Gerd Leonhard's Blog on The Future of Music, Media & Entertainment

paidContent.org: Amazon.com’s Music Service Coming Next Month (all MP3s!)

Link: paidContent.org - The Economics of Content - Amazon.com’s Music Service Coming Next Month?.

Amazon.com’s Music Service Coming Next Month?

Rafat has good blip on Amazon's new service - all based on MP3s of course. Will be interesting to see what happens with EMusic then.

"Is the world ready for it? Amazon.com’s (NSDQ: AMZN) ready to launch its world-changing music service next month, the 500th such service claiming to, well, change the world. Earlier reports pegged the launch in May this year, but that came and passed. Now NYP reports a mid-Sept launch date is planned, and will offer songs in MP3, DRM-free format. Included will be music from Universal Music Group, EMI and a large number of independent labels (all thee have started selling MP3 formats songs)...missing will be two notable sources, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group, both holdouts on DRM-free songs..."

Kyte.TV Rocks: check out my show on "The Future of Music Publishing"

Just had dinner  last night with Daniel Graf, Co-Founder and CEO of Kyte. His company is really hot right now as it is the first to offer a complete converged experience of  social networking based on video / photo sharing on the mobile AND the computer, and synchronously, even. Pretty mind-boggling stuff!

Add some pretty cool chat tools (allowing you to chat with people while they watch, on the phone or the PC), some great music tracks provided by IODA, Capitol Records, among others (on that note they do need a lot more choice, but I think I can fix that;) great and easy editing options, and fast servers and very intuitive design, and you have a winner.  One thing is for sure: I will be producing a lot more shows here, both on the mobile as well as on the computer.

Here is my channel feed: This will auto-update with all my new stuff (I hope) - hit the play button for the music (I don't use auto-play on this site). Enjoy!

iodaCAST

IODA has some great ideas to market their music - such as this podcast feed at IODACAST. Great way to find out about new bands. Keep that good stuff rolling guys (and girls)! Link: iodaCAST. 

IODA also supports bloggers that want free MP3s via their PromoNet tool, and last but not least my company www.sonific.com also recently made a deal with them, adding all of their Promonet tracks to Sonific's SongSpot library. Most tracks aren't live yet but they will be, soon.

Brightcove Founder Lays Out Media Vision For A New Video World (this is a company to watch)

Jeremy Allaire knows his stuff, that is for sure. Now here is a company to watch! MediaPost Publications - Brightcove Founder Lays Out Media Vision For A New Video World - 04/27/2007.

My fav quotes:

"Open distribution and "self-service models" where content can be created and distributed with no cost of entry are leading to an explosion of new programming outlets and niche networks because anyone can create a TV network today--production companies, publishers, or consumers..."   GL: indeed, NICHES are where we are going!

"The idea, says Allaire, should be some "blended distribution strategy" that includes a branded content site, strategic syndication to affiliate sites, and viral distribution through widgets or players such as Brightcove's that "empower the consumer to distribute it for you." For advertisers, you're looking at extending reach by 50%, 60%, 70% or 80%, he said..."

GL: SYNDICATION is the keyword - and the key.

"Branded marketing content can also be syndicated, Allaire noted. He pointed to DuPont's program created with Denuo in which a blogger was hired to write science stories..."

Check out Jeremy's video here

Trend: Music Recommendations 2.0 - how to discover new music

Good sumnmary here
CScout TrendBlog � Trend: Music Recommendations 2.0.

Music recommendation services are taking on Web 2.0 functionality integrating the best of user generated content, communites and social networking.

New app enables music streaming to PCs - Yahoo! News

Sounds interesting. I met the CEO at CES - check it out! New app enables music streaming to PCs - Yahoo! News.

Google Watch : Five Reasons Google Will Acquire YouTube (and 5 Reasons Google Won't)

Link: Google Watch : Five Reasons Google Will Acquire YouTube (and 5 Reasons Google Won't).

Five Reasons Google Will Acquire YouTube

1. YouTube has more traffic than Google Video and, what's more, represents the cultural zeitgeist in a way that Google does not. By acquiring YouTube, Google would be investing in the future of interactivity on the Web, and ensuring that the company has the inside track on video search trends.

