June 29, 2009
Volume XXVI, Issue 12
Genachowski Approved as New US FCC Chairman
Excerpted from Bloomberg News Report by Todd Shields
The US Senate this week approved former technology executive Julius Genachowski, a Democrat, as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Senators also approved Robert McDowell, a Republican, to serve a second term on the agency that regulates telephone, cable, and broadcast companies. Both nominees were confirmed by unanimous consent.
The White House also sent to the Senate the nominations of Republican Meredith Attwell Baker, a former telecommunications official, and Democrat Mignon Clyburn, a South Carolina regulator, to serve on the Commission. The two would bring the FCC to its full complement of five Members for the first time during the administration of President Barack Obama.
Genachowski, 46, will lead an agency that punishes broadcast indecency, vets media mergers, and regulates rates for some telephone services. He will also help decide whether regulation is needed to ensure Internet providers don't interfere with users' navigation to websites and other services.
Genachowski attended Harvard Law School with Obama and helped shape his technology agenda. He was an advisor to IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller.
McDowell is a former executive for Comptel, a Washington-based trade organization for telephone companies that compete with AT&T and Verizon. He has served on the Commission since 2006.
Genachowski follows Kevin Martin, the Republican Chairman who left the agency in January as Obama took office. Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat, has served as Acting Chairman.
The Web Creaks as Jackson Fans Mourn
Excerpted from Data Center Knowledge Report by Rich Miller
News sites and social media posting the earliest reports of the death of pop star Michael Jackson experienced availability problems as web users around the world sought to confirm the news and learn more. TechCrunch reported that TMZ, which was the first to report Jackson's passing, was soon knocked offline. Twitter soon struggled to remain available as the volume of messages surged, and turned off search features in account profiles to help manage its server load.
As the news of Jackson's death circulated, the traffic jam spread to more large news sites. Keynote Systems reported that its monitoring showed performance problems for the websites of ABC, AOL, CBS, CNN Money, MSNBC, NBC, SF Chronicle, and Yahoo News.
"Beginning at 5:30 PM US ET Thursday, the average speed for downloading news sites doubled from less than four seconds to almost nine seconds," said Shawn White, Keynote's Director of External Operations. "During the same period, the average availability of sites on the index dropped from almost 100% to 86%. The index returned to normal by 9:15 PM."
Could more widespread acceptance of distributed computing applications such as peer-to-peer (P2P) and cloud computing have alleviated this stress?
Some technologists quickly seized upon these problems to make that case. "There is no longer any good reason for a professional website property to go down because of load," wrote Reuven Cohen at Elastic Vapor.
"Cloud computing provides an almost infinite supply of computing capacity, be it an infrastructure-as-a-service or platform-as-a-service or hybrid peer-assisted content delivery network (CDN). Not have a cloud bursting strategy in the age of cloud computing isn't just wrong - it's idiotic."
Meanwhile, SearchEngineJournal examined how the major search engines fared in updating their indices to help guide searchers to the most relevant news. The verdict? "Did Google search lag in breaking news coverage? Indeed it did," wrote Loren Baker. "Microsoft Bing, however, absolutely failed in its coverage of the passing of Michael."
US Survey: Nearly Every Teen Plays Online Games
Excerpted from GameDaily BIZ Report by Michael Mullen
Yes, that's right. A mere 3% of teens (ages 12-17) don't play videogames according to the results of the Pew Internet & American Life Project's Gaming and Civic Engagement Survey of Teens/Parents. And despite the common perception that parents of those gamers have no clue as to what they're playing, 90% of parents said that they "always or sometimes know what their children play." A whopping 72% say that they check the game ratings and a mere 13% believe that videogames have a negative influence on their children's behavior.
The most interesting part, 31% of parents choose to monitor or play along with their kids, although the survey also found that monitoring had "no impact on whether or not teens are exposed to anti-social behavior or words in the gaming context."
What kind of games are they playing? The top five lists racing (74%), puzzle (72%), sports (68%), action (67%), and adventure games (66%) as their favorites as rhythm games like "DDR" and "Guitar Hero" were in sixth place (61%), yet respondents' top played game was "Guitar Hero." At the bottom of the list were two other interesting finds as MMOGs such as "World of Warcraft" were popular with only 21% of teens and virtual worlds such as "Second Life," "Gaia Online," and "Habbo Hotel" captured a lowly 10%.
