Today, for the pure hell of it I documented a part of my walk to get lunch.
Why did I do this? I have no idea. It seemed interesting at the time.
Plus [...]]]> I like Walks.
Who doesn’t?
I walk a lot but not enough or as much as I want.

Today, for the pure hell of it I documented a part of my walk to get lunch.
Why did I do this? I have no idea. It seemed interesting at the time.
Plus I love me some Flickr.

You can check it out here.

But I digress.

Five years ago, WordPress was a new and cutting edge stack for desktop publishers and content owners. Five years ago, I was stuck dead in the mud of having my own websites built from my own [...]]]> Part of what makes today’s Internet so much fun is the tools and toys.

But I digress.

Five years ago, WordPress was a new and cutting edge stack for desktop publishers and content owners. Five years ago, I was stuck dead in the mud of having my own websites built from my own efforts. Code, design, everything. And then, I got busy. And as I got busier I had less patience for it and stopped caring so much about doing the work myself.

What I wanted was someone to make my life easier for me and provide me with tools that were flexible and easy to use to publish things. My first foray into giving in was letting go of this website as something truly custom by trying WordPress. Quickly thereafter I celebrated this decision because it made my life easy. And so, once I gave in with this website I did so in kind with my other passion, photography. Part of that decision was using the tools that were gaining popularity around photo sharing, management and more, namely Flickr. As a result, Flickr has turned into one my favorite tools. Ever. I have most of my photos from the last 8 years or so on Flickr and feel very safe about that.

With my growing reliance on Flickr and the tools they provide me for my iPhone and desktop to manage my photos I no longer need a custom website to share my photos. (Queue the cheesy shmaltzy organ music) And so with THAT, it’s time, DUE time for me to say goodbye to an old friend, www.globalpause.org which up until this very article I am writing, has stood as my keeper of photographic flame. Unfortunately for it, but fortunate for me, I no longer need it.

Looking through the website though, I feel a twinge of sadness….a twinge of pride and a lot of “wow, I remember that day” kinds of feelings. I used to be hell bent on redesigning the site every year or so and then of course lost that passion. And since that passion waned, so too did my updates to the website and my interest in maintaining it.

So, goodbye old friend.
Thanks for the last 8 years.
It was fun, real fun.
You did your job very well.

And…….scene.

But, many labels (mostly indie) have walked away from the service crying foul of the difficult to understand [...]]]> Spotify opened it’s business in America this year, primarily to major applause and kudos. I’ve been particularly interested in the service and have been using it actively for 3-4 months now. Quite frankly, I love it.

But, many labels (mostly indie) have walked away from the service crying foul of the difficult to understand revenue breakdown and royalty mechanisms that pay artists. Even with that large number of labels walking and most recently one major global act (they who refer to themselves as Coldplay) refusing to allow its new album to be surfaced through Spotify, the service is claiming to have millions of songs available for streaming. More importantly, they have (allegedly) millions of users who are PAYING to stream their music as well.

Today comes Spotify’s most vocal response to this chatter (full article available here). Most interesting is the numbers they allude to in the piece. Specifically:

“It would take more than 100 years to listen to Spotify’s catalogue of around 15 million songs – one of the world’s biggest music libraries – and to which we add more than 20,000 new tracks every day. We have agreements with the four major labels and many thousands of smaller indie labels, and the overwhelming majority of our label partners are thrilled with the revenues we’re returning to them. We believe we offer the simplest, easiest and fairest music service in the world, and millions of our users across 12 countries would agree with us.”

I’m not sure how this particular issue will resolve itself but it speaks to a larger issue, “royalty democratization”. With the glut of service offerings (Rdio, Grooveshark, Rhapsody, Pandora, etc) and the one behemoth glaring at them (iTunes), the industry needs to step in and be the “bigger man” in the discussion and force a singular royalty mechanism. And if that can’t happen, then the industry has to at least take on a larger role in assisting at crafting one.

The space of digital music is getting more and more crowded with quality service offerings (btw, I LOVE Spotify so far) and each one of them has defined it’s own method of royalty distribution. Not one of these services is doing the same thing which understandably causes a great deal of confusion with labels and bands alike.

Hopefully in 2012, someone will step forward to provide a solution that is equitable and acceptable to all concerned. Of course, I am willing to concede that what I am asking for might not be possible either.

