Net

My Soul Is Craving Culture

Lately I have had an over-dose of blogs and media covering the Web, social networks, start-ups and technology. To cure this I have come up with my own prescription:

• Classical Music Podcasts
• Jazz Podcasts
• MP3 Podcasts
• Ideas & Culture Podcasts
• Science Podcasts
• Free University Courses

NPR and watching interesting videos on the free-open source video platform Miro. Offline line reading: Umberto Eco's: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. The only technical/ web related blog I read follow regularly is Lifehacker. While we are on the subject of reading. What are your life changing books?

Free Classical Music Podcasts

• An Intimate Tour Through the Music of Yo-Yo Ma  iTunes  Feed  Web Site
  • Each episode of this podcast delves into the history of his career, and what led him to record each of the tracks of his current release Appassionato.
• Bach Podcast from Magnatune.com  iTunes  Feed  Web Site
  • 60 free minutes of Bach.
• Bach Festival of Philadelphia  Feed  Web Site 
  
  • Live performances of J.S. Bach works performed by various artists for The Bach Festival of Philadelphia.
• Boston Symphony Orchestra Conservatory  iTunes  Feed  Web Site
  • This educational podcast gives you an inside look at the symphony. Currently you will find a two season overview and recordings of Beethoven and Arnold Schoenberg.
• Classical Performance iTunes  Feed  Web Site
  • Classical music performances from WGBH's Studio One in Boston.
• Danmarks Radio - Mozart Symphonies  Feed  Web Site
  • For the celebration of Mozart's 250th anniversary, Denmark radio offered podcasts of nine Mozart symphonies by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Since the web site is in Danish, your best bet is to access these high quality MP3's through the feed.
• Deutsche Welle
  • Beethovenfest iTunes  Feed  Web Site
    
    • Beethoven's most famous symphonies performed by excellent young orchestras and new compositions by award-winning composers.
  • Classical Masterpieces  iTunes  Feed  Web Site
    
    • Six master composers, six symphonies, a star conductor and a leading orchestra are the main ingredients of this remarkable musical feast.
• Gramophone Podcast  Feed  Web Site
  • A monthly window into the world's most authoritative classical music magazine, featuring an overview of the best releases, news, exclusive interviews with leading figures from the music world, and lots of great music.
• NPR Music  iTunes  Feed  Web Site
  
  • Reviews, musician interviews, live recordings from Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and other NPR programs.
• Radio Sweden: Mozart  iTunes  Feed  Web Site
  • Swedish Radio has launched a Mozart Podcast to celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday. They've been podcasting their own recordings from the 1940-1950s of Mozart’s operas.
• The Concert iTunes  Feed  Web Site
  • Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and more from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston.

All free from Open Culture. Have listened to several of them - top quality.


Technorati Tags: Free music, classical music, open culture, podcast, radio

Traditional Media Dead? Not Yet - 10 New Uses For Newspaper

With the advent of citizen journalism, blogging, twitters, youtubers and the overall fragmentation of news, traditional media is trying hard to find new ways or not being irrelevant. Here are 10 new uses for newspaper:

1. Deodorize food containers. Stuff a balled-up piece of newspaper into a lunch box or thermos, seal it, and let sit overnight.
2. Ripen tomatoes. Wrap them individually and leave them out at room temperature.
3. Pack delicate items. Wrap frames and figurines with several pieces of newspaper, then crumple the remaining sections to fill extra space in the box.
4. Wipe away tough streaks on glass. Use newspaper with cleaning fluid to clean mirrors and windows.
5. Preserve antique glass. Some older frames have finishes on the glass that can be damaged by cleaning solutions. Remove smudges by rubbing with newspaper dipped in a solution of one part white vinegar and one part warm water. Let air-dry.
6. Dry shoes. Place crumpled paper in them overnight.
7. Wrap gifts. Use the comics to wrap a child’s birthday gift, or try the wedding announcements for an engagement gift.
8. Create a home for slushy snow boots. During the winter, keep a pile of newspaper near the entryway. When your little snowmen and -women come home, they can toss their winter wear onto the newspaper instead of creating puddles on the floor.
9. Prepare a garden. In the fall, mow a patch of lawn to make room for a dedicated bed. Cover it with four layers of newspaper, then a four-inch layer of shredded leaves or bark mulch. Hose it down. Come spring, the compost blanket will have smothered the grass roots, and the bed will be primed for planting.
10. Keep the refrigerator vegetable drawer dry and free of smells. Line the bottom with newspaper.

