Content

Content in its shift to become digital

Digital Music Forum :Summary
More than 400 industry professionals gathered for Digital Media Wire’s 5th annual Digital Music Forum at The French Institute in New York City on Wednesday. Discussion topics recalled the creation of the original Napster, examined the current business and legal environment, and looked ahead optimistically towards the future growth of subscription and mobile services.
In a widely anticipated keynote conversation, Napster founder Shawn Fanning described how early peer-to-peer file trading networks fundamentally changed consumer expectations for the breadth of music content available to them. Speaking about his new venture, Snocap, Fanning outlined his plans to create a central database for rights clearance while introducing a digital identification and acoustic fingerprinting architecture for file trading systems. Fanning expressed his hope that the creation of a trusted third party to manage rights administration will create an environment in which the interests of peer-to-peer companies, retailers, and content owners will not be in conflict.
Technology and rights management remained in the spotlight during a panel discussion about the forthcoming MGM v. Grokster case that will go before the Supreme Court on March 29th. At issue, according to Digital Media Association Executive Director Jonathan Potter, is whether a software developer can be held liable for the actions of its users. Martin Elgison, a partner at Alston & Bird, advocated separate assessments of legality for a company’s business conduct and the associated technology. Jim Delong, senior fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, agreed that the courts need to examine a company’s underlying business model and question whether it depends on copyright infringement.
Speaking to technology’s current effects on artist management, Nettwerk Productions CEO Terry McBride conveyed that digitization currently represents a mixed opportunity for his clients like Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan and Barenaked Ladies. On the one hand, McBride reported, Barenaked Ladies sold more than 900,000 live tracks in the past year and archives 150 concerts for sale online. On the other, he voiced concern that his artists’ catalog sales are being negatively affected by peer-to-peer file trading. On the whole, McBride was bullish on technology’s long-term potential, both for management companies seeking to provide for all their clients’ needs, as well as for artists pursuing long term careers.
In an afternoon keynote, Yahoo Music Vice President and General Manager David Goldberg highlighted the opportunities created by consumers’ desires to discover and control their music in an on-demand environment. Goldberg predicted the continued emergence of subscription-based digital music services, as well as the use of customization and community functionality to drive traffic and consumer engagement. According to Goldberg, playlists will become the “killer app of music” for users confronted with more than a million tracks at their fingertips and services will need to focus on delivering appropriate recommendations to create the ultimate listening experience.
MSN Marketplaces General Manager Mike Conte addressed Microsoft’s digital music effort which initially launched last October as an a-la-carte download service. According to Conte, Microsoft is principally involved with music to drive traffic and advertisers to MSN.com while contributing to the company’s strategy to build an overall ecosystem for digital media. While emphasizing that Microsoft’s plans were still in their early stages, Conte echoed Goldberg in emphasizing the importance of building community to engage customers and alluded to future digital music integration with messaging, blogging and playlist capabilities. Conte also agreed with predictions for the future growth of subscription services, citing company research indicating that the younger the consumer, the lower the likelihood that they desire to own their music.
During morning and afternoon panels, participants painted a positive future for the mobile music marketplace. Sony BMG Senior Vice President Thomas Gewecke noted that mobile services continue to be the dominant digital revenue stream outside the United States. Gewecke further predicted that mobile devices will become the dominant method for initial music purchases, even if the content is eventually consumed on another platform. Sprint General Manager of Wireless Music and Personalization Nancy Beaton reported that music represents an important way for the company to boost its current average monthly bill of $62. Beaton also cited successful ringtone launches with artists like Beyonce and 50 Cent, with both reaching platinum sales levels.
Thanks to Wesley Radez (wradez @ digitalmusicnews.com) over at Digital Music News for this report.
4 March, 2005
3G Networks Still Missing Compelling Content – Pt 1
After a shaky start, the 3G bandwagon is finally starting to roll with 20 million 3G phones sold last year and shedloads of new funky, feature-packed phones on the way.
As more people buy into the 3G lifestyle, the demand for quality content rises, with network owners scrambling to produce competition-crushing downloads. Broadcast magazine has a thorough report by Peter Keighron into this subject (reg.req.), which finds that there still something missing in the content area.
