Wanted: Musicians

At last month's SXSW in Texas, Youtube announced a partner program for indie bands called Musicians Wanted. This new partnership program allows bands who are accepted to

"make some money from their YouTube videos and each accepted band will have their own dedicated page where they can add gig listings, links to buying their music and their live videos and music."

To make money from the site the bands will get the 'majority' of advertising revenue. And you will also get a share of funds if your music video is embedded on to other sites.

Already one big name band has joined Musicians Wanted. ‘OK Go’ obtained massive fame emanating from the viral success of the video for their song “Here it Goes Again”, and recently left their major label due to disputes over embedding rights of their famed video and have since joined up to Youtube’s new program. In the ’humorous’ video below they explain why they joined Musician’s Wanted.



A few years back, MySpace had a stranglehold on the indie music business, with over 8 million bands and artists on the site as of January ’08. Due to the hijacking of the Social Media market by Facebook [link] MySpace’s popularity has declined substantially and as of March 2010 licensing rights have turned MySpaceMusic into an iTunes-style music store, basically taking away the whole appeal of MySpaceMusic in the first place and leaving unsigned independent bands without a popular area to showcase their talents.

I think this initiative is win-win for Youtube and artists alike, and I don’t think it’ll be too long before we’re hearing about some up-and-coming artist found through Musicians Wanted, in the same way artists like Lily Allen were discovered on Myspace.

Are Tablets Good For You?

Just a few days ago, Apple’s iPad was released, with a reported 300,000 sales [1], not bad for your 1st day.*Update 3/5/10* 1 million iPads sold in, wait for it, 28 days![2] With Dell announcing their Android powered tablet the Dell 'Streak', and HP releasing details of their upcoming HP Slate tablet PC quite regularly to draw attention away from the iPad, all of a sudden Tablet PC’s are the ‘in’ thing of the moment in the technology world. *Update 13/4/10* Now it seems that Google intends to enter the Tablet market too![3]

Tablet PC’s are by no means a new idea, with Apple releasing their ‘Newton’ in 1993, to little success. It chugged on regardless until it’s cancellation in 1998. Microsoft had been quietly supporting Tablets throughout the ‘00s, with Bill Gates stating in 2001 he believed Tablet would be bigger than PC’s by 2006! Not quite Bill.

Microsoft's History With the Tablet PC

If Tablets do take off now, I don’t think I’ll be too far off by saying Apple caused it. The iPod revolutionised portable music, the iPhone kicked started a flagging smartphone market and maybe the iPad will do the same, if the initial sales are anything to go by, it just might. Consumers might not need a tablet PC any more than they need to have Blu-ray players, but many will want them and buy them anyway.

Personally I like the idea of a Tablet PC, the mobility and freedom given would be amazing. The convenience factor alone makes it a killer device plus with the specs, capabilities and possibilities of Tablet Pc’s like the iPad and the Slate are mind-boggling for their size.

However.

All you have to do is go back a mere three years to see a major manufacturer launching a Tablet-type device, Samsung and their UMPC [Ultra Mobile PC] the Q1, which garnered great reception from several technology show cases only to slip into relative obscurity. The problem was that the device had trouble finding a market and never really took off.



UMPCs eventually evolved into Netbooks, which proved very popular. Might the tablet, a device which offers a similar set of functions face the same issues and the same fate? Or will the giant investment from the likes of Apple and HP ensure the Tablet fares better than UMPC’s? Time will tell.

Further Reading:
Wired.com - How the Tablet Will Change the World

Google Buzz: Overkill?

Google launched their first major foray into social networking recently with Google Buzz, a social networking and messaging tool integrated into their hugely popular Gmail email service. It is designed to link up the social aspects of several of Google’s products such as Picasa, Flickr, Youtube, Google Reader, Blogger and Twitter. Each time the user posts something while logged in to their respective profile on these sites, the update is shared on Google Buzz.

However, Google Buzz has been met with distinctly negative views from both the general press and the more technology press. Buzz’s intrusive nature has led to several outcry’s over possible privacy concerns. Buzz’s lack of originality has also been highlighted.



I fully agree with these criticisms, and personally think Buzz was an unnecessary step by Google. I mean sure, there is great revenue to be had in the social networking market, but there just isn’t that much more that could be done with a social network. And that sort of revolutionary innovation is what is required to knock the all-powerful Facebook off it’s pedestal, which has so far seen off all comers to it’s throne. Google is pretty much the king of most other areas of the web and I think this is one bridge, that not even they can cross.

Augmented Reality: A Vision of The Future?

One emerging technology that has caught my eye recently is Augmented Reality [AR]. The simplest way to explain an AR system is to use the example of a Heads Up Display or HUD, found in most video games, where transparent imagery is laid over the scenery the player is viewing, providing additional info on their surrounding, mission objectives, points of interest et cetera1. AR is an up-and-coming technology in smartphones which has “gone from virtually no users in 2008 to an expected 600,000 by the end of 2009” and “By 2012 there will be 150 million to 200 million users”2.

AR technology is available on current gen. smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone. AR applications available for the iPhone include ‘Nearest Tube’, an app used to find the nearest tube station in London. The app is demonstrated in the video below.


This kind of application, while currently focused on tourism, could be a great asset for a sales force who could walk up to a building and understand the nature of potential customers inside, or for maintenance where a quick visual scan of a building could reveal installed products to be serviced.

I think AR could be come a valuable technology for businesses in the future, with the advertising potential limitless. It could help a business like Amazon to advertise in print media, where all the customer has to do is scan the ad with their smartphone to order the product.

Question is, are businesses thinking about how advertising, selling, products and service will change when you can overlay the right information, at the right time and in the right form — everywhere?

Links

1. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/Augmented_Reality.html
2. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2009/tc2009112_434755.htm

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