Month: July 2010

Categories
Distribution Item of Interest

YouTube testing hybrid HTML5/Flash Embeds

YouTube testing hybrid HTML5/Flash embeds http://bit.ly/9Gxsdr

Just another data point along the way but it does seem Flash is slowly falling out of favor. Vimeo added HTML 5 support in January and pretty much every content distribution network now has support for HTML5 as well as Flash. YouTube’s owner, Google, is one of the major HTML5 proponents.

Since launching its HTML5 player, YouTube has offered a similar viewing experience on its own site, though the convenience was not carried out to embedded videos. Instead, these linked to the clip in an Adobe Flash wrapper, which mobile devices like the iPhone and Android could identify and re-route to the source clip, but browsers without that logic built-in would see nothing at all. The new code fixes that.

Categories
Business & Marketing Item of Interest

Amanda Palmer Sells $15,000 of music and merchandize in 3 minutes.

Amanda Palmer Sells $15,000 Worth Of Music & Merch In Three Minutes http://bit.ly/aSX730

Amanda Palmer, recently dropped by her record label to her great pleasure, has been experimenting with different revenue models to fund her music. (Note I didn’t say “selling her music”.) She’s a big believer in the Techdirt formula of Connect with Fans and give them a Reason to Buy (something) and you have profit. Or at least a decent income for the work of making music.

From our view here at Bandcamp HQ, yesterday’s launch of Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele less resembled a record release than a coordinated strike of ravenous piranha. In one three minute period, her fanbase snapped up $15,000 in music and merch. It didn’t let up much from there: 4,000 digital EPs were sold, the vinyl sold out, most of the high end packages disappeared in minutes, and at the time of this writing, it looks like every other package will be gone in a matter of days

Different options giving fans different places to connect, including a “pay what you like” option. The money is there but artists have to “think different”. Remember, if you have 1000 real fans, who can be provided with something of $10 value a month (on average) in music, merchandise, tickets or participation, then that’s a comfortable $120K a year.

Categories
Item of Interest

What a reason to buy!

What a reason to buy”! http://bit.ly/bThyDa

I think I’ve mentioned here before of Techdirt’s CwF+RtB=profit where Connect with Fans who you give a reason to buy (something, not necessarily the media) is the modern secret to profiting from creative endeavors.

Well Indian cricket star Shirshendu Mandal is writing a book that has a special edition, for only $75,000, has one page that is partly printed with his blood. So far 10 people have signed up, which makes the income a whole lot better than the average publisher’s advance!

An odd ‘reason to buy’ and probably another in the “gimmick” category (brilliant but wouldn’t work for everyone) but it shows creativity.

Categories
Business & Marketing Distribution Media Consumption

What is my beef with advertising?

Yesterday’s post about $10 being the “magical figure” for video-on-the-web from prime sources, and I basically said that there’s no way I’d pay for a service that included advertising. I hate advertising: it’s intrusive and about 99.9976% irrelevant to my needs or interests.

I also hate advertising for another reason: it’s an economic intrusion on my life. It costs me far, far more than the benefit that Hulu – or a network – gets from advertising even though they’re charging more than they would normally get from advertising.

Here’s why. Typically a major network TV show will garner 25-65c per viewer per show. Very occasionally a top-rating, network-leading show might crack 85c per viewer per show.

Now, an “hour” long TV is is 42 – 44 minutes, not 60. The other 16-18 minutes are advertising. My time to watch those ads has a finite value and it’s not an equitable one at all.

Hulu does not have anywhere near the ad load of a Network but there’s less inventory so the same ads keep repeating in a very annoying fashion. Let’s say that there are 5 x 20 second spots in each 45 minute show. At best Hulu will be getting 65c from those five ads, more likely they’ll be getting a fraction of that, but let’s be generous.

At my charge-out hourly rate, that 2.5 minutes costs me $6.25!!! At my nominal salary rather than charge-out rate that’s still $2.79!! An average plumber would have a $3.33 opportunity cost from the advertising!

So, Hulu Plus wants to charge me $10 a month and then cost me $2.79 for every show to cover my attention to the show. Every single show I watch. Since we watch very little TV, way under 2 hours a day, that’s an additional (using the extremely generous 65c per hour show figure) $78 in revenue to Hulu Plus, although given the size of Hulu’s audience I doubt they get even 20c per viewer per hour show making that closer to $24 in advertising revenue.

But that time has cost me $334.80 for the month in attention.

And that, Hulu, is why you can’t have it both ways.

And before you all start in the comments, watching any TV is an opportunity cost. I choose to do that but I choose not to watch advertising because watching the advertising adds an additional $335 in opportunity cost to watch the advertising.

The cost to me is 4.3 to 16.5 times higher than the benefit to Hulu. I guess I’ve just convinced myself that a Hulu-like service, that I can watch on my TV and covers all programming ever made, will be worth $20 a month to me. Without advertising. With advertising it’s just too expensive.