2. Google can afford the bandwidth. YouTube's biggest expense is the bandwidth required to serve 100M videos per day. Ostensibly, Google could cover those costs while actually making the site browsing faster through Google's distributed architecture.

3. The advertising potential is enormous. Direct visits to YouTube are just one angle. If searches done through Google automatically lead to YouTube videos, that's another. What's more, YouTube, despite its immense cultural position, is still a small company with a small amount of revenue. The upside on the deal would be big for Google.

4. Google has experience dealing with copyright holder concerns. It is one of the few companies that could buy YouTube and manage the copyright concerns that large studios and networks have.

5. Google could integrate its social networking products and/or get the inside track on how a social network operates in a video-based site. Google is also heavily invested in mobile technologies -- I would expect to see YouTube functions integrated into handsets.

jkOnTheRun: Gmail adds .mp3 playback. GoogleMusic... soon?

Link: jkOnTheRun: Gmail adds .mp3 playback.

ehem.... google >> Music >> streaming >> downloading. Soon IMHO.

Wired 14.09: No Suit Required Nettwork Records Feature

Wired 14.09: No Suit Required.

Go Terry go!!

Sonific’s Music Player For MySpace and Blogs - Mashable*

Link: Sonific’s Music Player For MySpace and Blogs - Mashable*.

About my new company, www.sonific.com

Fred Destin: Sonific: the future of music according to the futurist himself

the latest on SONIFIC, my new company -- well said, Fred ;)

Fred Destin: Sonific: the future of music according to the futurist himself.

Sonific: the future of music according to the futurist himself

Well the Sonific Beta is just out courtesy of the well known music specialist Gerd Leonhard.  Concept is that you go to Sonific and choose fully cleared (legally speaking) songs that you can then embed nicely into your blog or your photostream so you can sonify the web.  No more silent pages with amazon wish lists , you can express your musical personality and tastes with long song samples.

Today this is very much beta so there is still work to do on the player etc. but it gives a good indication of what this could achieve over time.  The promise is to add interesting music to the web experience with inherent social filtering at the source (Digg style) and call to action on the e-commerce front.  I find this a very interesting complementary twist on the Pandora / Last.fm debate.   Here is an example of a "songspot":

I loo forward to seeing how this develops and adds to the online music equation.  I like the fact that it should be music industry friendly and a great way for content owners to market their content virally with conversion at the end through the e-commerce partners.  Being a VC I also have to ask the question of how this makes money ?  Without revealing too much the FAQ says the following:

    So how does Sonific make money?

    Among other things, Sonific will make money by offering targeted andstrictly contextual advertising (i.e. by offering ads that are relatedto the music that is being presented), and by collecting commissionsfrom e-commerce transactions that happen after people click on theSongSpots™ and buy the song, CD, concert ticket, music player orsubscription service.

..."

Sonific.com - Soundtracks for your Digital Life - Private Beta now live!

USATODAY.com - EMusic's pitch: Download song and own it

USATODAY.com - EMusic's pitch: Download song and own it.

"Naxos, which also sells music on iTunes, has no qualms about offering material without copy-protection, or digital rights management (DRM), as it's called in the industry. "The majors have caused themselves nothing but grief with DRM," says Sturgeon. "What are they protecting? Any kid can figure out how to get around it. What they are really saying is, 'I don't trust my consumer.' "...

Like I said: EMusic will kick everyone's butt in 2006. and the majors will start licensing music as MP3 files. Go EMusic Go!!  Here's a final comment

 

Yourspins.com gets a buzz

One of the companies that I am advising is getting a pretty good buzz in the blogosphere - check it out
They ( www.digimpro.com ) just launched a new online remixing / mix-sharing, and Remix-Ringtone site at www.yourspins.com. YS allows you to quickly and easily remix tracks provided by many well-known artists such as Moby, Erasure, Spooky, and Robbie Williams, publish your creations online, and use your own remix as Ringtone! Apart from the obviously high cool-factor, I think YS could bring another 10-15% of growth to the ringtone market, imho.

YourSpins.com coming soon. Remix tracks online and share them

This is one of the companies that I joined as advisory board member, Digimpro. Their new site YourSpins.com is not open for the public yet but here's a preview of a remix I made using their cool technology. Click on the play button to hear my remix - this tool rocks!  Check out their blog here

Another blogger reviews YourSpins: "Awesome"

YourSpins.com is a new kind of music community powered by Digimpro technology.

