The present and future of post production business and technology

VLC continues to be swiss army knife of playback. http://bit.ly/9swyPw New version supports H.264 hardware accel. and WebM/VP8.

The release of a standalone player for WebM video represents a significant step for the adoption of the new video format. Up until now, users had to download special nightly builds of Firefox, Chrome or Opera to play WebM videos on their systems, and not everyone is committed to running what can essentially be considered an unstable browser version on their machine. VLC’s website also warns visitors that the new release candidate is “aimed at power-users,” but the release will undoubtedly also get some traction with people simply curious about WebM.

Cory Doctorow give his books away free. Obscurity is worse than piracy. http://bit.ly/buNiGW Has worked well for him. His books are international bestsellers.

Unauthorized copying (sometimes mistakenly called ‘piracy’ or ‘theft’) isn’t going to go away and truthfully cannot be stopped, so the only logical solution is to find new business models that work.

There is only one thing worse for an artist or creative than having work downloaded without authorization and that’s to be lost in obscurity so no-one knowns about it. I’ve written about my views on my own materials but it’s interesting to read the opinion of someone who depends on his writing for his livelihood and still gives it away free.

As a practical matter, we live in the 21st century and anything anybody wants to copy they will be able to copy. If you are building a business model that says that people can only copy things with your permission, your business is going to fail because whether or not you like it, people will be able to copy your product without your permission. The question is: what are you going to do about that? Are you going call them thieves or are you going to find a way to make money from them?

Kudos to Adobe http://bit.ly/b4cqLg Now, what are those “additional Adobe publishing technologies” that turn InDesign to iPad app?

Seriously Adobe, spill. This is the sort of innovation we’re hanging out for: publish rich media versions of InDesign documents?

Created with Adobe InDesign CS5 and additional Adobe publishing technologies, the WIRED Reader is the first in a series of steps for Adobe to enable magazine publishers and retail catalogers to deliver groundbreaking experiences across tablets, smartphones and other devices. By reaching readers in new ways on these emerging devices, publishers can increase circulation (because these new apps count towards audited ABC circulation) and deliver incremental digital revenue.

This is in the App store, approved by Apple, so it isn’t likely to be Flash based – compiled or not – and apparently passes muster as a native app. If that’s the case, then I see a bright publishing future for Adobe creative tools for content on the iPad.

Pretty flash, without Flash. (Possible reference only understandable by Brits and Aussies and the odd New Zealander.)

Lady GaGa doesn’t mind if people steal her music, she makes it up in touring http://bit.ly/c6bufi

Lady Gaga admits she’s fine with people downloading her music in unauthorized forms because she makes it up in touring revenue:

She explains she doesn’t mind about people downloading her music for free, “because you know how much you can earn off touring, right? Big artists can make anywhere from $40 million [£28 million] for one cycle of two years’ touring. Giant artists make upwards of $100 million. Make music — then tour. It’s just the way it is today.”

The music, and the record contract, have rarely been the source of a band/artist’s revenue. The Label always seems to have as many costs applied to the artist as the artist generates in revenue. Mick Jagger said, last week, that the Record Labels never pay out. So touring is/has/will be a primary source of a musician’s income. Plus other reasons to buy stuff from the artist at a profit.

The music – free to distribute in infinite amounts – is a promotional tool for something scarce: performances.

 

 

 

James Murdoch needs remedial Copyright intervention. Totally gets it wrong. http://bit.ly/d7zSa3 Hard to imagine the staggering ignorance.

In fact this is such a long takedown of Murdoch’s speech that it’s hard to quote just one egregious example. James Murdoch willfully (or just plain ignorantly) gets the purpose and practice of copyright wrong; puts up false strawmen to tear down; and just so comprehensively gets it wrong that it’s just plain frightening that he is likely heir to one of the major media companies.

Read the whole thing, and weep.

Required Specs Could Make Google TV Too Pricey? http://bit.ly/dtdZnU Maybe to start with, but it’ll all get cheaper over time.

Requirement for a hefty (for a TV) processor and RAM would make Google TV equipped sets fairly expensive compared to their rivals. But we all know that digital electronics comes down in price over time.

In the interview, Dureau said that connected devices needed more memory than regular HDTVs for buffering while streaming over the web. “If you do the math on decoding an HD video signal, it actually takes a lot of memory — 100 to 200 Mbytes. If you start looking at connected devices in the market that support streaming over the Web they basically have quite a bit of additional ram for buffering,” he said.

At least one consumer electronics manufacturer has decided against introducing the Google TV platform into its connected devices because development of those products would be too pricey. In March, Panasonic EVP Bob Perry told Bloomberg that the Android OS would require too much processing power to make it a viable solution.

Amanda Palmer , OK Go Get Together To Celebrate Being Dropped From Their Record Labels http://bit.ly/aYO7WB Better off solo than with label because it allows them to better connect with fans, and give those fans a reason to buy something.

For both these artists the label was a hindering factor, not a help.

It’s yet another reminder of how the role of the major labels is totally changing. Historically, the only way to be successful in the music business was to get a major label deal. They were the gatekeepers, and without a deal, you were out of luck. Being dropped from a major was effectively the end of your career as a performer with a very small number of exceptions. But, these days, artists are realizing that there’s so much more that can be done without major label help, and that actually being on a major can hinder or block those opportunities, that it’s become a cause for celebration when you get “dropped” — or, perhaps, more accurately, freed!

Goodbye Satellite truck – stream H.264 in real time over WiFi or cell network instead. http://bit.ly/aHLnAG

The device, [a portable battery-powered, video encoder] which can be attached to a camera, creates a H.264 file which is streamed to a CDN via Wifi or to a cellular network..

This sort of functionality for live streaming is currently provided by a computer connected to the camera.  Having a portable solution opens a number possibilities for news organizations, sports teams and performers.  We think this is very cool.

Is Android the “Windows” of the mobile world to Apple’s Cocoa Touch (aka OS X)? http://bit.ly/alUHW7

Is the operating system of choice war gone from Microsoft vs Apple, to Google (Android) vs Apple (Cocoa Touch/OS X) for the mobile handset OS of choice?  Looks certain that Android will be very pervasive as t’s as adaptable as OS X (for everything but desktops – so far): Android on Mobile phones is a true competitor to Cocoa Touch on the iPhone and iPad (and I’d love that built-in wifi hotspot capability to make it to an iPhone); Android in “Google TV’s” up against Apple TV running a (older) version of OS X (Tiger iirc).

Maybe Apple will always be a highly profitable “minor player” that leads in innovation?

Just look at some of the most recent Android-specific stats:

• 100,000 Android-based phones are activated every day.
• It’s on 60 devices from 21 OEM makers on 59 carriers in 48 countries.
• There are 50,000 apps in the Android Market Place.
• In the first quarter of the year, it was the second-best selling smartphone OS after RIM’s BlackBerry.

MASH Finale – 106 million viewers; LOST finale – 13.5 million. Hasn’t the defintion of a “HIT” fragmented with burgeoning channels?

Even a hit show of today wouldn’t get renewed 20 years ago, such is the fragmentation of viewership.