Strands - Tying it All Together

I've been really quiet lately, and that is always the first sign that things at work are really humming along and keeping me busy. Lots of things are going on, and we are quickly approaching the time when we will unveil some of the new big pieces. But, leading up to that point are a number of new Strands releases that are quickly becoming available. To begin with, last week we announced that we were changing our brand from MyStrands to just "Strands".



We have also unveiled a new business solutions initiative that "delivers advanced social recommendation and personalization technology as an easy-to-use Strands hosted service that enables high quality individualized discovery and community features in your site."

Perhaps you've also seen us starting to bang the drum about the importance of data portability. We strongly believe that a user's taste data should be their own - and given that, they should be able to control who they share it with (or not).

What else? Well, since you asked...

Since we partnered with MTV to run partyStrands at their New Year's Event (on the big screen on Times Square), the website just got a shiny new facelift and has been rockin' large and small nightclubs and events across the country.

Also, a few weeks ago our Social Player won the MobileRules 08 "best multimedia application" award. And today we are announcing the last version of that application that adds the ability for users to send playcount data (aka "scrobble") from your mobile phone to Last.fm in addition to MyStrands.com.

Strands Blog: "We have just released version 3.1 of Nokia’s Mobile Rules! 2008 winning application, MyStrands Social Player, which allows you to scrobble tracks to Last.fm as you play music on your Symbian S60 3rd Edition and J2ME (optimized for Nokia S40) devices (download for S60 devices here and for S40 devices here). Recently listened tracks on your mobile device will now be available on your Last.fm profile.

The MyStrands Social Player is a music player for mobile devices that lets you discover new music, connect with people, and share your tastes with friends. Version 3.1 works with Nokia S60 3rd edition or S40 devices (optimized for most recent Nokia S40 devices), which brings the MyStrands Social Player not only to 10s of millions of smart phones but to the true mass market of 100s of millions of Java devices.

Powered by Strands’ Recommender, MyStrands Social Player provides artist and song recommendations from over 6 million songs, automatically shows cover art and fully integrates with a social network of music enthusiasts.

The “Who’s Listening” feature lets you discover like-minded people who are listening to the same songs you are playing. You can send messages, see the listening histories of your friends, and keep an ear on what’s hot."

The next event in this year's award season for the Social Player is our nomination for a Mobile User Experience award. If you like what you see, vote for us!

This stuff is just the tip of the iceberg, with much more to come. I promise.

In the meantime, don't forget to enjoy your personalized music video channel on MyStrands.TV, or a personalized radio station of indie/unsigned artists (and upload your own band's stuff for inclusion), and of course - track your listening behavior, get personalized music recommendations, and much more at www.mystrands.com.

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UPDATE:

Today we announced our acquisition of Expensr and the beta release of moneyStrands.

Reply Channels

Every once in a while, when I'm in a music rut and being lazy, I will just ask people for recommendations on what I should be listening to. Yeah, everybody does that, I know. But want I find interesting is the different modes in which the recommendations come in.

Take today for example... I tweeted (or is "twittered"?) the following:

Need some new music... what do you guys suggest?

Because of the multiple status broadcast and aggregation tools I use, that message found it's way to my Twitter account, Pownce account, Facebook status, FriendFeed (and other lifestreaming sites), and a number of other channels.

What I found interesting where the multiple modes of response I received.

• public @replies via Twitter
• direct Twitter replies
• posts to my Facebook wall
• private (inbox) messages via Facebook
• messages from friends with links sent from their music site of choice
• comments on a number of lifestream aggregators (to where my tweets get published)
• instant messages
• emails
• and I'm guessing that I get some more recommendations from people via comments on this post

I find it to be a very interesting (and growing) phenomenon. What do you guys think? What's your preferred channel?

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Sony Buys Gracenote

Wow... hello left-field. I didn't see that one coming....

SunHerald.com : Sony Corporation of America to Acquire Gracenote: "NEW YORK, April 22 --
Sony Corporation of America (SCA) announced today that it has signed a merger agreement with Gracenote, Inc. Sony will pay approximately $260 million plus other contingent consideration."

Two Minutes and 42 Seconds in Heaven

Great story. Follow the link and learn why 2:42 is the ideal length for the perfect song.

