JK Wedding Entrance Might Save Chris Brown’s Career

If you listen to groups like the RIAA, they will tell you that people using songs in their videos with express written consent and a high license fee will be the death of music.  RIAA and labels like Universal Music have gone out of their way to police sites like YouTube and block or ban anything using a copyrighted song they can claim to own.

Of course, this sort of behavior actually results in endless negative impacts including pissed off fans and even pissed off artists who actually like to see their music used and shared and recognize the huge potential upside of not behaving like a law-suit junkie.

The most recent proof of this comes thanks to the biggest web meme of the month, the JK Wedding Entrance (below) featuring, without permission, Chris Brown’s song, “Forever.”

Instead of doing what, say, Universal Music does, which is to force YouTube to mute the music track, it appears that Chris Brown and his label, Zomba (a part of Jive Records) has instead embraced the video and created a direct link to the buying of the song on iTunes.

The result?

The wedding video now has a direct link to buy “Forever,” which, despite being released last year, is now in the iTunes top 10. Brown’s own attempt at a viral video, a recently released apology video for the Rihanna “incident” which he calls “inexcusable,” has been viewed more than 2 million times. As BlogPulse shows, July buzz about Brown and “Forever” reach almost as high as blog discussion that occurred around the time of the assault.        LINK

Movie Studios Next to Sue Pirate Bay in Latest Act of Futility

A few months ago, one of the larger and better known sites to index torrent files, the Pirate Bay, was successfully sued by a group of music industry types for all sorts of copyright violations resulting in large fines and possible prison sentences.

Of course, this has done nothing to curb music piracy since the Pirate Bay is only one of literally hundreds of sites providing the EXACT SAME links to potentially infringing torrent-files.  In addition to, oh, I dunno, Google and Bing, some of these sites include Mininova, SumoTorrents, Demonoid, Thunderbytes, IsoHunt and, no kidding, hundreds more.

Now comes word that the movie studios are going after the Pirate Bay:

Columbia Pictures, Disney Enterprises, Universal Studios (NYSE:GE) and 10 others are demanding the site’s operators be fined and prevented from distributing TV-series including “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” and films such as “Batman.”     LINK

Now, a huge percentage of TV piracy is due to FANS of the show living in regions that do not broadcast current episodes.  This piracy is not an act of protest against the show but a major show of love, of a willingness to do whatever it takes to get the latest episode.  You’d think studios would want to figure out how to meet the needs of these super-fans instead of trying to hinder them but that would be far too forward-thinking for this dying Industrial Age model of doing business.

While one might argue that suing the Pirate Bay sends a message to other sites, this same thinking has done nothing to slow the rate of music piracy and force a natural evolution of the industry.  Film and TV is next, whether they like it or not.  In the meantime, they are going to waste millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours trying to shut down the Pirate Bay, after which nothing will have changed but their bank balance.

Free WiFi and Barnes and Noble and Beyond…

Word is that Barnes and Noble is now offering free WiFi.  This is cool simply for the fact that the more business that offer free WiFi, the more pressure will be other businesses to do the same.

Speculation is that the free WiFi in Barnes and Noble has happened in part to allow users of their new, forthcoming eBook reader to download books while in the store.  I wonder if this could threaten the underlying brick-and-mortar sales?  Probably not, at least until a much greater number of people are using an eBook reader.  Right now, I still consider the spotting of a Kindle in the wild as a special occurrence.

I’m surprised the struggling Starbucks hasn’t extended their free WiFi beyond iPhone users and Starbucks cardholders.  This would help to keep them distinguished from competitors like Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonalds.  Actually, I have seen free WiFi offered in a number of McDonalds so the competitive edge might be lost already.

The larger question is whether or not we will ever see the dream of free WiFi anywhere we roam. For a while, there was free WiFi in a number of NYC’s parks and all of Philadelphia was nearly given free WiFi before plans fell apart.  One has to suspect the biggest obstacle to providing free WiFi is the existing internet service providers who do not want to see their core business eroded.