Who said that newspapers are dead? The above proves that they can be really useful in daily life. Soon coming : 10 New users for TV and Radio.

The above 10 points were found here but in a totally different context...

Technorati Tags: Lifehacks, Media, New Media, Newspaper, 10 new uses, puppy, TV

Pandora, Last.fm & Maxthon

We just released some great music plugins at Maxthon. One for Pandora and one for Last.fm . Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Last.fm, Maxthon, Pandora, Music, Radio

VC Investments In Chinese Video Sites

ChinaVenture reports that 17 Chinese Online Video sites got $95.5 million in funding since 2004 with an investment peak of $52.7 million in 2006.
Below is a chart illustrating the investments. As you can see WI Harper invested in Radio.cn but missing from the list is Charles River Ventures investment in Wangyou Media in March 2006.

Technorati Tags: Blogcn, Charles River Ventures, China, CRV, Wangyou media

Logitech Buys Slim Devices

Ever since I first stepped into Charles River Ventures office the first time, the little Squeezebox in the recption always caught my attention. The Squeezebox created by Slim Devices was aquired yesterday by Logitech. Guess if my friend Bill Tai sitting next door to me today is happy. He wrote their first check (as a private investor) and has not stopped talking about the little Squeezebox ever since.

The little Squeezebox deliver music into every room of your home, software is based on open-source and can connect to the Internet via WiFi. It comes loaded with thousands of Internet radio station and features Pandora's personalized music service and Rapsody's 2 million song collection. It even streams you music when your computer is off. Very cool and congratulations to Bill for spotting yet another winner.


Technorati Tags: Slim Devices, Squeezebox, Radio, Music, Streaming, CRV, BIll Tai, Logiteh

Podcast: PR in China

China Businesscast has an interesting interview with PR Expert Vanessa Seow of Beijing based Weber Shandwick. Vanessa shares here opinion on what makes the Chinese PR industry different from PR elsewhere.

Listen here or subcsribe here.

Via Dan Wei.

Podcast: The Philosopher's Zone

If you’re interested in Psychology & Philosophy, you should tune into ABC Radio’s great Podcast The Philosopher’s Zone. The show has just broadcasted to special editions on Freud and his relevance to modern thinking:

1. Freuds' contribution to philosophy
2. Contrasts Freud’s theories of dreaming with modern dream science based on neuroscience.

Via the great blog Mindhacks.

ABC Radio also has another great show/Podcast called “It’s all in the mind” a weekly foray into all things mental. Fill up you iPod and feed your mind.

All BBC's Podcasts in One Feed

If you like to listen to BBC's Podcasts' here is all their Podcasts in one Mega feed (OPML). Via Dave Winer.

technorati tags:BBC, Podcast, OPML, Feeds, Radio, Publicradio

Shrink Rap Radio - It's All in You Mind

I have been listening to Shrink Rap Radio - a weekly Psychology Podcast by Dr. David Van Nuys for quite a while now and really want to recommend it to anybody interested in what makes us tick'. Shrink Rap Radio, is one of those rare programs that makes Podcast such a fantastic media.

Shrink Rap Radio is a wonderful high quality show exploring different areas in psychology from:

• NPL
• Gestalt Therapy
• BodyMind Healing with QiGong
• Dream interpretation
• Leadership
• and so much more.

Dr.Dave's interviews with leading experts within their fields are fascinating and at the same time very entertaining. Since I have a  background in Psychology I really enjoy keeping up to date with the latest development in from the world of psychology as well as digging deep into various areas I have not had the chance to study yet.

Get the Feed and plug it into your Maxthon Sidebar or fill your iPod with hours of great programming.

And remember, what Freud said - Its all in your mind..

Tags: Shrink Rap Radio Tags: Podcast Tags: Psychology Tags: NLP Tags: Radio Tags: What makes people tick

The Era of The Blockbuster - Niche Is King

Wired has this intersting story named "The rise and fall of the hit"  saying that:

The era of the blockbuster is so over. The niche is now king, and the entertainment industry – from music to movies to TV – will never be the same.

