The Austin Hotel for Stephen & Amy’s wedding.
∞November 6, 2009
November 5, 2009
November 3, 2009
From SAI:
The radio versus Internet thing is a bit surprising till you remember radio can play passively in the background in cars and offices. The Internet is something you have to actively seek.
Key point is not the technological capability of radio to be accessed in various environments — internet radio will soon be on equal footing, with ready access from the living room, mobile phone or car — but rather that its passive programming can be consumed while doing other things (driving, working, reading, exercising).
Internet radio will soon have the potential to be consumed during a greater % of a person’s waking hours than any other form of media; if the associated advertising is infrequent, relevant and compelling, internet radio’s economic potential is massive.
∞November 2, 2009
November 1, 2009
From the Art Institute:
Until the early 1940s, Franz Kline painted realistic landscapes, portraits, and cityscapes that were inspired by the textures and forms of New York City. Around 1949 he began to make black-and-white canvases such as Painting, which, while abstract, continue to suggest the invigorating energy of urban street life.∞
October 29, 2009
Check out All Hallows’ Even — a most awesome, eclectic mix from New York’s Midnight Rockers Express, hosted by RCRD LBL.
Wish we (8tracks) could figure out a mutually beneficial way to work with RCRD LBL on these.
∞
Always loved the River North neighborhood. It’s a LOT cleaner than when I used to walk to work through it back in 1992-93.
Cool that it still retains some of its old grime (Tokyo Hotel) mixed with shiny new architecture (Dana Hotel = crap picture but beautiful building).
∞October 22, 2009
October 16, 2009
October 15, 2009
Daniel Ek on viability of an on-demand model
Daniek Ek (CEO/founder of Spotify) on sustaining an on-demand model (in paidContent today):
“The truth is, if we only have ad-supported users, the model won’t be sustainable; if we only had paid users, the model won’t be sustainable either. If you look at the history of paid services, none of them really caught on. The key here is the balance of both.”
Completely agree about the challenge of on-demand music: the high royalty rate makes an ad-supported model untenable, while the unwillingness of consumers to pay a fee to rent music for on-demand streaming leaves a subscription-supported model as a niche play (to date).
In the former case, the issue is margin; in the latter the issue is volume.
Clearly, the key for Spotify is to achieve sufficiently high conversion from its free user base such that the positive contribution margin from subscribers can more than offset the negative contribution margin from free listeners.