Two Minutes and 42 Seconds in Heaven by Joshua Allen - The Morning News: "How many horn solos does it take to kill a perfect pop song? JOSHUA ALLEN applies science and taste to determine the exact best length—down to the second—for the platonic song, including a full mix tape of samples."

Then head on over to Muxtape to experience a mixtape comprised solely of 2:42 long songs.

Seems Like Old Times

It seems like it has been forever since I've been to a club show (when it fact it probably has indeed been the lifetime of my children). Last night I finally got motivated to get back out there - with the help of my wife and a babysitter.

The show that finally got me off my parental ass was the incomparable Mike Doughty, the venue... the 9:30 Club in DC. He played probably 15 songs, with an even mix of tracks off of Haughty Melodic (my favorite album of last year) and Golden Delicious (released last month). For good measure, he threw 2 Soul Coughing tunes ("Circles" and "St. Louise is Listening") and a cover of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler". A couple of technical problems ruined the flow at times, but Mike and his band adeptly filled the time with amusing banter.

Mike: "This is a very important time of the night. This is the song before the *fake* last song. We are going to play this song, then the *fake* last song with a big rock-and-roll ending. I will introduce the each guy in the band by their full christian name - then the lights will go out. We will turn around and you will pretend we are off the stage. You will cheer and we will turn around and then play 2 more songs".

The show was good, but not great. The technical problems aside, the Soul Coughing songs sounded a bit flat in my opinion and I swear "St. Louise" was in an entirely different key. But, for a $20/ticket it is was a no-brainer. Although when you throw in the $10 service charge + $4 box office charge + $10 parking + $6 beers + $60 babysitter the return on investment becomes a little obvious but still worth it.

The thing that most struck me was how much older Doughty looked to me. Then I remembered that the last time I saw him was in 1995 playing a stellar Soul Coughing show at The Point. He was probably saying the same thing about his mostly 30-something crowd. Where does the time go?

Never Go Up Against a Sicilian When *Death* is on the Line!

Image from WikipediaVizzini vs. The Man in Black in "The Princess Bride"... one of the most quoted and memorable movie scenes of my generation. The battle of wits to the death comes to mind often when I sit and watch what is going on right now in the music industry. The labels are Vizzini... overconfident, over-thinking, but also over-looking (the obvious). The consumers are The Man in Black... practical, nimble and immune.

For those of you that watch the industry, you have seen a flurry of announcements lately about the new approaches the labels are taking, the partners that used to be defendants, and how everything is the next "iTunes-Killer". While hyperbole is aplenty, clarity is hard to come by when it comes to making bets on what happens next.

• Last.fm offering free streaming of millions(?) of tracks has also just announced that they will also offer streaming simulcasts of CBS Radio stations (sister division)
• imeem cutting deals with all the majors with other "gray" services being coerced into similar deals
• MySpace Music's announcement today about offering free streams (from 3 of the 4 majors) and selling both DRM'd and DRM free tracks
• Nokia's "Comes with Music" offering (aka "the hardware tax")
• Apple's rumored discussions around their own subscription plans ("hardware tax")
• Omniphone's music subscription as bundled with wireless plan service in Europe ("wireless tax")
  
• Universal Music Group's "Total Music" plan(s) that are still unclear ("hardware tax"?)
  
• Warner Music Group's announcement last week that they hired Jim Griffin to drive and promote a service offering that would be bundled with your ISP bill (aka "the ISP tax")
• MP3 Search Engines (aka "information retrieval tools") and online storage lockers, like Seeqod and MP3tunes, being sued by major record labels
• New playlisting and music services popping up daily (see Muxtape and Mixwit)
• Other services getting acquired (Foxytunes, Qloud) while others close up shop (Ezmo)
  
• XM & Sirius merging
• EMI hires ex-Google CIO to head up their digital division
  
• Yahoo and MTV shedding their subscription music services (to Rhapsody)
• Yahoo Music VP, Ian Rogers, decided to move on to a new job focused on the *creation* side of the industry... presumably because the consumption side is such a mess?
  
