New Persuasion

100 Million and Counting...

In a world that thrives on personalization, it is interesting to note that Apple Inc. has announced it has sold 100 million iPods as of April 9th, this year.  America is largely impacted by media-- like music and television-- and we spend so much of our days watching and listening.  The iPod has changed the ability of Americans to sit back, relax, and enjoy the music of their choice... on demand.

According to an MSNBC.com article, Apple Inc.’s announcement Monday that it has sold 100 million of its iPod music players marks more than just a business milestone for the once-struggling computer company.

The remarkable sales figure also is evidence that Apple has, in just a few short years, played a major role in transforming a fringe technology into a mainstream phenomenon — spawning massive ripple effects in both the music and technology industries.

What’s more, analysts say, Apple’s more recent forays into selling movies and TV shows — and, soon, its own cell phone — could be poised to transform those industries as well.

What does this mean?  Well, we love the ability to be unique in our choices and we embrace the opportunity to carry this uniqueness around with us-- and companies are starting to notice.  I think this milestone may have an impact on the way organizations decide what is important to us as consumers and as Americans.

The Ipod is More Popular than Beer?

I got an Ipod from my children for Christmas - I have yet to load music on it, but someday I will.  It's kind of a cute thing, all green and stuff.  So when I read this post by Lynette Web at the Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog, it caught my attention:

"No one expected that the iPod would become the signature artifact of our young century, selling more than 60 million units in its first five years. No one envisioned vast swaths of humanity escaping reality via the White Earbud Express. And no one would ever have believed that a 2005 survey would report that the iPod is more popular on college campuses ... than beer. But that's what happened. " - Steven Levy, Newsweek, Oct 23 2006

Webb recommends we read Steven Levy's book, The Perfect Thing.  I think I will.

Image from Flickr CC --thanks to Kandyjaxx

Ten Companies to Watch

Via Emergic comes Read/WriteWeb's Top Ten picks from Demo 2007.  The Demo 2007 conference "showcases the latest emerging technologies."  As I look through their list, it strikes me that six of these companies are for sharing things like videos, photos, home design, music, even wifi networks.  Another technology makes live videos cooler.  One company is about organizing your information by leaving a Hansel & Gretel-like web trail of crumbs.  If you're looking for relationships between people and companies,  ZoomInfo can help.  And the last company, Sentinel sort of goes against the Web 2.0 vein here and provides copyright protection for bloggers.

Here are the companies to watch for:

eJamming: The eJamming web site and desktop software allows musicians to play in sync over the Internet... eJamming's secret sauce allows musicians across the globe to connect and seamlessly play together as if they were in the same rehearsal room.

Jaman: Less than 1% of the movies made in the world are available to the US public. Jaman is about to change that by delivering these movies straight to Windows and Mac Desktops with innovative, better-than-DVD quality software. On top of getting us these unique movies, Jaman software creates instant social networks by placing an interactive control bar to the right of the movie window.

MyDesignIn: Social networking has gone vertical in recent times and this app is an interesting twist. MyDesignIn allows users to collect home design ideas and artifacts online using browser buttons. The users then can apply collected information and images to the blueprints of their house and get design advice from their friends and family.

OurStory: Just when we thought there is nothing left to do in the online photo and media sharing market, Our Story proves us wrong. They take the simple idea that media exists in time, and come up with an end-to-end photo organizer, storage and sharing experience. The photos are organized around events and timelines, and they can be shared and contributed to by multiple users via site or email.

Sentinel: We live during exciting times, when self-expression on-line and particularly blogging is on the rise. Protecting the copyright of our blogs is as important as protecting the copyright in print. Sentinel monitors the web and pin-points blog plagiarism.

SplashCast: Splashcast allows users to remix photos, video and audio to create personalized channels. These channels are then available to play in any SplashCast player installed on a web site, blog or social network profile.

Total Immersion: Total Immersion?s software enables the real-time integration of interactive 3D graphics into live video flows. In is quite impressive and certainly is the most fun DEMO video that I watched.