With all of the Occupy Wall Street movements popping up, constant negative news about joblessness, our degrading economy, the lack of equality of the middle class let alone all Americans in sharing some semblance [...]]]> As a rule, generally speaking, I stray from politics on my website. Always have. And, I’m not breaking that rule today….much.

With all of the Occupy Wall Street movements popping up, constant negative news about joblessness, our degrading economy, the lack of equality of the middle class let alone all Americans in sharing some semblance of equity in the country, etc…I offer a perspective delivered in just the right way. From none other than George Carlin. How I miss him. I hope he gets reincarnated as the next president.

Enjoy. Or don’t. I don’t care really. But I do love what he has to say.

One can now assume that there will be a litany of new [...]]]> I’m seemingly obsessed with Spotify, I know. Today comes news that the service is adding a new service to it’s API library. This update will surface the 15 million (+) songs on the service through the API library to iOS developers.

One can now assume that there will be a litany of new apps for iPhone and iPad that incorporate some aspect of the Spotify library. Possibly music trivia games? Or perhaps some kind of mashup between Shamzam and Spotify? Oooh that would be cool. Imagine it. You’re at a party, hearing a song you can’t remember…Shazam recognizes it for you and Spotify then adds it to a playlist for you automagically! Neat.

Interestingly enough though, is an aspect to this that is not being discussed. Disapproval from the music industry. Spotify is already receiving a ton of heat for it’s alleged inconsistent royalty payments to artists and labels. Small labels in particular have not been very happy (including Century Media to name one) with the service and have been pulling content from it’s databases. Spotify have also been very quick to defend themselves at each turn where disapproval meets them.

I’m hoping the business comes to terms with offended labels as I feel the service has a solid offering with a truly compelling iPhone (and Android) app to port the service from computer to mobile device. The music space needs services like Spotify (and Pandora, Grooveshark, Rhapsody, et all) to provide options to consumers with a compelling offering. Opening up it’s music content to iOS developers is an interesting development in the evolution of truly digital music service offerings. Let’s just hope they can continue to innovate without ruffling feathers.

Seriously, love him or hate him, you cannot deny the man is unique and totally, 100% undeniably INSANE.

Who else would [...]]]> I haven’t talked too much about drummers or music in a while. But I came across this video teaser for Motley Crue’s own Tommy Lee and his crazy new spin (literally) on drum solos.

Seriously, love him or hate him, you cannot deny the man is unique and totally, 100% undeniably INSANE.

Who else would think of creating a mini roller coaster mixed with multi-media mixed with rocking drumming chops to create an experience that I KNOW I haven’t seen and doubtful you have either.

Visual proof:

Too many people focus on his exploits as a “rock star”. And, though the evidence is CERTAINLY out there (the “video” with Pam Anderson, the arrests, the public brawl with Kid Rock, et all), not enough conversation is had or focused on his abilities as a world class rock drummer.

Many of his peers will speak to that effect as well as top line rock producers that have worked with him in studio. He’s got solid chops and most importantly a solid groove. I’ve always liked him more as a player than a character. But this new solo experience? It’s the PERFECT marriage of his skills in both areas.

But, what I have found WAY more compelling are all of the articles [...]]]> So I posted recently about being jazzed about Spotify, and, I was totally geeked to try it out. I’ve been using it now for about 2 weeks and feel like I have a good sense about the product and it’s features.

But, what I have found WAY more compelling are all of the articles anad conjecture that have made it’s way online regarding the service over the past 2-4 weeks. Some people have even claimed Spotify to be an “iTunes killer” which I find just completely ludicrous.

Then there are people that claim Spotify and Netflix are the ultimate bait/switch experiences as they are both heavily fortified by content providers (true) such as Hollywood for Netflix and the music industry for Spotify (also true) respectively.

To me, both of these points of view miss the boat entirely. Let’s take this notion of Spotify as iTunes killer.

The issue at hand is not a new model coming to replace another. If we go back in time, iTunes was more than a new model for the business of music. It was a new EXPERIENCE and catered to a shifting demand from music consumers. Folks wanted their music digital and Apple merely provided that means to do so wrapped in a compelling experience and more importantly, managed and served in AWESOME software (iTunes) and hardware to play it in (the iPod). All Apple cared about then and now, is selling devices. They don’t give 2 sh**s about being in the business of music. They care about selling devices and iOS. PERIOD.