Still, it seems like a strong tide is rolling in and it will not be long before we are all logging on for free, at least for slow-speed connections.

Live Art Happening Now – Mulheres Barbadas Streams Five Day Draw-a-Thon

Mulheres Barbadas are a very cool artistic duo who have just embarked on a five-day drawing marathon:

They’re a few steps beyond the starting line of five long days of live painting at Sao Paulo’s concept furniture store Micasa, where they’ll leave nothing—walls, tables, chairs, refrigerators, even owner Houssein Jarouche’s Mini Cooper—untouched with black marker.       LINK

This would be completely cool all by itself, but what makes this noteworthy for me is that they are live-streaming the entire event on their website.  This is a great example of artists taking advantage of the internet to spread their work and to create a relationship with existing and potential fans.  Just like musicians, artists need true fans to survive and to thrive and this is a great way to get some.

I’ve embedded the stream below for your enjoyment:

The Future is Now, Ep. 2 – This One’s For My Dad (LG GD910 Wristphone)

Yesterday it was digital tattoos and today it’s this ridiculously sci-fi LG GD910 Wristphone.

This isn’t some Dick Tracy walkie-talkie for your wrist.  No, sir.  This wristphone hooks you up with two-way video conferencing.  For my father, who presently does some psychological counseling with patients via Skype, this little taste of the future, now, means that he can do his work while strolling through the park or lounging on the beach.

While not yet a flawless device, I can’t imagine it will take long before it they’ve worked out the kinks.

See for yourself in this somewhat cheesy promo video:

Japan’s Smile Scanners a Classic Misuse of Technology

As pointed out on the Freakonomics Blog:

Japan’s Keihin Express Railway Co. has set up “smile scanners” at 15 of its stations, where railway employees have their smiles assessed by software in the hopes of perfecting a customer-friendly look.       LINK

This is such a classic misuse of technology by a corporation.  The goal of the company is to provide more positive and friendly customer service but their technique of using a “smile scanner” is going to have the opposite effect.  Nobody likes to be forced into happiness and the employees will end up resenting the scanners, their bosses for making them use the scanners and the customers for expecting them to smile.

Instead, a smart company would try to figure out how to make their employees genuinely happy so that they smile because they want to smile.  This would create endless positive outcomes for the company, the employees and the customers.

Sometimes technology can look like it provides a quick fix when, in fact, it is just an illusion.

Kuroshio Sea plus Barcelona Equals Serious Win-Win

One of the big video hits making its way around the interwebs the past week or so is something called “Kuroshio Sea – 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world – (song is Please don’t go by Barcelona)” and it is a gorgeous few minutes:

The video has garnered more than 2,000,000 views, which is great for the filmmaker and the aquarium but it turned out to be even better for the band, Barcelona:

This effect comes because of its perfect synthesis of music and images, making it a proud showcase for the band Barcelona, whose haunting track Please Don’t Go not only scores the video, but dictates its length. And by allowing its use, Barcelona has found itself flooded with new attention.

According to a post on the band’s Myspace blog, “Thanks to this video, and Jon Rawlinson, the director of the video, our album has been pushed back up the iTunes Rock Album charts and is holding strong thanks to all of you who watched the video and then purchased the album.” And in this response video, the band says that people have already begun showing up at concerts because of this piece. (Score one for Chris Anderson’s theory about the power of free.)

There are a couple of very important take-aways here.

First does not appear that Rawlinson asked permission to use the song, yet the band did not start firing out take-down notices or DMCA complaints.  Instead, they have done nothing but support the existence of the video and thank Rawlinson for providing immense amounts of free publicity.

Second, it’s a good thing Barcelona wasn’t signed to Universal Music or their song would have been muted from the video and the band would have gotten absolutely no free publicity.