Long live the disruptive media revolution! Via Steve.

Tags: Media Tags: Longtail Tags: Disruptive

Chinese Search News Roundup

China Web2.0 Review reports of the following news on the Chinese search front:

• Baidu to launch a MySpace called “Kongjian”
• Google access problem : google.com redirected to google.cn ?
• Google Toolbar ignoring: Google.cn
• Yahoo China to launch Blog search
• Sohu releases a Chinese input tool

 

All NPR's Podcast's as OPML!

This is great! All of NPR’s Podcast as an OPML file! Guess if I am loading up my Ipod for myupcoming US trip..

Tags: NPR Tags: Radio Tags: Podcast Tags: Audio Tags: MP3 Tags: Media Tags: OPML

Media Chaos

NPR’s On the Media, recently aired an interesting piece on the current chaos in the world of media networks.  A year ago Bob Garfield predicted that 

Mainstream media, especially network TV, lose so much audience, they can no longer attract the advertising revenue they need to sustain their content, leading to still more audience defection, then more advertiser defection, and so on into the toilet, all before the online brave new world is ready to take over. In this past year, plenty has happened to add to the chaos. TiVo and DVR usage is rising, with Forrester Research estimating that by 2008, one in four households will be DVR'ing their favorite shows and skipping past commercials. ITunes has started selling hit TV shows for $1.99, and now all the networks are offering free streaming content on their websites. More options for us, and more jeopardy for the old model.

Talking to Jeff Jarvis, of Buzzmachine.com , it looks like things are getting even worse for mainstream media;

• Al Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, imagines a world without presses
• Tom Glocer, the head of Reuters, talks about a world where his consumers are now his editors
• The head of Gruner + Jahr says the role of the journalist in the future is to be a moderator

Click here for a full transcript of the show. BTW I love NPR, many of their shows are available as Podcasts and they also provide full transcripts for many of the show as well which is a great service.

Taran's Free Jazz Hour - Another cool JazzCast

I recently wrote a post about one of my favourite Podcast, In the Groove Jazz & Beyond with Ken Laster, just to discover another great Jazz Podcast, Taran’s Free Jazz Hour. Taran’s free jazz hour, by Taran Singh is both broadcasted and Podcasted from Angers in France, and focuses mainly on free jazz, avantgarde-jazz, creative and improvised music. What I really like about it is that most of the music is coming from small independent record labels.

Put On Your Dancing Shoes

Nike is kicking off a new collection with iPod ready Shoes. Sounds like music to your feets? Another great example of two cool brands getting together to create something useful for humanity. When will we get iPod briefs? Is that an iPod in your briefs or are you just happy to see me? Here’s a cool song that the two new companies could use to market the new collection: Running away by Bob Marley

“You’re running and you’re running and you’re running away but you can’t run away from yourself…”

Oh, Pod-off!

Great Jazz Podcast - In the Groove

 

If you love Jazz, Fusion and Funk (no smooth Jazz here) and a groovy host, check out In the groove.. Jazz and Beyond, with Ken Laster. It is actually a weekly radio broadcast on WHUS 91.7FM Storrs CT.It airs Saturday 7-9 PM EST. But even better, it is available as a Podcast too! The show is great, amazing mixes all accompanied by Ken Laster's groovy voice. I downloaded the last couple of months Podcast into my Ipod for great music on the road. Naturally I subscribe to In the groove Podcast in My Maxton Podast side bar. One click, and I can groove while I surf.

Technorati Tags: In the groove, iPod, Jazz, Ken Laster, MP3, Podcast, Radio, Tag 43, WHUS

Nokia Podcasting Application On The Way

Nokia is planning to launch a mobile Podcasting application for the S60 N series in July. The initial release focuses on providing a mobile podcasting client that will be able to manual and automatic updates of podcasts over 3G or WLAN networks.  The first release is more of a Podcatcher that an actual Podcasting platform. However, Nokia plans to develope the application to be a mobile podcast publishing platform. Nokia Podcasting Product Manager Steven Stewart "The ultimate focus of the Nokia Podcasting Application is the world of Podcasting… search, discovery, preview, download, listen/watch, create, edit and uploading," adds Stewart. Gizmodo hopes that the Podcasting platform will be released at the same time as these cool devices, N93 & N73, and so do I. Can't wait to get my hands on the N93! Guess if Vlogging will kick off seriously with the N93...

