Sharing what I find interesting

eirikso2 Comments

First, if you don’t know what RSS is you should read this.

Then, the cool stuff
Many bloggers post huge amounts of articles that are simple links to the interesting stuff they find around the web. I try to only post articles here at eirikso.com when I have something to share. More than a simple link. But I spend quite a bit of time reading other web sites and updating myself on new technology. A lot of the stuff I find is of high quality and interesting to share. But not enough for a separate article here on this blog. Here is the solution.

I am currently using Google Reader to keep track of the hundreds of web sites I try to check regularly. With Google Reader I can mark articles with “shared” to add them to a separate feed that I can share with my readers here at eirikso.com. In other words, a page with all the stuff that I find interesting enough to share with anyone that cares.

If you want to benefit from the hours I spend reading interesting blogs and web sites you can follow this site: Eirik’s shared items in Google Reader

Or add this feed to your RSS reader. Or simply check the dynamic list in my sidebar to the right. Just below “Recent Comments” you now find “Interesting from other sites”.

Sharing what I find interesting

Radio is dead

eirikso7 Comments

At least in our house. The FM radio in our car and the tuners around our home are never used. So, radio is dead. Or is it? I listen to huge amounts of audio content. Mostly as podcasts on my iPod but also as live streams on the internet. And what audio content? I listen to very interesting shows from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and some audio books.

What did you say? Audio content from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation? Yes, the same stuff that they broadcast on FM, or radio as some people call it.

So, you listen to radio? No. Or, it depends. What is radio? The content or the transport technology or the reciever or all of it?

My point with this cunfusing rant is to emphasise that in some discussions we need to separate the content from the technology. I think that much of the fear that content creators see in these so called new media channels are completely irrelevant. When Bill Gates says the TV will be dead in five years it is important to discuss what he mean by TV.

In our home we have a huge LCD monitor connected to a computer in our living room. Is that a TV? If it is a big monitor on the wall it is a TV and if it is a small monitor on a desk it is a computer monitor? Most people would look at it and say that it’s a TV. Technically it’s a computer monitor.

In the media industry we need to understand what kinds of delivery platforms people want our content delivered through. FM, DAB, podcasts or all of them? Satellite, cable, terrestial, streaming or download? And we need to learn how to build business models on those platforms.

We don’t have to go around getting scared when people that don’t know what they’re talking about are saying that something that they don’t know how to define is going away in five years.

For me it’s about podcasts, streaming and download. If you’re there with your content and your business models you win. You win my attention and if you’re clever you even win my money.

Radio is dead

Track all your conversations

eirikso17 Comments

This is something that I have wanted for a long time. A tool to easily track all the conversations I am participating in around the net.

Usually, I leave a comment and keep that page in a tab in my browser, or mark the page with a “followup” tag in del.icio.us. None of these methods are perfect. Here on eirikso.com I have installed a plugin that lets you choose if you want to be notified by email when people posts a new comment on an article that you have commented on.

You won’t need any of this if you start to use coComment. From their page:

Join the conversation
Track your comments across different platforms (blogs, forums, online communities…), and follow conversations you’re interested in, no need for your own blog!

Track
coComment keeps track of all the online conversations you’re following in one convenient place, and informs you whenever something is added to a conversation.

Share
Publish your conversations to your blog in a click, or send them to your friends via email.

Explore
Check out the top commenters, what articles and posts are generating the most comments, who’s commenting on the same conversations as you.

My experience so far is very positive. Try it out!

Track all your conversations

Bud.tv about to launch

eirikso1 Comment

Bud.tv
Bud.tv is an interesting experiment from a large advertiser. Budweiser bypass traditional media and start their own channel with entertainment and commercials. This kind of approach is changing some of the business models of traditional marketing.

The internet gives everyone a distribution channel. You don’t need expensive licenses, satellites or a huge printing press. Of course we’ll see a combination of advertising models, and Bud will obviously use traditional media to attract people to their new channel. From the email I just got from Budweiser:

This is only a preview of killer things to come! Don’t forget, pull up bud.TV when we bare it all right after the big game on Sunday, February 4th!

BMW have also done some cool stuff and in general these experiments will be interesting to follow.

Bud.tv about to launch

Updated news on your site

eirikso3 Comments

A while ago I wrote about the fact that Reuters gives bloggers and site owners a possibility to add their news player to their site.

It’s an interesting move, and absolutely in sync with my Broadcast 2.0 theory. You just have to get your site approved through this page. I guess Reuters don’t want their player on all kinds of sites.

Well, eirikso.com is approved. And here is the player:

If you read this in your RSS-reader the player will probably not show. Guess you’ll have to visit eirikso.com to have a look.

Updated news on your site

Vista on a Mac. As demonstrated by Microsoft.

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Vista on a Mac

Okay, so Espen Pettersen of Microsoft Norway is demonstrating Windows Vista for VG-TV. The broadband TV offer from Norway’s biggest newspaper. Nothing special about that, unless you find it pretty ironic that they demonstrate vista on a Mac…

I found the story about the hackers that tried to make an unlikely fronpage on MacWeek funny. Apple and Intel. Unix based operating system. Even the hackers didn’t dream of a situation where a new version of Windows would be demonstrated on a Mac by a Microsoft executive.