Yesterday, I was meeting with some fellow “new media” producers.  One of them had come up through the very traditional TV route and commented that the biggest difference he feels working in the emerging digital media universe is the overwhelming degree of support and openness where, in the TV world he had experienced almost exclusively distrust and competitive antagonism.

This is a great demonstration of the new way things work.  Welcome to the Digital Age.

4Chan Versus AT&T Highlights the Perils of the Digital Age

According to a number of sources, AT&T’s DSL internet service is blocking access to the very popular 4Chan forums.

Users of AT&T’s DSL internet access across many states in the US are reporting that they are being blocked from the infamous /b/ message board in what appears to be an act of internet censorship by the phone company. This started today Sunday and no one has yet been able to get any official confirmation out of AT&T as to why. Moot, the founder of 4chan, has confirmed AT&T is filtering/blocking the site.        LINK

Now, aside from the sort of “big question” of why would AT&T block a website in what seems to be a pretty clear violation of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, there is something much more interesting happening.

There is the very real danger, as shown in the snips below, that the 4Chan community will exact some sort of revenge on AT&T.  Not only that, but the general consensus seems to be that, were the global telecommunications giant that is AT&T actually go to battle with 4Chan, the money would be on 4Chan to win handily:

Predictably, the 4chan crowd is already mobilizing both inside and outside of their online community. AT&T didn’t just open a can worms, they dove headfirst into a den of vipers, and this will be very interesting to watch play out.       LINK

Not coming out with a clear and concise explanation just looks bad, and seems to be stirring up 4chan folks to make a statement — something AT&T almost certainly does not want. AT&T may be able to tap your phones, but getting on the wrong side of 4chan seems like a bad, bad idea.     LINK

One wonders if anyone over at AT&T even considered the potential threat of a counter-response from the 4Chan community.  In fact, one has to wonder if any of these corporate giants realize how much the power has shifted to the consumer.  Look at what happened to United Airlines after they refused to fix a broken guitar.  Many are blaming the very popular YouTube video “United Breaks Guitars” for a rather substantial drop in share-price.

Why Jon Stewart is the Most Trusted Name in News

Lots of folks have been pondering how it could be that, according to a recent Time Magazine poll (see above), Jon Stewart is the most trusted newscaster on TV.  Not only that, but this holds true well outside of his presumed bases of NY and LA.

According to Neatorama:

It’s a sad statement that the most trusted name in news is actually a comedian. I’m not sure if it speaks badly about Americans in general or about the state of our news media.       LINK

I’m sure Neatorama isn’t the only site with such a view but it strikes me as completely missing the point.  In fact, I have to wonder if the author of the above statement has every truly watched The Daily Show with any regularity.

The biggest reason people trust Jon Stewart is authenticity.  Stewart is, at heart, a skeptic who just wants everyone to please explain themselves.  He doesn’t have to portray either a fake neutrality like, say Brian Williams, or a hot-headed reactionary like Rush Limbaugh.  Instead, Jon is reasonable.  He is surprisingly centrist.  Most important of all, many viewers clearly believe that the Jon Stewart on the TV is the same Jon Stewart one would meet at a dinner party.

The lesson is that nothing sells like authenticity.  Unfortunately for many, however, authenticity can not be faked or learned.

Digital Tattoo Implants – The Future is Now

The rate at which science fiction is becoming science reality is breathtaking.  The latest example is an invention by Jim Mielke:

The basis of the 2×4-inch “Digital Tattoo Interface” is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone. It´s inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and muscle. Through the same incision, two small tubes on the device are attached to an artery and a vein to allow the blood to flow to a coin-sized blood fuel cell that converts glucose and oxygen to electricity. After blood flows in from the artery to the fuel cell, it flows out again through the vein.        LINK

This is not some pie-in-the-sky concept.  This is a real, working device.  The inventor believes it will be capable of making and displaying video calls on the screen just below the skin.  Sure, there is a distinct creepy factor here, but I think it is nothing compared with the amazing factor.

I literally can’t wait, or imagine, what I will see tomorrow.  Pretty damn cool.