The YourSpins network will allow users and members to instantly remix tracks that are specifically provided for that purpose by participating artists, producers and record labels.  Easy-to-use and fun mixing tools, including our Windows Media Player plug-in, allow users to save their remixes on their homepage, make custom ringtones, share them with other users and friends, or stream them from their blogs, webpages, or other social network profile pages. ...

hypebot: New List Of Web 2.0 Companies Shaping The Music Industry

Link: hypebot: New List Of Web 2.0 Companies Shaping The Music Industry.

New List Of Web 2.0 Companies Shaping The Music Industry

Good move, Napster - First 5 plays are free on new Napster service - Technology - IHT (Music Like Water!)

Link: First 5 plays are free on new Napster service - Technology - International Herald Tribune.

Another step towards "music like water". I like this piece the best:
"Napster will split advertising revenue with the companies based on the number of times one of their artists' songs is played..."

Was that not the ORIGINAL Napster idea, back in 2000?

YouTube: Way Beyond Home Videos

Link: YouTube: Way Beyond Home Videos.

Will be interesting to see what happens here.
In the meantime, check out my YouTube videos :

Predictions and More Speculation on a Google Music Service

Link: Predictions and More Speculation on a Google Music Service.

The inevitable?

Algorhythm and Blues: pandora featured in Fast Company

Link: Algorhythm and Blues.

I use Pandora a lot and really like it, btw

Yahoo! Finds Tagging Company Delicious

Link:
Yahoo! Finds Tagging Company Delicious.

Yahoo! has purchased much talked-about content tagging company del.icio.us for an undisclosed sum.

Because del.icio.us allows users to bookmark and save content, which they tag with keywords, many believe the company has data that can help improve search results and ad targeting. But Yahoo! said it has no current plans to place ads on del.icio.us or use its data to target advertising.

A very cool new way to store and share your media... says CNet

Link to CNet review: A very cool new way to store and share your media .

Sounds like we are finally getting to the 'jukebox in the sky'?  And how about Michael R's myMP3.com  Oboe project... how does that relate?   Check out the MUSIC part at Glide

NewCo: Songbird? | Songbirdnest.com

Link: What is Songbird? | Songbirdnest.com.

"Songbird is a complete desktop media player or "jukebox" with a uniquely open approach to Internet digital media network services. Songbird is developed by Pioneers of the Inevitable, a small, chirpy team of digital media innovators whose previous incubations include the Winamp 5 and Y! Music Engine media players and Muse.Net, a location-independent digital media network service acquired by Yahoo!.
Q. What are digital media network services?
Digital media network services, simplistically put, are Web sites that do stuff with digital media. Examples of digital media network services include eMusic's á la carte MP3 store, Last.fm's social networking service, Odeo's podcast service or La Blogothèque, a personal MP3blog."

This looks interesting!

Free version of Pandora now live!

Pandora is back -- finally, with a FREE, ad-supported model.... good (ahem... I told you so!). I REALLY like their service - check it out!
From Digital Media Wire: Pandora Media, a provider of an online music recommendation engine, announced on Thursday that it has launched a free, ad-supported version of its music discovery service. The company's subscription-based version of the service, launched in August, is based on data accrued from the Music Genome Project, in which musician analysts looked at 400 musical attributes in describing songs and their relation to others. Oakland, Calif.-based Pandora's service allows users to choose songs and create online radio stations that automatically populate with songs that share key musical traits...

One of the coolest function is the FAVORITEs tagging and the sharing function - check out my page here *still working on it... early preview.  Via email, it works like this:

To immediately listen to this music station I've created (named "Funky Miracle Radio")
simply click on this link or copy and paste it into your Internet browser:

http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh97

This station plays on Pandora, a music listening and discovery service. Pandora
enables users to easily create streaming stations that explore their favorite
parts of the music universe. When you click on the link, you'll automatically
receive a free no-questions-asked trial so you can listen to this station--and
create some more of your own....

