Friday, December 31, 2004
Music = Interaction
Okay, here's another idea for value add.
Fans usually love learning about the artists. Part of "the system" needs to be artist information. Artist blogs, phones to create photo blogs for the more popular artists.... discussion boards for artists....
Since it will be grass roots, the artists will love being able to hear from the fans....
oh man, that's an exciting idea... maybe that's what will make this whole thing work.
Fans usually love learning about the artists. Part of "the system" needs to be artist information. Artist blogs, phones to create photo blogs for the more popular artists.... discussion boards for artists....
Since it will be grass roots, the artists will love being able to hear from the fans....
oh man, that's an exciting idea... maybe that's what will make this whole thing work.
Reward the Talent
That's the key... reward the talent... and penalize the untalented.... or just reward them less.
Music = The Internet
Ok, so here's what's rolling around in my head about this music stuff.
The politics of failure have failed. Or... The old method to music distribution was necessary for the following reasons
1) Music was expensive to create
2) Music was expensive to market
3) Music was expensive to distribute.
There are 2 things that have caused those three main reasons to disappear. Home studios are getting cheaper and cheaper, and The Internet.
The internet makes marketing and distribution easy and cheap.
Home studios make music production easy and cheap.
But here's the kicker.
Music is still hard.
So, my solution is built around the idea that I can handle distribution and marketing through the internet, and the artist can handle production in most cases. (2 bands I know have produced CDs on their own, using commodity hardware in the last couple years).
The problem I'm hoping to solve (before the world at large becomes aware of it) is finding new music. I go down to the local music store, and my biggest problem is knowing what to buy. I listen to the kiosks and I try to find new and interesting music. If I was better about it, I would look online. What if we were able to provide a service that allowed rankings and ratings and music samples. Then when you liked it, you just downloaded it.
That's how I think it could work. For a subscription fee. You get into the service. You get access to all the music, and all the music reviews.
It's like the online music stores, but without all that messy nasty expensive ineffective DRM.
It might not be different enough to differenciate itself from the mainstream online music stores though. Maybe the grassroots is the way to do it though. iTunes seems to be courting from the top down... which makes sense since they can spend the money on it. But maybe a grass-roots effort that appeals to the smaller music scenes could grow up into being the mainstream.
It's a crazy idea. And I think it would be a matter of execusion. It's not the idea that revolutionary necessarily, just the details.
I should get busy and throw together a prototype. Perhaps Joel Hartse would be interested in brain-storming with me. He's talked about starting a music label before. Grass roots could do it.
The politics of failure have failed. Or... The old method to music distribution was necessary for the following reasons
1) Music was expensive to create
2) Music was expensive to market
3) Music was expensive to distribute.
There are 2 things that have caused those three main reasons to disappear. Home studios are getting cheaper and cheaper, and The Internet.
The internet makes marketing and distribution easy and cheap.
Home studios make music production easy and cheap.
But here's the kicker.
Music is still hard.
So, my solution is built around the idea that I can handle distribution and marketing through the internet, and the artist can handle production in most cases. (2 bands I know have produced CDs on their own, using commodity hardware in the last couple years).
The problem I'm hoping to solve (before the world at large becomes aware of it) is finding new music. I go down to the local music store, and my biggest problem is knowing what to buy. I listen to the kiosks and I try to find new and interesting music. If I was better about it, I would look online. What if we were able to provide a service that allowed rankings and ratings and music samples. Then when you liked it, you just downloaded it.
That's how I think it could work. For a subscription fee. You get into the service. You get access to all the music, and all the music reviews.
It's like the online music stores, but without all that messy nasty expensive ineffective DRM.
It might not be different enough to differenciate itself from the mainstream online music stores though. Maybe the grassroots is the way to do it though. iTunes seems to be courting from the top down... which makes sense since they can spend the money on it. But maybe a grass-roots effort that appeals to the smaller music scenes could grow up into being the mainstream.
It's a crazy idea. And I think it would be a matter of execusion. It's not the idea that revolutionary necessarily, just the details.
I should get busy and throw together a prototype. Perhaps Joel Hartse would be interested in brain-storming with me. He's talked about starting a music label before. Grass roots could do it.
Music = Loud
Why is music so loud now-a-days. I pretty much can't go to a show without earplugs. And I always forget the earplugs... so I end up sticking anything in my ears... paper towels, hats, beer....
Am I old now? Isn't complaining about music volume the mark of an old person. My brother-in-law-in-law used to say that having his first BBQ was when he finally knew he was a man... grown up 'n all. I wonder when that happened for me....
