Why the Future of Music is Brighter Than Ever

Many hands have been wrung about the future of music. The music industry has seen year over year of increasingly steep declines for a decade. Think about that for a minute: in 2001, the business fell by 3%. In 2002, it fell another 11%. In 2003, it recovered slightly. But the dead cat bounce was confirmed in the subsequent years. The industry has posted double digit declines in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. In 1999, the industry was $14.3 billion. In 2009, it was less than half – $6.3 billion.

Can you hear the clanging death bells? Music will surely die! This fate has been proclaimed everywhere, but, of course, misses the point completely. If we learned nothing else from the housing bust, let us at least remember that more isn’t always better – sometimes it’s just more. Continue reading “Why the Future of Music is Brighter Than Ever”

Liveclicker Amps Up Conversions with Online Video

At this year’s SXSW, I attended a session on the future of online video, with Mark Cuban, who is part owner of HDNet, and Avner Ronen, CEO of Boxee. Ronen was bullish, declaring that the web would be the future of video. Cuban countered that video online would never have the heft and marketplace presence of traditional network and cable television (or, at least, not in the next 5-10 years).

The flaw in the debate is that both of them spoke about video as entertainment content only. That’s not surprising, given that both HDNet and Boxee are entertainment companies. But, this belies an important truth: historically, entertainment has been supported by advertising. But when products can create their own engaging content, then there is no need for retailers to support expensive entertainment creation.

This is the real future for online video. Companies become content creators, which supports their value proposition and sales pipeline. The practical uses of video content are much bigger than just entertainment. That’s where Liveclicker has built a unique offering.

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Curation Makes the Difference, or Why Seth Godin is (Finally) Wrong About Something

Seth Godin has an interesting post about the rise of “drive by culture”. He argues that the dramatic rise in content found online, and the incredible ease of finding it, has created a culture of “clickers, stumblers, and jaded spectators.”

He is right. But he also misses the (obvious) way to fix this.

Continue reading “Curation Makes the Difference, or Why Seth Godin is (Finally) Wrong About Something”