Linda Ronstadt
Kelli Richards
November 27, 2013
The Short Lifespan Of Twitter’s Ill-Fated Music App
Kelli Richards
November 25, 2013
Music has been the lifeblood of many social media services, but it appears that Twitter will not be one of them. Social media music sites have prospered, with CNET reporting that Spotify recently topped $500 million in revenue. At the same time, however, Twitter has decided to fold its hand in the music business and get out of a hashtag-based sound promotion service. What proved to be the sour note in this social media foray?
In The Beginning
Launched in April of 2013, the Twitter #music platform hoped to connect users to music through hashtag searches. With this app in hand, Twitter allowed users to track Tweets from artists as well as search for popular tracks with hashtag searches of label, record, song, or lyrics. Stating that half of all Twitter users follow at least one musician, Twitter launched the mobile app with the hopes of gaining ground on their social media music competitors like SoundCloud. The app allowed musicians to promote new riffs and tracks with a simple update, while users could directly Tweet songs to followers. Twitter never owned any music itself, drawing its tunes from iTunes, Spotify, or Rdio, but allowed free promotion and distribution.
The High Note
Twitter’s music app enjoyed a brief spell of popularity when some celebrities picked up on the promotion. The New York Times reported that Ryan Seacrest hyped up the app as a means of finding new followers and contacts, going so far as to have a dance party with the streaming music function. Twitter #music peaked at number six on Apple’s downloaded app list, but quickly fell down into the mid-thousands. Competitors like Vine, which allow users to play short videos (including music) within a Tweet, enjoyed steady popularity between the 10th and 20th spot of the Apple app rating.
Lessons Learned
Why did Twitter #music prove to be a bust rather than a boom? Several factors contributed to the downfall. First and foremost, social media users preferred to stay with their established music platforms, and social music sites like Spotify never flinched from the release of #music. Users with slower Internet services can load Twitter easily, since the site has a bare minimum of graphics to slow down the latency, but it takes a stronger Internet service to launch the streaming music function. Some people need satellite Internet to stream videos if their local provider cannot keep up. By comparison, DSL and cable Internet may not reach peak efficiency needed to load Flash programs.
Twitter’s Next Venture
Though Twitter took a blow to the chin, the company is sure to bounce back. Mashable reports that Twitter founder Ev Williams has begun to spend “98%” of his time in development of a new site called Medium, a publishing platform with about 30 employees. Whether this new venture does better than #music remains to be seen, but since Alexa pegs Twitter as the 9th most popular site on the Internet, the social music app’s failure to launch will not keep the company down.
Until next time,
Tim Douglas, Blogger for All Access Group
Tim is a music producer and father of 3 young boys. He runs a studio out of his home (which he also calls his sanctuary).
Related Reading: 8 Ways Technology Is Improving Your Health
Kindle Matchbook: A Blazing Digital/Print Marriage
Kelli Richards
November 18, 2013
From records to mp3s and photo albums to photo streams, your hard and soft cover books were just another item to be digitalized. Even better, the books you have on your bookshelf can now be coupled with the digital copy.
Amazon’s newly launched program, Kindle Matchbook, has teamed up with publishers and authors to create bundled packages, which allows you to buy the digital version of the books you own or purchase in the future for a discounted price. Amazon states, “For thousands of qualifying books, your past, present, and future print-edition purchases now allow you to buy the Kindle edition for $2.99, $1.99, $0.99, or free.”
The service includes over 70,000 book titles from publishers including HarperCollins, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Amazon Publishing, Wiley, Chronicle Books, and Marvel, as well as, many independent authors.
By using the Amazon database, readers can search past book order history to see which of their books are available for the Kindle Matchbook version. Kindle promises to continually add more books from more publishers to the database. Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content stated, “MatchBook enrollment has grown from 10,000 to 70,000 titles in just a few weeks and we expect it will keep expanding rapidly in the months ahead.”
Kindle also boasts that the Kindle Matchbook titles will have all of the same features as regularly priced digital books including Whispersync, Popular Highlights, and X-Ray. Kindle users can also use Matchbook using a free app on smart devices such as the iPhone, iPad, Android tablets and phones, PC or Mac.
Although this revolutionary program will allow more people to access digital versions of their books, the question rises, what does this mean for print editions? Will this program encourage more people to buy the print version of their favorite title, with the incentive of it being coupled with an eBook? Or will this program just replace customers existing print libraries with digital versions and wipe out print editions all together? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
Until next time,
Kelli Richards, President, CEO of the All Access Group, LLC
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The War of Superiority: Technology vs Manpower
Kelli Richards
November 11, 2013
Video games not only act as a watermark, illustrating modern technological advancement, but may also be a platform to launch further innovation. In the past, we had Nintendo’s revolutionary Wii device that allowed for interactive video game play; today we have Xbox’s Kinect, Playstation’s Move, and Nintendo’s most recent installment of Wii, all allowing the user to step into the virtual video game world and react to simulations with real life movements. In a similar way, scientists have attempted to utilize video game-esque technology to explore, or destroy places and things miles away. From computer simulated and controlled Mars rovers, to the US military’s use of unmanned drones, “video game technology,” may be more vital than you realize for modern advancement. But are wireless, unmanned, technologically driven devices the answer, or is the man behind the toy more important?
