… I agree. Still, here’s some of the places where you can get my album ‘The Anger’. (Just a bit of a reservation; I have not compiled this list, just stolen the picture from digital distributor, some of the places below may not have my album… their loss!)

*Sjugge is Jurgen Verhasselt. You can find him here.

Digital Media Wire was in town today at the swanky Hotel Kabuki delivering its intimate brand of confab, where content and technology is shaken not stirred, and thought leaders hunker down to vision the future of digital media.  Del Daix of the Examiner.com and Julie Robin Blaustein of Bub.blicio.us were there blogging as well.  Here is Julie’s post, and Del’s video, and here is our summary:

Jay Adelson, Digg/Revision3, @jayadelson
Recently moved from Upstate NY to Marin, tweeps helped find transport at www.shipyourreptiles.com for family gecko not allowed on plane.  Picked SF because @kevinrose was single and easy, would have worked anywhere except LA which is way too Hollywood.  Digg has two gs because Disney owned dig.com, half-joked about how catchy a one consonant, one vowel, two consonant word is like Buzz.  Digg was first coded by someone at elance who they later hired.  Love angels Marc Andreeson, Ron Conway, Reed Hoffman, for VCs looked more at who would be a great partner (Greylock, Highland Capital) than who had big pedigree (KPCB, Sequoia).  Chapter in Sarah Lacy’s (@sarahcuda) Once Lucky, Twice Good book. Pay wall will be print’s doom.  Impressed with CNN.com, likes the way Paranormal leveraged social media.  Digg is a discovery mechanism, a news aggregator catering to niche interests, lies somewhere between the Twitter firehose of unvetted breaking news and five guys in a room vetting stories based on yesterday’s news.  Google is for search, social media is for filtering.  10% of Digg users power relevance for the other 90%.  Digg’s content ads appear in-stream, pricing based on popularity, if its gets digged, price goes down, high CTRs of 2-3%, if buried priced goes up, bad content ads gets priced out, fewer buries than diggs.  (Similar to StumbleUpon’s offering)  Watch for platform redesign from uberdigg one-size-fits-all to microdiggs focus on verticals. Digg is hiring and dog-friendly!

Curt Marvis, Lionsgate
Lionsgate has direct deals with XBox, PS3, ZillionTV and is on Boxee, TiVo and Roku via CinemaNow, awaiting more information on Yahoo! Connected TV (SDK out 1Q10).  Founded CinemaNow 6/99, 9 years too early.  Heads up Lionsgate VOD, traditional (broadcast, satellite), EST digital, Xbox, liaison to FearNet, Epix (Lionsgate/Paramount/MGM venture debutting on FiOS this Friday), Break.com.  Works on new revenue models, webisodes, mobisodes, iPhone games.  There is a big difference in philosophy between Silicon Valley and Hollywood.  The technology business is based on versioning, programmers are never finished they just tweak it in the next version.  In the content business you just don’t see Mad Man 1.0, 1.2, they wait til its perfect to release.  This difference in mindset puts Hollywood at odds with Silicon Valley and worked against the early entrants of Paramount and Universal into digital, they saw it sucked and backed off paving the way for Broadcast.com, Real Networks.. In some ways CD-ROMs were the warm up act to the internet.   In 2010, two of the most disruptive businesses in Hollywood are not even digital: Netflix delivers physical DVDs via the US Postal Service and Redbox via grocery store kiosks.  Digital is only 4% of the studios revenue.  Won’t hit $1B this year.  Yet VG is huge.  Reason why Lionsgate is moving into gaming.  DECE, the digital entertainment content ecosystem, formerly the open market initiative, is a group of 50 companies working to create interoperability between devices…DVDs were released after 10 years of working on standardization..but standardization and interoperability are key to creating a broad base around digital distribution.  Keychest, TV Everywhere moving in that direction…playshifting…pay once, use anywhere.  Windows will start closing.

John Welch, Making Fun
Problem with Redbox is that right now it is not capturing the customer relationship like Netflix, will make it harder to transition to digital.  Studios spend lots of money to stop piracy, pointless.  Can’t stop piracy in a linear model.  FB has made a lot of money giving game developers a platform to make money off of VG, the developers in turn buy ads on FB to drive traffic to their games.  Free is the ultimate low, as far as I know, we’re not paying users yet, can’t teach users to pay for something new, must emerge them deeply first, free is a big funnel, tease them through the compulsion loop, play faster, want to do next thing now, embrace free, find a way.

Jon Potter, Digital Media Association
Ambassador organization for the digital media industry: webcasters, tech co, online music and video retailers, Board comprised of Apple, Best Buy/Napster, Live 365, Pandora, RealNetworks.  Sponsor of the Digital Media Conference, Billboard Film & TV Music, CTIA, MUSEXPO, Streaming Media, SFMT, MEFCON, NARM, World Copyright Summit, NXNE, ACL, Digital Music Forum, Billboard Mobile Entertainment Live, Entertainment Merchant’s Association…  Studios are not willing to experiment with business model, they wait til it’s perfect, why mess with their cash cow.  Studios would like to leapfrog MSO to go direct to customer.  Maybe that’s what Keychest is all about.

Mike Vorhaus, Magid Advisors
Hulu is DVR without skipping.  19% of US households use Netflix.  58% of 18-54y believe piracy is ok – need to make content a service, like gaming is become a service.