TrailFire: TrailFire is an annotation technology that allows any user to attach notes to web pages. By naming the notes with the same name, this software allows users to create trails. Each trail represents an individual or collective navigation path, centered around a topic.

Whisher: When was the last time 128-bit encryption stopped piracy? Certainly not when it comes to WiFi. Spanish company Whisher helps you to navigate the entire WiFi network, without worrying about what network you are connected to.

ZoomInfo: ZoomInfo offers a vertical semantic search engine, focused on companies and people. It is an impressive technology that turns the web into a database of corporate and personal information; and organizes it in an intelligent way.

The Lyrics They Are A'Changin'

Listening to the radio over the weekend, I heard two songs - both #1 hits in their times - that struck me as a perfect example of how women have come a long way. 

The first song was Gloria Gaynor's 1978-79 hit "I Will Survive"  about a woman who barely made it through the first breakup with this man.  Now he's back and she's telling him to get out. She proudly declares:

Go on now go walk out the door
just turn around now
'cause you're not welcome anymore
weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
you think I'd crumble
you think I'd lay down and die
Oh no, not I
I will survive
as long as i know how to love
I know I will stay alive
I've got all my life to live
I've got all my love to give
and I'll survive
I will survive

Now, I don't know about you, but simply surviving doesn't seem like the best goal for a woman to have.   

Move forward 28 years to 2007 - to Beyonce's "Irreplaceable." Here's another woman telling her man to get out.  But the tone has changed:

So go ahead and get gone
And  call up on that chick and see if she is home
Oops, I bet ya thought that I didn't know
What did you think I was putting you out for?
Cause you was untrue
Rolling her around in the car that I bought you
Baby you dropped them keys hurry up before your taxi leaves
Standing in the front yard telling me
How I am such a fool - Talking about
How I'll never ever find a man like you
You got me twisted

You must not know about me
You must not know about me
I could have another you in a minute
matter fact he'll be here in a minute - baby

Okay, so now the woman is in complete charge.  She owns the house, the car - she's not  only going to survive, she's going to live well and be able to replace him in a minute.  Now that's a woman who thinks highly of herself. 

So what's my point?  We've gone from women struggling to even say "I Will Survive" to a woman making sure her ex knows just who's calling the shots.  Gloria's song showed the beginnings of women speaking up for themselves.  And Beyonce's demonstrates a power shift - the woman in control.  You've come a long way, baby.

I sort of feel that Beyonce's song is about as far as you can go without becoming a callous, self-centered person who only uses the other sex - in other words, a man - so it makes me wonder what's next. 

What is Real? The Clip Bandits

This is why I love the Internet.  Three musicians in three cities have formed one band - and they've never met - at least in the physical world.  They met on YouTube and have produced a musical video "Internet Killed the Video Star".and it's been watched over one million times.  If you don't think the world is changing - down the to the definition of 'what is real?' - you better wake up.  I love the Internet for this.  Thanks to TrendHunter for the heads up.

High School Musical - What it Means

This past summer, my boss Dan gave me an article on Disney Channel's Original Movie, High School Musical.  The cable movie is a mega-hit and Dan wanted to know what that meant.  So I dutifully rented the movie and watched it with my daughter (age 11) and a few of my nieces (ages 12, 13, 13).  We watched the movie four separate times that weekend.  By the fourth time, we played the sing-along version and sang along.  Then I got to work on Monday and promptly was distracted by other things and never told Dan what I thought.

Fast forward to this week - my daughter informs me that her sixth grade class wants to perform High School Musical for the annual spring musical.  And then I remembered my long neglected assignment.  This time I bought the movie and watched it during lunch with the other New Persuaders in my office.  And then we all talked about it.  Here's what we came up with - some obvious, others maybe not so much:

• Be yourself, Believe in Yourself.  Don't cave into peer pressure. That's what my daughter and my nieces told me the message of the movie was. 
  • Jocks can sing, or bake; freaks can play musical instruments; geeks can dance hiphop.  It's a positive message.  And is related to the thinking that by being ourselves, we are the star of our own life and each one of us is special.  It helps that Disney cast unknowns to star in this movie. 
  • Now I do think each one of us is special, but not all of us are going to be superstars.  And I think when this "be yourself, believe in yourself" tenet is taken too far, you get contestants on American Idol who clearly stink, yet truly believe they are supremely talented.  To quote from The Incredibles: 

Helen: Everyone's special, Dash.
Dash: Which is another way of saying no-one is.

