Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Arts, DVD, Hulu, iLike, Music Video, Myspace, Netflix, Television program
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
For those who like renting movies, Hollywood may soon have a message: Prepare to wait. In an effort to push consumers toward buying more movies, some major film studios are considering a new policy that would block DVDs from being offered for rental until several weeks after going on sale. (LA Times 10/23)
This is ridiculous. So now, the thought process is that consumers will simply accept that they can no longer get Netflix movies in the same time frame and go out to buy one instead of renting? Come on. This will force advanced users to the bitorrents to illegally download. There is a difference in strategy between renting and buying. If I don’t want to permanently own something, this coercion won’t change anything. It will really just piss me off. And…prepare for angry comments on Netflix.
Hulu, the free online video site where television shows and movies can be watched in their entirety, will start charging fees at some point, one of its owners said. (AP10/22)
MySpace launched its own music video site a week before the planned launch of Vevo. Build playlists, search for and browse curated, popular and recently added embeddable ad supported music videos. The Artist Dashboard interface provides access to charts, graphs, and snapshots of MySpace Music data for all global artists, documenting fan geography, song plays, profile views, friend count, and profile visitors. An integration with iLike also provides top-line data from iLike partner networks. (Cynopsis 10/23)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: AOL, Arts, Electronic Arts, Music Video, Time Warner, Video game, Yahoo, YouTube
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Time Warner is making moves that could pave the way for a spin-off of its beleaguered AOL unit. Some fund managers speculate that the media giant will try to buy video-game makers Electronic Arts or Take-Two Interactive. Games are “the fastest-growing industry in the media field.” (Iwantmedia 4/07, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002186.html?categoryid=10&cs=1 4/6)
Male-targeted online video network Break Media acquired HBOlab per NewTeeVee, HBO’s digital media studio created to incubate original web series such as the 10-part Hooking Up show starring LG15′s Jessica Rose. (Cynopsis 4/7)
Yahoo is launching Artist Pages that allow users to connect to digital music at YouTube, iTunes, Pandora and other sites. Artist Pages are designed to showcase music videos, streaming tunes and more. The online destination eventually will let users publish their own music. (Iwantmedia 4/07, http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090406/tc_afp/entertainmentusitinternetmusiccompanyyahoo 4/6)
Sugar Inc.’s
flagship celebrity news and photo blog, PopSugar, has launched its 3rd annual PopSugar 100 tournament. It’s kind of like the NCAA’s March Madness, except this single-elimination contest is meant to determine who the most popular celebrities are in a given year. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/07/popsugar-launches-march-madness-for-celebrities-popsugar100 4/7)
So much fun…so much time wasting.
Music labels increasingly are bundling extra content with high-profile albums on Apple’s iTunes service in an attempt to boost flagging album sales. The companies are selling the additional material on a subscription basis, parceling content over time to help justify premium pricing. Labels also are going to begin using a variable price structure on iTunes, charging more for new hits and less for older catalog tracks. The Wall Street Journal (4/7) , Reuters (4/6)
A $17 iTunes “pass” for the Fray, above, buys songs, video footage and photos.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Web TV Network KoldCast TV signed a deal with Emerging Artist Productions to distribute a 13-episode theatrical themed web series EXIT Stage Left, about an off-Broadway theatre troupe staging a new play. The web series is produced in high-definition by creator Sinohui Hinojosa with a cast of Bay Area actors and crew members. (Cynopsis 4/7)
Nearly anyone who has watched TV in the last twenty years is familiar with The Simpson’s intro, which always features a different brief segment at the end as the family rushes to sit together on their couch. Even after 436 episodes it’s a gag that still hasn’t gotten old. Today The Simpsons is teaming with MySpace to launch a contest that invites users to create their own Simpsons couch gags. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/06/myspace-wants-you-to-make-your-own-simpsons-couch-gag/ 4/6)
Facebook is working together with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) to make its social networking service more accessible to users who are blind or visually impaired. In a company blog post, the non-profit organization’s President, Carl Augusto, explains which problems visually challenged users encounter when surfing the web and how they’re able to overcome these issues with the help of website publishers, developers and designers. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/07/facebook-commits-to-making-social-networking-more-accessible-for-visually-challenged-users/ 4/7)
Free entertainment hub Boxee keeps on getting better and better. A couple of hours ago, the venture-backed startup released a full API that allows developers to build applications for the open-source platform using a set of API calls in Python and writing the GUI using XML. At the same time, the company is laying the groundwork for a richer App Box, which it refers to as an open application store where they are not the gatekeeper (like Apple for its iPhone App Store) but rather a facilitator. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/07/boxee-continues-to-innovate-with-api-and-new-alpha-version-for-mac-apple-tv 4/7)
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Filed under: Feature, ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Arts, Beastie Boys, Endtroducing....., Music, Music Video, Video, Video clip, YouTube
ONLINE VIDEO OF THE WEEK: YOU TUBE MIX TAPE
From zero views to over a million over 8 video tracks in 7 days, Kutiman has become the latest online video sensation. The project, called Thru You, stitches together video samples found across the breadth of material on YouTube. These 8 tracks were created over 3 months of time. To promote these, 3 people e-mailed 20 friends and thus became viral. Ah, the power of the internet. And just like the project’s title, the tracks were really created through you…if you in fact were one of the people playing music in one of these videos.