“Content is not as compelling as it ought to be,” says BBC Broadcast head of business development Tanya Price, “it doesn’t seem to be translating with the splash it ought to be.”
What the business is crying out for is new ideas. Fun ideas. Fab ideas. In fact, any idea will do, just so long as it keeps people reaching for the ‘download now’ key.
“We’re very much at the foothills regarding content on mobiles,” says Price. “Now we’re going to have to be a bit more experimental and different. The network owners are looking for something that pushes the boundaries a bit more and gives them more of a reason to develop content off the back of existing [brands] or to think about commissioning new content.”
In a land noted for its creative industries, it may seem unusual that 3G phones aren’t buzzing with creative ideas and cutting edge content, but it seems that the problem lies with the industry itself.
The mobile industry is run by the phone manufacturers and, most importantly, the big five UK network owners – 3, Orange, O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
These are the fellas who commission mobile content and they’ve got two aims in mind: drive up sales of their phones and get more subscriptions to their network.
Right now, they’re not interested in arty-farty experimental stuff, out-there comedy or ‘genre-challenging’ downloads: they want straight down-the-line popular content that will shift phones and entice new subscribers by the bucketload.
And if that wasn’t limiting enough for Hoxton-fin toting ‘creatives’ (Nathan Barley anyone?), the network controllers all want content exclusive to their own network.
As a result, commissioning editors have to come up with stuff that not only pleases the marketing department, but, fits in with the company’s rigid marketing and product strategy.
The end result is a predictable but unit-shifting fare of footie, ringtones, horoscopes, weather and the like.
But amongst all the corporate drudge, there are signs that some innovation is coming to the 3G platform, with the network owners showing an interest in something that utilizes the potential of the platform.
We’ll be exploring the developments in the next part of this feature.
4 March, 2005
Diffusion Group Report: Media Servers, Digital Media Adapters Reborn In Converged Platforms
Evidence is beginning to amass that two of the most hyped products in the early digital home market will be lucky if they manage to reach niche market status in the next few years.
Not so long ago, people were getting very excited by media servers and digital media adapters. They were the future. And then, err, people kinda forgot about them.
So what happened?
According to new research from The Diffusion Group, it seems that despite the products being well-hyped, widely discussed and blessed with encouraging early forecasts from a number of research firms, the devices have suffered from extremely limited demand.
Moreover, the report concludes that demand for both these technologies will remain limited and that what unique functionality these solutions do offer will be quickly integrated into other platforms.
“It is not that this type of functionality is undesirable,” said Michael Greeson, President of The Diffusion Group. “The premise of networking stored digital media content to multiple devices in the home is valid, but consumers aren’t looking for separate devices to enable this experience.
Instead, the applications and benefits enabled by these two platforms will be increasingly integrated into devices with which consumers are more familiar – such as DVD players that are now evolving into DVD-recorders or set-top boxes with built-in hard-drives and integrated networking.”
“While media servers were originally positioned to be the hub of the digital home, demand for these solutions has never gotten off the ground.”
Although Windows Media Center PCs have proved more popular, Greeson asserts that this is simply down to normal PC replacement cycles rather than consumers finding anything particularly compelling about the concept.
Other media server platforms have been much less successful, although the push of high-end digital set-top boxes by cable and satellite video service providers offers a case for optimism.
“However,” says Greeson, “this is a push model, where the equipment is subsidised by the service provider in order to generate digital media service revenue, as opposed to a ‘pull’ model where consumers are so enamoured with the device that they run to the retail store to purchase one.”
When it comes to digital media adapters or DMAs, the Diffusion Group paints a gloomy picture.
Introduced a couple of years ago, the idea was to make it easy to share content from the PC to other media devices in the home, such as a TV or stereo using a DMA. But their techie-tastic appeal failed to win over punters.
“Not long ago, there were ten to fifteen companies offering DMAs,” said Gary Sasaki, a contributing analyst with The Diffusion Group and President of DIGDIA, a media consultancy.
