March 28, 2005
Tomorrow's Supreme Court Peer-to-Peer Case
04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (7) ~ Biz - General
The NYTs has a series of articles on the MGM vs. Grokster peer-to-peer file-sharing case. Oral arguments will be heard tomorrow in the Supreme Court.
A Supreme Court Showdown for File Sharing
File - Sharing Case Worries Indie Artists
When David Steals Goliath’s Music
It’s interesting that some recording companies like V2 Records are taking advantage of peer-to-peer networks to promote their artists. With the decline of MTV (they basically don’t show videos anymore) and mainstream radio (they play the same 40 songs over and over) as promotional outlets, it is nearly impossible for independent labels to gain publicity. As Andy Gershon, president of V2 Records (home to artists such as the White Stripes and Moby), notes:
The cat is so far out of the bag and so far gone that it’s pointless to keep fighting it. I might as well make as many people fans of our music, whether they illegally download it or not.
Regarding peer-to-peer networks Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy adds :
“I look at it as a library. I look at it as our version of the radio,” Tweedy said. “It’s a place where basically we can encourage fans to be fans and not feel like they’re being exploited, which is basically what the whole industry is geared to do.”
Tweedy encourages fans to tape Wilco shows and has distributed tracks over the Internet for free months before releasing them on CDs.
He agrees artists should be compensated, but “you try to encourage people to feel more like a patron of the arts instead of a consumer.”
It will be very interesting to see how the Court will rule on this case.
Information Technology Industry "Graying?"
03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (16) ~ Biz - General
Today’s NYTs New Economy article, referenced a Goldman Sachs survey of corporate spending. The survey noted that:
Technology looks to be firmly in the cyclical category for now.
The gist of the Times story was that this was too narrow of a view of “technology” (i.e., just corporate spending). The article sited technologies that might not be captured in the survey such as: Medsphere (a start-up that hopes to bring open-source clinical systems to hospitals), Epocrates (a handheld-based drug, disease and diagnostics tool for doctors) and social software such as wikis and Flickr.
Information technology is clearly much more pervasive than a corporate-spending figure would suggest.
March 26, 2005
An Open Letter to Sony
06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (10) ~ Biz - General
I follow Sony. What their new products look like, what their strategies are, etc. You have to if you’re into business and technology. They are too important of a brand not to (as is Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, etc.). However, I don’t like Sony. Did I mention that I don’t like Sony. In fact, I really, really go out of my way to not ever purchase a Sony product. The reason? Standards.
Sony tries to force standards on the market. Take MemoryStick, Sony’s flash memory product. I’ll never buy any product that uses it. I am friggin’ sick and tired of having to purchase first, Compact Flash, then SD and now with my Audiovox Smartphone, miniSD. Pretty soon it will be nanominihypersmallSD. Make it stop!
One way to make this stop is to never buy anything from Sony.
March 16, 2005
Worldcom Bernard Ebbers Trial — Part II
08:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (9) ~ Biz - General
P.S. Part one here.
March 04, 2005
Worldcom Bernard Ebbers Trial
09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2) ~ Biz - General
Give me a break. I’ve been reading a few pieces on the trial of Mr. Ebbers lately (I’d link to them, but they were in the WSJ which is pay to play). This is a guy who cut out free coffee and water to save $4 million, but yet knew ‘nothing’ of the huge account fraud. Whatever. If he doesn’t get set away for a long time, something is wrong with the system (well, obviously there is since folks like Ms. Former HP Boss can make over $45 while getting fired for running the company into the ground).
February 21, 2005
I Want My WalMartTV
08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (22) ~ Biz - General
The New York Times today has a piece on WalMart’s in-store TV service (a.k.a., WMTV). Here’s some food for thought from the article:
According to Wal-Mart and to an agency that handles its ad sales, the TV operation captures some 130 million viewers every four weeks, making it the fifth-largest television network in the United States after NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.
That’s a lot of viewers, which translates into some advertising nice profits for WalMart.
According to Wal-Mart’s rate card, advertisers pay $137,000 to $292,000 to show a single commercial for a four-week period, depending on the length of the ad and the number of stores where it is shown.
However, as Phil Lempert, editor of Xtreme Retail 23, an industry newsletter, notes that just because you have a huge number of customers (i.e., “viewers”), it doesn’t necessarily mean they are paying attention to the programming. The article goes on to talk about how WalMart is upgrading its old-school monitors to 42” plasma screens. Some interesting reading.
I did a little A9ing/Yahooing/Googleing on the web, and found that PRN is the company that creates (or helps create) the in-store network for WalMart (it’s interesting that the NYTs didn’t mention this in their article). According to an old Forbes article PRN started out as music-sampling kiosk distributor. PRN’s current customers include Best Buy, Costco, Sears, Circuit City and Ralphs among others.
This is a link to a two-page PDF that gives an overview of WMTV, and this (warning, 57Mb file) is a link to a MPG file that gives an overview of PRN’s services and finally some statistics from PRN’s site on WMTV:
PRN’s network operates in 2,650+ Wal-Mart Stores
* World’s largest retailer offering a wide variety of general merchandise at everyday low prices
* $158.5 billion annual sales
* 84.1 million shoppers per week
I remember a few years ago that this gas station near where I used to live had several monitors blaring out CNN or something to ‘entertain’ the customers when pumping gas. I found them annoying, so general avoided that establishment. I haven’t been in a WalMart lately to view their media offering, but it would be interesting to see how it all works… definitely some powerful marketing lessons to be learned.
Funny, going to WalMart to watch TV.
P.S. I doubt this would work at your local WalMart.
February 15, 2005
HPQ — Destroy Shareholder Value, Get $45 Million
02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (5) ~ Biz - General
What the fuck is wrong with this headline…
HP’s Fiorina Walks Away with $45 Million
and this chart?
Nothing against Carly, but doesn’t it seem like company officers are being rewarded a bit too richly when compared to the value they bring (or in this case, don’t).
P.S. Rest easy, because Carly also gets $50,000 to help her land a new gig.
January 26, 2005
World Economic Forum - Now Online
12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) ~ Biz - General
Last night the World Economic Forum opened its annual event in Davos, Switzerland. This year you can save yourself the $12,500 membership fee and a $6,250 annual meeting fee by tuning into their webcasts. A list of sessions with links to the video streams can be found here. Also somewhat new this year is their blog (it started in April of last year). It's a big hobnobbing event with guests this year such as Bill Gates, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac. With such luminaries in attendance, there's guaranteed to be some insightful content.