Technorati Tags: Film, Mobile , MP3, MP4, Nokia, Nokia N73, Nokia N93, Nokia S60, Podcast, Podcasting, Gadgets, Tools, Video, Vlog, Vlogging

Itunes + PDF Subscriptions

The disruptive revolution keeps on rocking. Now you can subscribe to PDF's via Itunes. Perhaps it does not sounds like music to your ears but it can be quite useful. Wikinews is already available this way and we can expect many more to come. I find this PDF-casting interesting in many ways:

• Authors and Journalist can distribute their materials directly via RSS - cutting off, or being less dependent on the middle-man
• Anybody can become a publisher (just as with Blogging and Podcasting) no barrier for entry
• Services like NPR can offer transcripts of their programs together with the Podcast
• Artists can bundle their music with lyrics & transcriptions etc

Tags: Itunes Tags: PDF's Tags: Wikinews Tags: Publishing Tags: iPods Tags: Apple Tags: NPR Tags: Disruptive Media

Podcasting and MP3 Players Are Stealing Radio's Audience

More disruptive media news:

Podcasting and MP3 players are stealing radio's audience, according to Bridge Ratings. According to Dave Van Dyke, President of Bridge Ratings,

• By 2010, today's 94% penetration for terrestrial radio will have sunk to 85%
• 27% of people 12-24 attribute their reduced use of radio to MP3 use;
• 22% attributed it to tired radio programming;
• 3% attributed it to podcast listening
  

According to Van Dyke the days of top market - top station margins in the 40% range are numbered. He further predicts that the hot stations will  to fall into the 30% range and the entire industry on average to fall lower. Sounds like a very great future for public radio, but I guess that they will (although late) will re-position themselves to the new disruptive models and tie top Podcasters and personalities to their network. They certainly have the people, money and network to do that.

Tags: Podcasts  Tags: Podcasting Tags: Radio Tags: Disruptive Media Tags: MP3 Players

More Podcast's Playing Malachi

More brave Podcast's that dared to play my songs:

• The Daily Journal Podcast.The Daily Journal is Kankakee County's leading newspaper in Illinois.
• Reaching for Lucidity Podcast - A cool Podcst for great independent artists and music plus often offbeat world views.

Keep up the bravery!

Tags: Podcast Tags: Podcasting Tags: Radion Tags: Malachi Tags: Netanel Jacobsson Tags: Reggae Tags: Podsafe Music Tags: RFP Tags: The Daily Journal Tags: Music

Tags: mp3

Podcasters Pushing The Limits In China

NPR's All things considered , has a very interesting piece on Podcasting in China.

Like everything else Internet-related in China, podcasts are exploding in popularity. From film parodies to pornography, audio and video downloads are pushing the boundaries of the law and decency.

There is any interview with Irishman Ken Carroll started podcasting Chinese lessons just over five months ago. His learn-with-Ken podcasts now attract more than 10,000 visitors a day, making it China's No. 3 most popular podcast show. Quite amazing.

Another interesting story is about the video spoof of an epic film by Chinese director Chen Kaige. His movie, The Promise had a cast of thousands and cost $40 million to make. It took one 32-year-old sound engineer just four days to turn the film into a laughing stock. He re-edited the movie into a 20-minute parody, titled The Bloody Case of the Steamed Bun.

Hu Ge, the spoof creator, said he never intended it to become an Internet phenomenon. The film "was very bad, so I thought it would be fun to parody it. When I finished my video, I gave it to friends. They passed it around and eventually it ended up on the Internet."

A copyright violation or true media democracy ? What ever you say, it sure demonstrates the power of user generated (or should I rather call it "user edited content" ?) content and the power of word of mouth. Now no movie director is safe anymore, if people don't like your movie, they'll just make their own version or it., and who know perhaps even a better one..