“At this year’s CES, DMAs were hard to find. Part of the reason for the premature demise of DMAs is that their functionality appeals mostly to early-adopter or technology-savvy buyers. Additionally, and somewhat similar to media servers, the functionality of DMAs is slowly getting integrated into other more familiar product categories.”
The report suggests that we’ve got an industry in fast transition, with early, stand-alone technologies being picked clean for their useful ideas and then incorporated into more consumer-friendly converged products.
Diffusion Group
3 March, 2005
Blinkx, Movielink Provide Dialogue Searchable Movies
A deal between a search technology company and an online film distributor could be a further step towards the next Big Thing on the Web: search engines that let you find movies and TV episodes by what is said within them – and then buy or rent them.
The tie-up between Santa Monica-based Movielink and Blinkx from London/San Francisco, has got some excited analysts declaring it to be a key development in bringing together television and movies with the world of Internet search. We’re inclined to agree and have touched on Blinkx TV search before.
The two companies plan to announce that Movielink, a downloading service owned by five major studios, will make its pictures available through the Blinkx search engine.
There’s no cash involved in this deal, as the synergetic partnership will give Movielink additional exposure and Blinkx access to movies that other search engines lack.
Blinkx uses speech-recognition and other technologies (licensed from Autonomy) to make a searchable index of trailers for the movie service’s nearly 1,000 titles.
So far, it has permission from Movielink to index only film trailers, but the company hopes to expand the index to include dialogue from the movies themselves allowing users to type in key phrases to find the required film and immediately download it for a set fee.
So an amnesiac Monty Python fan wanting a side-splitting night of sacrilegious entertainment could simply type in “he’s a naughty boy!” into the search engine and be offered “The Life of Brian” to immediately buy or rent and then download it to his media centre.
Not surprisingly, there’s a veritable minefield of technical, legal and DRM issues to be overcome before legal downloading of films and TV shows hits the mainstream, but Movielink’s willingness to work with Blinkx may open the door to Web big boys like Google, Yahoo and AOL etc.
“It is the next frontier,” said Allen Weiner, an analyst with research firm Gartner, “What we’ve been working with until now, is one-dimensional content on the Web that is advertiser supported. The next level, which will really change the economics of the Web, is searching and indexing premium content that does not live on the Web.”
“It’s kind of a small deal, but I think it will be a forerunner to the types of deals that you’ll see,” said Yair Landau, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp. and one of Movielink’s owners. “We’ve been waiting for Yahoo, MSN and Google to get serious about video distribution.”
The big search engines are already starting to index video content: Yahoo’s Video Search program already crawls the Internet looking for video files and Google has been recording thousands of hours of programming and indexing the closed-captioning text.
With TV networks starting to distribute more of their productions on the Web and the growth of broadband-enabled, home media PCs there’s clearly a growing demand for consumers to be able to access and download content legally.
This partnership between Blinkx and Movielink appears to be the first tentative steps into what may turn out to be a stampede of Web-based movie distribution deals.
Film Download, Search Firms to Link Services (LA Times)
Movielink
Blinkx
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Gartner Inc
Yahoo Video Search
1 March, 2005
Sony Ericsson W800: Walkman Phone Launched
When Sony start slapping the world famous Walkman mobile music brand on their products, you know that they mean business, and their new Sony Ericsson W800 has been proudly trumpeted as the first mobile phone to combine a high-quality digital music player and a 2 Megapixel camera.
The W800 will come equipped with a two-megapixel camera, GPRS data access and a digital music player compatible with MP3 and AAC music file formats. As is the case with several comparable music phones, song playback can be paused as users take phone calls.
The music player is operated with a Direct Music button that plays, pauses and stops tracks. Conveniently, the player and phone can be used independently of each other, so that users can still playback tunes when on a flight, for example.
Some music fans may be dismayed to see Sony resolutely sticking to their proprietary Memory Stick Duo, with the phone being supplied with a 512MB memory card, enough storage for around 150 music tracks, or 10-12 full length CDs.
