Harmonic Aftershock

The first iPod.

14 years feels like it's gone by in a flash. Mention the iPod to most people and they'll think modern tech. But not so fast. Take another look at the very first iPod through the lens of today's kids.

Think about what we'll say about iPhone 6 in 2029 (14 years from now).

The soundtrack of #TVnext

A surprising number of you have asked what the music was that we wove into TVnext℠ content throughout the day. This made me happy since many people don’t share my taste for French Electronic.

Here’s the line-up (below). And I've also created a playlist on iTunes.

Summit & Segment Openings

• Skrillex – Breakn’ A Sweat (This track chosen by Hill Holliday's Chief Creative Officer)

Speaker & Panel Intros:

• Lauren Flax - Iceland (Futurecop! Remix)
• Demon - Happy Therapy (Lifelike Remix)
• Breakbot - Fantasy (feat. Ruckazoid) [Ruckazoid Remix]

Lunch Outro:

• Shazam – Luckier

Break Outro:

• Justin Faust – Revenge

Finale:

• Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours (Instrumental) [feat. Irfane]

Enjoy! You can download any of these from the TVnext 2012 iTunes playlist.

The Social Media 180 #mashablesummit

“I was a social media skeptic turned evangelist” seemed to be a core theme at yesterday’s Mashable Media Summit. From Len Berman and Edward Norton to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Josh Charles, the day long event in NYC showcased individuals from across every possible industry vertical who have been positively affected because they embraced social media.

Here are soundbites from just a few of my favorites:

Ricky Van Veen, College Humor

• Watching Web Video isn't the same as watching TV
• Companies get swept up in viral video fever a.k.a. “faith-based marketing”
• "Viral is spectacle" if you can make something that cool, people will pass it on
• Leverage power-users who have a built up subscriber base (team up with them)
• The "hook" should come within the first 20 seconds
• [making it onto] TV is a stamp of approval

 Len Berman @LenBermanSports

• Realized "You're not just a guy on air, you've got a brand"
• Where are young people turning to get their news? "I don't turn anywhere, the news comes to me"
• There’s faster way for me to give the news & info than on Twitter
• Convinced that last book made it to NYT best seller because of social media (3 previous books did not)
• "Any idiot can write anything they want and put it on the internet -where is the accuracy police?"
• "I basically reinvented myself [because of social media] -there's more than just reading sports scores at a teleprompter."

Dennis Crowley, Foursquare

• Closing in on 1.6 million users
• “It’s nice to have this ambient awareness of what your friends are doing"
• "The people that get most concerned about privacy are the ones who haven't used the app"
• "The product is changing so quickly when we sit down a year from now we will be talking about completely different things”
• Re: branded apps: “Why build your own checkin system when you can build off the foursquare API?”
• Foursquare is holding on to badges tightly because if there are too many then they lose their value
• How do you combat badge fatigue? Make then worth something in the real world.
• "I like software that challenges you to do something and then rewards you for when you do it."

An interesting interchange that took place was during  the “keynote conversation” with Mashable’s Pete Cashmore and CNN’s KC Estenson. KC mentioned, “The reason we don't yet have an iPad app is that we really like to build a great product and if we can't put something into marketing that we're really proud of, then we'll wait.” Pete’s perspective was the opposite, “We see an advantage of getting in early and being one of the only ones in there so we like to get on as many platforms as possible and as early as possible.” Who is right?

As I walked out of the Times Center, I was heartened by the fact that everyone who spoke ultimately were passionate about connecting with and nurturing their customers and constituents. Social media is simply a mechanism that greatly facilitates this. Brian Simpson of the Roger Smith Hotel said it best, "I'll take [the criticism of] sucking at social media as long as we are really good at the people business."

How Teens Use Media (Nielsen Study)

There’s a lot of talk about an impending death of “traditional media” but The Nielsen Company just released a report that shows otherwise. In order to predict the future, Nielsen looked at those who are our future adults: Teenagers.  And in addition to finding that Teens are watching more TV than ever before, their use of the web is not what we, as marketers, might have suspected.