Tags: NPRÂ Tags: All things considered Tags: Podcasting Tags: China Tags: Ken Caroll Tags: Chen Kaige Tags: The Promise Tags: The bloody case of the steamed Bun Tags: Hu Ge Tags: Word of mouth Tags: Consuer generated content Tags: Film Tags: Movie Tags: Media

Related posts: China Internet & Techology Key Take Aways, Michael Arrington With The Maxthon U3 Key!, China: Strength in Advertising Suggests A Stable Year Ahead, Ice Age 2 Viral Campaign, Why I Love Podcasts, The Future of Film-making?, The Art of Creating A Community, Me in New Media Age, Maxthon Users Put Yourself On The Map, Call For Action! Create Your Own Maxthon Video!, Today I Become the Offical Anyfilms Blogger For Samsung Mobile, Nice old Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu Video, TooDou - Video & Podcast Sharing From China, Douban - A Chinese Book, Music and Movie Recommendation Thing, How To Fold A T-Shirt, Celebrating One Year As A Blogger, Cartoons, Dane's & Word of Mouth

My Old Songs On Podsafe Music Network!

I can't believe it...I uploaded one of my old Reggae songs I recorded way back in 1990 on the Podsafe Music Network, and guess what. Somebody actually played it. The brave show is called Puffcast - very cool, thank you guys!Inspired by this, I just added two more songs for anybody to play on their show (if they dare) and listen to.

• You can listen to my old reggae songs on here.

What do you say should I pick up songwriting again, or should I just forget about it?

Tags: Podcast Tags: Podsafe Tags: Podshow Tags: Podsafe Music Tags: Puffcast Tags: Reggae Tags: Music Tags: Mp3 Tags: Malachi Tags: Reggae

China: Strength in Advertising Suggests A Stable Year Ahead

According to a fresh Industry Note from Piper Jaffray, strength in advertising suggest a robus year ahead in China. Although both online as well as other channels of advertsing appears to be strong, online seems to be gainging share from traditional media such as print. Piper Jaffray, also reports that although Beijing Olympics is still two years away, the buzz is already taking place, and this might serve as a catalyst for increased advertiser spending. The most important factor will be increased consumer spending on FMCG (fast moving consumer goods). Search will be another strong beneficiary of the growth as more online content and transaction based companies turn to search. (guess if Maxthon will benefit from this....). I attached some key China Statistics from 2005, that might be of interest.

Tags: China Tags: Advertising Tags: Piper Jaffray Tags: Online Tags: Search Tags: Maxthon Tags: Beijing Olympics

Related posts: Ice Age 2 Viral Campaign, Why I Love Podcasts, The Future of Film-making?, The Art of Creating A Community, Me in New Media Age, Mastworld - Ringtone Masala For Your Mobile, Today I Become the Offical Anyfilms Blogger For Samsung Mobile, TooDou - Video & Podcast Sharing From China, Douban - A Chinese Book, Music and Movie Recommendation Thing, Celebrating One Year As A Blogger, Cartoons, Dane's & Word of Mouth

Why I Love Podcasts

Today when I when to the gym to for my daily dose of self-inflicted pain, I was listening to The Chris Evans Show (a weekly radio show from BBC's Radio 2, also available as a Podcast) on my iPod, when it just occurred to me why I love Podast's and what I love about Podcasting. Simply because I love Radio - and have always done. Podcasting has simply made some of the best radio shows available for download and consumption at anytime. So then, what makes a good Podcast? There are so many Podcast available out there, and to be honest, most of the are quite boring unless you love to hear to geeks talking for 40 minutes about RSS. Most Podcast’s simply lack either an entertaining voice or good enough sound quality to make listening worthwhile. But while I was listening to Chris Evans, I realized that what makes a good Podcast:

• an interesting, engaging and entertaining VOICE
• humour
• an interesting subject

Most podcasters unfortunately fails here - the are simply dead boring and don't understand the value of the VOICE. My favourite Podcasts at the moment are:

1. The Chris Evans Show - because it is so fun & entertaining
2. The Daily Source Code - entertaining & Podcast relevant content
3. Shrink Rap Radio - Psychology meets Podcasting, top quality content
4. NPR's On The Media - great weekly media round-up
5. In The Groove, Jazz and Beyond -a fantastic jazz Podcast
6. NPR Books - interesting book reviews
7. For Immediate Release - Good update on what's cooking in the PR world