The study, which was designed to show whether in-game experiences reduced the amount of civic engagements of gamers, found that respondents were more likely than their non-gaming peers in getting information about politics, raising money for charity, and even persuading others to vote. Yes, we were shocked, too.
To read more details about the report, please visit the PewResearchCenter.
The PC Viewed as Viable Videogame Platform
Excerpted from MediaPost Report by Laurie Sullivan
Contrary to popular belief that the personal computer (PC) videogame platform is dead, research from Interpret released Thursday provides insight on the importance of the PC as a gaming platform for both complex and casual games.
The study found that 23% of gamers still rely on PC-based games as a primary means of gaming, feeling that PCs provide superior experiences compared with console-based games such as Nintendo Wii, Microsoft 360 Xbox, and Sony PlayStation.
Key findings suggest that PCs continue to give gamers a superior method to play certain types of games compared with consoles. For example, access to a keyboard and mouse allows players to communicate better in many multiplayer games, especially MMOs and strategy games.
Interpret's study also found that the once PC-dominated first-person shooter genre is now experiencing equal or greater success compared to consoles. The research shows this trend may hint at the future of how gamers will use each platform and how developers can best tailor products to promote the differences.
"Bleeding-edge" technology, both hardware and software, provides an advantage for the PC. The "open platform" has historically proven to move development along more quickly. Ironically, the study suggests that people who prefer consoles are less likely to sample proof-of-concept games or unfinished-but-promising modifications.
Michael Cai, VP of Videogames at Interpret, says that although consoles continue to introduce more multiplayer social features, the PC is still stronger in social gaming when the PC remains connected to the Internet. "PC game sales haven't done well in stores, so retailers are cutting shelf space and giving it to consoles, but in the meantime there has been an online revolution for downloadable PC games," he says.
Lagging PC game sales in retail stores have contributed to the decline of PC games, but if you combine all the different business models, games on the PC remain a significant revenue stream, Cai says.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 P2P functionality for the new iPhone, announced during the keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), continues to generate a great deal of interest. As Ted Kritsonis observes in The new iPhone Comes to Canada, "The idea of playing games on an iPhone 3G S against someone using the latest iPod touch seems really cool."
Continued growth of online games representing numerous genres on many types of networked devices is indeed very exciting, and the increasing interest of publishers and marketers in harnessing P2P technologies for distribution of games and updates in a wide variety of ways is particularly encouraging.
P2P for games is currently an area of ongoing rapid expansion and enormous promise. The games industry is digitally sophisticated, aggressive, prolific, and highly innovative - in many ways the ideal content partner for the P2P industry. The games industry has demonstrated the greatest potential to exploit the advantages of P2P and to address outstanding issues associated with this powerful technology.
To support and accelerate progress in this realm, the DCIA is continuing to advance our industry-spanning initiative for leading P2P software developers and distributors, online games publishers and marketers, and other qualified entities that are involved in games distribution over broadband networks.
If you work in any of these areas, we invite your active participation now, while this effort is still at the ground level, as we prepare to move ahead. Please call +1-410-476-7965 or e-mail me by replying to this newsletter for more information or to sign-up as a participant.
Our focus in this work will be to optimize the commercial distribution of digital games and updates to the games systems of end-user consumers by means of P2P applications, P2P-enabled software, and related P2P technologies. Games systems include personal computers (PCs), game consoles, handheld and mobile devices,
At this juncture, given the technical and operational implications of envisioned tasks, we believe the effort should be carried out in two or more phases: one addressing issues of consumer protection; and one addressing issues of intellectual property (IP) protection. Additional follow-on phases may also be added as determined by participants based on our learning from these initial endeavors.
Among the critical areas that we are currently exploring for consumer protection are the development, for both P2P software firms and online games companies, of practices and procedures designed to instill the greatest degree of consumer confidence in, adoption of, and satisfaction with P2P technologies and the digital games and updates that are distributed by them.
Most important, we want to ensure that consumers benefit from optimal transparency, control, and value when using P2P technologies to access, play, enhance, and help redistribute digital games and updates.
Among the critical areas that we are currently exploring for IP protection are the development, for both P2P software firms and online games companies, of practices and procedures to commercially optimize digital games and updates in terms of ensuring the integrity and security of such content offerings being distributed by means of P2P technologies.