More scattered thoughts....
I like web comics.
Web comics are great because the biggest expense associated with them appears to be web hosting. (and supplies, but I suppose those that create web comics would have the equipment no matter what)
Internet distribution is going to change the way the world works. The record industry knows this. That's why they're lobbying so hard to keep their business model intact.
I buy CDs. I like owning the media. I'm probably like most Americans.
Who is the guy who's going to figure out how to make a business model out of un-DRMed (digital rights management) distribution of music? I've spent time thinking about it, but so far all I've come up with is a website that's primary offering is to categorize and rate all the music, and provide hosting to the artists. So you take the place of the record labels by filling the two major rolls the recording industry fill today. 1) Marketing. 2) Distribution.
Maybe the business model needs to be like google adwords.... artist royalties per download.... that model has problems as well though. In order to remove the DRM enticement you have to make money for the artist and middle-man no matter how many copies of the song are traded. Subscription fees to access the ranking/recommendation system is one area that seems like it's ripe for money.
In the future of music distribution, the hard part is going to be finding the music you're interested in. As music production costs come down, and distribution costs come down, the hard part will be finding good music.
The problem is getting the artist money in that model.... maybe it needs to look something like this.
1) Artists are paid to get their music into "the system".
2) Artist retains all copyrights and royalties to the music. (they call pull their music off "the system", They can also sign deals with other distributors)
3) Artists are paid bonuses for the "activity" their music generates. (activity could be high reviews, or inbound links. "The system" would need some good spam filtering if possible to avoid abuse)
4) Users have access to any piece of music in "the system"
5) "The system" will track ratings and recommendations to provide value to discerning users looking for new music.
6) Users may be requires to paid for bandwidth they consume from "the system" (priamarily to offset bandwidth costs)
So... who wants to make "the system" with me?
Here's what I like about
1) Artists get paid
2) Artists could get paid more for better/more popular music
3) Nobody cares about DRM or expensive lawsuites.
4) Artists get paid
Here's what I haven't figured out yet
1) Can the recommendation/ratings be valuable enough for people to pay for them.
2) Will people pay for the bandwidth they use? (if not, then this could fall about as bandwidth costs soar through the roof)
3) Is somebody going to steal my idea and make this before I do.
4) Will artists find this model compelling.
Maybe it's just the wine talking...
Am I old now? Isn't complaining about music volume the mark of an old person. My brother-in-law-in-law used to say that having his first BBQ was when he finally knew he was a man... grown up 'n all. I wonder when that happened for me....
More scattered thoughts....
I like web comics.
Web comics are great because the biggest expense associated with them appears to be web hosting. (and supplies, but I suppose those that create web comics would have the equipment no matter what)
Internet distribution is going to change the way the world works. The record industry knows this. That's why they're lobbying so hard to keep their business model intact.
I buy CDs. I like owning the media. I'm probably like most Americans.
Who is the guy who's going to figure out how to make a business model out of un-DRMed (digital rights management) distribution of music? I've spent time thinking about it, but so far all I've come up with is a website that's primary offering is to categorize and rate all the music, and provide hosting to the artists. So you take the place of the record labels by filling the two major rolls the recording industry fill today. 1) Marketing. 2) Distribution.
Maybe the business model needs to be like google adwords.... artist royalties per download.... that model has problems as well though. In order to remove the DRM enticement you have to make money for the artist and middle-man no matter how many copies of the song are traded. Subscription fees to access the ranking/recommendation system is one area that seems like it's ripe for money.
In the future of music distribution, the hard part is going to be finding the music you're interested in. As music production costs come down, and distribution costs come down, the hard part will be finding good music.
The problem is getting the artist money in that model.... maybe it needs to look something like this.
1) Artists are paid to get their music into "the system".
2) Artist retains all copyrights and royalties to the music. (they call pull their music off "the system", They can also sign deals with other distributors)
3) Artists are paid bonuses for the "activity" their music generates. (activity could be high reviews, or inbound links. "The system" would need some good spam filtering if possible to avoid abuse)
4) Users have access to any piece of music in "the system"
5) "The system" will track ratings and recommendations to provide value to discerning users looking for new music.
6) Users may be requires to paid for bandwidth they consume from "the system" (priamarily to offset bandwidth costs)
So... who wants to make "the system" with me?
Here's what I like about
1) Artists get paid
2) Artists could get paid more for better/more popular music
3) Nobody cares about DRM or expensive lawsuites.
