Written on June 26, 2008 – 11:56 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Two weeks ago, Google Blogoscoped’s Philipp Lenssen was welcomed on gmail.com with the following message:
We can’t provide service under the Gmail name in Germany; we’re called Google Mail here instead. If you’re traveling in Germany, you can access your mail at http://mail.google.com. Oh, and we’d like to link the URL above, but we’re not allowed to do that either. Bummer. For general information about Google, please visit www.google.com or www.google.de.
Of course, he directly linked this to the lost trademark battle of Google. German Daniel Giersch owns “G-mail” and successfully sued the Internet giant for using it. Google had already replaced the Gmail logo with a Google Mail logo and now it seemed that they’ve retreated even further. Anyhow, a few hours later, Gmail appeared to be in its normal shape again.
But now, rumor has it that the sorry message is back…, for good. Several blogs like Slashdot, Betanews, and WebhostDirectory report that the screen is here to stay:
I’m sure on of our German readers can confirm this. If so, I feel sorry for you to type in mail.google.com as it’s six characters longer. That seems like a minor effort, but let’s assume you check your email ten times a day. Then, all of a sudden, it’s 60 characters extra. Now consider the number of Germans using Gmail, probably millions, and multiply it with 60. All this extra typing work for the copyright needs of one man. What’s this world coming to?
I hope you like that post!
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Written on June 7, 2008 – 9:59 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
There’s a huge shift going on in the music industry. As you might have noticed during the past few years, downloading music is becoming less and less common. Whereas labels used to freak out by the idea of Napster or torrents only five years ago, now even those services have become outdated. The next generation just wants to click. Not on the download button, but on the play button. To get an overview of these developments, I gave Gerd Leonhard a call. Since this media futurist, speaker and author of The Future of Music and Music 2.0 sure knows what he’s talking about. Today’s keyword? Attention.
Gerd Leonhard at the Commonwealth Club
Access and new business models
“Kids now only listen to music, they don’t download it’, Leonhard said. “Access has become an important factor. People want to listen to music on their mobile. Developments like Wifi, 4G, iPhone’s, fancy Nokia’s turn streaming music into the new radio”. This shift requires new business models, as even fewer people than now will want to pay for music. “The new business model is selling stuff around music. Tickets, merchandising, posters, books, things like that.”
“Music also becomes part of environment where you can meet like-minded people”. They all have a connection, which makes it interesting for targeting advertising. So companies can sponsor a music community and effectively reach the right group of people.” Moreover, Leonhard point out an interesting difference with today’s advertising: “Consumers skip television ads, but they will listen to a sponsor message when they get free music in return”.
Nobody knows you exist
Give away your music and sell stuff around it
So if you’re an musician, you might start to wonder how you should cope with these changes in the music industry. Well, don’t worry, Leonhard has some advice for you: “Nobody knows you exist, so get attention. There should emerge a service like Twitter or Delicious, only then for sharing music. Before that happens, artists and labels should use blogs and widgets to attract as many people as possible. Give away your music and sell stuff around it. Like Nine Inch Nails sold a book. Build a brand around your music”. If you look at this from Kevin Kelly’s perspective, you’ll need those 1,000 true fans to spend a 100 dollars each. Kelly:
That sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.
Give away and make money
To me, these advices and expectations sound exciting. Yet it isn’t all one big happy adventure, as there’s also something called The Major Labels. They don’t allow third parties to give away their music in exchange for some sponsor exposure. “This is a problem, as it blocks innovation. It’s too risky for start-ups to invent a new service like YouTube, since it violates the copyright regulations. What these labels don’t get, is that when you ask people to pay for music, they’ll get it somewhere else for free. But if you give the music away for free, you can make money with sponsoring”.
Written on January 1, 2008 – 10:55 am
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
Every year it takes webmasters a few days (or months!) to realize that it is a new year and they should update the copyright notices at the bottom of their websites. I know, it is trivial, but I just can’t help but smile when I see the most expensive and well watched frontpage of the world display ‘2007′ when it is actually 2008
Google and Yahoo: both wrong
CNN and Reuters: Reuters wins!
Wired and Techcrunch: both wrong
Apple and Microsoft: sorry Apple fans, both wrong
See any other funny examples of outdated websites?
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