Overall, this initiative will seek to ascertain and incentivize the best methods for P2P software developers and distributors and online games publishers and marketers to work together to enable innovative business models for digital games and updates distribution using P2P technologies and protecting the interests of consumers and IP rights-holders.
As part of this, we intend to provide compliance monitoring, digital rights management (DRM), online data tracking, payment services, and other support entities, as well as Internet service providers (ISPs), with opportunities to commercially enhance the distribution of digital games and updates by means of P2P technologies.
Our initial work product is expected to be a series of voluntary best practices for the deployment of P2P technologies for digital games and updates distribution that, upon validation through testing, prove to be sustainable by all of the necessary participants.
Based on preliminary discussions now underway with qualified parties, we hope to publish the mission and objectives of this initiative this week and, again, warmly welcome your participation: please call +1-410-476-7965 or e-mail me by replying to this newsletter. Share wisely, and take care.
Volcano Party Features P2P Battle via Bluetooth
Bomberman Touch 2: Volcano Party, the latest Bomberman for iPhone/iPod touch published by Hudson Entertainment, the North American publishing arm of Hudson Soft, is now available for download at the iTunes App Store. Anyone, including existing Bomberman Touch fans and new players, can download "Bomberman Touch 2: Volcano Party" for $2.99 and receive all the content of Bomberman Touch with the new features.
"To take advantage of the new Bluetooth functionality available in the iPhone OS 3.0 software update, 'Bomberman Touch 2: Volcano Party' has a P2P battle function as well as new competitive modes," said Yoko Tsumagari, Vice President of Mobile Games at Hudson Entertainment.
"'Bomberman Touch 2: Volcano Party' continues our tradition of innovations in the mobile gaming market." "Bomberman Touch 2: Volcano Party" offers classic Bomberman multiplayer action to iPhone and iPod Touch gamers for the first time.
The new Battle Mode features up to four players (including two CPU players), while Challenge Mode includes two-player action. In Challenge Mode, the user and other characters cooperate to avoid the running lava and move towards the labyrinth to defeat the boss waiting inside. "Bomberman Touch 2: Volcano Party" will run on iPhone and iPod Touch (2nd generation or later) installed with the new OS 3.0.
For more information on "Bomberman Touch 2: Volcano Party" or other titles, please visit Hudson Entertainment. Originally launched in the US in 1987, the game Bomberman captured gamers' hearts with its simple yet challenging gameplay.
With over 60 iterations on nearly all major consoles since then, and over 10 million units sold, winning accolades as the best multiplayer game of all time, this classic game has stood the test of time. Along the way, it also pioneered the "partygame" genre, encouraging groups of 4 or more friends to duke it out in one room, and was the first series to contribute to Hudson's reputation as the number one partygame company.
BitTorrent-Powered App Store Replacement Coming
Excerpted from ReadWriteWeb Report by Sarah Perez
If you've been looking for a reason to jailbreak your iPhone, look no further. Yesterday, iPhone developer Alec Renolds announced on multiple online forums that his long-awaited BitTorrent-powered application called "appDowner" is about to be released. When he first announced this project last year, the idea was to create a simple BitTorrent client for the iPhone. Unfortunately, personal issues got in the way of development and the project was put on hold for months on end.
But now, Renolds has returned and this time he's expanded on the original concept to create what appears to be a full-on App Store replacement application.
The new appDowner application may use BitTorrent technology to power its downloads in the background, but the interface doesn't appear to be technically complicated to use at all. Instead, the app keeps the iPhone's design aesthetic in mind to provide a simple, streamlined interface with just three buttons: Active, Finished, and Store.
It's that last one, "Store," where all the shopping will take place. And unlike the official App Store, nothing is rejected. That's right - there's no approval process whatsoever and all apps will be added to the store within one week. The only exception to this rule will be releases not made free by their developers, says Alec. That means that appDowner isn't about to become a resource for sharing cracked copies of games that you would otherwise have to pay for.
But even without the unauthorized content - a rule we're happy to support - appDowner has a lot of potential to compete with the other popular repositories/stores for jailbroken apps like Cydia and Icy. Because it uses BitTorrent technology, apps will always be available for download with no need for developers to worry about hosting issues. In addition, the technology will be able to be used for more than downloading just apps alone, if you're so inclined.