4) Artists get paid
Here's what I haven't figured out yet
1) Can the recommendation/ratings be valuable enough for people to pay for them.
2) Will people pay for the bandwidth they use? (if not, then this could fall about as bandwidth costs soar through the roof)
3) Is somebody going to steal my idea and make this before I do.
4) Will artists find this model compelling.
Maybe it's just the wine talking...
Blog Style
I'm beginning to hate this orange style. I wish I could put the time into creating my own. My latest project at work has got me about 10x better at CSS.
It's the anti-conformist in me that rebels against this tyle the most. I mean, there are probably hunderds or thousands of blogs that could be using this style. How unoriginal of me.
It's the anti-conformist in me that rebels against this tyle the most. I mean, there are probably hunderds or thousands of blogs that could be using this style. How unoriginal of me.
Miscellaneous 'n stuff
Yes I am totally blogging this, I says to Gwen through this text entry area.
wikky wikky waaaaahhhhhh goes ths turntable sound.
Shawn, the guy I just met is sitting on the coffee table drumming on his leg.
The living room is hopping with pre-new year activity. Good times, good wine, and good times... oh, I alreay said that.
I hereby title this "Miscellaneous 'n stuff". I'm feeling scattered and blogging some stuff will make me feel better.
I need to get my act together and send out some links to my blog. But who would find this stuff interesting. My two main topics are church stuff and technology. Most of the folks I know from church aren't technogeeks, and most of the technogeeks I know are.... umm interested in church. Maybe they are good candidates. And maybe the church folks would find the technology stuff interesting. I wish blogger supported categories.
Somebody was just talking about cells dying off... I wonder what they're talking about...
wikky wikky waaaaahhhhhh goes ths turntable sound.
Shawn, the guy I just met is sitting on the coffee table drumming on his leg.
The living room is hopping with pre-new year activity. Good times, good wine, and good times... oh, I alreay said that.
I hereby title this "Miscellaneous 'n stuff". I'm feeling scattered and blogging some stuff will make me feel better.
I need to get my act together and send out some links to my blog. But who would find this stuff interesting. My two main topics are church stuff and technology. Most of the folks I know from church aren't technogeeks, and most of the technogeeks I know are.... umm interested in church. Maybe they are good candidates. And maybe the church folks would find the technology stuff interesting. I wish blogger supported categories.
Somebody was just talking about cells dying off... I wonder what they're talking about...
COTA music CD
Spent some time last night working with Lacey Brown on the cd project for Church of te Apostles
I'm very anxious to hear how the music is going to sound once it comes back from mixing/mastering.
We have a very cool community of artists and musicians here at apostles.
I'm sitting in the The living room on New years even listening to some good music and generally having a grand old time.
Living room is the daytime operation for the close kin of apostles church Artwerks It's a tea-bar and venue. Albiet a small venue.
I'm very anxious to hear how the music is going to sound once it comes back from mixing/mastering.
We have a very cool community of artists and musicians here at apostles.
I'm sitting in the The living room on New years even listening to some good music and generally having a grand old time.
Living room is the daytime operation for the close kin of apostles church Artwerks It's a tea-bar and venue. Albiet a small venue.
It's A Hoax! Fictitious POPULAR MECHANICS 1954 Home Computer Prediction
It's A Hoax! Fictitious POPULAR MECHANICS 1954 Home Computer Prediction
Snopes take on the Hoax
I think this is a fascinating phenomenon. I've seen this particular hoax rise from a fark photoshop competition to become one of the most popular hoaxes this year.
The creator of this "hoax" didn't publish it to be a "hoax". It was simply part of a photoshopping competition, but I think it's risen so quickly because of an odd quirk of our Modern culture. It's the same reason we don't respect our elders anymore.
We think our elders are stupid.
Snopes take on the Hoax
I think this is a fascinating phenomenon. I've seen this particular hoax rise from a fark photoshop competition to become one of the most popular hoaxes this year.
The creator of this "hoax" didn't publish it to be a "hoax". It was simply part of a photoshopping competition, but I think it's risen so quickly because of an odd quirk of our Modern culture. It's the same reason we don't respect our elders anymore.
We think our elders are stupid.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
tecosystems: Crazy like a Firefox?
tecosystems: Crazy like a Firefox?
Indeed, it just might buy the PR breathing space needed to allow the IE team to do what it seems they have do - tear IE apart and start fresh.
Just what the browser market needs... another company attempting to rewrite it's product from the ground up (*cough* netscape). Does that mean we'll have to wait 2 years before we see version 8 of IE (well if the next version is bundled in longhorn they might as well... they've got the time) ;-)
Maybe that's how things work in the browser market.