Scott Brown, Cisco Media Solutions Group
No longer a debate whether content or platform is king, the customer is king.  Thee is no single magic bullet, must embrace multiple revenue streams – ad, subscription, premium, upgrades..  Here is Scott’s blog post:  blogs.cisco.com

Daren Tsui, MSpot
Started 5 years ago, added video 3 years ago, now has 40mm users.

Ted Cohen, TAG Strategic
If featured in an Apple commercial, that’s your campaign.  Too many low priced crapplications crowding the market.

Kate Connally, AddictingGames, @kateconnally
Each generation has something that is there own, the phone is the under 20y screen, my job is to make sure that generation is entertained.  We have the best free flash games on the web, we’re the online equivalent of the teenage movie.  We’re not in this to prove something, we’re in this to make money.  Incorporating music into causal game play is one of the most exciting things happening.  Apple’s move to allow in-app transactions for free games is big.  Will be interesting to see how this new engagement will be factored in to Apple’s deck.  Every game distributed on iNetwork has cross-promotion for 5 other games. (Co-publishers can upload here) Also to ensure success work closely with Apple to identify type of apps they’re looking for.  Brands can use gadgets to weave deeply into lives of fans.  AG is a strong brand in english-speaking countries particularly the US (home page has 27mm monthly uniques), haven’t made push into Asia yet.

Allen Duan, MTV Networks
MTV is working with RealNetworks on games and apps.  It’s an iterative process, ok to make mistakes.  iTunes app store provides a great feedback loop, comments told us that South Park’s Mega-Millionaire, where the boys try to win one million yen, was missing a voice over element that was important to audience.  Now have a Colbert app with segments of The Word, has charted in the Top Ten.  China has the largest flash mobile phone user base.  Own WW rights to SpongeBob, work with local team that understands the market.

Madeline Herdrich, Paramount Pictures Digital
Apps are great for theatrical marketing.  Paramount is about to release a Star Trek Captain’s Log app where trekkies can interact on a daily basis, record voice, picture, travels, will interact with Star Trek MMO.  (Many in the audience were very excited) Recently did deal with MSpot to provide movies on Sprint, Samsung’s large screen device – doing very well.  Also make clips available to send as greeting cards.  Working on original content for web and mobile.  The economy slowed development down a bit but good days ahead.  Phones with TV out will allow you to watch movies on phone on a TV set.  As a member of DECE, Paramount backs the buy once, play anywhere business model.

Rani Cohen, TuneWiki
Picture Pandora with lyrics… Music has a $.99 problem, once the track is bought, what is the upsell.  TuneWiki uses the track as a platform and sells game and lyrics products on top.  With TuneWiki you can buy a karaoke track with the real band playing, not the copy band.  Insisted on worldwide publishing rights for the lyrics so can sell in China and Japan where TuneWiki is expected to be huge.

Jason Davis, Disney.com
Game-changers on the horizon – 1.  WiMax ubiquitous connection – providing a constant broadband connection everywhere and anywhere, 2.  computing power plateaus (netbook trend) rethinking production of content, what makes sense for that platform, what’s good enough to bring costs in line with economics without compromising experience, 3.  all consumer devices become network aware and PC disappears.  2y old son not talking yet but knows iTunes icon, how to launch it and can start and pause his favorite videos.  He’s part of a generation growing up digital.  Key media and digital trends over past 10 years:  entertainment on demand(dvr, streaming, download), broadband, mobile, games, social media, UGC.  For the younger kids the connected space is games, for the older kids it’s more about video and music sharing.  Most don’t use cell phones to make calls.  It’s about texting, photos, games, videos, music, web. Disney.com #1 mobile site in US – majority access site via iPod Touch.  Disney is about family and kids, we care about rich unique content that doesn’t push boundaries but provides a safe fun experience that’s age-appropriate, we are a content provider in a connected world across all devices from those in your palm to those in the kitchen,car and beyond.  Disney formula – (Content + Audience)/Digital Connection.  Competition years ago was Barbie, Sesame Street, Hot Wheels, Yahtzee, Monopoly, Nick, Zelda, TV, phone… now it’s YouTube, Xbox, FreeRealms, Clone Wars, JustJaredJr, Mattel, Babycenter, Twitter.  Nintendo once a competitor is now a partner – supermonetize Club Penguin on DS tie back to site, one of the top selling DS games.   Disney.com is not just a website, but an online destination, an online theme park, an entertainment experience.  Watch for Muppets holiday themed content, mom page for family travel, possibility shop, create paintings, comic books, mashups, animate…  In first 5 weeks, 175,000 pieces of artwork were uploaded to site.  Safe UGC for kids.  Now Disney.com is an iPhone app with snap a photo fun…  For the non-family fans of the Disney brand, there is @Disney023 geared toward the brand Disney, formed in 1923, this summer first D23 trekkie-like convention big hit.  FB Alice in Wonderland for Tim Burton, Johnny Depp fanboys, 50,000 fans signed on at Comic-Con competition continuing to feed fandom for IP.