To kick start the launch, appDowner will include several popular apps like Steven Troughton-Smith's killer Stack Application and Lights Off game. They'll even have some exclusive content from Nullriver, promises designer Miles Lorry, who teamed up with Renolds to work on the app.
No word yet on an exact release date, only that it will be arriving "very, very soon."
ZeniMax Acquires Doom Game Developer id Software
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
ZeniMax Media, the parent company of "Fallout" and "Elder Scolls" developer Bethesda Softworks, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired id Software, the developer of game franchises including "Doom," "Quake," and "Wolfenstein."
Founded in 1991, Mesquite, TX based id Software is credited with creating the first-person shooter genre with "Wolfenstein," and also developed the id Tech engine, which powers a number of first-person shooter titles.
Rockville, MD based ZeniMax said id will continue to operate as a studio under the direction of Founder John Carmack, adding that all id principals have signed long-term employment contracts.
"We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward-looking research to be done in the service of all of them," said Carmack.
"We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am."
uTorrent Dominates BitTorrent Client Market Share
Excerpted from TorrentFreak Report
Millions of people use BitTorrent daily, but little is known about the market share of the available clients - until now. An objective sample of unique IPs shows that uTorrent is the client of choice for more than half of all BitTorrent users. Vuze is in second place with close to 17%, followed by the mainline client with 12%, and BitComet with 7%.
BitTorrent has been the leading file-sharing technology for several years already, but up until today little was known about the market share of the various clients. In December, we estimated that uTorrent's market share lay somewhere between 40 and 60%, but this measurement was far from scientific and based on a small sample size.
Today, we present a more robust report based on data from over 150,000 unique users in more than 400 public BitTorrent swarms. The data for this BitTorrent client comparison is collected by a researcher known as 'xXx' of the Tribler P2P research team at Delft University of Technology. The research team will continue to supply TorrentFreak with bi-monthly updates so we can discover new trends and shifts in the usage of the different clients.
Both uTorrent and the third placed mainline client are developed by BitTorrent, Inc. meaning that the company holds an impressive two-thirds of the market. The only main contender at the moment is Vuze, formerly known as Azureus.
The data also gives us more insight into the size of the BitTorrent network. In December, we reported that uTorrent had 28 million unique users a month, and based on this figure, that might have grown even higher in the recent months. It is safe to say that there are roughly 50 million active BitTorrent users on the Internet.
It will be interesting to see how the market share of the clients changes over the coming months. Will uTorrent be able to keep its dominant lead? What will happen to Transmission's market share when it releases its Windows version? Will there be any new clients to compete with the top three? Lots of questions that we hope to answer in the future.
Stay tuned!
Game Publisher THQ Expands to Three Business Units
Rapidly growing games publisher THQ this week announced a reorganization of the company's management team and business units in support of THQ's focused product strategy.
In order to more directly align the organization with its previously announced strategy, THQ has formed three new business units: 1) Core Games; 2) Kids, Family, and Casual Games; and 3) Online - and has promoted key executives to manage each of these units. Each unit manager will report directly to THQ President & CEO Brian Farrell.
Danny Bilson has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Core Games. Doug Clemmer has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Kids, Family, and Casual Games and Steve Dauterman has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Online. In addition, Ian Curran has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Global Publishing and will oversee worldwide revenue for THQ.
"The new structure specifically aligns our primary business units with our product strategy, enabling each team to focus on planning and execution in highly defined product areas with full profit-and-loss responsibility," said Brian Farrell, President & CEO, THQ. "I look forward to working directly with Danny, Doug, Steve, and Ian to execute on our focused strategic plan."
Chinese Search Engine Baidu to Release P2P Search
Excerpted from JLM Epoch Report
A Baidu insider said the company plans to release a P2P search service at p2p.baidu.com soon, reports Sohu. The site's provided links will include P2P sources from eMule, said the insider.
CableLabs Crafts Turbo Option
Excerpted from Light Reading Report by Jeff Baumgartner
Cable is inching closer to having a "turbo" button that will let customers ratchet up broadband speeds on the fly.
A brainstorming session at CableLabs about how to deal with P2P traffic has resulted in the idea of a "priority upgrade" that could, for example, be used to more quickly download a large file such as a videogame.
