Without a Yard

Just received notice that my picks for the Top 20 Toronto Albums Ever
have been posted to Soundproof Magazine's website today. Please to
mosey on over to check out the fine writing at Soundproof here at the homepage or jump straight away to the T-dot list-off here

Awesome to see that my favs Final Fantasy, Neil Young, Hayden
and Holy Fuck made the final list. Enough self promotion + self
referencing for today - off to rest + catch up on reading tomorrow -
went down a rabbit hole past coupla days so I apologize for delayed
correspondance.

Peace
Meegs

One of the good things about working for a massive co is interating with tons of people with such different backgrounds & interests. STepping outside your comfort zone by going to stuff like MESH, keeping up on nerdy Queen’s Park stuff, geeking out at SXSW & eventually mashing up all that random information & energy into what I hope will be a future job title (like this blog - pretty good start)….Anyway, we have a great crew that shares information/thoughts/links about online forums/tech that is a highlight of my day (besides demo-ing Segways in the office to celebrate Clean Air Commute Week, which is pretty kickass, IMHO….)
Anyway, since I’ve been truant on the blog - I thought I’d ust start posting some of the stuff that I’ve contributed to the tech crew recently…

As hype for the iPhone reaches a fever pitch south of the 49th….here are two entertainment genres that can’t risk NOT moving their content onto mobile platforms (Apple or otherwise) – Sports & Music.

The Sunday NY Times ran a long piece that centered on the efforts of ESPN (maj-owned by Disney) to appeal to young eyeballs w/ new mobile content….. They’ve named a SVP dedicated to digital/mobile content and are leading the charge (w/ other young-centric brands like MTV & Fox, who slapped a TM on the word ‘mobisodes’ – barf.) to routinize TV-watchers into checking scores, clips & commentary on their phones.

Outside of the sports-y theme are some interesting stats from Forrester Research’s study worth tracking (& speculating how long it will be until #s double/skyrocket):

44 percent of (all-ages) cellphone owners use data services like video or the Internet on their phones (how long until this ‘flips’ to 66%?)
Of these data-service users:
88 percent use messaging, mostly text messaging
25 percent surf the Web
7 percent watch videos
75+ percent of 18- to 26-year-olds use some data service — compared messaging, downloading, watching video and surfing

Unfortunately, the NY Times doesn’t disclose the uptake on downloading Mp3s or streaming music content on phones – but Friday’s Plugged/Unplugged column in Billboard highlights a brilliant, almost-universal-format, affordable, intuitive subscription service called MusicStation that launched in Sweden. The service adds $4 to your phone bill for unlimited downloads – unheard of in CDA. In the states, AT&T offers free Napster if you buy-in for internet/wireless – also not an option here.

Since content providers in CDA are obsessed with getting some returns on low-cost content - what are the opportunities for sponsored free content on a mobile platform? Why aren’t more companies jumping at opportunties to subsidize subscriptions with the promise that a service provider integrates branded backgrounds, screensavers, Mp3s, ringtones, etc….just a thought.

Just got out of tonight's sold out (+ scorching hot - in more ways
than one…). Rufus Wainwright show. What a delightful summer mimosa
of charisma and musicianship. Rufus absolutely charmed the sweltering
crowd (FYI no blaring a/c in the Danforth Music Hall a la regular
retail and office locations throughout the GTA - this would be
considered blasphemous and a basic human rights violation in ATX…)
with his banter, anecdotes, b.s., and JUDY GARLAND FILLED REPERTOIRE.
I was in fag-hag heaven. Move over Tina Turner because after seeing
RW in heels tonight there is a new 'hot legs' in the music business.
All ages, shapes and sizes filled the 2nd sold-out show and patiently
observed Bodega's Andrew Rodeiguez (low-rent version of the
Wallflowers covering The Band records, but with some
'did-he-jusy-say-that lyrics like 'jumpstart my soul' and too-frequent
references to breakfast).

I'm seriously entertaining the possibility of revising my vacation
requests to align with September's Hollywood Bowl Garland Gigs….

Where can the fine line between fandom + stalking really be drawn???

Ponderables before bed….

Peace
Meegs

For a brilliant glimpse at the ridiculousness of copyright legislation….Check out directors Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke’s well-edited (& well-soundtracked) overview.

Go to this Google Video link to watch a 1 hour documentary called ‘Good Copy Bad Copy’

The directors interview tons of copyright experts, record label peeps - bt more interestingly (my fav) Girl Talk, Danger Mouse and copyleft guru Lawrence Lessig.

If you don’t want to stream online through Google Video - you can grab it via BitTorrent or go to the main site & download it.

The Creative Commons also has a page devoted to the documentary here.

Fundamental Question: What is the purpose of copyright? Think about this for a bit before you watch the doc & then see if it changes how you felt afterwards….

Don’t count your posts before you’ve blogged. A link in the hand is worth two in the blog…Dunno what to call the simul-casting but before this goes up on the employer’s site tomorrow, I thought I’d throw it up here first….I have some other random musings & thoughts, but I’ll save that for a coupla days…

Being a rabid music geek and frequent music blogger, I tend to make (somewhat tenuous) links between the tech sector and the music scene. Despite my bias, there are some legitimately interesting early-social-media-technology-adopters in the music industry that are worth keeping an eye on for the entire public relations practice.

Not only did these two cases stand out from my music+tech perspective, they also reinforced some of the main themes covered in this year’s MESH conference.

First, throughout the MESH conference, pundits and indies were frequently asked to predict future trends. Consistently, keynotes and attendees discussed the huge potential for Virtual Reality & Avatars.

This week’s report from Billboard Magazine demonstrates the power of avatars for use in a branded capacity. Both 50 Cent & Kelly Clarkson – two polar opposite ‘brands’ in the music world – have inked deals with a company called Gizmoz.

In my opinion, this resonates far beyond American Apparel’s creation of a store in Second Life – this is giving users an opportunity to email greetings, custom-made videos, jokes and Mp3s to their friends via celebs’ cartoonified talking heads – which could have massive viral payback. (Link to the Billboard Article can be found here)

Second, also from Billboard via BBC, a recent write-up demonstrates the power of social media sites, which was a central theme of the MESH conference.

The exponential growth of widget tools, which are applications enhancing the experience and personalizing user pages on services such as Facebook, boggles the mind.

So far, the most popular widgets are inter-mingled and crossbred from other social media sites, such as MOG and iLike’s music sharing/quizzing/concert tracking additions to the Facebook interface.

It is worth noting that a simple, quirky and catchy widget can spread like wildfire over a social media site – it has the potential to make a brand ubiquitous to an entire set of users, almost by osmosis. (Link to BBC Article from Billboard archive can be found here)

Please post freely about your predictions for the widget’s future and the avatar’s role outside of ‘traditional’ VR settings. I’m eager to read some differing views…