Link to video.

(Via TUAW)

Vista on a Mac. As demonstrated by Microsoft.

Pump Audio – a truly fantastic tool

eirikso5 Comments

Pump Audio Logo

I am going to do a presentation about new media for Universal Music in a couple of weeks. I’ll have to ask them some questions about what I bring up in this article…

So you want a huge selection of music for your professional productions? Not stock music but something from quality artists. Uncompressed and with no DRM. Cheap and with a simple license model? And you want a fantastic search tool for all that music? And help when filling in the cue sheets? And updates to your library as new music is released? Look no further. I have found the solution. But stuff that is truly great usually solves a problem. So I’ll start with the problem.

I have been working as a professional sound designer and editor. An important part of that job was to find, edit and use music as a part of the sound track. Work that includes a well developed interest for and knowledge of music. Hours spent at the music library listening to CDs. Looking for that perfect track. The right genre, mood and tempo.

Actually walking to the library of music at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, bringing huge amounts of plastic CDs back to the editing suite seems like a pretty old fashioned way of doing things. Still, that’s the way it is done most places even today.

Now, fill in your suggestion for a web site or service that provide a huge catalog of professional music. Uncompressed and with no DRM. For use by professionals that edit television shows and documentaries. Yes, uncompressed and with no DRM. Because that is the only files that can be used with good enough quality in all kinds of editing software.

If I want to use the latest album from Rammstein in my production. And I find plastic CDs awkward, slow and not very practical. What’s the alternative? Actually I don’t know any alternatives. But I am not completely updated on this scene and maybe there are services out there that I don’t know of.

Or have the music industry completely forgotten the professionals?
Or do they think that the professionals will stick with plastic and don’t want anything else?

Okay. So I have spent my time at the music library. Found my Rammstein track. Included it in my documentary. Filled in the cue sheets (the paper that states what music and how much I have used). The record labels and the unions have systems so we can pay for use in the documentary that will be broadcasted in Norway.

Now I want to make that documentary available on the internet.
New documents. New payment. Then I want to make it available as a video podcast. New documents. More payment. Or maybe a simple: “Sorry, you can’t do that”. Video podcasts are unencrypted. You can’t distribute your production unencrypted with that Rammstein track in it. No go.

At this point I guess you understand where I am heading.

I have a problem with the current model.
Slowly the music industry has understood that people want their music delivered through online services. We now have a couple of options like the iTunes Music store and similar offers. But they’re completely useless for professionals.

Low quality, encryption and a very difficult business model make me look for alternatives. Good bye Rammstein and all other music on big labels. Welcome Pump Audio!

Founded in 2001, Pump Audio is a new kind of agent for independent musicians, digitally connecting them with buyers in the mainstream media. With Pump Audio, artists can license their music into productions without giving up any ownership, while TV and advertising producers can discover new music ready for use. With a growing catalog of tens of thousands of songs, all by independent artists from around the world, customers access music through Pump’s innovative search software and delivery device, the PumpBox™.

The system is simple. You contact Pump Audio. You get a 300 GB external Pump Audio hard drive on your desk after a couple of days. The PumpBox. You start using it. And OMG what a fantastic system. The disk contains thousands of tracks. Instrumental, and with lyrics and huge amounts of readymade stingers (small tracks of just a couple of seconds for use in transitions etc). Everything is unencrypted, uncompressed and of very high quality.

The business model is simple and easy to understand.
You don’t pay anything for the disk. You pay for the music that you use. And here comes the nice part: a flat fee pr. second of music used. Then, broadcast, stream, podcast and do nearly whatever you want. One price for editorial use, another for commercials. Simple as that.

Then, add the fact that they have made the search tool from heaven.
Search by genre, mood, tempo and instruments. Because the database and music is on the drive a search is nearly instand and serves you tracks to listen to at once.

Here is a quick video I made showing the search system. Featuring some music from Pump. I start the search tool for instrumental music. Do a search for some fast, agressive industrial techno or indie rock music. Then I do a search for some more positive blues or jazz. And ends it with a search for some blues and jazz stingers.

http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf

Then, add the fact that they have made a system that lets you create the cue sheets automatically. Simply feed the Final Cut or Avid edit list into the system and your list of music used in that production is calculated.

What about updates? Well, they are working on a system for online updates of your PumpBox with new music.

You can read more about Pump Audio in this article over at Wired.com.

…and remember to use the comments to fill in the service that gives me big label music in a similar deal.

Pump Audio – a truly fantastic tool

Upgrade of eirikso.com

eirikso9 Comments

I just upgraded my blog to the latest version of my publishing system: WordPress 2.1

If you experience trouble please post a comment. I will do some additional adjustments, so be patient if the site acts funny for the next couple of days.

And yes, I know. The nice tag cloud that I had in my sidebar just turned into a very long list of categories. I’ll try to fix it.

Upgrade of eirikso.com