In 2009, Spirit, a Mars rover, drove over an unstable top layer of Martian soil and plummeted to its shallow grave, unable to maneuver itself free. But Karl Iagnemma from MIT, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, as well as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, have developed Artemis- a program which analyzes the physical rover movement in accordance to soil composition to aid the safe travels of such rovers. Such a model is eerily similar to video games, as the user gives commands, and reacts to movement and stimulus through a screen, as a simulation analyzes every conceivable variable. This invention places more responsibility into the “hands,” calculations, of the program, rather than the “pilot.” 1
In contrast, the United States operates over 7,000 drones, more than 40% by the Department of Defense, many of which are controlled remotely from several thousand miles away. While such technology is so closely related to video games (the “pilots” even control the drone with a joystick,) drone pilots have declared, “It’s irrelevant where you are physically sitting. You’re attached to the airframe, you’re attached to the view that you see, and you’re attached to the laws of armed conflict ……The plane cannot start, cannot fly and cannot release a weapon without us coin it. Human beings are in the cockpit… We just happen to be 8,000 miles away from the plane.” While I don’t doubt the skill and experience it takes to “man” a drone, such proud defiance that the pilots’ skill rather than the drone technology which makes it so deadly overshadows the incredible technological feat that is unmanned drones. 2
So while it may still be up for debate as to whether or not technology or manpower is superior, we can all agree that technological advancements are driven by various mechanisms, one of which is definitely videogames.
Kelli Richards, President, CEO of the All Access Group, LLC
PS: Subscribe to my FREE All Access Group Newsletter https://bit.ly/AAGNewletter
PSS: Listen to an entire library of intimate discussions with industry visionaries https://bit.ly/AllAccessPodcastSeries (Priceless)
Footnotes:
1. Chu, Jennifer. “Terramechanics Research Aims to Keep Mars Rovers Rolling.” MIT’s News Office. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
2. Blackhurst, Rob. “Drone Pilots Say Their Job Is Not Like A Video Game.” Business Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
Steve Turnidge
Kelli Richards
November 7, 2013
Google and YouTube: Making Beautiful Music Together (for You to Buy)
Kelli Richards
November 4, 2013
Google has its eye on the music industry, and as we all know, Google usually gets what it wants. This time, Google wants to conquer the music industry completely, using YouTube as its foot soldier.YouTube is already owned by Googleand attracts more viewers in that all-important 18-34 age demographic than MTV, as ArtisanTalent.com points out. It’s the perfect vehicle for a music industry takeover, and Google is already setting the pieces in place to make its move. Here are Google’s plans for becoming a major music industry player through the power of YouTube.
The YouTube Music Awards
This is a major part of Google’s strategy to achieve music industry domination. This is a brand new awards show that will debut November 3, 2013 and is expected to rival the 30-year success of the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) on its first outing according to Mashable,. Once MTV’s VMA is conquered, Google will amp up its promotional efforts to achieve bigger ratings for the YouTube Music Awards in future years than industry award show staples like the Grammys.
Attracting the Interest of Advertisers as Well as Music Industry Executives
The YouTube Music Awards is expected to attract the attention of advertisers and music industry executives alike. It’s been heavily promoted for months, and it is backed by Google’s endless ocean of money. Add to that the fact that YouTube is already creating legitimate music stars of its own who don’t have record company contracts, and it’s easy to see Google’s strategy for changing the music industry’s hierarchy to put itself at the top as a leading producer, as Business Week explains.
Advertisers are already expressing interest in being a part of the YouTube Music Awards. It’s the perfect opportunity for them to put themselves in front of young adults with disposable income. Kia has already signed on as the show’s title sponsor and Google is courting other big-name advertisers to the show. No word has come out as to what Google will be charging advertisers who sign on for the YouTube Music Awards, but according to Div8.net, it’s expected to be up to 25 percent higher than regular advertising rates for a web-broadcast program.
Taking a Leadership Position in Music Production
Google has been putting a lot of time, effort, and money into making the YouTube Music Awards a show to remember. It will be a 90-minute live show with plenty of star power. Lady Gaga, Eminem, and other big name acts have already signed on to perform. The fact that these big music stars are willing to perform and their labels have given their permission for it are both indicators that the awards show is expected to be a big deal. Industry executives are going to watch how Google handles the show to know what kind of competition the company may give them going forward.
The show will be live streaming from YouTube. Cable companies like Direct TV offer HD DVR receivers to customers that allow YouTube to be shown on TV screens for more comfortable viewing. Because it will be launching Google as a respected music producer, it promises to be must-see viewing.
Google has seen the potential to discover and promote new music artists just like Netflix grabbed a piece of the television industry by creating and airing original programming. Now that solid plans are in place and a big kick-off event is scheduled, there’s no stopping Google’s forward momentum in this area. The YouTube Music Awards is Google’s way of telling competitors it’s serious.
William Martin
William Martin knows a thing or two about video marketing.
Chances are, you’ve seen the work he’s done for his clients on YouTube ads.
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