not just blowing smoke
Via BoingBoing:
Yes, Malcolm Gladwell has a blog. Hair, 1 foot, 4 inches wide (hehe).
Author of Blink and The Tipping Point is blogging. Here is one of his talks. It is one of the most downloaded talks at IT Conversations. Here is his blog: http://gladwell.typepad.com
Photo remix by me.
Hearing a buzz around an artist and searching for MP3s on P2P services, having a band ask to be your friend on MySpace, and now a new service called Podbop (see the TechCrunch review here) that aggregates MP3s of bands playing in your area soon, and includes them as a podcast feed all have something in common. I would like to call this audition marketing of music. Auditioning, just like in the old music business model when a band auditioned for a label to be signed to or for a venue in which to play. This time, it is directly to a prospective fan.
An artist is auditioning themselves to me to be included as a fan. How do they do this? Well I have to hear them, and they need to make is so dead f-ing easy for me to discover their music. And it better be relevant to my taste. Either I tell a system my taste and I get instant results, or I leave a note somewhere on a system and then someone discovers my taste and auditions to me.
Going all the way back to the old Napster days, all the music fans knew that this new method to discover new music (via search) or in an even easer was was the preferred method, and you could never go back. You could hear about an artists, and without buying the CD, listen to it to find out if you like it. If you did, you might buy the music and go to the shows. The big record companies could not be bothered with this disruption, so it went ignored at first.
DRM prohibits discovery of new music in the audition method. It is as if the commercial terrestrial FM radio is as much of a commercial for the music they play as it is for the commercial for whatever the stations’ ad customer are trying to sell, and we are tuning them out just the same because they lack relevance to us in the Long Tail sense.
If you list a band that you like on your MySpace profile, other bands that identify with that band will send you a friend request, and ultimately they want you to hear their music. They are auditioning for my attention. This is not spam, it relevant and contextual. And the longer the Long Tail gets, the higher the chance of relevancy, the better the experience for the artist and the fan.
What relevance are weekly music newspapers now that Podbop has launched? Really, you can read about music all you want, but where does that get you? We all know that you really have to hear it. Podbop aggregates and delivers MP3s of bands playing in your area to you as a podcast, and then you can listen on your iPod in your spare time. Once again, the audition music model in action. I can now judge a band by the way they sounds and the way the music makes me feel, and I can do it with such ease. This is easer than P2p, and it is sponsored by the labels. I no longer have to judge a band by the name alone if I have not heard them, which I often do if a name and description is all I ever see. The music is relevant because it is bands that will play locally. What is the ROI for the band? I go to the show if I like them enough. We all know that recorded music is free, and an artist has to make their money by playing live shows. And it is such a better experience for the fans and the artists if only dedicated fans (even new ones that just discovered the band via Podbop) come to the shows. If I don’t like them I wouldn’t have bothered with them anyway, so it is not as if a sale was lost. The conversion rate is well worth it; the cost of auditioning to converting someone to a fan (aka pitching to selling). Per individual audition, there is no heavy effort on either side.
I would imagine that Podbop has thought about creating a filter for the feeds they provide once the site has gained critical mass, such as only downloading one track per artist, or filtering out music styles I do not like, or only including specify styles. This is will provide an even more increased relevance, better user experience, and higher efficiency. If music is to flow like water, Podbop is a pretty good pipe. Help contribute to the Podbop artist, label, and event database.
Update 3/9/06
Came across this: Why the Music Industry is (Really) Broken Part 1 and Part 2. A much deeper look into what I am getting at.
Audible.com rolled out a service called Wordcast near the end of last year. This was a service that allowed podcasters to have a verifiable way to count how many people are listening, and then publish the results to any potential advertisers as verifiable stats. The service was not well received by the podcasting community since it charges $0.03 per listener to find out if they listened. It look like some podcasters are using it. Here is a list of features. Wordcast will both insert commercials for you but limit the distribution with DRM? Seems pretty backwards. I guess you do not have to have both of these features. As a matter of fact, it would be dumb if you did. Hmm, it seems Rocketboom did not need a service like this when they auctioned off commercial spots on Ebay for $40,000. But for the average podcaster, maybe this is not attainable. All you need is a big enough buzz in the “podosphere” to get paid what you are worth to feature a commercial.