Pundits expect the initial focus being on consumers shifting their CDs onto the device, with Sony expected to announce the ability for consumers to download tracks from “open standards music services” later in the year.
Steve Walker, Sony Ericsson head of product marketing has described the move to the phone-as-music-player as “a new lifestyle behaviour” (whatever that means) and suggested vendors will have to start finding new ways of describing multimedia mobiles.
Sadly, we’re going to have to wait a while before we can start adjusting our lifestyle behaviour – the release of the Sony Ericsson W800 is not scheduled until the third quarter of 2005
The mobile music market is growing exponentially, with Juniper Research calculating the music download and ring tones market to generate a whopping great US$9.3bn (€7.05bn/£4.8bn) globally by 2009.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the Sony Ericsson W800 is another step in the accelerating convergence between phones and multimedia devices, and we wonder how long it will be before someone brings out an iPod-type device integrated with a phone, video player and high res camera (an ‘iPodPictureVideoPhone, if you will!).
We’d like one just as soon as you’re ready, techies!
Sony Ericsson
1 March, 2005
AIM Sync : AOL Integrates IM Buddy Lists With MS Outlook
America Online has announced plans to enable users of its instant messaging service (AIM) to see when friends and business associates are online, even if they’re not on the contact list.
From today, AIM customers can download a free beta plug-in (called AIM Sync by Intellisync) that will let users of Microsoft Outlook see which of their contacts are online and available to chat by IM.
The program works by scanning a user’s Outlook address book to find friends, colleagues and clients who are AIM users and then offering to add those names to their AIM buddy list.
Inside the Outlook program, the plug-in detects the presence of online AIM contacts, with AOL’s signature running-man icon showing up next to the address fields on e-mail messages and contact lists.
If someone’s available, a single click from within Outlook will launch an AIM session.
The AOL-Intellisync partnership reflects a push by AOL to bring instant messaging to places where users are already (virtually) hanging out, rather than forcing them to communicate directly from AIM’s software.
In January, ComScore Media Metrix says, AIM had 20 million users (nearly 40 million if AOL members are included). Rivals Yahoo Messenger had 19.6 million, and MSN Messenger, 14.9 million.
“This is just the beginning of a broader strategic approach with AIM – making sure our application is available where you are,” says Chamath Palihapitiya, the America Online executive who handles the IM service.
“The web is open … It’s not siloing yourself,” she continued, “AIM is everywhere consumers are. We want to take it to where they are.”
This marks something of a turnaround from the company’s “no freebies” glory days when AOL’s dial-up service reigned supreme and its inflated public equity enabled it to buy up the world’s largest media company, Time Warner.
But with millions of users fleeing to cheaper rivals offering faster cable/telephone connections – and the looming presence of IM-enabled VoIP services like Skype – AOL is hoping to provide its once-proprietary programming and services to free Web sites, including its own AOL.com.
The strategy appears to be aimed at replacing dwindling subscription revenue with online advertising revenue, a sector of the media economy that is expected to rise by more than 20 percent this year.
AOL has also announced a relationship with CareerBuilder.com to bring together recruiters and online job applicants. A prospective employer, who spots a job seeker’s résumé with an AIM address, can instantly send a message to that person in real time.
It’s also getting down with the youth by teaming up with the college-oriented Ruckus Network so students can chat via AIM about music, movies and other digital entertainment. Along with text, users might use AIM to swap musical play lists and video.
And they haven’t forgotten about the corporate world, with AOL announcing a partnership with Thomson Financial to let traders and brokers chat with clients or each other via AIM.
America Online
instant messaging service
AIM Sync by Intellisync
28 February, 2005
Promo Only MPE: DRM Within The Music Industry
Destiny Media Technologies has announced a new version of its proprietary anti-piracy and digital distribution system, Promo Only MPE 1.1, designed to secure electronic music distribution within the music industry.
The new system serves up a host of enhanced features including a new user interface to improve accessibility and ease of use; the ability to download entire albums and samples; improvements to the email management; higher quality previews and multi-label support.
“With the new functionality and multi label support, we can open the system up to other labels,” said Steve Vestergaard, Destiny CEO, “The system is ready for adoption by the entire music industry.”