Craig Newmark, Craigslist, @craignewmark
Now a Chronicle columnist, committed to customer service only as long as I live, believe you take care of your customers and you’ll succeed.  We rely on professional curators to some degree, but mostly we rely on people we trust.  Trust is the new black.  Reads Tim Goodman for TV to watch.  Like HuffPo.  Invests time in Wikipedia because it’s for the ages, where we’re putting our history now.  Agrees with Tech Crunch:  transparency is the new objectivity.  TechCrunch has an honest bias.  John Stewart gives no pretense of objectivity.  Would pay to block ads on Hulu, content creators and curators need to get paid, next year will see a change.Is there a place for record labels now?   The absurdity of CNN fact-checking SNL.  Re:  The Interenet Freedom Act (Net Neutrality) which allows ISPs to charge as much as they want for poor service.  It’s wrong that telcos are allowed to pay people to lie for them and mislead the public with sites like handsoff.org.  Telecos are using a public resource and should be acting in the public interest.  Believe most people are good and trustworthy, reason why streets are safe, still need to be careful, there are some bad people out there, but for the most part people are good.  The reason why you hear more from crazies is because moderates have stuff to do.  These days if you don’t have a social media strategy, you’re a tree falling in the woods.  Very accessible, feel free to email in the afternoons at craig@craigslist.org or on Twitter @craignewmark, or on facebook.com/craignewmark.  Blog is at www.cnewmark.com.

Richard Hart, Next Step
Al Gore was on hand at Current TV in San Francisco yesterday as pink slips were handed out.  Don’t always need polished media these days, read a lot build own pictures in head.

Adeo Rossi, Founders Institute & TheFunded.com
VCs keep a long blacklist.  CEOs are fearful to share key insights on who best to partner with for funding.  Recognized a market need for a subpeona-proof anonymous forum for CEOs to safely share unbiased information.  Use gmail because its also subpeona-proof.  Only CEOs allowed in the Club, each applicant is background checked, so far have 13,000 members.  Not looking to monetize, only 1000 hits per month.  If you see something on the public site, it’s likely not true, its a shill.  The VCs on the top of the list love TheFunded because they see a lot more deals.  Re: trends, happy to see the death of newspapers:  landfill makers, forest killers, banking OPM and the combustion engine.  Eventhough FAS 157 says Twitter is not worth $1B, rather worth $0, and in tough times failure is not an option (referencing yesterday’s FailCon) – its a great time to build!  Yes, Build!  Traction path:  idea, team, prototype, launch, adoption, revenue, profitability.  To launch TheFunded, invested $1500 for VC directory, made available to members-only as incentive to join, asked friends to populate with first 30 reviews.  btw:  Netflix marks to market salaries for all employees.

Kevin Yen, YouTube, @kevinyen
Heads up monetization for channel partners and branded entertainment.  Channel partners find YouTube additive, reaches different people.  Insight tool super-powerful analytics tells you demo of who is watching.  When someone is searching for content, they’re engaged, they’re looking to go to another page, whereas when someone is watching a video, they’re in watching mode, more likely to click on the next video.  YouTube is bullish on branded entertainment and you will start to see a lot of it.  Industry is trying to figure out how to scale it to a $100-$200mm business.  If channel partners integrate a brand, all they need to do is check a box.  YouTube stars are in high demand, like Fred and Smosh.  They are choosy about the projects they accept, know the value of they’re audience and won’t betray their fans by selling out.  There is a set than can drive 1mm+ views, and a set that can drive 100,000+ views, and both sets are getting custom promotion work.  Brands like Carl’s Jr and Jet Blue like using social media stars.  The new FTC guidelines on blogger endorsements doesn’t apply to branded entertainment.  The content is entertainment, it’s not the same as news or medical advice.

Anthony Soohoo, CBS Interactive
CBS is not on the boxes yet, not on Xbox, PS3, TiVo, Roku, Boxee, ZillionTV or Y! Measurement is a barrier .  For branded entertainment, the challenge is putting the right content in front of the right audience, have 20 types of branded entertainment shows slated.  Watch for Michael Cera’s Clark & Michael to make a comeback on TV.com.  As far as paid v free, dual revenue stream, subscription comes up every recession, it will cycle back when ad rebounds, CBS is happy with ad model, offers a hybrid, sell shows via iTunes, DVDs, offer them free on TV.com.  Some like ad-supported tv, web, others want to own.  Will start to see some interactivity, has a place in fashion shows and red carpet events, watch for Victoria’s Secret happening in coming weeks.  For brand awareness sometimes overlay works better.  Metrics tracking viewership across all screens will be huge next year.  Experimenting with 360 UGC tie-ins, did I Kissed a Girl singalong contest for the Grammy’s, winners won tickets and appeared on the CBS Morning Show.

Joy Marcus, Dailymotion
60mm monthly uniques, 10mm in US.  We’re a distributor, and syndicator, but don’t produce original content.  DM, like YouTube, provide an audience that is additive to our MotionMakers, demo:  high income, urban, techie.  Re Hulu’s rumored paywall, Hulu is a DM partner, we love Hulu with its gorgeous interface, but the inventory is spotty, can’t always find all the episodes, might be worth it to some to pay for it.  I remember when paid + music = ridiculous til iTunes provided a must have product. DM hosts contests all day long.  For the MTV Awards, did a movie spoof UGC contest, very large submission numbers.  Branded entertainment is here to stay, wouldn’t have said this 5 years ago, but the demand from advertisers is very strong, works well for marketers or they wouldn’t be asking for more.  Demand is so strong, we’re doing a road show looking for a production partner.  DM Motionmakers have been hired to produce commercials for brands, Coke, etc.  DM takes pride is fostering talent.  In the next month will be announcing a partnership for DM MotionMakers with a TV network.