In the past, it was Paul’s Boutique from the Beastie Boys or DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing that blew my mind in the mixing department. There’s now a new order in town. I think the genius in these tracks comes not only from the masterful mixing but in the added video element. I once saw RZA scratch the audio and video of old school cartoons in LA and watching these videos leaves me equally intrigued.
Click here to head to Kutiman’s site masterfully designed to look like a remixed version of a YouTube page.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Kutiman Killed the Video Star (techcrunch.com)
- Kutiman Remixes YouTube on Thru-You (laughingsquid.com)
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Filed under: Feature, ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Arts, Europe, Music, Music Video, Oren Lavie, Stop motion, United States, Yuval
ONLINE VIDEO OF THE WEEK: HER MORNING ELEGANCE
Taking stop motion to the next level, the musician Oren Lavie has crafted a single from his 2007 album release into a music video of art. Released on inauguration day last week and directed by Lavie along with Yuval and Merav Nathan, the video is simultaneously witty and poignant. The album was released in 2007 in Europe and was previously not available in the U.S. That was until Oren Lavie started his own music label in the U.S. and released his album domestically in January 2008. You can find it on i-Tunes.
Related articles by Zemanta
- [Viral Video Chart] Oren Lavie – Her Morning Elegance (geeky-guide.com)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Arts, FNMTV, Lil Mama, MTV, Music, Music Video, Myspace, Pete Wentz
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
MySpace unveiled the open standard MySpace Data Availability Project, allowing third party developers to build applications that place user profile information on outside sites and automatically notify friends and family when profiles are updated. (More details here.) (Cynopsis 6/27)
MTV is starting to allow fans to post their own versions of music videos on the Web. The Viacom music channel’s new “FNMTV” show airs new videos every Friday night and invites viewers to go online to comment on them and upload their reinterpretations at MTV.com. (http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN2635572920080626 6/26)
Below is an example of a fan reviewing Lil Mama’s new video, I’m What It Is (Strike a Pose). Review aside, I’m mesmerized by whatever is going on on top of this poor boy’s head. Scary. I can’t believe MTV just got around to doing this but I love the direction none the less.
SouthParkStudios.com is providing a glimpse behind the magic that goes into creating SouthPark, including raw animation footage, storyboard sequences and production art. While you’re at it check out the new Scene Mixer mash-up tool. (Cynopsis 6/27)
NBC.com is expected to generate “tens of millions” of dollars in revenue next year, according to NBC Universal exec John Eck, speaking at a PricewaterhouseCoopers media conference in New York. The Web site is “a business that didn’t exist a few years ago.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN2630161320080627 6/26)
YouTube is growing in popularity, but owner Google is yet to figure out how to make money from the video-sharing site. YouTube may seek direct response affiliate deals and make products clickable within videos, says CEO Chad Hurley, speaking at a dinner in Palo Alto, Calif. (http://newteevee.com/2008/06/26/hurley-youtube-looking-for-affiliate-revenue-streams 6/26)
Microsoft agreed to buy both Portuguese mobile software creator MobiComp and (according to VentureBeat) Silicon Valley-based semantic search engine Powerset on Thursday. (No purchase prices were announced.) MobiComp designs contact and calendar suites for handsets as well as social networking plug-ins for sites such as Facebook. Powerset has developed an algorithm that gleans meaning from phrases or partial sentences. One of Powerset’s most popular tools so far is an iPhone app that speeds information retrieval from Wikipedia. (Cynopsis 6/27)
Time Inc. plans to launch Maghound.com, a Netflix-like service for magazines, in September. Maghound will allow consumers to choose titles from different publishers for “subscriptions” where they pay one monthly fee and have the ability to switch magazines at any time. (http://www.foliomag.com/2008/maghound-com-set-debut-september 6/26)
