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

Online Video Industry Index: great resource on all things Online Video

Link: Online Video Industry Index.

Videos of my keynote speech at Canadian Music Week 2007: "The Future of Music, and Music Like Water" (Gerd Leonhard, Music Futurist)

An audio version is here  or listen to my SongSpot PodWidget ;)

Zeitgeist Europe 2007: Let me entertain me (great video links)

Some very cool videos here - great collection from the Google Zeitgeist 2007 conference Link: Zeitgeist Europe 2007: Let me entertain me
This site is in Dutch but the videos are in English.  Thanks for the link to Radio Visionary Jonathan Marks.

One of my favorite videos: Mark Thompson of the BBC - on broadcasters and CONTROL !  Jonathan Marks' comment is here

Can CBS Put the Net Into Network? - WSJ.com (yes.. it's all about SYNDICATION - Allowing the users to get engaged with Content!)

We are quickly heading towards a media environment where DE-CENTRAL marketing is what matters more and more, where users get other users, where content is syndicated in order to pull people in rather than push stuff on them. Says he WSJ: "...Instead, the company (CBS) plans to pursue a drastically revised strategy that involves syndicating its entertainment, news and sports video to as much of the Web as possible. It represents a stark departure for the TV industry...."

To me, THAT is the key to media marketing: Syndication, not centralization. Get people to find the content where they already are, i.e. fish where the fish are, and draw them in based on the Merit of what you are offering.

On it goes: "....Starting this week, an expanded menu of CBS's video content will be available for free to consumers on as many as 10 different Web sites ranging from Time Warner Inc.'s AOL to Joost Inc., a buzzy online video service that is just rolling out. The company calls its new venture the CBS Interactive Audience Network..."

This is another key component: to create a lot of attraction and get attention quickly, a lot of the syndicated content has to be free, or as I like to put it "feels like free", and the toll-booth needs to be moved down a few blocks. This is a crucial requirement, imho. Get less $ upfront but get a lot more attention that converts to more $ subsequently.

The bottom line: ALLOW PEOPLE TO USE YOUR CONTENT (and in many new ways), and you'll sell more of it:  "For instance, CBS is working on agreements with social-networking sites such as Facebook Inc. and Last.fm Ltd. to allow users to post CBS video clips to their profiles, according to people familiar with the matter. A deal is also imminent with Slide Inc., which allows users of social networks such as MySpace to personalize photos and video for their pages." (WSJ)

Read more:  Can CBS Put the Net Into Network? - WSJ.com.

CBS, after a year of experimenting with various Web initiatives, says that forcing consumers to come to one site -- its own -- to view video hasn't worked.

Techcrunch says: Forget YouTube: Go To These Sites If You Want Hard Core Copyright Infringing Content

Right indeed. same goes for another 100+ sites for free music streaming. What to do...? I have an inkling

Forget YouTube: Go To These Sites If You Want Hard Core Copyright Infringing Content.

Youtube Video: Gerd Leonhard on The Future of Music

The coming Web video shakeout

Good feature on the video-sharing sites boom on CNN Money.
Om Malik nails it once again.

I think that video sharing sites offer great opportunities for promoting new music - if an artist is OK with having his music used 'for free' than these videos could offer a whole new way to 'get to market'. 
My favorite quotes from this article:
"It's not possible that this many video-sharing sites can exist and make money," says David Hornik of August Capital, a backer of video services company VideoEgg....And a content-sharing company the size of YouTube could easily be spending $5 million a year on bandwidth and hardware alone. "People underestimate the costs and overestimate the inventory," says one veteran Silicon Valley investor who has shied away from the space.

The FT has a good feature on what all this has to do with ADVERTISING.

"But arguing that digital media can tap consumer enthusiasm for brands the Leo Burnett presentation, dubbed Wildfire, cited examples including the Chevy-Tahoe car brand which invited consumer to create their own web commercials. This attracted 5.5m people to a website and produced 22,000 entries, of which only 16 per cent were negative. A VW Golf advertisment shown on YouTube.com also drew 1.9m people. In an FT interview, Paul Kemp-Robertson, editor-in-chief of Contagious, said: “On sites like YouTube, advertising can be an acceptable part of the landscape, sitting alongside music or films. People may not be interested in advertising but they are interested in brands.

Provided you offer them something entertaining and useful, allow them to interact and reward themfor their interest, they will accept you.” Other successful “virals” have included a clip created for the John West fish brand. This was voted the most popular US commercial even though it has not aired on US television. True to their interactive ambitions, the presentation speakers asked delegates to keep their phones on during the talk and to text their views, which will be published online...."

Ten video sharing services compared - DV Guru

Link: Ten video sharing services compared - DV Guru.

Ten video sharing services compared

"The number of video-sharing sites has shot through the roof recently, as dozens of companies try to become the Flickr of the online video world. To this end, many video services have started offering new features like editing and remixability in an attempt to snatch a piece of the ever-expanding online video pie. But for the average user--who just wants to post a video on the 'net and share it with some friends--there are already too many options out there. All one really wants to know is, which site is going to work, with the least amount of hassle?"

Great reviews - worth a read!
Link provided by Jonathan Marks / Critical Distance

My video presentation on the Future of Radio, at the EBU Annual Meeting,San Marino, Italy, April 7, 2006

Gerd Leonhard, MediaFuturist, Presentation on Radio2.0