Filed under: Feature | Tags: Arts, Arts and Entertainment, Business, Compact Disc, David Byrne, Music, Radiohead, Thom Yorke
RADIOHEAD: REMIXING THE MIDDLEMAN
CD sales are expected to plummet 14.2% from 2006 to 2012 as reported by Wired. Most in the music industry react to this percentage with all out panic. For an artist’s perspective on traditional music distribution models, check out David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars (Wired 12/07).
Rather than relying on a music industry poised to hit the panic button, Radiohead decided to tackle the digital universe head-on.
First Comes the Album
Since the October 10th online release of In Rainbows, Radiohead fans have enjoyed a steady stream of incredibly engaging, mostly free interactive promotions and content in what is quickly becoming the new media music story of ’08. During the album’s first 29 days online in October, 1.2 million users visited the site as reported by comScore. The album was available as a DRM-free digital download on a pay-what-you-wish model. 2 out of every 5 users were willing to pay for the product. Interesting to note, however, that U.S. users paid on average $8.05 per download while the worldwide average was $4.64.
The album was officially released in stores and for sale online January 1st 2008 and quickly took the number 1 spot even though the album had been available for free as a pre-release for the preceding 3 months.
Then Comes the Film
Fans rang in the New Year with a midnight airing of Scotch Mist, the band’s first live performance of the entire album of In Rainbows on radiohead.com. The film also aired on various local cable channels around the country and was later released on iTunes and a variety of sites including YouTube for free.
On to the Promotions
Through several websites and Facebook, fans were invited to animate a video for Adult Swim and create a digital rainbow through Buzznet.
And Finally the Remix
As mentioned on these pages last week, the band recently launched www.radioheadremix.com with XL Recordings, inviting us all to channel our inner producer and remix their latest single “Nude.” In doing so, Radiohead started the ultimate conversation with their fans by surrendering creative control of the music to the masses. Our Marauder has been listening to the top-rated mix by Holy F-ck on repeat for over a week now frustrating her co-workers to no end.
The Marauder Chillout Mix
As a fan of both the band and their evolving re-creation of the business of music (NOT the music business), I decided to try out my own remix. After a few of hours learning Garageband (love it!) and numerous failed attempts, here is Nude (The Marauder Chillout Mix). I’ve never had so much fun listening to music as I did while working on this track.
The Facebook Application
Radiohead was not the first to re-invent the music industry’s most damaged wheel, but after the revenue numbers are all in, I doubt they’ll be the last.
The score now stands at:
Radiohead: 2
Music Label Goliath: 0
Post and Remix Credit: Ashmi Elizabeth Dang
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Andrew Heyward, CBS Corporation, CBS News, Dan Rather, Ira Gammerman, Leslie Moonves, National Guard, Sumner Redstone
Yesterday, many of the claims filed by Dan Rather in a $70 million lawsuit last September against the CBS Corporation were dismissed by Judge Ira Gammerman of the New York Supreme Court. The judge rejected Rather’s claim of fraud against CEO, Leslie Moonves, Viacom-CBS Chairman, Sumner Redstone and former CBS News president, Andrew Heyward in addition to his assertion that the network made him the scapegoat involving the bru-ha-ha surrounding the 60 Minutes II use of controversial papers in the story about President Bush’s National Guard service in the 1970s. The lawsuit further accused CBS of not giving him worthy assignments on CBS News programs following his resignation as anchor in March 2005. (Cynopsis 4/11, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/10/national/main4006080.shtml 4/10)
Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather and CBS President Leslie Moonves. (CBS/AP)
General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt is resisting calls to sell off NBC Universal. Investors’cries could grow louder if GE disappoints when it reports first-quarter earnings. Still, in the current financial environment, a sale of GE’s media holdings is seen as unlikely. (http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/10/news/companies/simons_nbcu.fortune/index.htm 4/10)
General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt has so far resisted calls to sell NBC Universal.
A handful of media companies are gearing up to submit second round bids for the Weather Channel. Fewer than five companies are putting together the second-round bids. A source briefed on the matter says Time Warner is in talks to buy the channel from Landmark Communications. (http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN1040547020080410 4/10)
After airing only one episode Tuesday night, CBS cancelled the reality competition series Secret Talents of the Stars. The premiere/finale episode posted a 1.5/4 among A18-49. Starting next Tuesday, CBS will air 48 Hours Mystery in the 10p slot for two weeks then Shark returns with new episodes post-strike as of April 29. (Cynopsis 4/11)
Apparently, CBS’secret talent is cancelling shows.
Wednesday night’s finale of High School Reunion (10p) on TV Land delivered a 0.5 rating and 560,000 viewers among A25-54. The program also averaged more than a million total viewers. (Cynopsis 4/11)
Click the image below to watch the final episode.
Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” will tape from Philadelphia next week, the show’s first road trip, to cover Pennsylvania’s pivotal Democratic primary on April 22. The shows will feature guests such as Gov. Ed Rendell, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders. (Multichannel News 4/10)
Donal Logue was added to the HBO biker gang pilot, 1% playing a character called Misfit along with Timm Sharp, Lucy Punch and Sonny Barger. Donal was also just added to the cast of NBC’s Life for its second season next fall. (Cynopsis 4/11)
High-definition airings of Major League Baseball games by Comcast SportsNet will increase by more than 60% this season, particularly in the New York and Chicago markets. All Mets, White Sox and Cubs games will be in HD, company spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick said. (TVWeek.com 4/10)
A new study from market research firm Centris says more than 9 million U.S. households are in “challenging reception areas” and could experience some reception problems after the February 2009 switch to all-digital TV. The report said about 17 million homes currently rely on analog signals and 54% of those — 9.2 million — will have problems because of land topography, tower distance and antenna quality. (Broadcasting & Cable 4/10)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: AOL, Credit Suisse, Eric Schmidt, Frank Quattrone, Google, Jerry Yang, Microsoft, Yahoo
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Yahoo‘s deal talks with AOL and Google haven’t changed Wall Street’s view that Microsoft will eventually win the takeover battle. “The best option is to accept the Microsoft deal,” according to Mike Binger of Thrivent Financial. AOL-Yahoo makes no sense since AOL is “a declining brand.” (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0942900520080411 4/11)
Yahoo’s Jerry Yang and Microsoft’s Bill Gates (R) in a combination image.
Frank Quattrone is said to be advising Google CEO Eric Schmidt as the Internet giant figures out its next step in the takeover struggle between Yahoo and Microsoft. Quattrone, a former Credit Suisse banker, was cleared of obstruction of justice charges last year. (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/google-ceo-taps-quattrone-as-adviser-in-yahoo-battle/ 4/11)
With all of the excitement surrounding Yahoo, it may be easy to forget that Google is still the king of online advertising, writes Paul La Monica. Also: “There is no indication that any of the prospective partners or acquirers of Yahoo have any plan to make Yahoo any more competitive.” (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/10/markets/thebuzz/?postversion=2008041011 4/10)
Amidst all the hullaballoo, Yahoo found time to complete a distribution deal with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to feature a co-branded MLB.TV player on the Yahoo Sports portal in exchange for a share of the advertising and subscription revenue it generates. MLB.TV, which runs $119.95/year or $19.95/month, will continue to offer video subscriptions and manage ad sales on its own this season. Then Yahoo will take over subs and ad sales exclusively in 2009 and 2010, utilizing its Clickable format and new AMP management platform. (Cynopsis 4/11)
Starz is rolling out a new service called Starz Play that is targeted to broadband customers. Subscribers get access to 2,500 films and videos via corporate cousin Vongo as well as a live stream of the Starz channel. (Light Reading/Cable Digital News 4/10)
YouTube is introducing a feature for its video creators that will help them better understand where viewers are coming from. The feature shows creators whether viewers discovered their videos by search, through an e-mail or Web-site link, or watched it on another site. (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/04/youtube_now_tracks_viewer_orig.php, http://youtube.com/blog?entry=P1y1CU54Fhg 4/9)
I decided to take a look at the new Insight features available by checking out one of my own most popular videos, Bill Gates describing his last day at Microsoft. While YouTube had previously added the ability to see where people were coming from on a map of the world (very cool), users can now investigate how those viewers found the video.
Video
Pie Chart of Viewer Origins
Top Sources
We all know by now that if you could vote on the Internet, Barack Obama would already be president. His Website has always attracted more traffic than those of other candidates. Unaffiliated video-endorsement site YouBama popped up spontaneously to collect video endorsements from supporters. MoveOn.org is getting its constituents across the Web to rally behind him. Even Silicon Valley digerati like Marc Andreessen love him. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/11/stats-obama-still-winning-on-the-web/ 4/11)
MySpace signed a deal to give exclusive international TV and DVD distribution rights to some of its original content such as Roommates and Special Delivery to ShineReveille, a distribution arm of the London-based Shine Group. No user generated content or branded channel content is included and MySpace will retain the rights to sell its shows online in international markets. (Cynopsis 4/11, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0929275920080410 4/10)
USANetwork.com is trumpeting some high growth Q1 numbers heading into the upfront, including 3.1 million average site visits and 6.5 million video streams – double and triple digit increases from last year – and an average time spent of 29 minutes/per user. Q1 was the first full quarter its Character Arcade casual gaming site was operational, which now has 211,000 registered users. (Cynopsis 4/11)
CNN is preparing unprecedented multiplatform coverage that includes TV, radio and the Internet for Pope Benedict’s first visit to the U.S. Soledad O’Brien will anchor CNN’s coverage of the pontiff’s April 15 to 20 visit, which will include stops in New York and Washington. (Multichannel News 4/10)
Charlie Rose, the thinking person’s late night talk-show host, is undertaking an ambitious plan to edit 4,000 hours of interview archives into short Web videos running less than four minutes. A library of some 800 clips will be available when CharlieRose.com re-launches this summer. (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://www.beet.tv/2008/04/charlie-rose-re.html 4/10)
Job site Monster.com will become the exclusive provider of career tools and services for MSNBC.com and TodayShow.com. The agreement is a boon for Monster, which is struggling to maintain its dominance. The site will get direct access to MSNBC.com’s 35 million unique visitors. (Iwantmedia 4/11, http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080410/FREE/984090061/1057 4/10)
Newspaper sites collected 26.9% of the $7.5 billion spent in local online ad dollars in 2007, down from a 35.9% share in 2006, according to a new study from Borrell Associates. Paper sites are losing ground to pure play internet companies such as Google and Yahoo, which are beginning to set their sites more on local markets. Papers still enjoy a sizeable lead over local TV web sites which got 9.5% of the pie, an identical share that went to Yellow Pages sites in 2007. Not surprisingly video is the fastest growing local online ad component, expected to jump from $363 million in 2007 to $1.2 billion in 2008. (Cynopsis 4/11)