Mitch Galbraith, Funny or Die
In the beginning made a decision to focus on making FOD a destination site to serve our celebrity principal partnerships, foster an environment for celebrity talent, frugal in-house production that never lets spending get ahead of web economics, in-house ad team.  Would send out widgets to recruit in the wild and bring back to the site, would see traffic bumps of 15-70% depending on the virality of the video.  Make $10mm a year, half of ad business is related to campaigns built around brands like McD, Norelco, Paramount…  We did a wildly popular spot for EA Sports with Charlize Theron…another one for MoveOn.org got 2.5mm views, entertaining, funny with brand message.  Make it good enough to mix into content pool, not in a sneaky way, its not misleading the public, they watch what they want to watch.  Right now there are no standards for branded entertainment but there isa group of publishers and advertisers working on it.  The Lindsay Lohan eHarmony spoof was not branded entertainment.  Now that FOD is well-established as a premiere comedy video brand and distribution has matured, we’re starting to syndicate our low-cost high-quality comedy content across web, tv, film.  11/09 FOD is launching a YouTube channel.  1/10 FOD is debuting a  half-hour show on HBO, and FOD’s first feature is in development.   TV is a huge opportunity, excited that Boxee and Macrovision are forging a path but its all pretty nascent, not where we invest.  Platform to discover talent, do look to develop talent and have sent producers on to SNL and Sony Pictures.

Stephen Condon, ATT Digital Media
On paywall, subscription is the flavor of the day, past experience says there is little money to be made from pay model apart from exclusive events not available elsewhere and those for niche audiences.  That said, having a pay option sets a perceived value for the content, user might be feel better sitting through ads if the alternative is to pay $10.  Looking forward to Macrovision’s (now Rovi’s) net guide on tv where you can search for program by name instead of just by day and time, and integrating personal video library.  Technology right now is a huge problem, no one wants 4 remotes, want seamless connection to TV.  Clickable video is tremendously impactful, lack of standards holding it up.

Tom DeLuca, Warner Home Video
Some budget are 100% online, some zero but mostly tv/web go hand in hand to be successful.  Trying to get more efficient with spending, go beyond the banner, love the engagement on Meebo, saw it and said we’re in.  Fan of mobile, LBS bluetooth marketing, couponing is untapped in US, looking to Asia.  Innovation drives decision.  Still an internal sell.  Marketers feel more comfortable with TV buy.  So pricing is key, budgets are very specific.  Want to know if we pay this, then these will be our brand evangelists.  There is a finite qualified audience and we know how much to pay for them.  Expect pricing to stay consistent.

Jim Louderback, Revision3, @jlouderb
At the point where long and short form content is going over the top, web video on tv is here, will take off with Roku’s new offering focused on indies: Revision3, TWiT.tv, etc.  Focused on emotional branding, where trusted host talks about sponsor, better reach to core group of millennial men, we get $80 CPMs for that.  It’s not an impression unless it makes an impression.  CPMs hold up when you deliver audience in a trusted way.  Premium content is whatever the audience wants, J&J bought Babycenter because they wanted new baby moms.  That’s premium content. Glam is half-premium, not specific enough within the women’s category.

In case you haven’t heard (or, to some of my friends, care) the TMNT property has been sold to Nickelodeon for roughly $60 million.  Well, every month I send to fanmail@ninjaturtles.com my reviews, and Dan Berger who manages the site politely links to the blog (netting in 222 views on this blog yesterday alone) if my reviews are positive (which consistently are).  There are also some responses to my reactions on my review of Tales of the TMNT #63, and Dan Berger’s writing of Marlin.  Anyway, since I was at the source of a lot of info, I couldn’t resist asking Dan some questions through e-mail, and here are some of his replies:

And here’s where the interview sort of begins:

MechanisticMoth:  I worked a bike convention for Specialized Bicycles of the summer and worked with a guy from the great land of Oz, and… I don’t know, he may have uttered one or two of those (Aussiesms) underneath his breath.

Dan Berger:  Oh, I went out of my way searching google to collate as many “sayings” as I could – and then crammed every one of them into the script. My bad. I did play up Marlin’s Aussie-isms a lot – I was doing it as an inside joke for Tristan Jones (I expected him to write me and say “We don’t actually talk like that, mate!”) – in retrospect, it probably was not a wise thing to do – but I was having a bit of fun (apparently too much

MechanisticMoth:  I heard about the whole Nickelodeon deal, and it sounds really exciting.  Although, it’s surprising for me to hear that they’ll be taking over the site.

Dan Berger: Actually, I don’t know what their plans are, but at some point soon, Mirage will not be in charge of the domain name. What Nick decides to do with it, I have no clue – but it gets pretty good traffic (7,500 unique visitors per week), so they may keep it going to take advantage of that.

MechanisticMoth:  I figured it was more so them handling the cartoon properties.

Dan Berger:  Nope – they now own the TMNT lock, stock and barrel.

MechanisticMoth:  So, Nickelodeon owns the rights to the comics properties/Mirage, as well?

Dan Berger: Nick owns the TMNT property, but they do not own Mirage Studios.

MechanisticMoth:  What’s the future (if there’s even any idea of it amongst you guys) of the comics, then?

Dan Berger:  Peter Laird maintained the rights to publish up to 18 TMNT comics per year, but at this time all we plan to do is to continue publishing “Tales of the TMNT’ up to May, 2010 (#70). Beyond that, we don’t have any plans for publishing (outside of finishing off the Donatello mini- series and publishing the full color reprint of TMNT #1).