• AOL farming out their radio programming (and presumably royalty liabilities) to CBS Radio
  
• Amazon is now the second biggest digital music retailer, but iTunes is now the biggest music retailer (digital or physical) surpassing Wal-Mart
  

The list goes on and on. The good news is that there are a lot of smart and passionate people dedicated to trying to change the way the music business operates. The bad news is that most of the business models being pursued above can only succeed at the expense of all the other models.

I like the notion of making music "feel free" even if it's not. The problem is are you going to pay Nokia, Apple, Verizon and Comcast all an incremental fee for the same rights (all the music you can enjoy)? Some would say the labels have finally gotten smart by recently making some online bets after years of just trying to wish the internet away. Others would say that they are extorting the digital music companies, forcing them to make huge upfront deals and trade away big chunks of their companies in the name of self-preservation. Taken a step further, many claim the labels are moving towards extorting the consumers directly (after years of suing them) by trying to inflict an "optional" ISP music fee that basically buys you (and the ISP) immunity from being sued.


The only thing clear to me is that there is a nuclear bomb coming, and I'm not betting on any of them until the smoke clears. Any one of the (r)evolutionary models will send ripples throughout the music/tech community.... anointing new kings while massacring hundreds of others in the process.

That is, of course, if Steve Jobs decides to let any of it happen or not.

Qloud's Sunny Day

Rumors today that LA-based Buzznet has bought Qloud for "slightly more than Qloud's last round valuation". I don't remember what Qloud's last round valuation was, I will have to go see if I can find it mentioned online somewhere.

Congrats to Mike & Toby, I hope this is a good thing for them and their company. Selfishly, I also hope they get to keep their office in DC as I'm a big fan of the growing digital media startup landscape in this area.

I keep going back to my predictions a couple of months ago, and I'm looking pretty good so far (one quarter into the year)...

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Warner Music's Take on Subscription Music

Source: WikipediaNews yesterday that Warner Music is pushing forward with their own take on subscription music... one that bundles a monthly fee (around $5/month) into your ISP bill and then lets you download any/all things you want (presumably most happening via P2P networks) with immunity from litigation.

As I have said numerous times, I am a big fan of the value proposition offered by subscription services, but this opens stirs up far more questions for me than answers based on my (assumed) use case below...

• Comcast pays some collection agency a couple/few bucks for on every ISP customer they have
• Comcast either then charges me an extra couple of bucks on my $50/month ISP bill or throws a few more ads at me to cover their incremental cost
• I (and they) now have "immunity" for anything I download over their network - from MP3 search, P2P, etc.
  

If that is correct, then that sparks a bunch of related questions...

1. Does it matter how many people are on my network? Theoretically, my ISP is monetizing each user but in reality they would be monetizing the household, no? What if I open up my wireless network, and invite my neighbors that don't have broadband to jump on? What if I open a coffee shop and let hundreds of users a day get on free of charge? What if I resold access, is it then different?
2. How does my ISP cover their incremental costs via advertising? Many people don't ever visit their ISP's webpages (myself included). Do they they have to require their users to use/frequent their portals/sites? Do they require some application (like some of the old free ISP models) that throws pop-ups at me?
3. What about wireless? Is my cellphone company considered an ISP and subject to the same fees? If so, then isn't the consumer getting charged twice for the same rights (e.g. once by Comcast and once by AT&T)?
4. This is repeatedly denied as being "a tax", but to make this work it would have to be a *required* fee to every ISP, no? Otherwise, there is the danger of people switching to the *cheaper* ISPs that don't have cover this cost?
5. If the ISPs need to monetize these music consumption experiences (to cover their incremental costs of contributing to the pool) that seems to dictate that they (or at least some of them) can no longer just be a dumb pipe to 3rd party music sites.
6. Does this force Comcast and Verizon Fios (and others) to invest in building out there own music destinations to compete with Yahoo Music, AOL Music and MTV?
7. Does this trigger an avalanche of music service acquistions by the ISPs? Does Comcast buy Napster? Does Verizon buy imeem? Does Cox Communications buy Seeqpod? If they don't "own" the music experiences of their customers then how do they cover their additional licensing costs? If the ISPs can't cover these costs (or generate additional revenue around music) then what's in it for them? Just immunity from lawsuits themselves?