Addressable-advertising solutions being developed by Time Warner Cable will allow the company’s subscribers to see an ad during a show, get more information on the product being advertised and then return to the program. Steve Riedl, one of the company’s leaders in addressable-advertising technologies, said at the Cable-Tec Expo that interactive applications like this added benefit to the subscriber’s experience and to the company’s bottom line. (CED Magazine 6/2008)
Citing data from Hitwise, PBS.org claims it is beating out the 6 commercial broadcast websites in the U.S. in terms of unique visits. PBS.org launched a major search optimization initiative and underwent a major redesign earlier this year, upgrading to a cleaner look and adding hours of new and archived video content. (Cynopsis 6/27)
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Websites (Week ending June 21, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 PBS www.pbs.org 24.23%
2 ABC www.abc.com 19.35%
3 NBC www.nbc.com 17.85%
4 CBS www.cbs.com 17.69%
5 FOX* www.fox.com 17.32%
6 The CW www.cwtv.com 3.33%
7 MyNetworkTV www.mynetworktv.com .24%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise, *includes traffic aggregated from stand alone websites americanidol.com, amw.com, familyguy.com, thelot.com and thesimpsons.com
Despite the continued proliferation of video portals on the web, YouTube increased its market share of unique visits from 60% to 75% of the online video marketplace during the last year according to panel-based Hitwise. (Cynopsis 6/27)
Top 5 Online Video Websites ranked by Market Share of U.S. Visits
Rank Name May-08 May-07 Percent Change
1 YouTube 75.43% 59.95% 26%
2 MySpaceTV 9.01% 16.06% -44%
3 Google Video 3.73% 7.80% -52%
4 Yahoo! Video 1.92% 2.77% -31%
5 Veoh 1.13% 0.86% 32%
Source: Hitwise
Filed under: Feature | Tags: Aniboom, Animation, Arts, Arts and Entertainment, Business, Media Production, Music Video, Radiohead, Training
ONLINE VIDEO OF THE WEEK: ANIMATED RADIOHEAD
To say that Radiohead has been wildly inventive in the digital space with this last album, would be putting it mildly. Don’t believe me? Click here.
Back in the winter, Radiohead challenged animators to create a piece of animation using music from their new album. Thousands of videos were submitted. From these, 13 finalists were selected. Until June 30th, you can vote on the list of 13. Each piece of animation is wondrously inventive. Anyone who thinks users can’t create content complimentary to professionally-created content should have a look at these videos. Here’s my favorite below. I almost teared up. . .just a little bit.
Filed under: Feature | Tags: 02903, Cassette Tape, Crank That, Feature, Music Video, Peter Framption, Retro, RI, RISD, Sensual Seduction, Snoop Digg, Soulja Boy, Stevie Wonder, Talk Box, Vinyl
GET RETRO: SENSUAL SEDUCTION
After loving on this video from Snoop Dogg (Sensual Seduction), I got to wondering about the weird plastic tube hanging out of his mouth. It’s time for another edition of Get Retro. Put down your iPhones and get funky with me for a minute. A talkbox is a music sound effects device which typically attaches to either a keyboard or guitar, allowing a musician to change the sound of the instrument by changing the shape of his/her mouth.
Check it:
Peter Frampton is probably the musician that most likely comes to mind when thinking of the talk box. Bob Heil of Heil Sound gave Frampton a talk box in 1973 and so began Frampton’s love affair with the device. He used it extensively on the album Frampton Comes Alive!
Peter Frampton Live
Now here are a few uses of the talk box that you may not have enjoyed quite yet:
Stevie Wonder’s Talk Box Cover of The Carpenters’ Close to You
And my personal favorite:
Some Dude’s Talk Box Cover of Soulja Boy’s Crank That
If you didn’t catch it from the last edition, my point with all of this retroness is to remind us of technology’s history so we can try to grapple with what technology will be. On my trip to Rhode Island this past weekend, I visited RISD Works, the Rhode Island School of Design art store. While perusing the store, I witnessed a similar passion for a return to old school. Observe:
Cassette Tape Hand Bag
Vinyl Bowl
Vinyl Ornament
In next week’s edition of Get Retro: Combining the old with the new.