So, taking that point of view, Spotify is merely a new OPTION for music consumers. For the folks that love iTunes, they can still BUY their music, share it across iOS powered devices and synch them to multiple computers at home/work and stream that content throughout the house via a local wireless network (preferably Apple’s of course). For Spotify fans (and other services like Pandora/Rdio/GrooveShark/Rhapsody/etc), users can STREAM endless content for a flat fee monthly and sync that content in the form of playlists to their mobile device of choice via the TOTALLY awesome Spotify app.

The conversation should be about OPTIONS for the consumer, not about “killers” of other services. In the end, this is what we as consumers want; options. I LOVE having the choice of services as options to facilitate my music listening and consumption habits. I can see myself using both a streaming service like Spotify side by side to the vendor/service I trust to purchase from (iTunes). It also makes sense to me. At the gym, I LOVE listening to my Spotify playlists through the Spotify iPhone app while I pound out a couple miles on the treadmill. At home, I like to fire up my iTunes app and stream my music throughout the house that I paid for. It works, and it makes sense to use both. To me.

Of course, there’s the future to consider too that Apple is marching too. With iCloud looming out there in the future, we can expect Apple to provide a new layer on TOP of iTunes that provides both streaming and purchase letting users store their purchases in Apple’s cloud service and stream from the same place. Now, when THAT happens, this notion of killers MIGHT be a conversation to have. Might.

Until then, I like the options we have and I think the many services out there will all mature (Pandora is set to launch and entirely new experience soon as well) to a point where options will be the conversation. Not killers.

And so, as someone that worked in the music business for 15 years and has been [...]]]> I’ve been following the chatter around Spotify for a while now. Rumblings have been on the web for a few months now. Lots of interesting chatter too regarding this so called “perfect business model for music”.

And so, as someone that worked in the music business for 15 years and has been a lifelong musician, I have been fascinated to get a chance to play with the service. So, now it is launching in the US and I will be messing with it this weekend. What I can tell thus far, is the creators of Spotify have married all of the feature requests that iTunes has missed, challenges with building a model that pays artists what they are worth, and provides a royalty reporting layer that can satisfy the business of music.

Hell, even Sean Parker, Mr. Napster himself seems relatively geeked about the service.

Artists from around the globe have been chiming in from Trent Reznor to Brittany Spears (no comment) championing the service as the second coming of greatness for music fans everywhere. So, with that, I’ll dive in and see what it’s about. With excitement.

According to the recap on Mashable (http://goo.gl/IMo9d), the output of the conference was quite clear: “As [...]]]> Last week at Cannes Lion Festival, some of the world’s top brands and technology partners met to discuss how creativity is changing the advertising world and also to select campaigns that pushed new boundaries aside in their efforts.

According to the recap on Mashable (http://goo.gl/IMo9d), the output of the conference was quite clear: “As the web increasingly empowers us to choose and share the media we care about, brands genuinely commit to creating content and experiences that thrive in our on-demand culture“.

Specific in this conversation though, and realtive to agencies today, is the 4th point in the recap: “The rise of the creative technologist”.

In the recap is a great video highlighting points that are germane to our day to day, “As advertising becomes increasingly digital, agencies are looking to bring in more developer talent to help them create new, original products.”

The video:

Full quote: “Advertisers are ready to build. As advertising becomes increasingly digital, agencies are looking to bring in more developer talent to help them create new, original products. Jeff Benjamin, VP Interactive Creative Director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, spoke about this transition, calling for “invention” in advertising and noting that “inventors are modern storytellers.” The same day, Toronto holding company MDC Partners announced a new $1 million competition for investment in technology-driven projects. Mark Holden, Global Strategy and Planning Director of PHD, noted his future predictions for the advertising industry, that new product development will be essential for the survival of media agencies as media buying becomes increasingly commoditized.”

I take from this that while social media, paid media and good copy are important to advertising in the digital future, developing technology to DRIVE the message is as important as any other tactic on the project SOW.

This is a strong message for agencies to pay attention to as an Integrated Marketing Agency supporting both the sale of products as much as creating the opportunities for sales. What are your thoughts on this?