Public perception will be one of the biggest hurdles (and in my opinion, most important) to overcome in this new plan. The labels have done a fabulous job painting themselves as the bad guys over the past few years and most consumers don't really care whether or not they survive. While there are lots of reasons why the blanket licensing plan has merit, it will be all for naught if the consumers aren't convinced it's in their best interest.

I suggest that Warner Music gets a great PR firm on retainer quick before this rhetoric gets loud enough to smother the plan.

The next *big* question is then... how does this ISP-fee plan work in conjunction with the other approaches that Nokia is pushing with their "comes with music" plan and rumored Apple subscription plan that would put the tax on the devices themselves. How many times do I need to pay for my music... once with my phone + once with my iPod + monthly with my ISP + monthly with my cellphone???!

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Sony BMG to Launch Own Subscription Service (Again)

News is surfacing that Sony BMG is going to try (yet again) to a launch their own subscription music service. You know the saying about the "definition of insanity", right?

I don't get it at all. Where I used to think that Sony must have some well-thought out plan for their future (that I just didn't have visibility into), I now see them as just completely desperate, completely dis-"Connect"-ed, delusional label that has somehow convinced themselves that consumers know (and care) what label an artist is on.

Would you subscribe to a cable TV tier where you would only get access to shows produced by Ubu Productions (sit, ubu, sit.... good dog). Arguably, Ubu has stronger brand equity than Sony BMG and I still can't name what shows they produce.

It seems to me that these guys are just floating any idea to try and and stem the possibility of Apple beating to them to the punch (remember my 2008 predictions?) and taking what little semblance of power the labels once had in the music industry away from them.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Great video highlighting the massive gap between *real* consumers and the rest of us....

AOL Buys Bebo Just to Resell It?

News this morning that AOL is buying social network Bebo for $850 million. This comes one day after the news that Time Warner has finally gone on record that they want to dump AOL. What the hell is going on? Are they acting as middleman here? Buy Bebo for $850 mil, do some simple/basic integration with AIM and then claim it is now worth $1.5 billion in a couple of month? Perhaps Yahoo is interested in Bebo too, and the quickest way for them to get there is to have AOL as their broker? Got me... it all seems a bit odd to me.

Oh yeah, this all comes a couple of days after AOL's "Platform A" division (supposedly the company's saving grace) canned their head honcho... and then today mentioned they are going to cut half their Ad Sales force.

I hope there is some master plan behind all of this, but I have to be honest... I don't hold out hope. At this point I'm going to sit on my TWX stock until AOL is dealt away... I expect a pretty good bounce in price as soon as that happens. Considering the stock price is getting sucked down the toilet lately, that can't happen soon enough in my opinion.

Oh yeah, I consider this the death knell for Bebo. They are going to have to now go through what will likely be not one, but two, excruciating integrations. One with AOL (who have a bad record at this) and another with whoever (if anyone) buys AOL. Facebook and MySpace send your thank you cards to Dulles c/o of Ron Grant & Randy Falco.

Off Topic: My Latest "Lost" Theories

I love the show "Lost". I think it is by far the best show on TV and the only one that I actually look forward to every week. The first couple of seasons of the show I used to try to "figure it out". I gave up continually revising my theories last year, and just relaxed and let it wash over me. "Wow, that was crazy... I guess I'll just see what unwinds next week".

Well, yesterday was a big show. One with a lot of questions answered, and that got me going again on my theories. Below are the most recent thoughts, theories, questions and WTFs that are rattling around in my head since last night...

Parallel Lives

• OK, they are not dead and in purgatory (as I thought in Season 1)... but are living parallel lives, in different time periods, and different "speeds"

• Time moves slower on the island than in "real" life - that's why it takes so long (island time) for the helicopter to make a "40 minute" trip to the freighter

• Also some of the "others" haven't really aged since Ben was a little kid (per flashback)

• Desmond's parallel life is 8 years behind "island time"

• Per Daniel Faraday, people that are exposed to radiation or electromagnetic activity suffer "side effects" (time/space jumping)

• Jack (a doctor who deals with XRay machines and other like-equipment) sees his father

• Hurley sees his "invisible friend" from the looney bin.... was he exposed to radiation/electromagnetic fields at some point? I don't recall anything but who knows....