Promo Only MPE has been developed to help the music industry combat the ongoing issue of piracy and to gain the benefits of digital technology – quicker distribution and reduced costs.
A lot of piracy originates from within the industry and, not surprisingly, those ‘Promo only, not for resale’ stickers haven’t exactly put a stop to it. DJ shedding their promo tracks isn’t new. Anyone who’s pawed through the racks in second hand music stores can attest to that.
In an industry clearly riddled with mistrust, Promo Only MPE uses a sophisticated security system that ‘locks down’ the distributed content and allows labels to track who is accessing their property.
Each song is uniquely encrypted so that only those with the MPE program can access it. In addition, an ID code specific to each individual user is applied when a song is requested; meaning that only registered users can access the song and, once installed, the ID cannot be moved to unauthorised computers.
Promo Only seems well chuffed with that fact that the MPE system has surpassed 1,500 registered users signed-on to the service – industry leader Universal Music Group (UMG) has been using the service since its launch and has distributed over 200 tracks to radio so far and Clear Channel Communications have made the system available to all of its stations across the country.
“The new build was modified with the customers’ ease of use in mind,” gushed Dean Ernst, Director of the MPE project at Promo Only. “The response to version 1.1 has been unprecedented and reflective of the overwhelming number of users signed-on to date.”
Personally, we could think of a few DJs who won’t be too pleased to have to start messing about with DRM every time they’re sent a new release. They might just end up playing the tracks that are easy for them to access.
Destiny Media Technologies
Promo Only MPE 1.1.
25 February, 2005
Jens MP-120: Better Than iPod shuffle?
Jens of Sweden has unveiled its latest cool digital music player which they reckon will give iPod Shuffle a run for its money.
The midnight black, cigarette lighter-sized MP-120 music player can squeeze in 300 tracks (depending on track compression) and a features a USB 2.0 port.
It is available for SEK 1344 including VAT (US$194/£102/€148), which the cheeky Jens claims will undercut the iPod Shuffle by a massive one krona (£0.07/US$0.14/€0.11).
“Steve Jobs claims users prefer to be served random tracks than choose from among hundreds of their own tunes. We don’t agree which is why we offer a player, that besides random tracks, also allows users to see and choose exactly what they want to hear. Given today’s prices I’m convinced we can sell more MP-120 than iPod Shuffle in Sweden, despite Apple’s advertising budget,” says Jens of Sweden chief executive and founder Jens Nylander.
We admit we’re fans of Jens. We used to have a Jens MP-130 which we dearly loved – using it to listen to music, carry data and record interviews with broadcast-quality clarity. Everyone we showed it to was wowed by it and we would in turn enthuse about it at every opportunity. How many products can you say that about?
Then some low-life nicked it when we were at the AtHome conference in Nice at the end of last year. It broke our hearts. If this player is anything like as good as our dear MP-130, it’s going to be a contender.
The iPod shuffle has a fundamental weakness that Apple tried to turn around as a benefit. It has no display. In our experience, when you’re randomly listening to selection of tracks from a large music collection or a collection of podcasts, you want to know the name of the tracks you like and the ones you hate. The MP-120 has a display.
Jens of Sweden’s earlier MP-400 player was offered in seven colours – as well as 24-carat gold – and with the MP-120 model, it is taking customisation one step further by allowing customers to choose their own headphones.
The MP-120 can function as USB file storage memory, and also has an OLED screen and dictaphone.
It supports MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG Vorbis music files, and the built-in lithium battery should give users about 22 hours’ playing time.
While we don’t think Steve Jobs will be losing sleep over this, we think this will have a ready market with those who don’t want to conform to the Apple mentality.
The MP-120 is now available on Jens of Sweden’s Web site.