• The Tween Market (ages 8-14) is influential and sophisticated. Consider:
  • Almost 37 million viewers have watched the $4.2 million production [o f High School Musical] at least once since its first airing. (Newsweek, 7/24/06)
  • The soundtrack, a top-10 hit since its January release, is the year's biggest-selling CD, at 2.7 million copies. And the DVD has sold millions too.  (Newsweek, 7/24/06)
  • From Toy Directory Monthly: “Tweens have been raised as consumers,” said [Anne] Sutherland, co-author of the book Kidfluence: The Marketer’s Guide to Understanding and Reaching Generation Y—Kids, Tweens and Teens...
  • Reyne Rice of the research firm NPDFunworld credits Tween spending with bringing $3 billion of new money to the marketplace.  “They are a very vocal group,” Rice said. “They tell you exactly what they do and don’t want. Parents don’t want to buy something their kids don’t want."
  • You'll notice that High School Musical gives logical reasons for the kids to burst into song.  The two leads first sing together during a karaoke party.  With the exception of a couple songs, most of the other songs in the movie are part of a winter musicale the high school is putting on.  I've talked about this before - that if you want today's audiences to buy into your fantasy, you better explain yourself first - these kids are smart.
• It's the Music stupid. Music is interactive entertainment.  You can sing along, you can dance along, you can pretend to be the singer.  And if you are a tween, you'll do all of the above over and over and over again.  Thanks to devices like the iPod, music is accessible and part of these kids daily routine.  Music is central to their lives. 
  • No wonder Disney ran a karaoke version of the movie after it originally aired.  And Disney Channel also used its Web site to make the songs' lyrics available for download for 24 hours. More than 500,000 copies were downloaded within that period. (from Cnet News, 2/6/06)
  • Steve Jobs recently told Newsweek: 

"I think that music faded in importance for a while, and the iPod has helped to bring music back into people's lives in a really meaningful way. Music is so deep within all of us, but it's easy to go for a day or a week or a month or a year without really listening to music. And the iPod has changed that for tens of millions of people, and that makes me really happy, because I think music is good for the soul."

• We have become very conservative.  Many have said this movie is this generation's Grease, but I would beg to differ.  The students of Grease smoked, drank, had sex, got pregnant, and the ultimate message was you can't be yourself to get the guy.  The only things Grease has in common with High School Musical is that both take place in (fantasy) high school and both have singing and dancing. 
  • Newsweek described High School Musical's setting best:  "...there are cliques and rivalries at East High, but there's no sex, no drugs, no racial or ethnic tensions, no dropouts and no violence. Everyone is good-looking, well-dressed and talented. Classrooms are spacious and clean. In the end, the home team wins, all conflicts are resolved and everybody dances together in the gym. It's not high school; it's high school the way we wish it could be."
  • As a result of our conservatism, our thirst for G-rated fare is increasing.  Think Napoleon Dynamite.  Parents are increasingly involved in every aspect of their child's life. (Even interfering at work!) Parents want to comfortably watch a movie with their children.  And even if you're not such a conservative parent, you can enjoy making fun of the movie as you watch it.  And you can enjoy your child's enjoyment.  So it's win-win when you make G-rated fare. 

I think Disney was not completely surprised by the success of High School Musical because they knew what they were doing.  And now we have High School Musical, The Musical and High School Musical 2 to look forward to:

"East High is on summer hiatus, so the battleground shifts to the country club, founded by (who else?) Sharpay's granddad. Troy, Gabriella and the others show up as lifeguards, waiters and caddies. And the haves and the have-nots tee off in the club's annual midsummer night's musical. There'll be plenty of drama: this time around, Ryan may turn on his sis.  But will Troy finally get to kiss Gabriella?"