• The radio engineer on the freighter (works in highly electromagnetic environment). Is this the same "crazy" WW2 radio engineer (in his "real self") that Hurley gets the "numbers" from in the looney bin????

• Desmond was in the electromagnetic "blast" when the hatch blew up (and could then see the future regarding Charlie's pending demise)

• Daniel Faraday did all of those radioactive tests on the mouse. Remember when Faraday was shown watching the story of the plane crash and he starts crying? Someone asks "why are you crying?" and he doesn't know.... it's because he can almost make the connection to his parallel life on the island (and whatever ends up happening there)

• Rousseau's crew members were studying the electromagnetic properties of the island (?) and "went crazy" and she killed them all. Why not Rousseau herself? Well, she was pregnant so it would make sense that she stayed away from any radioactive/electromagnetic dangers

• By the way, Locke was in that hatch blast too.... so look for him to be next.
  

• Remember in season 1 or 2 when Desmond met Jack at the stadium (in Jack's flashback before he was on the island) and Desmond asked "do we know each other"? That's because Desmond can kind of remember from his parallel life in the future (on the island)

• Kids can't be conceived on the island because every life has to have a parallel life in the real-world (do the writers have a "life starts at conception" agenda?)

• Widmore (Penny's dad) learns about the secrets of the island from the journal of the First Mate of the Black Rock (he bought it at the auction) - he sends Desmond there on the race to see if it's true/works. How did the First Mate (or at least his journal full of secrets) make it off the island?

• Hmmm... could some of the "slow aging" others mentioned above actually have been the crew on the Black Rock???
  

Master of His Domain

• Ben knows how to control the mental jumping between the parallel lives/time - as well as physically leave - this is why the scientist team is looking for him... they want to learn how he does it. But, without his submarine is he now physically stuck on the island??

• Ben can also control other people's jumping between the parallel worlds... that's how he got Locke to see his dad locked in the closet

• Ben sends Sayid and other's into the parallel world (past) to do his bidding. Are Sayid and the others of Oceanic 6 are actually off the island, or he has just "mentally" sent them there (either by their choice or negotiation to keep the others safe in their alternative realities)?

• Jack and Kate had to "memorize" their (fake story) of how they escaped the island - the one Jack spouted out at Kate's trial. But how were their "real" bodies saved/recovered considering the reports were that *all* of the victims where found at the crash site????
  

My Brain Hurts

Now, here is the thing that currently has my head spinning the most...

• Since time runs slower on the island (the island is currently 8 years ahead of "real life" per Desmond) - at some point "real life" will pass "island time" and the parallel lives will move from being in the past to being in the future!

Then what happens?!!!

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

I realize I have been pretty sparse with my posts lately. I blame that on a couple of things...

1.) I have been using Twitter to more quickly (and granularly) express what I am thinking/doing.

2.) I've been very busy with work. We are starting to get close to with a new product, and that has been keeping me more than occupied. But, once we get closer I will probably get to the point where I won't shut up about it.

That being said, I'll be at the Digital Music Forum East conference tomorrow/Wednesday in New York. Let me know if any of you guys are going.

Imeem Acquires Snocap

More moves by Imeem.... they are piecing together an interesting puzzle over there. I'm not sure how many people come with the Snocap acquisition, or how this will be integrated with both Imeem and Anywhere.fm (who they acquired a few weeks ago).

Imeem Acquires Snocap: "Digital music wholesaler Snocap, long searching for a buyer, is being acquired by music streaming site Imeem. The price will likely not be disclosed."

Song of the Day: "I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress To Keep On Dancing" by Mike Doughty

Man, I love Mike Doughty. Something about his music that just gets me bouncing. Ever since his Soul Coughing days I've been a big fan and after Doughty's Haughty Melodic album a couple of years ago I've been jonesing for what's next.

Well, the wait is just about over. The new album, Golden Delicious, comes out next week, and here is my new favorite song of the moment....