Because of the fact that Teens spend most of their days in the classroom, extracurricular activities, weekend sports, etc., they are simply not in front of computers like adults in their offices – So their time spent surfing the web is actually considerably less than adults (about 50% less).

The gem in the report is the affirmation that one of the best ways for marketers to reach the teen demographic is through mobile/portable content. Some interesting insights:

• 77% of teens directly own a mobile phone
• Teen texting over the past 2 years increased 566%.
• 66% of teens prefer texting over talking on their phone
• Teens send/receive an average of 2899 texts/month
• Teens ARE they early adopters of all mobile media
• Teens watch more mobile video than the average user
• #1 source of video content is music-related

I’ll often quote digital marketer Mitch Joel when he talks about the choice of new/emerging media versus traditional media in that “it’s not either/or, it’s in addition to.” And Nielson clearly agrees, “Teens embrace new media not at the cost of traditional media, but in supplement to it.”

I continue to believe when looking at the future of media, that it’s not so much whether certain kinds of media are dying off but how they’re evolving/adapting given the fundamental changes and options for distribution. And it’s no secret that I very much see a “media converged” future where Web and TV are one in the same and our “mobile device” will harmoniously extend our content consumption/interaction in a portable format – and in the end, content is content regardless of what mechanism we use to consume it.

Is the web/mobile bringing back the music video?

As a young teenager in the in the mid-80s, I am a product of the music video generation. MTV and VH1 were built around music video content and it seemed that everyone dreamed about being an MTV “VJ”.  And then something happened over the years. The “Music” part of  “Music Television” started to dwindle.  This past November we said good-bye to Total Request Live and with it, pretty much any formal music video programming on TV.

[But are music videos dead or are we simply consuming them through different distribution channels?]

We all know that online video consumption continues to increase across the world as this eMarketer report shows.

And in looking at the all time most popular online video’s on YouTube, 12 of the top 20 are music videos. iTunes continues increase its music video content as fast as smartphones and iPods support it. And we see sharing of links to videos all the time in social networks like Facebook and Twiiter plus musical artisit pages that  help distribute their music videos.

There was a time in the late nineties and early two-thousands that I would have said music videos were dying. But the convergence of media and technology has once again proven otherwise and continues to give rise to new possibilities to content distribution and consumption in this world of on-demand portability.

“Give me the simple life.”

I was reminded of these lyrics from Steve Tyrell while on the tram, with 2 of my colleagues, at Newark airport this morning. While feverishly replying to emails on my MotoQ, I happened to catch a glance of a guy dressed very casually pointing us out to his female companion. While obviously whispering to her, he made air gestures of “tumb typing”. I looked over at my two colleagues who mirrored my self-absorption into their own mobile devices. We were like 3 emotionless drones all acting in unison.  To an “unconnected” observer, I could understand why the sight was a bit ridiculous and comical.

I’ve become all too accustomed with the fast-pace of my life and the way in which technology has completely converged with it – I’ve welcomed that to happen. Like many of us, I get restless when I’m not connected.  Yet just 10 years ago, none of us were digitally enabled the way we are today – and in 10 years from now, we’ll look back to right now and probably laugh at how archaic it is.

But It takes encounters like this morning to remind me that it’s important to slow it down every once in a while, just for a bit, to enjoy  “the simple life” for that very moment in time.

The Celebrity Tweet Factor

There’s a lot of talk about celebrities being on Twitter and what that means to the service and the social media thought leaders that once dominated the channel.  Jeremiah Owyang tweeted the question yesterday, “Do you think Twitter has hit a tipping point this last week?” 

I’m not sure about a tipping point yet, but one thing is certain is that Twitter has abruptly burst out of the “social media bubble” and after watching last Friday’s Larry King Live, I think it’s a great thing.