Audible also has an affiliate program. Why haven’t they tried to “mashup” the affiliate program with Wordcast? You would think that podcast listeners are the perfect market for audio books. It may be because some podcasters are creating a conversation around that products or services they are trying to sell. Back in May, PodcastingNews.com wondered if podcasting was a threat to Audible.com. I even commented that just because a new free format comes along that it would not displace a paid service that much because the cost implies value. Well, over the last year, podcasting has raised that bar for on demand audio content. Podcasting has completely outpaced Audible.com. From 2003 to 2004, I was purchasing a new audio book every month. My last purchase was in June 2005, four moths after I discovered podcasting, and at a time when awareness of podcasting was skyrocketing. This is around the time Apple released iTunes 4,9 that featured podcasting downloading and Apple’s own podcast directory.
Just as Google as spoiled us with instant search results, I think podcasting as spoiled us with quick, free, and easy audio content. If I see a book I want to buy, I always check Audible.com to see if it is offered in that format. But now I have a choice I did not have in the past. I can sit through 2 to 6 hours of audio from an audio book, or I can look for a podcast on the same subject, listen to 30 to 60 minuet bite-sized pieces, and then wait eagerly for the next episode. Of course, I do recognize the value in the audio book, it is just longer and more of a time commitment than I am used to now.
Next, I would like to point out The Future of Music Book blog and podcast. They have the their book available as a regular book, and as an audio book here at Audible.com. However, they are also releasing each chapter of the audio book as a free podcast from their main site. Are they cannibalizing sales? Maybe. So far they have realized 5 chapters and an intro. The point is that I eagerly await each new chapter as a podcast along with all of the other podcasts I listen to. What if audible gave you the option to receive on chapter of a book at a time, and at whatever pace you wanted? This way, I could have a easy way to index each chapter (which is done arbitrarily on some of the audio books I own), and have the ability to absorb each chapter. Could this get past the refusal to commit to 6 hours of on and off interrupted audio book listening I have? Am I alone on this?
Another way Audible.com as been outpaced is that is does not seem to have a rich affiliate API (if you are an Audible.com affiliate you want to tell me I am wrong, please do so). Amazon and iTunes music store’s flexible API and affiliate systems are just great. This is one of the many features that help them stand above the competition (although the iTMS API is more of a hack since it is not well documented by Apple). Now Audible.com does have an affiliate program here, but how rich is it in comparison to the Amazon affiliate program? It looks pretty Web 1.0 to me.
Audible does allow reviews, and does feature a suggestion engine, “if you like that then you’ll like this” feature, and does feature gifting. You can also subscribe to the periodical content as a podcast. Very cool, a step in the right direction.
But what about sharing a list of my purchased audio books and sharing my wishlist? This is not a feature on Audible as it is with Amazon. And how about a GoogleBook Search style of search? Import the text of all of your books into a database, make it searchable, and then make the results link to the audio book profiles. How about a friends social networking that Netflix features? How about offering a discount on a physical paper book and audio book when I (if I could) purchase both together? How about a weekly review of audio books you release in a podcast format as regular MP3s (not their dumb format), similar to the iTunes New Music Tuesday podcast? How about auto subscribing me to the authors podcast or blog if they have one? How about blog trackback links in the review section? And please, make the site load faster.
About a year ago that had a contest where if you got a friend to subscribe to Audible you could win a cruise. I e-mailed them and said, “why not have a way for me to suggest a particular title to a friend, and build that into the site as part of the contest?” The reply was not memorable.
So, in January 2005, ADBL stock was at $30. Now it is just under $10. Come on Audible.com, I have given you plenty of great ideas. I know you want to wow me. The customers’ experience expectation has been raised. Do some headhunting for API developers at Amazon or something.
Update 3/26/06
Amazon has owned 5% of Audible since 2000, so this should be a no-brainer.
Update 1/31/08
Amazon buys Audible.