As described by CableLabs, that invention - dubbed the Method for Dynamic Control of Per-Flow Bandwidth Preemption - will let a customer request that the cable operator provision a temporarily faster and higher-priority level of service.
Although some patent lawyers find the disclosure a bit odd, they think CableLabs may be publicizing the concept now so it can pave the way toward a future patent filing that would keep the concept out of competitive hands, or at least require rivals to purchase licenses if they intended to use the technology.
According to the invention document, the enhanced, upgraded state-of-the-broadband service is designed to persist even when congestion is present on the network. When the customer's high-priority flow is finished, service would revert back to the usual speed level.
The concept could open up new ways for operators to deal with P2P traffic and heavy-volume flows such as streaming video. CableLabs uses this example: Customers wanting to use P2P on the cheap could get a service tier that offers big bandwidth and a low price - but low priority as well. The caveat is that the tier would come with a "high likelihood of preemption," according to CableLabs. "This would move a greater proportion of P2P service to off peak times."
This invention could also help operators such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable that are looking to complement their traditional TV video services with web-based offerings. (See Fancast Does Downloads and Cable-Led Web TV Deals Still Forming.)
It's also designed to apply to over-the-top, Internet-fueled video services from the likes of Amazon and Netflix. And operators could use this invention to automatically prioritize emergency services, such as 911 calls.
Net neutrality zealots have raised their hackles anytime someone mentions operators prioritizing or de-prioritizing Internet traffic. They also aren't wild about any preordained priority access deals between MSOs and content providers. But in this case, it would be the subscriber, not the MSO or a web TV partner, making the request for the priority upgrade.
CableLabs officials say the invention was posted to get the high-level concept "out there," but acknowledged that the organization or its MSO members "aren't looking to take any immediate action on it."
However, they add that CableLabs has the opportunity to file a patent claim within a year. Please click here for the full report.
Allot Launches DPI-Based Video Gateway
Excerpted from FierceOnlineVideo Report by Pete Wylie
Allot Communications, a Boston, MA based company that specializes in deep packet inspection (DPI), announced the launch of a new service called Allot MediaSwift, which aims to reduce the costs and improve the end-user experience for online video through an intelligent caching system.
The MediaSwift platform is designed to accelerate the delivery of HTTP streamed video and P2P traffic for broadband users through a combination of caching and DPI, which Allot claims can deliver approximately 40% savings on video transit costs.
The company said a Tier 1 operator in Asia has deployed MediaSwift successfully, and it announced the system will now be available in the United States and Europe, as well. Allot said the MediaSwift platform can be deployed as an internal blade or as an external solution in conjunction with its Allot Service Gateway product.
The MediaSwift announcement comes as DPI, once a highly anticipated and hyped technology, is suffering from a negative backlash that already derailed efforts by NebuAd to add DPI to ISP networks. It will be interesting to see if Allot runs into any privacy complaints or challenges as it enters the US market with MediaSwift, as well as its deployments of DPI with HP for mobile broadband networks.
The Media is Dead - Long Live the Media
Excerpted from ZDNet Report by Jeremy Allison
Peer-to-peer (P2P) is the key. The shift that is currently taking place is from an old style of centralized network media, to a decentralized P2P media. You can participate. You should participate. The Internet is what makes this possible. The change this is going to make in our societies I think will be profound, and I don't even pretend to know what it will be long term. But I firmly believe it is coming. It's really exciting to be alive in these times, to see such a major change going on all around us.
I know it's a cliche, but it's such an important one I'm not ashamed to repeat it: On the Internet, anyone can be a broadcaster. Yes, I know that if I tried to outdo CNN by serving out news from my home DSL line, I'd be pretty swamped if I had anything anyone was interested in seeing. See the "Slashdot effect" for details.
But that's not the way things work anymore. If I have a riveting piece of camera phone footage showing an event the world was interested in, I don't need to serve it from home; merely uploading it to a P2P network or one of the many video-sharing sites will ensure that it will get to everyone who wants to see it.
Unfiltered and uncensored, that's the key. People get to see the raw footage, not some news outlets processed version of what they think people want to see. Even in countries with complete censorship of the news media and Internet access, people find a way to get to the truth eventually.