Jens of Sweden
25 February, 2005
Apple Updates iPod Mini and iPod Photo, Now Direct Camera Upload
Apple has updated its iPod photo line-up with a new slim 30GB model, holding up to 7,500 songs, for just £249 ($475, e360) and a new 60GB model, holding up to 15,000 songs, for £309 ($590, e446)
Designed for content-hungry consumers who can’t bear to be parted from their music and photo libraries, both iPod photo models feature a high-resolution colour screen for displaying photos and (ahem) “enhancing the entire iPod music experience” (we think this translates to having some pictures and album art to look at while you’re playing songs).
Both models hold up to 25,000 digital photos and will feature the ability to import photos from your digital camera via the new iPod Camera Connector for “instant viewing and slide show playback “.
“The new slim 30GB iPod photo at just £249 lets music lovers enjoy their iPod in full colour, including album artwork along with their personal photo library,” enthused Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And now you can import photos from your digital camera directly into iPod photo with the optional iPod Camera Connector.”
We welcome this enhancment, meaning that holiday won’t involve lugging a laptop around just for image downloads. Sadly, the iPod Camera Connector is not built in: it’s an optional extra that will set consumers back £19 ($36, e27.5) – and it isn’t available until March 2005.
Although the iPod remains one of the finest MP3 players on the planet, we’re not convinced that the iPod Photo is quite there yet as a photo wallet.
Unlike some rival units, there’s no built in card reader or Bluetooth support and we haven’t been able to work out if the iPhoto will be able to import – and view – RAW format files, something that would definitely create enthusiasm amongst the photographic cognoscenti. It would appear strange if they didn’t given, the impressive support that Apple’s iPhoto software has for the RAW format.
The truth is that the iPod photo seems to be far better as a versatile MP3 player and photo presentation unit rather than something for serious photographers to use for direct-to-camera storage.
However, the aggressive price cuts (rumoured to be in response to rumoured poor sales of the original iPod photo) will no doubt be warmly welcomed by consumers and ratchet up the fierce competition with main rivals iRiver and Creative Technology.
The 4GB and 6GB models of iPod mini for Mac or Windows are available worldwide immediately for a suggested retail price of £139 ($265, €200) and £169 ($322, €244) respectively, in a choice of silver, pink, blue or green.
“At this breakthrough price point, and with more than twice the battery life, the new iPod mini should appeal to even more music lovers,” said Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs.
Both iPod mini models feature increased battery life of up to 18 hours, USB charging and the same lightweight design.
All these new iPod models work with the Apple iTunes software and store, and are compatible with either Mac OS or Windows based PC, connecting via firewire or USB 2.0.
Apple
iPod photo
iRiver
Creative Technology.
24 February, 2005
Google Movie Search Born
A handy Google search feature went live this week that lets users find showtimes at nearby movie theatres using either their computer or mobile phones and other wireless devices that use short-message services.
The service is available from any Google search box or via SMS.
So a movie hungry visitor to New York could enter their zip code in this search phrase “movie: 10122” to get a listing of what’s playing and when at theatres in their area. If they’re looking for a specific film, typing in, for example, ‘Vera Drake in 10122′ will provide local listings and show times.
The new feature also provides information such as theatre locations and reviews, and enables users to search for movies by title, plot or genre, sortable by movie or cinema.
Other possible searches can help with recommendations or simply refresh fans’ memories (or settle late night arguments).
A query such as “movie: lick my love pump” would return with “This Is Spinal Tap (1984)”, or searching on “movie: great fights” would provide a list of films featuring lots of fabulous punch-ups. And before you ask, yes, it works for naughty words too.
The search results come with a star rating, calculated on an aggregate of online reviews, and links to critics’ reviews.
“We’ll expect more traffic flow overall in movie names,” said Marissa Mayer, Google’s director of consumer Web products. She said increased inventory will increase bidding. “We’re basically creating a new market for AdWords.”
In addition to film studios, Google expects marketing interest from video and DVD distribution companies such as Netflix, Blockbuster Online and Amazon.com, and from marketers of celebrity wallpaper, mobile ringtones and other such money-spinning merchandise.
This latest service ups the stakes in the ongoing bunfight between Google, Yahoo – and recently MSN search – as they battle to provide the most comprehensive set of Web search tools – and get a slice of fast-growing advertising revenues.
Google
24 February, 2005