music industry to chase down its file-sharing customers and disconnect them from the internet. At the same time, it will offer an enhanced service which will see its customers get free Usenet binaries access, untraceable by the music industry.”
Did you get that second part? You see, all the illegal downloading and file-sharing they are claiming to try to stop can easily be circumvented by taking advantage of the Usenet access. Either the UK government and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) literally have no idea how the internet works or they’re happy to appear to be doing something while allowing piracy to continue unabated – except for the few noobs who miss the Usenet bus.
SAI has some numbers on the users and viewers of the many free live-streaming options that have been popping up and sucking up VC rather rapidly.
Turns out the numbers are quite equaling the investment, yet.
“The biggest site, LiveVideo, had 1.13 million unique viewers in February, according to Nielsen’s VideoCensus. That’s enough to earn it 49th on Nielsen’s list of top video sites — and to beat Sony’s Crackle (nee Grouper). But it drops off dramatically from there.
Second-place streamer uStream, supposedly a Microsoft buyout candidate, ranks 142nd among the top video sites. That puts it between iVillage Network (141st) and one above Atom Films (143rd), in terms of unique viewers of video. And Justintv, the supposedly redhot home of iJustine? Just 82,000 unique viewers, Nielsen says — enough to earn it #369.”
This isn’t especially surprising to anyone who has spent time watching the average live-stream. Like most of the videos on YouTube, it isn’t that interesting. And, unlike the video’s on YouTube, these “broadcasts” never really end.
Sure, there are some exceptions and it is here that we will begin to see some growth. The first issue is figuring out what NEEDS to be live. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Think how few things are actually live on TV.
The news. Morning shows. Sporting events. SNL. That’s about it aside from the rare stunt programming. As the tech gets better and the streams get more clear sports will be a big part of the live-streaming world – look how well CBS did with their live NCAA games. I’ve even heard anecdotal reports of people “broadcasting” sporting events of their own tv, via webcam, to the web for those who can’t get it in their region.
Tags: cbs, ijustine, live, livevideo, ncaa, pop17, snl, streaming, ustream, video, youtube
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2:56 pm | 
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The internet has been all aflutter since first Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and then Jim Griffin of Warner Music discussed the idea of an internet tax.
According to CNet:
“The proposal outlined in the interview Griffin gave Portfolio.com suggested that ISP fees could create a $20 billion pool that would go to artists and copyright holders. Consumers would have the option of paying the fee or submitting themselves to advertising. ”
First of all, the term “submitting themselves to advertising” is a great phrase. Probably more truth in it than intended. As I see it, the big problem with a fee attached to you ISP bill is that it doesn’t account for all time people are accessing the web from something other than their own ISP connect (like I’m doing now as I write this post in a cafe in NYC). This only gets more complicated as municipal wifi rolls out.
In terms of ad-supported music, that works fine when streaming music since ads can simple be placed in the mix, just like radio, but it doesn’t really help when people are downloading songs to listen to on their iPod. I don’t imagine I would put up with pre-roll ads on my songs.
Obviously, the music industry is going through some seismic shifts and ideas like a music tax sound to me like the big guys scrambling for some way to maintain centralized control. Instead, I think more musicians are going to be leaving the big label system and taking part in smaller organizations that are more artist-centric. This will lead to fewer platinum-selling artists, but a huge growth in artists making money playing music.
Sands of Passion is a new(ish) web series from the combined minds of National Banana and Crackle and Tilzy likes that it’s trying to tackle stuff you’re not going to find on TV, they’re not convinced it’s a winner:
“Sands of Passion features over-overacting and scene-punctuating close-ups (it never fails to have characters pull funny faces during those lugubrious zoom-ins), but it’s in the sometimes-intertwining plotlines – a wife discovers, with the help of the intrusive Taliban, her husband is gay; an American doctor observes the strange practices of a hospital run more on the principles of religion than science; the son of that suicide bomb-obsessed father falls in love with a girl whose love interests have all killed themselves in the name of Allah – that the show falls flat.”
I watched a couple of episodes myself a few months ago and can’t say I ever found myself wanting to go back and see how things were going. Even though it was trying to be edgy it failed to be funny.
I wrote some (here, here) about the rising prominence of digital curators and how they are becoming a major force in driving web traffic.
I guess the term came up a bunch at this week’s PSFK conference, enough so that Grant McCracken brought it up in his blog a couple of days ago:
“Having been a curator once, my ears always perk up at the mention of the term I am pleased that the term has taken on new meanings and new currency, that it has escaped the dusty corners of a museum and gallery world. It and me, both. Still, I wonder what this term is now being asked to mean, and why we should now find it now so compelling and fashionable.”
He makes some very interesting points and his perspective as a classic curator is great.
Greatest tech review ever! Pogue could learn a thing or two from this guy:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS_vm6whRaI&hl=en]
(via Defamer)
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