Netscape chooses to rewrite their browser.
Firefox is born (eventually)
Microsoft decides to rewrite IE
Open Source IE is born (eventually)
Mozilla decides to rewrite Firefox
FirePanda is born.....
Indeed, it just might buy the PR breathing space needed to allow the IE team to do what it seems they have do - tear IE apart and start fresh.
Just what the browser market needs... another company attempting to rewrite it's product from the ground up (*cough* netscape). Does that mean we'll have to wait 2 years before we see version 8 of IE (well if the next version is bundled in longhorn they might as well... they've got the time) ;-)
Maybe that's how things work in the browser market.
Netscape chooses to rewrite their browser.
Firefox is born (eventually)
Microsoft decides to rewrite IE
Open Source IE is born (eventually)
Mozilla decides to rewrite Firefox
FirePanda is born.....
Friday, December 10, 2004
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
The Tiki Room
The Tiki Room
Gwen pointed me to this page and said I should read it, and that's good enough for me.
Gwen pointed me to this page and said I should read it, and that's good enough for me.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Monday, November 29, 2004
Usable GUI Design: A Quick Guide
Usable GUI Design: A Quick Guide
This is a good collection of UI design principles targeted at open source deveopers... but I bet they also apply to closed source developers that are doing UI design as well.
This is a good collection of UI design principles targeted at open source deveopers... but I bet they also apply to closed source developers that are doing UI design as well.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
MASSIVE, et al.
Gwen Owen
The Mrs. has started her own blog. Since blogger doesn't support categories this makes sense to me. It would be cool if we could post to the same blog, but we talk about such different things, without categories it's tough.
The Mrs. has started her own blog. Since blogger doesn't support categories this makes sense to me. It would be cool if we could post to the same blog, but we talk about such different things, without categories it's tough.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Doc Searls
Shawn is under the impression that Doc Searls works in our building.
Linux Journal is up on the 5th floor (of which he is a contributor) and we just had a UPS guy come in here asking about where the Linux Journal offices were cause he had a package for Doc Searls.
Inconclusive yes, but I'm trying to convince Shawn to go upstairs and ask them if he works here.
Linux Journal is up on the 5th floor (of which he is a contributor) and we just had a UPS guy come in here asking about where the Linux Journal offices were cause he had a package for Doc Searls.
Inconclusive yes, but I'm trying to convince Shawn to go upstairs and ask them if he works here.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
How to read blogs
This is a post for those who are reading my blog and would like to do so more effectively.
It is possible for you to visit this web site daily, or every other day, or weekly, and pick up the latesting postings that I've made. This unfortunately doesn't scale as well as some new beautiful technology called RSS. RSS is a format used to publish the contents of a website (laymans terms here). This site has an RSS feed which publishes the title and contents of every post I make. This is the link rss feed
On my PC I use an open source piece of software called RSS Bandit to "subscribe" to feeds published by certain websites. This lets me go about my daily business and when RSS bandit detects there is a new posting it let me know. I can then go through and quickly see all the new posts that have arrived since the last time I looked. This way I can subscribe to many many blogs, and read them in a relatively short amount of time. It's much more efficient than navigating to each website to see if there has been a new posting since the last time I looked.
For those on the mac you might want to check out News Fire. I haven't tried it yet, but it's free, so it doesn't hurt to check it out.
More details:
RSS feeds are actually specially formatted XML documents that RSS readers will periodically poll to see if there is new content listed in the XML document. My site puts the entire content of the post in the XML document, so you should never have to visit this page to view what I've posted. Just check your RSS Reader to see what the latest crazy stuff I've said is.
It is possible for you to visit this web site daily, or every other day, or weekly, and pick up the latesting postings that I've made. This unfortunately doesn't scale as well as some new beautiful technology called RSS. RSS is a format used to publish the contents of a website (laymans terms here). This site has an RSS feed which publishes the title and contents of every post I make. This is the link rss feed
On my PC I use an open source piece of software called RSS Bandit to "subscribe" to feeds published by certain websites. This lets me go about my daily business and when RSS bandit detects there is a new posting it let me know. I can then go through and quickly see all the new posts that have arrived since the last time I looked. This way I can subscribe to many many blogs, and read them in a relatively short amount of time. It's much more efficient than navigating to each website to see if there has been a new posting since the last time I looked.
For those on the mac you might want to check out News Fire. I haven't tried it yet, but it's free, so it doesn't hurt to check it out.