Pandora: One more reason you don't need commercial radio

CNet review
Personaly, I really like it. Give it a whirl!   Relates to this, below, imho.
see my blip on this here

Google's TALK VoIP

Just installed it and had my first 2 calls. Good sound,  less CPU / Resource strain than skype, and the usual no-frills Google interface. I like it!  BUT... beyond that, Skype has a lot more to offer that Google won't have, for a while, imho: skype-in / out, website integration etc etc.  and - there's room for both. Summary: great job, google, as usual. Skype: don't worry. yet.
On Google.... well, Cringely has a story that I quite like... here
And THE ONION has a great spoof on Google... read it here.

"MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—Executives at Google, the rapidly growing online-search company that promises to "organize the world's information," announced Monday the latest step in their expansion effort: a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it is unable to index. "Our users want the world to be as simple, clean, and accessible as the Google home page itself," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt at a press conference held in their corporate offices. "Soon, it will be."

Playlouder MSP, IMEA 2004 winner, closes landmark UK deal with Sony-BMG

PLAYLOUDER MSP is a hot company to watch -- check it out here

" WORLD'S ONLY MUSIC ISP SIGNS LANDMARK UK DEAL WITH SONY BMG 22 August 2005
PLAYLOUDER MSP (PLMSP), the world's first and only music ISP today unveils details of its groundbreaking UK licence deal with SONY BMG, the first major to license its catalogue to PLMSP signalling a landmark in the development of the UK digital music market. The deal sees a major label embrace a new business model, which brings licensed file sharing to UK consumers for the first time. The deal is also a clear indication of Sony BMG's progressive position within the constantly evolving digital music world and shows that the major is at the forefront in identifying and supporting compelling new business models in the digital music market...."

Playlouder MSP, IMEA 2004 winner, closes landmark UK deal with Sony-BMG

PLAYLOUDER MSP is a hot company to watch -- check it out here

" WORLD'S ONLY MUSIC ISP SIGNS LANDMARK UK DEAL WITH SONY BMG 22 August 2005
PLAYLOUDER MSP (PLMSP), the world's first and only music ISP today unveils details of its groundbreaking UK licence deal with SONY BMG, the first major to license its catalogue to PLMSP signalling a landmark in the development of the UK digital music market. The deal sees a major label embrace a new business model, which brings licensed file sharing to UK consumers for the first time. The deal is also a clear indication of Sony BMG's progressive position within the constantly evolving digital music world and shows that the major is at the forefront in identifying and supporting compelling new business models in the digital music market...."

last.fm - good review on corante

New Last.fm: Social Architecture Drives Music Experience  (Steve Boyd / Corante).
He says  "  this version of Last.fm is almost a perfect example of what I have been preaching about social architecture:

1. People Are The Living, Breathing, Beating Heart Of The Universe -- the social elements of social applications are central, and the domain elements (in this case music) come second.
   
2. Artifacts Bind Us Together and Define Us -- the social "gestures" that we leave behind in our online searching -- comments, ratings, tags, and so on -- weaves the fabric that binds us together, and through which we make sense of the world.
   
3. Social Interaction Is Bottom Up, And So Is Everything Else -- successful social applications -- like Last.fm -- work because their orientation is bottom-up throughout. People's fuzzy tags, group formation, and music preferences drive the overall experience, not a single, centralized taxonomy and unified top ten hit parade model. (Big aside: exactly what is lacking in all the current top 100 or 500 blog lists, by the way.)
   
4. Social Stuff Absorbs and Trumps Domain Stuff -- it is our collective perceptions of and enjoyment of music that animates the endless catalog of artists, albums, and tracks that form the natural domain model of recorded music. It is through social interaction that we can learn something about a new artist, or new music by an old favorite. We are not on our own, wandering through the stacks: our view of the world of music, in this case, is shaped and informed by others...."

Very interesting stuff. Check out the rest here
Go to Last.fm

AllOK UK

A friend of mine has just recently started AllOK in London - they fix your computer and other tech stuff remotely, and THEY ROCK -- my computer was seriously screwed up and they went in remotely and got it all straightened out in less than an hour. And they have a digital music -Fix-All-Gadgets service, too!   Regardless of where you live --- check it out. Investors - take a look. This is a goldmine.