MechanisticMoth:  I haven’t checked Peter Laird’s blog for the last couple weeks… is that probably a good idea to get an idea of the change-ups?

Dan Berger:  That’s a very good idea.

MechanisticMoth:  As a side note, I know it’s a ways off (April-ish), but it’d be really great for some of you Mirage guys to make a stop at the Seattle comic-con or at least submit a print like Jim did a couple years ago.

Dan Berger:  I don’t foresee anyone making the trip, I’m afraid. Mirage is closing its doors on December 31, so they won’t be paying the artists’ way to shows anymore, thus we would have to pay out of pocket, and that’s a long and expensive trip to make for any of us. But never say never. The print thing is a possibility, though, if the show approaches anyone.

MechanisticMoth: Yeah, East Coast to West is a pretty big trip, and that’s completely understandable.  I’ll try to pester the people who are running the thing to pester you guys then.

Alright, just to let you know, some of this is actually out of order to how the e-mail correspondence went, but I wanted to group things thematically to make sense of everything.  For those of you who want to find out more information on the Nickelodeon deal, check out Peter Laird’s Blog (he’s so far at 2 posts explaining his reasoning behind the deal) at: http://plairdblog.blogspot.com/ .  Also, you can check out the press release from Viacom (who own, through various organizations, Nickelodeon) at: http://www.viacom.com/news/Pages/newstext.aspx?RID=1344566 .

I really hope the comics keep coming out from Mirage, even if there’s a bit of a hiatus after issue #70.  The comics are just so great on such a consistent basis that it would be a shame, but judging from Peter Laird’s blog, he needed a huge break which is pretty damn understandable.

HoneyMag.com and WEEN will serve as a clearinghouse to place ambitious, smart and talented young women with participating host companies through its existing readership and following.

As a go-to resource aimed to inspire and inform young women, HoneyMag.com created the Honey Internship Placement (HIP) Program to help the most talented, ambitious, and resourceful of their readers break into their “dream” industries of Music, Entertainment, Fashion and PR. As of this date, HoneyMag.com has placed 17 interns with major corporations such as Martha Stewart Omnimedia, MTV Networks, Universal Records and many more, whom all agreed to host interns in various departments during the summer of 2009.

“We are very excited to partner with WEEN to offer a careers portal for young women as they enter into the workforce,” says Philmore Anderson, CEO of Sahara Media Holdings. “As a company with long-standing brand awareness and a loyal consumer base, we want HoneyMag.com to continuously be a destination of empowerment, growth, encouragement and self awareness for our young readers.”

In conjunction with WEEN, HoneyMag.com held its first Intern Orientation Day on June 10th, where the HIP placed interns were able to hear the wise words of encouragement and empowerment from several leaders in their own perspective fields: the witty and outspoken WEEN board member, lawyer, TV Personality and designer from HGTV’s “Spice Up My Kitchen,” Lauren Lake; celebrity makeup artist and Founder of Color Cosmetics, Cynde Watson; and other special guests including Philmore Anderson IV, CEO of Sahara Media, Inc., and Silvia Alvarez, the Spokeswoman for Mayor Bloomberg’s 2009 Campaign.

“Honey Magazine helped pave the way for women’s empowerment and we are excited to join forces to provide career opportunities for young adults during troubled economic times,” states Valeisha Butterfield, WEEN Co-Founder and Chair. “Now more than ever, young women are taking leadership in their own lives by seeking financial independence. WEEN’s career center, with Honey, will serve as the go-to online destination for career development.”

In addition to an ongoing partnership with WEEN through various career initiatives, HoneyMag.com will also serve as a media partner for WEEN’s National Empowerment Tour. During the WEEN NYC “Don’t Judge Me, Empower Me” initiative in Harlem, NY on September 19th, Courtney Willis, Features Editor of HoneyMag.com, was a speaker on the Careers Panel along with Celebrity publicist and film producer, Marvet Britto; EVP of Marketing at Universal Motown and WEEN board member Shanti Das; Executive Assistant to BET President Stephen Hill, Antoinetta Hairston; Celebrity Hair Stylist & Salon Owner, Tippi Shorter; and Sirius Satellite Host and Celebrity Blogger, Angela Yee. Speaking to a rapt audience of over 300 young women, the Careers Panel focused on topics such as “How To Create and Build Your Brand”, “Finding Your Passion”, and “Mastering Your Trade”, amongst others.

As a media partner for the first annual WEEN Awards held in DC on September 25th, HoneyMag.com provided its readers inside access as WEEN honored exceptional individuals in entertainment with a proven commitment to the empowerment of women worldwide such as award winning actress Vivica A. Fox; actor/author Hill Harper; actress/philanthropist Malinda Williams; Chief Global Diversity Officer of McDonald’s Corporation, Pat Harris; EVP of Urban Marketing for Universal Motown, Shanti Das; and HIV/AIDS activist Maria Davis. The WEEN Awards also serves as an annual fundraiser to support the on-going non-profit, educational programs for women of all ages and races.

… ein 5-Sekünder kombiniert mit einem 10-sekündigen Overlay im unteren Drittel des Bildes. Sie ist am effektivsten und zugleich zuschauerfreundlichsten.

Das hat zumindest MTV Networks (Viacom) in einer Studie herausgefunden. Genau genommen haben sie aber nur drei Video-Ad-Formate getestet: den erwähnten 5-Sekünder mit Overlay, den klassischen 30-Sekünder als PreRoll und einen 5-Sekünder mit einem seitlichen Overlay rechts.