This is the beginning of the participatory society. The Free Software/Open Source movement understands this very well. I contribute to this society by writing Samba code, helping people with problems on the Internet with Samba, and communicating freely with the community of people who have coalesced around this code. Many other programmers make a living and communicate in the same way.
Musicians already get this. The remix culture is already alive on the Internet and will surely grow. The most interesting music I heard recently was from someone who just remixed YouTube video clips into something completely new and creative. Almost certainly he's violating someone's copyright in some fashion, but just listen to the result. It's incredible.
You can use the Internet to express your own creativity and connect with a community of people who are interested in the same things you are. You don't need a publisher or intermediary or anyone to edit your work. Most importantly, you don't need anyone's permission to publish. It doesn't matter if you don't think it's worth publishing. It probably isn't (as regular readers of my column often tell me).
The science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon famously said, "Ninety percent of everything is crud." What matters is that you create and you share with others. Please click here for the full report.
How Will Social Media Evolve
Excerpted from SEOptimise Report
Kevin Gibbons has now published the results of last week's "social media future profile" online survey. The poll provides insight from the community on which social media will most likely be around in 2020, as well as analysis of the importance of social media as a search marketing tool.
For example, take the responses to the question: Will social media networking replace e-mail by 2020? Although respondents were mixed - 46% think something will replace e-mail, whereas 54% believe it will still be around - Gibbons points to Google Wave as an application that could turn services on their head. Please click here for the full report.
Jeff Weiner is New LinkedIn CEO
LinkedIn, the developer and distributor of the leading online professional network with more than 42 million members, this week named Jeff Weiner as its new CEO, replacing company founder Reid Hoffman, who will remain Executive Chairman.
Weiner, a former executive-in-residence at Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, had served as LinkedIn's interim President since January.
"Over the past six months, Jeff has done an exceptional job leading the company and I look forward to continuing the work that we have begun together," said Hoffman.
LinkedIn has secured more than $100 million in funding since its inception, and posted a profit in 2008.
Babelgum Launches Original Music Series
Excerpted from World Screen News Report by Kristin Brzoznowski
Industry leading peer-to-peer television (P2PTV) service Babelgum and Dig For Fire are launching an exclusive original music series, "Road Trippin' with Ice Cream Man," an alternative spin on the all-American-road-trip featuring music news from summer festivals across the US.
Matt Allen, known as Ice Cream Man, will be backstage at premier music festivals around the US, including Bonnaroo, Rothbury, Lollaplooza, and Austin City Limits.
In addition to chatting with fans, he'll also be inviting artists to perform live acoustic sets around the ice-cream truck and against the scenic backdrop of his cross-country road trip. Performances include MGMT, Chairlift, and White Rabbits.
This weekly music installment launches today. New episodes will air every Monday. There will be a competition to win tickets and flights to one of the world's hottest festivals.
Twitter Users Buy More Music than Average Net Users
Excerpted from Ars Technica Report by Jacqui Cheng
Those who use Twitter buy more music than those who don't, making the Twitter-using demographic valuable to the music industry.
That's the conclusion of a new report from the NPD Group, which tracked the music buying habits of nearly 4,000 Internet users. The firm found that the crossover between music buyers and Twitter users is higher than the general Internet-using population, and that this segment spends more on music than the average user.
According to NPD, a third of Twitter users reported buying a CD in the last three months, while another third said they have purchased music downloads online in that time. Overall web users came in at 23 and 16%, respectively. Twitter users also spend an average of 77% more on online music downloads than non-Twitter users.
The firm also says that Twitter users are more likely to be "engaged" in online music activities that don't involve downloading, such as listening to Internet radio, watching music videos, and listening to streaming tracks. Twitter users were twice as likely to use services like Pandora and MySpace Music, and 41% reported listening to Internet radio (compared to 22% of general Internet users).
"NPD's latest music-acquisition study shows that there are segments of consumers who are more actively integrating Twitter as a key tool for communicating and networking," NPD analyst Russ Crupnick said. "Twitter has the potential to help foster the discovery of new music, and improve targeted marketing of music to groups of highly-involved and technologically savvy consumers, but it has to be done right."
The study seems to be the first from a major market research firm that examines the intersection of Twitter and music buyers, though there have been several studies looking at the music buying habits of P2P users.
