Marketing Tips for Web Video Series. Two views from creators of Compulsions http://bit.ly/dmCVf6 and http://bit.ly/9lzIP8

The post from CompulsionTV’s own site does refer to the excellent article by Pam Kulick but also adds some additional insights.

The points made in both articles are applicable to any independent project be it film,web video, tv or music.

If you want to learn about Web series marketing challenges and how to surmount them, then you will enjoy this account of launching the Web series, Compulsions.  As the marketing lead for Compulsions, I can attest that they were formidable:

• No brand sponsors or advertising partners
• No Web TV Network Partner or distribution strategy
• No marketing budget
• No launch strategy
• No clear-cut genre
• Mediocre Web site
• No previous Web series credentials for the creator
• Eight episodes
• Needed to launch by December 2009 for Streamy Award qualification (Holiday Season)

Is Television Advertising For Old People? http://bit.ly/aQofqy

With a median age of 51, that makes more than half of those who watch prime time television are outside the desirable 18-45 demographic. More than half outside TV’s desired demographic. Hard to have a hit.

What does this mean for those content creators that rely on that distribution channel? Plan another approach; this one is nearing its use-by date!

So what does this mean for traditional content owners?

First, it means they are losing. They are losing their audience, which will ultimately translate into losing their revenue and relevance. If they do not commit to developing a meaningful audience off television, they will begin to lose their market capitalization.

Read on for implication two (Google and Apple are winning) and three (Technology is king over programming).

Autotranslation good enough for everyday conversations? http://bit.ly/9cb0VT

Nothing specifically about production and postproduction other than translation has been one of those “difficult” things for computers to get right – like assisted editing! 🙂  Apply the right algorithms and enough example data (Google’s big advantage) and it can improve.

I do like the idea of language no longer being a barrier to communication.

How have the machines become so adept? Mostly by using new “statistical” techniques. Instead of trying to teach a program the rules of language, computer scientists locate massive corpora of online documents previously translated by humans — say, UN proceedings, which are routinely available in six different languages, or bilingual newspapers. Then they train cloud computers to recognize which words and phrases match up across tongues.

That’s why Google is leading the pack: It’s best at finding oodles of documents to train its cloud. This method also means that the more the Web grows, the better our multilingual machines will get.

Also takes away the need for a world language, if translation is good enough.

Rumblefish to sell songs for use in YouTube videos http://yhoo.it/cKrjPm Smart move on Rumblefish’s part, and good for their artists

Rumblefish mostly represent independent musicians so you won’t find any major artists (or labels) in there, but there are about 35,000 songs to choose from, all with appropriately cleared licenses. This makes it good for YouTube videographers and additional revenue for the musicians.

Currently, YouTube videos that use music without a license can be deleted from the site, or can be partiallycovered with an ad that generates revenue for YouTube and the recording company.

Privately held Rumblefish, based in Portland, Ore., will be selling the licensed songs at its new website,FriendlyMusic.com.

Blu-ray Disc Association approves final BDXL format specs http://bit.ly/dbnog7

The BDXL specs allow for discs up to 128 GB: up against decreasing cost of hard drive storage and solid state storage, is a 128 GB disc going to change much?

Targeted primarily at commercial segments such as broadcasting, medical and document imaging enterprises with significant archiving needs, BDXL provides customers with triple layer 100GB RE (rewritable) and R (write-once) discs and quadruple layer 128GB R discs. Possible consumer applications include capture and playback of HD broadcast and satellite programming in markets where set-top recorders are prevalent.

FireFox 4 going Flash Free http://bit.ly/9QvVvX

Mozella Foundation say that HTML5 is the future.  OTOH Google are bundling Flash with their Chrome Browser, which is rapidly catching up to FireFox in users.Not particularly polite about the reasoning:

“We’re trying to balance the reality of the web today,” explains Sullivan. “Flash is there. Our users are going to use it, and it’s going to crash. We want to protect them from that. But over time, we really believe that HTML5 is the future.”