Und unter diesen drei hat – gar nicht so überraschend – die 5-Sekünder/Overay gewonnen: Durch die Kürze wird er besser akzeptiert als ein 30-Sekünder. Zudem ist die Position des Layers unten relativ bekannt bei den Zuschauern: Auch im TV gibt es diese Einblendungen, das Format erinnert zudem an einen Banner. Die rechte Position ist dagegen eher ungewöhnlich und stößt vermutlich deshalb auf Reaktanzen. Und dass der 30-Sekünder als PreRoll zu lange ist, gerade vor kurzen Videoclips, ist sicher wenig überraschend.

Dennoch zeigt dieser Test, dass es neue, interessante Werbeformate und -kombinationen gibt, die das Thema VideoAd weiter vorantreiben. Die Methode, einen TV-Spot einfach so ins Internet zu übernehmen, ist hoffentlich bald wieder aus der Mode.

TATIA ADAMS FOX PROMOTED TO VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING, UNIVERSAL MOTOWN RECORDS

Tatia Adams Fox has been promoted to Vice President of Marketing for Universal Motown Records, it was announced today by Shanti Das, Executive Vice President of Urban Marketing for Universal Motown Records.

In this new role, Mrs. Adams Fox will be responsible for creating integrated online, branding, and marketing campaigns on behalf of her roster of Universal Motown Records artists, which includes Akon, Kat DeLuna, London, Shontelle, Suai, Sweet Rush, and Michael Jackson: The Remix Suites I-V.

“Tatia has been a valued leader in the company developing innovative and creative marketing strategies for many of our artists,” said Ms. Das. “Her understanding of the current marketplace as it relates to music, the digital platform, and the increasing need for brand partnerships makes her a tremendous asset to the team.”

“I’d like to thank Shanti Das and Sylvia Rhone, President of Universal Motown Records, for their continued support over the years,” stated Mrs. Adams Fox. “It has been a wonderful journey learning and growing under their leadership. This is a very exciting time in the music industry as mobile, digital, and traditional marketing have become synonymous. I look forward to new challenges and developing integrated campaigns that will break new artists and elevate our established artists.”

Previously, Mrs. Adams Fox was Senior Marketing Director for Universal Motown Records. During her tenure at the company, she has coordinated and implemented marketing strategies for the label’s diverse roster of artists, including Q-Tip, Lloyd, Wu-Tang Clan, and Swizz Beatz. Prior to Universal Motown, Mrs. Adams Fox held marketing and advertising posts at Playboy Enterprises, MTV Networks, and Heart & Soul magazine.

Viacom reported a steep fall in quarterly earnings, hit by poor advertising revenue and a dropoff in sales of its “Rock Band” video game.

The owner of MTV Networks and Paramount film studios reported second quarter profit of $277 million, or 46 cents a share, down from $406 million, or 64 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.

Excluding 3 cents a share in severance charges, adjusted earnings per share were 49 cents, which was slightly ahead of average analyst estimates of 48 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue declined 14 percent to $3.3 billion, the company said, and short of analyst estimates calling for revenue of $3.49 billion in the quarter. Revenue was hit from several sides.

The prolonged slump in advertising spending continued to undercut Viacom’s earnings, as did lower sales of the video game “Rock Band” and DVDs.

While Viacom [VIA 24.49 -0.66 (-2.62%) ] is not as dependent on advertising as some other media companies — such as corporate sibling CBS Corp [CBS 7.65 -0.34 (-4.26%) ] — the company still gets about 30 percent of annual revenue from ads.

As a result, its results have been hampered by the prolonged downturn in ad spending, with sectors like automotive cutting way back on their marketing budgets over the past year.

Viacom Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman predicted several months ago that advertising was finally stabilizing, and noted on Tuesday that U.S. advertising revenue had actually increased from the first to the second quarters of this year.

Meanwhile, Viacom’s Paramount Pictures pulled out two big hits during the quarter — “Star Trek and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

Still, the combination of the two films could not surpass the results of “Iron Man” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in the same period a year earlier, so Viacom’s theatrical revenue dropped 27 percent.

Home entertainment revenues also declined, dropping 29 percent and underscoring the industry’s broader struggles with a depressed DVD

MTV Networks acaba de lanzar la beta de MTV Música, una nueva página web que recoge todo su archivo de vídeos musicales de los últimos 25 años. La página recopila la nada despreciable cifra de entre 12.000 y 14.000 videoclips. Todos los videoclips son los originales de cada artista y están disponibles, desde hoy mismo y totalmente gratis, en streaming de alta calidad.

MTV Música se actualizará de forma contínua y también ofrecerá conciertos, directos y festivales propios como los MTV Music Awards. No habrá, eso sí, series o programas de la cadena de televisión, sólo vídeos musicales.

El manejo de la página es tan sencillo como un YouTube cualquiera. Basta con hacer una búsqueda por tema o artista que puede refinarse añadiendo datos sobre género, fechas, las más vistas, las más comentadas o últimos vídeos añadidos. Aparte del sistema de búsquedas, la web también ofrece un sistema de recomendación de vídeos según nuestras preferencias musicales.