Via blogsicle.net via New York Times, automatically personalized playlist music streaming site Pandora.com is now compatible with a hardware streaming device, the Squeezebox.
In my opinion, this makes Sirius and XM home tuners/service obsolete. No need to mount an antenna on your roof pointing in a specific direction. No need to sit through commercials or songs you do not like (there were no commercials in the beta). The sound quality of Pandora is better. No need to pay $13 a month. When Pandora was in private beta over the summer, I tried it, and I think they said it was $35 for an entire year. $13 x 12 months is around $160 a year. Yea for disruptive business plans!
Of course the only (an I mean only, as in just 1) advantage satellite radio has over streaming radio is that satellite radio is portable.
So I can get streaming radio from Pandora on the Squeezbox. If I can get any video podcast delivered to my TiVo, I’ll be in content 2.0 heaven!
San Francisco radio station 106.9 Free FM is podcasting the Tom Leykis Show! Read more here.
From 91.7 KLSX, LA (seems to be updated more frequently) at http://www.971freefm.com/pages/podcast/117.rss
Update: 2/24/09:
97.1 Free FM is no longer a talk station, no longer carrying Tom’s show. So the fate of Tom’s show is up in the air. Tom does not have his own feed at his own site that contain these podcasts, they originate from 971freefm.com and will most likely no be updated, so check his MySpace blog for updates. He has RSS feed icons all over the place on his site, but there are no true XML feeds with MP3 attachments on the site, they are all streams (bad, Tom). If you really need to here some Tom right now, subscriber in iTunes here to download the last 16 episodes.
Update 6/2006:
Tom Leykis is funny and all but I think you will find much more useful information at the Pickup Podcast.
Marshall Kirkpatrick is now a contributor at http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com. He is posting several times a day to this blog which in the past couple of months was getting aroung 1 new post a week. And he has some interesting things to say about web 2.0 and the social web. His other blog is at http://marshallk.com.
Update 6/2006
Marshall now writes for TechCrunch!
Right now you can pick almost any fairly-known to well-known artist, and it is safe to assume that you can purchase a music file by that artist on any digital download music service such as iTunes, Yahoo Music, Napster, Rhapsody, or MSN Music (but probably not SonyConnect/SonyMusic because they are just lame, they have their dumb proprietary formats, and their site will not work with Safari or Firefox). Granted that when you pick a vendor, you are locked into that device thanks to DRM, but you have a choice starting out. For the most part, none of the labels have exclusivity with any particular service.
Well, now the digital video landscape is shaping up. Apple has partnerships with NBC, ABC, and Disney/Pixar, Google is getting cozy with CBS, and Amazon is talking with Image Entertainment, Ardustry Home Entertainment, and First Look Entertainment.
Steve Jobs is now the single largest shareholder of Disney/Pixar (and sits on their board of directors) and of course is the head guy at Apple. What if he were to keep Disney/Pixar from making deals with any other video distribution service other than Apple? Could Google and Amazon follow and make exclusivity contracts with their content partners as well? If this is a case, consumers will really get screwed. And you thought this was bad. Not only can you not play the video on any device you want, but if you want specific content (a specific TV show or movie), you will have only one channel to buy it from, and a limited number of portable/home theater devices to play it on.
Are there any anti-trust or anticompetitive laws in place to keep this from happening? I don’t know. But lets hope it does not come down to this. Steve Jobs is a brilliant man. Remember Steve, it is all about the great user experience. You can make your customers even bigger fans, but you make your non-customers even bigger enemies.
David touches on three not so obvious reasons Ruby on Rails is great on IT Conversations from OSCON 2005.
I went to the Meetup.com Ruby on Rails meetup tonight in Santa Monica. I met Nate, Daren and Alex. Besides RoR we talked about DRM, new marketing, and open source. I hope more people come to the next one. We are all sort of novices in RoR, but that was ok. We had plenty to talk about. Darren has a company called koders.com which is a search engine that predicts your code and suggests it through an Eclipse plug-in, Nate is a photographer for B & G Photography and writes some code to help his company automatically name photo files, and Alex is seeking employment as a marketer, specializing in new marketing. 
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