I Just Want The Girl In The Blue Dress To Keep On Dancing by Mike Doughty

Danger, Danger, Will Gates

News today that Microsoft has just bought Danger (creator of the Sidekick phone/PDA). I've never owned a Sidekick (apparently it is the only device I have not owned a version of) - but I know that there was a fairly large group of people that are/were big fans. I don't see them around as much as I used to though... I'm not sure if maybe I'm not the target demographic or whether their sales have tailed off due to increased competition.

Either way, it was Microsoft's Xbox/Zune/Windows Mobile group that drove this acquisition.... so you've got to figure this is the first step in a rush-to-market iPhone competitor. Besides the fact that it just seems like another reactionary "how do we keep up with the Joneses" move, it also once again directly pits Microsoft against their licensees. This is far from the first time they have done this... most recently, this was the shift taken by the same group when they realized that their PlaysForSure/Windows Media Player storefront strategy wasn't working. When none of their PlaysForSure partners (CinemaNow, Napster, Rhapsody, FYE, AOL MusicNow, etc.) could mount a truly competitive offering against Apple, they (MS) went back to the trenches and said.... "ok, let's do what Apple has done and see if we can beat them at their own game".

In mobile phones, the tack was to license Windows Mobile to be the de facto standard of mobile device operating systems. The good news... they managed to kill Palm. The bad news.... Apple and Nokia not so much. So, what about a Zune-phone? I'm skeptical, but I'll be interested to see how it unfolds.

Oh yeah, there is actually another device that I just thought of that I have never owned.... a Zune.

Google Doing Music Search... In China

This market gets more interesting every day...

Google planning China online music tie-up: report | Technology | Internet | Reuters: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc is planning to boost its presence in China by tying up with a Chinese online music company to provide free music downloads, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday."

If this works in China, how long before they cut the same deals in the US? Last May I waxed poetic about what Google could/should do in the music space. Are they dipping their toes in the Chinese water?

Last.fm's Subscription Details (or just speculation?)

Silicon Alley Insider says they have an inside tip on details of Last.fm's upcoming subscription tiers...

Last.fm's Subscription Service: Bite-sized And Super-Sized? - Silicon Alley Insider:

• "A mini-subscription, priced at $4 a month. This would let users stream more music than they can for free -- Last.fm's current deal limits users to 3 plays per song, per month -- but would be capped at some number. We've heard 100 songs a month, but that seems too tiny to entice many users.
• An all-you-can-eat, unlimited subscription, priced at $10 a month."

SAI closes saying they are skeptical of the validity of these rumors... what do you guys think?

To me it says Rhapsody better get going and (re)introduce some of the community features that they briefly showed up last year but have subsequently disappeared.

FoxyTunes/Yahoo Deal Consumated

Congrats to Alex and the gang at FoxyTunes (and to Lucas et al at Yahoo)...

FoxyTunes Blog: "The FoxyTunes team will become a part of Yahoo! Music and will continue working on FoxyTunes, adding many great things to our products - you’ll see support for additional media players, integration with many additional music sites and services and much more! Our product roadmap and wishlist are quite long and very exciting, and being a part of Yahoo! will really allow us to make many of the things we’ve been planning a reality. Most importantly, Yahoo! are as committed as we are to preserving the Open spirit of FoxyTunes and embracing all the great music products and services out there."

Let's hope Microsoft doesn't screw the whole thing up....

Rhapsody Snags Yahoo Music Subscribers Before Microsoft

Further consolidation in the music market....

Yahoo selling music service to Rhapsody America - USATODAY.com: "Yahoo is selling its digital music subscription service to Rhapsody America — a partnership of Real Networks and MTV Networks — as it revamps its music strategy.

Yahoo Music will continue to offer music videos, Internet radio and music downloads. But customers of its monthly Yahoo Music Unlimited service will be migrated to Rhapsody. No firm timetable has been set. Yahoo, which expects the deal to close by the middle of year, did not disclose terms."

Now all that is left if for Rhapsody to buy Napster, and the subscription market has been weened down to Rhapsody vs. The World (save Last.fm's upcoming streaming subscription service).

This story talks about Yahoo keeping their Music destination (music.yahoo.com) and ... I definitely believe the former, but I still think the latter could be up on the blocks at some point.

I think this is a good play for Rhapsody, and sooner or later people *will* understand the value of subscription. When the do, they'll be the only game in town...