La página permite colgar los vídeos en los perfiles de Facebook , MySpace o Twitter y enviarlos por correo electrónico o publicarlos en otras webs o blogs sin dificultad. MTV Música tiene, de hecho, algunas herramientas sencillas de red social que permiten comentar los vídeos, puntuarlos y compartir listas de reproducción con otros usuarios.

 Leer artículo completo…

FUENTE: tuexperto. com

Vía l Cabina 14

Ding dong, the splat is dead. Starting this fall, all things Nickelodeon–that’s Nick at Nite, Nicktoons, Nick Jr. (formerly Noggin), and TeenNick (formerly the N)–will switch to lower-case, balloon-type logos, marking the cabler’s biggest makeover in 25 years.

According to Variety:

The decision to streamline the network identities came after [Nickelodeon execs] started putting all of the channels’ logos on the same business card–and decided that it looked like a mess.

“We wanted to clean it up and allow Nick to be the stamp on all of these channels,” said Cyma Zarghami, president of Nick and MTV Networks’ Kids and Family Group.

That ultimately meant jettisoning the familiar Nickelodeon “splat.”

“In asking ourselves if everything could live under the splat, we decided that the splat was dated,” she said. “It just couldn’t be done in a streamlined way.”

Already, the switch is ruffling fan feathers. “This new ’rounded typeface’ trend is spreading like the plague,” sniffed a commentor on design blog idsgn. On Columbus Impressions, an 11-year-old was in mourning: “I like the splatter because it looks alive. The new logo is too boring and lacks detail.”

But for a more informed take, I called Karin Hibma and Michael Cronan, the duo who branded TiVo and Amazon’s Kindle. They both balked.

“Nickelodeon has essentially given up on shape,” Cronan says. “Squint your eyes, and [the new logo] is basically an orange bar.” Adds Hibma: “I don’t know why they used a capital ‘K’ in the middle of all that lowercase type. Visually, it adds more weight to the round letters of ‘odeon,’ so your eye starts in the middle and reads to the right, then picks up from the beginning.”

A better strategy, they say, would have been to pick a distinct, non-text-based shape–much like the splat–and apply it to every Nickelodeon brand, so younger viewers would instantly recognize what they’re watching. “A new logo is supposed to excite you, inform you, and pique your curiosity,” says Cronan, referencing Jack in the Box’s recent makeover. “Nickelodeon shied away from the chance to do something great.”

In other words: Whoever killed the splat deserves to get slimed.

¿Has imaginado alguna vez llevar melenica a lo paje, vestir de negro super cool, tocar como nadie, robar corazones y despertar emociones por doquier (de ellas y de ellos), escribir canciones míticas que perduren, se alaben y se disfruten por los tiempos de los tiempos, y ser el referente creativo para la posteridad? ¿Has soñado con que tu rostro y tu vida se conviertan en icono por excelencia de la música del s.XX?

Si así es, estás de enhorabuena. Si no… deberías soñar más a menudo (¡aún es gratis!).

Poder encarnar y tocar como un Beatle.

Eso es lo que nos propone el más reciente capítulo de la saga de videojuegos musicales interactivos “Rock Band” (a lo “Guitar Hero” pero en grupo – de hecho, son de la misma empresa, MTV Networks -). Como toda la gama, desarrollados para consolas (Xbox 360, PS3 y Wii).

Era previsible que alguien con buen gusto y dinero, obtenida la suficiente masa crítica de jugadores y notoriedad de marca, un día u otro sacase al mercado una edición centrada en los Beatles, posiblemente el mejor (o más reconocido) grupo musical de la historia.

Pero es especialmente destacable cómo ha realizado el trabajo la gente de Harmonix (los detalles del juego parecen sensacionales), cómo lo promocionan (buscando el máximo word of mouth posible) y cómo lo presentan (a sabiendas de que han creado algo remarcable).

The Beatles.com, el portal del propio grupo (es decir, llevado por Apple Records) está totalmente dedicado al juego (escenas, trailer, track listing…) ofreciendo el absoluto compromiso de la discográfica y de los componentes (los vivos, claro) con el proyecto ante el consumidor/usuario, cosa que dice en favor de su credibilidad y posible excelencia.

Y The Beatles Rock Band actúa como portal promocional de las noticias y avances sobre el título. Incluye foros, detalles técnicos sobre el juego (los instrumentos para jugar son impresionantes), información sobre eventos promocionales (en el E3), fecha de venta, posibilidad de reservar su compra, y los enlaces al trailer con escenas del juego y al impresionante opening cinemático.

Sugiero, especialmente, ver éste último. A algunos puede que os recuerde el estilo “Happy Factory” de Coca-Cola, o sea, creatividad, narrativa visual y animación de lo mejorcito que se puede disfrutar.

Vía mi amigo, el genial Norman Gracia, de Normanmente.

With forever-and-a-day load times, a tiny screen, choppy streams and incessant ads before, between, and after clips, Comedy Central (s VIA.B) really kills (and not in a good way) its online video viewing experience. Which means it’s a total chafe to watch clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report online. And let’s be honest; that’s a crucial element of the modern lifestyle.

Embedded above is a recent clip from The Daily Show. In my web editor, it takes 26 lines of code. By contrast, a standard YouTube embed is only five lines long. Not a big issue, but just gives you an taste of how sloppy and outdated the player is on the inside as well as the outside. What’s perplexing is that Viacom’s MTV Networks, which manages the Comedy Central shows’ online presences, actually has developed some much better video players. At the risk of making this page take ten minutes to load, I’m going to embed some examples of players from a few other MTV Networks properties.