So now the comparisons will be with Dirty Dancing (Without the sex, abortion and affairs).

As for my experience with the movie, I'm embarrrassed to admit I had fun watching it.  I did make comments and poke fun, but I also sang along.  And I think that's a key ingredient for any successful venture these days - Make it Fun.

Spimes Become Virtually Real

Another sign of the times.  The physical, touchable record album may be no more for some bands.  Erick Schonfeld of B2Day says:

The indie rock band Luna has a new album of cover songs coming out, but it will only be available online.  Warner Music's Rhino Records has decided that putting out an actual album in stores is not worth the effort for this cult favorite. 

An example of music companies moving down the Long Tail of their catalogs - the home of what Schonfeld calls nichebusters.  There's much money to be made in this tail.

When I think about it, I find this whole, download your own album, create your own album to have one or two facets of Bruce Sterling's Spimes.  Like "Ways to rapidly prototype virtual objects into real ones. Sophisticated, automated fabrication of a specification for an object, through 'three-dimensional printers.' "  Isn't a cd burner a three dimensional printer?  Anyway, I'm still trying to even understand this whole spime thing - but the thought did occur.

Hear Music

It is no shock to anyone who knows me well that I love Starbucks. When I think coffee, I think Starbucks. It has become so engrained in my weekly routine that I rarely sit back to think about how often I go there or spend money, or much less how I actually pass my time while I am there. It wasn’t until I read this Brand Autopsy post by John Moore that I began to think about why Starbucks has become so important to my routine. 

Upon reflection this is why I love Starbucks:

My Mac laptop has nearly everything that I need on it. (Ok, maybe not everything but almost …)

Starbucks has tables specifically with people who have computers and it provides wireless internet. I can work on a project, download music, check my e-mail and download my pictures.

I can plug my iPod ear bugs in and jam out to my music and have privacy if I want. 
I love coffee. I like to experiment with different flavors. Starbucks employees are knowledgeable about what I am ordering.

It has a comfortable environment allowing you to read, study, and visit with friends.

There are convenient locations both to my office and home.

So, when I read that Starbucks announced it was pulling its Hear Music Kiosks I was not surprised. While the idea of having music available to Starbucks customers was a great idea, the way it was delivered was not.

The kiosks, which allow you to chose from more than 150,000 songs and burn them to a CD, did not allow the customer to download directly to their iPod. (Which made me and other lose interest immediately). I personally haven’t bought a CD from a store in well over a year. I regularly use iTunes instead - a change that many have gone to.

To read about the Hear Music Kiosks click here (http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asp?id=448&cookie%5Ftest=1).

John Moore was right on target when he said the following:

Starbucks has been successful because it made the coffee experience uncommonly better. So uncommonly better that we gladly pay a premium for it. Using that mindset, the Starbucks CD-burning stations have been unsuccessful because they failed to make the music download experience uncommonly better. It’s far easier for us to download music using our own computers than it is using the Starbucks CD-burning kiosk.

This CD-burning venture was doomed to fail from the start. Launching the service without the ability for customers to download music directly to their mp3 player was a major misstep. Starbucks may have attained success if they launched the service with mp3 downloads directly to a customer’s mp3 player. As a Starbucks consumer, I would be more apt to enjoy a latte while using their wi-fi service to download music from iTunes directly to my laptop than to sit down at the Hear Music kiosk, navigate through the clunky interface, and burn a music CD.

Starbucks representatives have said that the company is reworking the Hear Music idea. I wonder if they will embrace including the mp3 player in their next venture.

Music via La La

I spent several hours last night burning long-lost CDs to my computer and updating my iPod.  Which is why this caught my eye this morning:  New website allows users to trade CDs

Lala.com launched yesterday in “closed beta” form, which means users have to be invited to participate until the site goes live in July.  "La la" essentially pairs those who want with those who have and charges $1 per CD trade.  It’s received a mixed-reaction upon its debut. Mike at Tech Dirt is not a huge fan:   

If this company sounds familiar, that's because its model is identical to Peerflix, a company that launched last year -- except for DVDs instead of CDs. As we pointed out last year, there's a fundamental problem with the Peerflix model: people want to keep the good DVDs they have, while they're willing to trade the bad ones. In other words, markets like this get filled up with bad-to-mediocre content, rather than anything worthwhile.