Although Podcasting like blogs has opened up the world for anybody who has something or noting to say, and in that sense lowered the barrier for publishing, I believe that very few will be make it in the long run. Just like blogging in the near future probably will be a part of the traditional media, I think the professional broadcasters will be dominating the future of Podcasting. However, there will be some “amateur podcasters” that will break through thanks to the democratic broadcasting tool Podcasting is, but they will eventually be snapped up by the big media guys and join the traditional media establishment. But again, they will make it because: they are entertaining, engaging and has a great voice…

 

 

Technorati Tags: Podcasting, Podcast, Chris Evans, Adam Curry, Daily Source Code, Radio, BBC , Jazz, Shrink Rap Radio, NPR, Books, FIR

TooDou - Video & Podcast Sharing From China

TooDou - Video & Podcast Sharing From China

 

TooDou is a cool & intersting Video and Podcasting sharing thing from China. Looks very promising. Like I previously mentioned - watch out for China. A lot of good stuff is cooking there..

Related posts: Douban - A Chinese Book, Music and Movie Recommendation Thing

Technorati Tags: Internet, Media, China, We Media, Citizen Media, Podcast, Video, Music, mp3, Movies, Sharing, Youtube, web2.0

Adpepper Sells its dMarc Stake to Google

My good friend Niels Nuessler, Director of the Board at Adpepper media, and the rest of the Adpepper gang, made a great exit by selling its 7,8% equity stake in dMarc Broadcasting to Google. Big congratulations to Niels & the Adpepper team! Adpepper just recently aquired the 7.8% in dMarc 13 months ago. That is what I call a good ROI!

Technorati Tags: Internet, Media, adpepper, dMarc Broadcasting, Google, Aquisitions

Google Going Radio or Is That Google In Your Ears?

Google continues to spread like a virus all over. Google just announced that it is entering into the radio space (as well) by acquiring dMarc Broadcasting a the leading radio advertising platform with more than 4600 radio stations in its network. This will probably mean Adsense-like radio advertising. Price tag: $1.1 Billion. Sounds like music to my ears or should I rather say, like Google in my ears...Danny Sullivan has more on the story.

 

Podcasting Backed By Big Venture Capitalists

I was just waiting for this. Podcasting has finally secured financial backing by leading venture capitalist. Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkings Caulfield & Byers,Charles River Ventures and Amicus Ventutes and more have opened up their wallets. Podshow by Adam Curry, and Odeo by Evan Williams (who started Blogger) have received founding.  Podshow raised $8.8m. Odeo will also help advertisers with new Podcast or enable podcasters to charge a subscription fee to listeners. Podcasting is going to transform commerical radio for sure. (via Financial Times).

Podcast on Maxthon

I have been playing a bit with the new Podcast support in Maxthon, and although it is a very early and simple integration – I think it rocks! Where ever you see a Podcast feed, you just right-click on the feed and move it to the left side bar - and there you go – you are now subscribed. The upper window in the side bar shows you your subscriptions, and each individual show is listed underneath. When you want to listed, you just click on the particular show – and your podcast will be streamed directly to you thorough the flash WMP. Now you can browser wherever you like while enjoying your podcast! We are working on a much better solution for the major upcoming release of Maxthon – stay tuned.

Yahoo Audio Search Beta

Yahoo just launched it’s Audio Search Beta. Looks very good, making it possible to search music, podcasts, interviews, eBooks and even sound effects. Its is also nicely integrated with My Web and enables you to find music you are already listening to Preferred Audio Service and use the Add to My Web to save and organize your music. Obviously you can add your own podcast or audio file feed to the directory. I must say that I have started to like Yahoo more and more over the past year, and this now I like it even more. Needless to say, this will give all the podcasters out there a further boost.

Internet Radio From China

My friends at Chinese Broad Media , are streaming cool, ground breaking Chinese radio live and direct over the Net reaching 40 million overseas Chinese as well as on main land China. Amazing numbers and amazing reach…Podcasts are definitely on their agenda so keep your eyes and ears open…. Besides doing online Radio (should be number one online today in China), they are are already ranked as number one on China’s open IVR platform and ranked 3–4 on the in the entire Chinese Mobile IVR business and are doing mobile streaming as well.Very impressive after only 8 months of operation. Beside the founders themselves WI Harper Group is the only investor..Keep an eye on CBM – they are going to be BIG.