Atom.com: Defaults on the page into a nice large player. Smooth playback. Full metadata displayed below. 15-second pre-roll. Embed code is a little messy.

Special Features: Trek Yourself

South Park Studios: Player looks deceptively simple and ugly but it has nice small icons for all the sharing and other features you’d need. 30-second pre-roll. Really short embed code.

MTV.com: Smooth and sharp stream. Nice option to toggle between standard, large and full-screen — more sites should have that middle option. But sadly, at the moment all the videos I’m embedding here as an example are coming up with a “Sorry, this video is no longer available” message. But only after a 30-second pre-roll. Yikes.

OK folks, really? Can you get it together and standardize with one nice video player for all your sites?

It’s sadly fitting that the best two Comedy Central shows are getting screwed, given they’re such a key online asset, one that sparked Viacom’s still unsettled $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube (s GOOG) over user uploads of clips (at the time the network hardly even posted its content online, so users were doing the not-so-legal legwork to get their laughs). But in case you don’t know, full episodes and clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are posted on Hulu, so please, if you’re ever embedding or linking me to the latest Stewart rant or Colbert interview, check and see if they’re available there first.

A RECENT REPORT BY Comscore Media Metrix, state that the sites listed below are the most visited music sites on the internet (measured by unigue monthly visitors in April, 2009)

1. AOL Music (28,634,778)
2. MySpace Music (27,423,200)
3. Yahoo Music (20,578,092)
4. MTV Networks Music (18,543,442)
5. ArtistDirect Network (12,193,996)
6. MSN Music (7,352,016)
7. Jango Music Network (6,921,809)
8. Universal Music Group (6,240,440)
9. Imeem (6,162,165)
10. Project Playlist (6,043,186)
11. Rhapsody (6,014,385)
12. Sony Music (3,900,618)
13. Lyricsmode (3,804,775)
14. Last.fm (3,740,479)
15. Windows Music (3,054,952)

Hmmmm no Pandora, Reverb, iLike…

**Comscore provides syndicated and custom solutions in online audience measurement, e-commerce, advertising, search, video and mobile and offers dedicated analysts with digital marketing and vertical-specific industry expertise. Advertising agencies, publishers, marketers and financial analysts turn to comScore for the industry-leading solutions needed to craft successful digital, marketing, sales, product development and trading strategies.

VH1 Latinoamérica presenta renovada imagen de pantalla con la incorporación de nuevas piezas creativas y paquetes gráficos.

La misma se podrá ver en toda la región a partir del 27 de Abril.

VH1 Latinoamérica anunció el lanzamiento de una renovada imagen de pantalla con la incorporación de nuevas piezas creativas y paquetes gráficos. El nuevo “look & feel” corresponde a la iniciativa del canal de promover constantemente la creatividad buscando innovadoras formas de dirigirse a la audiencia a través del desarrollo de piezas gráficas y audiovisuales de alta calidad. Las piezas incluyen los paquetes gráficos del más del 70% de los shows del canal y diversos spots institucionales de rotación diaria.

“Para resaltar el concepto de Cultura Pop que ya es propio del canal, desarrollamos una estética basada en los comienzos de la televisión a color, manteniendo un espíritu que reconoce sus orígenes pero los reinterpreta desde una visión actual”, dijo Sean Saylor, Vicepresidente Creativo de MTV Networks Latinoamércia. Por su parte, Juán Frontini, Director Creativo de MTV Networks Latinoamérica, agregó: “En este proyecto quisimos encontrar un balance entre el pasado y el futuro. La pantalla de VH1 se nutre de muchas cosas que todos hemos vivido, pero queremos que se vean de una manera nueva, que no se transforme en un acto de nostalgia”.

Reconocidos diseñadores internacionales trabajaron en conjunto con el equipo creativo de VH1 Latinoamérica, liderado por el Director de Arte Camilo Barria. La línea estética se desarrolló en conjunto con el diseñador gráfico canadiense, James White y la realización y dirección audiovisual se llevó a cabo junto a PJ Richardson, Director del prestigioso estudio Laundrymat LA. También colaboraron en los diversos paquetes gráficos Sol Linero, Peppermelon, Estudio Ronda, Tavo, Eloísa Iturbe y Pes.

La nueva imagen de pantalla de VH1 se verá a partir del lunes 27 de abril en toda la región.

Fuente | Real TV News

BROADCAST/CABLE

TNT has passed on renewing Trust Me for  second season.  The Erick McCormack/Tom Cavanagh dramedy debuted in January to 3.4 million viewers, tho that number fell off considerably thru the season. (Cynopsis 4/13)

MTV Networks and BET will launch HD feeds of many of its networks on the DISH Network, reports THR.  Of the network involved are BET, CMT, Spike, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and CMT.  All will be available to those DISH subscribers who have the Classic Bronze 100 HD package. (Cynopsis 4/13)

Also on DISH, the NFL Network and the satellite provider have settled their issues – terms were not fully disclosed, but we do know that it includes carriage of the NFL Network on DISH in a new multiyear deal. (Cynopsis 4/13)

Showtime had four pilots in front of it for possible development, and has decided to pass on all four.  One of Possible Side Effects, written and directed by Tim Robbins and starring Josh Lucas; others included Ronna and Beverly from Lionsgate; The Farm, a spin off of The L Word; and The End of Steve starring Matthew Perry. (Cynopsis 4/13)