PS, the numbers supporting advertising still don’t make sense at even more modest salaries. AT $20 an hour, the five Hulu ads still “cost” 83c up against a maximum revenue at Hulu of 65c (and more likely 20c). Monthly opportunity cost at $20 an hour is $59.40 for Hulu’s $79 down to $24 in revenue.

Categories
3D Item of Interest

New technology allows users to “feel” 3D images.

New technology allows users to literally “feel” 3D images http://bit.ly/dvgjSd

Quite possibly the early days of the Star Trek ‘holodeck’:

The key piece of technology is a special touch sensor that emits feedback to the user’s hand and is able to manipulate it into feeling like the actual object that is being displayed. The 3D images themselves, though, can be projected on something as ordinary as a Samsung 3D TV.

It’s still a long way from visible light beings that have solid form, but I imagine the sensation is more real – even with goggles – than regular 3D.

Still, I have to contemplate the thought that the most likely initial use of this technology will be for more baser pursuits.

Categories
Business & Marketing Item of Interest

“Pay what you want” benefits companies, consumers, charities!

“Pay what you want” benefits companies, consumers, charities http://bit.ly/d9yk1l

When pay nothing is an option, there will be a group of people who will pay nothing, but like Radiohead found, the total revenue from pay-what-you-want can be (is always?) higher. This article is interesting because they tried a number of strategies that took average profit per person from 6-7c with the normal fixed price option, up to 20c per person.

According to the authors, the “pay what you want” strategy works because it allows companies to chare social responsibility with consumers. When buyers are able to set prices in a way that directly shows their support for a cause, everybody wins.

Categories
Item of Interest

Meet Milo: Microsoft’s virtual 4 year old boy!

Meet Milo: Microsoft’s virtual four-year-old boy who acts just like a real child http://bit.ly/dloL4V

Another “loose Artificial Intelligence” story, which catches my interest because this type of AI will eventually be intruding on production and post production by automating some editing away from people (who I still think will need to finish the project to give it heart).

The player’s voice commands and physical movements are picked up by an infra-red sensor which works with artificial intelligence to interpret the player’s intonation and meaning, and respond accordingly.

On demonstrations his conversation is utterly believable and he replies to questions just like a real four-year-old.

If you can analyze it, you can reproduce it.

Categories
Item of Interest

$10 is the ‘magic’ digital-media price point

$10 is the ‘magic’ digital-media figure http://bit.ly/ammnd0

Tell you what Hulu Plus, make it $15 and advertising free, and we can talk. While you charge me *and* place advertising, there’s no deal.

In fact that’s inspired me to another post you’ll see tomorrow.

Categories
Item of Interest

Porn Industry Weighs In On Flash vs HTML5 Video

Porn Industry Weighs In On Flash vs. HTML5 Video Debate http://bit.ly/aRIB1i

And of course, by mobile devices not playing Flash well, that would be all but the most recent release of Android. Since there’s a demand for adult content on portable devices (let’s just say iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad have some influence here) the producers have been following the market and:

While the whole Flash vs. HTML5 video debate started making headlines a few months ago, the porn industry had already been a long time HTML5 video user.  Why?  Because they wanted to push their content to mobile devices and Flash caused too many issues.  Or as Ali Joone, founder of Digital Playground (a porn giant) stated “HTML5 is the future”.

Yes, increasingly the future – and for simple video playback we’re good to go as soon as we get some agreement among browsers or browser share changes – but right now there are some areas where Flash shines (streaming and rights management in particular are of interest to video distributors).

The former is under control and real time HTML5 streaming is nearly a reality. The other should be dealt with by changing business models instead of trying to King Canute-like hold back the inevitable tide of change.

Categories
Item of Interest

Publishers Need Popcorn, Not Paywalls.

Publishers Need Popcorn, Not Paywalls http://bit.ly/cYCVkG

Until I read this article I had no idea that popcorn was so important to the cinema business. According to the article I had no idea that popcorn – along with improved movie technology and enhanced movie-going experience (air conditioning) – helped save the motion picture exhibition business.

Think of cinema, the great survivor of 20th century media. What did cinema owners do when the US economy tanked in the 1920s and 30s? As well as innovating the product (introducing sound, then colour), the packaging (offering double bills), and the user experience (introducing air-conditioning), they also found a new revenue stream that ultimately saved their business — popcorn.

We think of the movies as a content-based business but cinemas then as now make their profit from popcorn (which has an operating margin in excess of 90%). It also drives additional revenue streams by making you thirsty. And somehow it’s become an integral part of the content experience. What 21st century media businesses must do now, as they rebuild themselves, is find their popcorn.

The author wonders that, instead of erecting the paywalls around newspaper content online (which are proving spectacularly unsuccessful):

We may speculate as to whether 2%, or 5%, or 10% of Times readers will pay for the paper’s content online in the face of competition from free rivals. We will have to see. But we have plenty of evidence that consumers do spend money online on products and services. Indeed, online news fans are even more likely than the average online user to buy books, tickets, travel, or clothing online. The key is not to monetize the content but to monetize the audience.