The site can only be as good as the music content members are willing to trade.  USA Today's Kevin Maney explains why this site can legally work:

Because its users trade original, physical CDs, it is totally legitimate. It infringes on no copyright laws, unlike file-sharing on sites such as Kazaa.

Therein lies the "catch" for digital music listeners. On the "la la" website, co-founder Bill Nguyen makes this request:

I ask you to do your part by doing the right thing: remove songs from your iPod or PC if you've agreed to send the CD to another member.

Now obviously I understand that this is what makes such a trading site legal. However… really?  Is it even realistic to think people will remove all songs before trading the CD? Tech Dirt also thinks this could prove to be an issue:

While the article (USA Today) also notes that this is "legal," it leaves out the fact that if you trade your CDs while keeping ripped copies of the song, then you're no longer in such good legal shape.  And, of course, given the recording industry's historic view towards any such activities, it seems unlikely that they'll look kindly on this offering.

But, one of the most unique things about "la la" is the company's effort to include the industry.  Bill Nguyen says he is reaching out to record labels. His pitch:

Through trading, users typically will get only 10% to 20% of the CDs they want. For the CDs not available through trading, record companies could offer La La users new CDs or downloads...  Nguyen says he wants to funnel a cut of La-La's profits back to artists whose CDs get traded.

Interesting concept, but it sounds like an effort to get the record company executives to leave "la la" alone.

So, will the site work?  Honestly, I’m not sure.  One snag might lie in the fact that users must make a physical (albeit small) effort to mail CDs and have a little bit of patience. Patience is one thing that tends to be lacking in our “time is money” society.  With digital music sites such as iTunes, I can point, click and own. Once I pick an album on "la la", I have to wait a few days, or a few weeks even, before the CD shows up in my mailbox. With that said, I still think it's worth a try. I signed on to the beta and I'm going to give it a shot. I'll update in the coming weeks about my plunge into "la la" land.   

The Death of Shared Experience

In the last quarter of 2005 alone, Apple sold 14 million iPods.  According to The Washington Post, that brings the total number of iPods sold to 42 million.  If all of those had been sold in the U.S., that would mean one iPod for every 7 Americans. 

I believe that the iPod will have a profound impact on how we, as a society, experience entertainment -- music, of course, but increasingly television and movies as well.  iPods are designed for solitary viewing and listening.  They certainly permit unprecedented flexibility in how, when, and where we can absorb media.  Yet iPods are also isolating.  Those little white headphones seal off the media experience into individual listening or viewing stations, silent and separate from other listeners and viewers. 

Tobi Elkin, execute editor of MediaPost, wrote in her daily column ("Just An Online Minute" (requires registration)) yesterday that "widespread access to music via downloads has led to a certain kind of listener apathy and lack of emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation."  I think she hit on something here: the power of shared experience, whether it's going to a concert, seeing a movie, or even watching a TV show with friends, adds to the enjoyment and depth of a media or cultural experience.  Watching a movie alone, where humor isn't reinforced by hearing the laughter of others, or listening to music in silent, hermetically sealed pods, is definitely different from the shared experience of sitting in a theater or concert hall.  There's something missing.

The world of pop culture is clearly moving past the era of shared experience: on January 27th, Steven Soderbergh will release his new movie, "Bubble," simultaneously in theaters, on DVD, and via high-definition cable TV. Of course, no one knows yet how the movie's going to do, or if it's any good.  But this new strategy is a sign of things to come.

I am reminded of a U2 concert I attended in 2004 -- my sharpest memory of the show was of Bono singing "Where the Streets Have No Name," running around a heart-shaped track that edged deep into the swelling crowd. It was an unforgettable moment -- 20,000 people singing in unison as Bono's booming voice filled the huge space with that powerful song.  I can listen to "Streets" on my iPod whenever I want, but the unique experience of that live show will remain with me forever.