Yes there’s a celebrity ego play (as with most people on Twitter) but what Ashton and Pdiddy are doing is reaffirming the fundamentals of what social media is:

Ashton Kutcher - @aplusk:

• "It’s really a conversation – that’s the difference between it being regular media vs. social media."
• "We now live in an age where a single voice can have as much power and relevance as an entire media network."
• "Twitter is not a platform for Celebrities – it’s really about everyday people having a voice."
• "We’re in a middle of a recession yet social media companies are hiring. A tide is turning."

 Sean “PDiddy” Combs” – @iamdiddy:

• "It cuts out the middle man – the middle man has been the media. It’s given me a chance for people to get to know the real me."
• "You can have  1million followers or 10 followers – it’s the same amount of energy and power to build your own community"
• "It’s the truest definition of viral – everything happens in real time"

But as Jimmy Fallon mentioned (who uses twitter actively on his late night show):  “I still think the majority of people don’t really know what the hell Twitter is – they have no idea what it is and what to do with it.”

But I think we’re all feeling that that’s going to quickly change. Talk about media convergence!

Convergent History: The TRL Finale

All things have an end. And seeing Carson Daly’s return to co-host MTV’s Total Request Live (TRL) Finale with current host Damien Fahey is yet another poignant reminder of the passage of time. It doesn’t seem that long ago when I was in my mid-20’s watching myriad musical artists launch their careers on TRL because of the show’s fan base who, for all intents and purposes, were a “community”. We got to see “user generated” content as fans gave live comments on camera while videos played. And let’s not forget that fans controlled the content as they called in to vote for their favorite videos.

As Carson pointed out at the start of tonight’s finale, back in 1998 there was no Facebook or YouTube. People watched music videos on TV. Web video has certainly disrupted that.  I was also reminded that there wasn’t HD TV back in 1998 either, yet ironically as I watch the finale on my 46” widescreen HD TV, I’m still watching it in non-HD as MTV doesn’t have an HD channel on Comcast  (I guess some things don’t change).

So as the rapid evolution of media distribution channels continues to affect the way in which we all consume content and connect with each other, we say good-bye to what feels like a bit of a simpler time in life…and it wasn’t even all that long ago. What will 10 years from now look like? What will we be saying good-bye to?

Music and Metrics

With Coldplay now streaming, for free, their new album (which gets released for sale on June 17^th) it begs the question, what music is hot and how do you measure it? All I know is that I’m hearing less and less about “record sales” and much more about artists that have the most number of downloads.

This further underscores the fundamental change in the way in which media is being (and will be) distributed as more and more people turn to their computers and iPods/MP3 Players to consume music. Physical media like CDs will soon be a thing of the past and companies like Billboard, who rely on Nielsen Soundscan, for their metrics will find that digital downloads will comprise the largest share of their data.

“Band” Democratization

Journey’s new CD Revelation is released tomorrow. Outside of the fact that the album features 11 new songs, this CD marks the debut of lead singer, Arnel Pineda who was discovered by original band member and guitarist Neal Schon on YouTube.

From their December 5^th 2007 official press release: “I was frustrated about not having a singer,” explains guitarist Neal Schon, “so I went on YouTube for a couple of days and just sat on it for hours. I was starting to think I was never going to find anybody. But then I found THE ZOO and I watched a bunch of different video clips that they had posted. After watching the videos over and over again, I had to walk away from the computer and let what I heard sink in because it sounded too good to be true.”

This is yet another example of how technology (the web) has leveled the playing field by offering a platform for anybody to be seen and heard around the world – in this case a guy from the Philippeans whose cover band posted videos of themselves on YouTube. And as we can see from this video’s 1.7 million views, if your content (message) is compelling, then people will notice and listen (Marketers take note).

And check out Arnel’s big TV debut on Ellen last week as the newest member of Journey:

I hear they’ll be coming to the Boston area in August & September for a concert with Heart (Thanks Alex) – And I can’t wait. In the mean time, it looks like I'll be checking out Walmart to dowload their new album, tomorrow.