More details:
RSS feeds are actually specially formatted XML documents that RSS readers will periodically poll to see if there is new content listed in the XML document. My site puts the entire content of the post in the XML document, so you should never have to visit this page to view what I've posted. Just check your RSS Reader to see what the latest crazy stuff I've said is.
Time to say it
I have a lot to say today. I guess not so much today in general, as that I have a lot more to say than I have time to say it. Work and life have both been really busy. It's kind of nice to be forced to sit in one place and write down some ideas. I've been having trouble getting my thoughts written down lately. These last few posts have been stream of conciousness, no edit, type posts, and it feels pretty good to just write some things down. Kind of like I'm emptying out my head.
Up next: A primer on how to read this blog. I plan on sending out some links to my blog and I think a good way to start off would be a little primer on how I read blogs and why I think that method is effective.
Up next: A primer on how to read this blog. I plan on sending out some links to my blog and I think a good way to start off would be a little primer on how I read blogs and why I think that method is effective.
MSN Bombs & Rumors
MSN Bombs & Rumors
I thought this was amusing. Google is "more evil than satan", and Microsoft is an "evil corporation".
Blogs are a wonderful thing for Microsoft. It lets the developers and project managers working on a project respond directly to rumors and questions. Very very good for a company that has been an "evil faceless giant" for years.
I thought this was amusing. Google is "more evil than satan", and Microsoft is an "evil corporation".
Blogs are a wonderful thing for Microsoft. It lets the developers and project managers working on a project respond directly to rumors and questions. Very very good for a company that has been an "evil faceless giant" for years.
More on the ReplayPC
So I'm really excited about this replay PC thing. I think my next step is to drop a 250 gig hard drive in the computer, and perhaps get a new case. My old case is very big and heavy and noisy. I'm hoping to use this case to get the noise down to about 40db or so. Which reminds me, I should probably get an SPL meter one of these days.
Gwen and I bought the 40 gig model replay tv, and the reality is, it's not worth it to upgrade to the higher models. They charge you an extra 100 bucks for what is basically 40 gigs more storage. I can build a 250 gig hard drive for about 150 bucks right now, which is a much better gig/dollar ratio. I just have to do a little work to get the replaypc setup.
DVArchive supports running scheduled tasks. So currently I have it setup to pull the shows I watch the least off of the replay and put them on the PC. That way they aren't taking up room on the replay. The limiting factor is going to be transfer speed though. You can only pull things off at about 1x. So I guess I'm limited to recording 12 hours of tv a day. ;-)
It's nice to have that extra storage and not worry about the replay automatically deleting shows to make room for more. Plus I might be able to start recording things in high quality which might make better use of our 37" plasma tv. Although it's still going into the replay over composite cables, which has gotta be the bottleneck at the moment. I want an HDTV comcast cable box simply because it supports outputs better than composite video. At least then I could do some side by side trials to see if it actually gives me better quality video.
Here's to hoping that HDTV DVRs come down in price, and aren't heavily DRM encumbered (yeah right).
Which is another topic for another day. I've done some very fun things with the replaytv, all of which I imagine would fall under fair use. However, the powers that be would like to stop me from doing these things... with the broadcast flags and all that other BS. :-(
Gwen and I bought the 40 gig model replay tv, and the reality is, it's not worth it to upgrade to the higher models. They charge you an extra 100 bucks for what is basically 40 gigs more storage. I can build a 250 gig hard drive for about 150 bucks right now, which is a much better gig/dollar ratio. I just have to do a little work to get the replaypc setup.
DVArchive supports running scheduled tasks. So currently I have it setup to pull the shows I watch the least off of the replay and put them on the PC. That way they aren't taking up room on the replay. The limiting factor is going to be transfer speed though. You can only pull things off at about 1x. So I guess I'm limited to recording 12 hours of tv a day. ;-)
It's nice to have that extra storage and not worry about the replay automatically deleting shows to make room for more. Plus I might be able to start recording things in high quality which might make better use of our 37" plasma tv. Although it's still going into the replay over composite cables, which has gotta be the bottleneck at the moment. I want an HDTV comcast cable box simply because it supports outputs better than composite video. At least then I could do some side by side trials to see if it actually gives me better quality video.
Here's to hoping that HDTV DVRs come down in price, and aren't heavily DRM encumbered (yeah right).
Which is another topic for another day. I've done some very fun things with the replaytv, all of which I imagine would fall under fair use. However, the powers that be would like to stop me from doing these things... with the broadcast flags and all that other BS. :-(
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