Mercora

Mercora is a company to watch, 4 sure. Good review here

The BBC: wikiproxy remixes BBC news

Wikiproxy takes the BBC news feeds and connect every noun to a WIKIPEDIA entry - news remixed. Wow!  Wired News and Cory Doctorow comment

eMusic Debuts Artist Download Cards That Give Fans 50 Free Songs

The Emusic guys have upped the ante, once again, as described this yahoo news release. I wonder if the fact that they still use good ole MP3s will make them a winning player... but the big labels won't play ball with them cause they don't use DRM and they want to RAISE PRICES --- will be interesting to see what's in the near future. Good work guys!

3 hot companies a day

are listed on my 'other' blog, the Popkomm Innovations Award blog. Check it out.
Listing of the day is GOFISH  "GoFish and IceRocket Partner for Multimedia Search GoFish and IceRocket search have partnered to deliver the largest single searchable universe of digital media downloads encompassing the categories of audio, video, mobile content, and games. By developing proprietary search algorithms, hosting regular updates, and offering partners access via an open API, GoFish is delivering a turn-key solution and quantifiable benefits to search engines and portals working to address the demand for multimedia downloads..."

My 'other' blog is live: Hot new companies in Digital Media

Check out the IMEA blog (Popkomm Innovations in Music & Entertainment Awards) for daily additions

Grouper

The LA Times reports - good work, jon! I like this one:  "This murkiness has opened the door for Internet entrepreneurs like Felser and Samuel to test the limits of copyrights" --- well said. This is going on left and right, as we speak. see Mercora and Podcasting.  Good stuff.

Bertelmann returns to p2p

News: "The service, called GNAP, will allow mobile and fixed network operators, ISPs (Internet service providers), TV stations and other content distributors to market large downloadable files both legally and cost efficiently, Arvato AG spokesman Gernot Wolf said Friday. Arvato is the services and technology arm of Bertelsmann, which is located in Gütersloh, Germany."   The return of Middelhoff's paradigms?

Bertelsmann Launches New P2P Download Platform

Bertelsmann... back with deep pockets, again.... check this out.
"German media giant Bertelsmann, a former partner of file-sharing network Napster, is launching a new Internet platform for downloading and sharing movies or games over the Internet, it said Tuesday. Bertelsmann's services and technology arm arvato said it would sell the service, dubbed GNAB, to mobile phone operators, Internet providers or TV stations, which could then offer their clients legal downloads of large files under their own brand..."   I want to see this!

Iris Distribution

"IRIS acts as a liaison between independent labels and digital music retailers. We service both parties by providing legal, technical and marketing assistance as well as collective bargaining power for the label..."  seems like all the interesting stuff is still happening in San Francisco.... check it out

Embattled Tivo?

E-Marketer: " DVR sales are up, but cable and digital satellite operators have been the primary force behind this expansion, a troubling sign for companies like TiVo". Another pioneer  getting fried?

Blinkx

From www.digitalmediawire.com " (San Francisco) Blinkx, a video content Internet search engine, announced on Monday that it has partnered with Movielink, an Internet-based video-on-demand joint venture between a number of Hollywood movie studios, to enable Blinkx.tv users to search, watch trailers and download films from the Movielink service. Films and TV content available on Movielink range in price from $1.99 to $4.99 per 24-hour download. San Francisco-based Blinkx's technology indexes video content using the closed-captioned version of text derived from the video."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-blinkx28feb28.story
http://www.movielink.com
http://www.blinkx.tv

I tried this and it rocks -- 100% amazing. Likely to really spurn Google into beefing up their video search efforts .... and of course ... MUSIC. On that note try GoFish.com  So now DISTRIBUTION is soon to be replaced by searching, and then - Search / browse is replaced by Recommending -- after all, who can browse thru 10 Million songs. Look for playlist engines, and recommendation technologies to be one of the next hot things.  Online music take 2.

Google - again!!!!

Jonathan Marks just send me this link: google will now let you search for video / TV programs --- they sure keep it rolling. Is it too late to buy stock ;;)

Weed / Shared Media Licensing gets funding

very encouraging news --- onto the watchlist

Kodime

A friend of mine runs this really fast-moving mobile / digital services company in London. A main focus is the Music & Media space, where they offer very easy-to-use ASP services for wireless marketing.