Net

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