Longing for the day ...

American Idol Discriminates

American Idol Discriminates from TJR on Vimeo.

This is TJR's song about how American Idol only allows contestants under the age of 29. The original video was pulled by Youtube because Fremantle Media claimed breach of Copyright. So TJR made another video, this one, which was also pulled by Youtube and TJR's Youtive account was suspended.

Join the Facebook group here to send a message to Fremantle Media the they cannot be above criticism, satire or parody, no matter how many lawyers they have.

You can also support TJR directly here.

eMusic data supports the Long Tail

Some time ago there was a study showing that of 13million tracks available on the Internet, 10 million hadn't sold at all. This, it was claimed, proved that the Long Tail theory was bunkum.

Chris Anderson, proud daddy of the Long Tail theory, has just highlighted another study, using eMusic sales data, showing that in fact 75% of eMusic's catalog had sold at least once in the past year. This, it is argued, proves that there IS a Long Tail of sales for music files on the Internet.

Putting aside the politics of this debate, while this is all good stuff, none of it is anywhere near conclusive. I tend to think that there is a Long Tail effect, that i is poorly understood, and that it is probably not nearly as useful as some of its proponents make out. Anderson himself is quite up-front about the Long Tail's limitations in his book.

I recommend everyone who is interested in business in the New Media environment should read Anderson's book.

Support critical reflection!!!

My [MusicThoughts] buddy TJR made a really great song about American Idol. He made a video for it using clips from the show and posted it to YouTube. The Video was a huge hit, getting 20,000 views in a week.

Then YouTube pulled it, citing copyright infringement.

See, TJR, unlike a lot of American Idol "parodies", dared to raise an important issue about discrimination based on age. Hardly earth-shattering, but apparently a sensitive point for Fremantle Media.

I was probably not going to watch American Idol anyway, but now I'm going to campaign against it. Support TJR by buying his CD at CDBaby.

There is a Facebook group for this campaign at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45599506708. Please join it and support the campaign for real, intelligent and independent entertainment.

Congratulations, President Obama - now the world is watching

It's great to see a Black Man in the White House. Long overdue and hopefully will set the tone for a fresh perspective on life all over the world. Congratulations to Barack Obama and his team - it's an extraordinary achievement - well done.

He's been making a lot of the right noises - the ones the world has been wanting to hear since 2001 - but now he has to walk the walk. As an African-American friend of mine put it the other day: right now he's just another politician. I hope the weight of expectation doesn't stop him from changing the world for the better.

We want to see real and substantial (if subtle) change in the way the US government addresses its own people as well as the rest of the world. If that happens, Obama's legacy will be as rich as his promise.

Inside Midem

A wonderful and revealing article in Techdirt about what's happening at annual music industry conference Midemnet. It clearly shows the state of the industry in one little snippet - new experiments that show new possibilities and much confusion among the old guard.

One of the best quotes in it comes from an anonymous Isle of Man government official, who said:

"The problem is that this industry is so focused on how much it's going to lose, it never looks at the opportunities of how much money there is to be made."

Brilliant insight! If only this view saw more daylight ...

Understanding women

"Hellboy: When a woman’s mad about something but she’s really mad about something else – you can’t ask because then they get angry 'cause you had to ask."

I watched Hellboy II last night and this quote is particularly pertinent to me right now.

Happy new year

I hope 2009 brings you much success, joy and fulfillment. It has to be an improvement on 2008.