The Canadian Record Industry Association (CRIA), released a report in 2006 acknowledging that P2P users buy more music than the music industry wants to admit, and that P2P isn't the primary reason why other people aren't buying music.
These findings were backed up earlier this year by the BI Norwegian School of Management, which found that unauthorized file sharers are significantly more likely to purchase music than the average Internet user.
Twitter users and P2P users may not be the exact same group, but the quality they share is that they both tend to be highly-engaged online and are early adopters of technology.
From that perspective, it's not so surprising that they buy more music than the average Joe - people who are interested in discovering new things about the Internet are likely to be interested in discovering new music, too, and if they like it, they buy it.
P2P Music Service Spotify's Battle
Excerpted from Digital Music News Report by Paul Resnikoff
Spotify is struggling through some monetization and model issues, and big licensing partners - including Universal Music Group (UMG) - are saying it out loud. But what about the consumer side? Assuming everyone gets on board - particularly in the US - and Spotify solves its revenue and advertising issues, will the well-presented cloud ultimately swallow competing models?
Or, more realistically, should Spotify aim for a percentage of the pie, and take its place within a highly-fragmented consumption picture?
Perhaps it depends on the time frame in question. In ten years, on-demand, cloud-based consumption could easily render the download a distant memory. The four-year-old of 2009 may have little interest in his daddy's download by 2019. But anything that far out becomes a debate in educated guesses - most of which are largely wrong. So what about the in-between?
Actually, in 2009, the cloud is doing quite well. YouTube, MySpace Music, iMeem, Spotify, and the iPhone are drawing huge attention away from conventional download experiences. YouTube has expanded the music video to new heights, and the App Store has already revamped mobile streaming audio. Just ask Pandora.
On the evolutionary scale, the next step is to simply dial into an anywhere version of Spotify. Just tap a song and listen, anytime, anyplace. Sounds great, though newer models are frequently fueled by intense consumer pain. Napster destroyed the CD because it addressed pain surrounding limited selection, forced bundling, and stifling prices.
But ten years after Napster, the voluminous iPod is hardly a painful experience. Quite to the contrary, the iPod experience remains elegant, easy, and low-cost. Combine a 120GB iPod classic and a session of BitTorrenting, and who's complaining? Especially during decidedly out-of-range places like long plane rides.
But wait. What happens when you want that one song that isn't in your collection? Suddenly, the iPod falls short, at least in between downloading sessions and syncs. But is that enough pain for Spotify exploit? Is anyone so dissatisfied that they suddenly need 4, 5, or 8 million songs on tap, anywhere? Especially if it has a price tag attached to it?
Actually, some will gladly make the switch, even those lacking painful gripes. But these are competing versions of abundance, and the industry has learned that consumers already have access to the biggest collection on earth, for free. Sure, well-tailored rivals like Rhapsody are walled and subscription-based, but that may be the point. Only a certain niche are willing to pay for premium access to the world's collection. Because that same collection lives on the Internet, and it will remain a serious, no-cost competitor to Spotify.
And none of these advancements happen in isolation. The successor to The Pirate Bay (TPB) is meaner, more flexible, more portable and totally cloud-ready. It may involve downloads, it may involve cloud-based streams - or, the consumer may have the choice. And a certain percentage will always stick with free, at least in the absence of a serious, feels-like-free competitor.
Can Spotify attract enough high-paying advertisers, enough paying die-hard listeners, or both? That is the real battle that Spotify and the industry face, long after the hype dies down.
Record Biz Tries Suing Irish ISPs into Submission
Excerpted from Ars Technica Report by Nate Anderson
The major labels want to see Irish Internet service providers (ISPs) adopt a "three-strikes" policy toward repeat online copyright infringers, and they've decided that suing the ISPs is a good way to make it happen.
The major music labels are committed to the idea of graduated response, but they aren't wedded to any particular method of implementation. In France, disconnecting repeated online copyright infringers has been pushed by legislation. In the US, the RIAA wants ISPs to sign up to a voluntary scheme. But in Ireland, the "sue-them-into-doing-what-we-want" school of thought has triumphed.
The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) has filed lawsuits against two of the country's largest ISPs, seeking to force compliance with an Internet disconnection scheme. It worked well enough earlier this year, when Ireland's largest ISP Eircom settled a similar case with the industry and agreed to implement a graduated response program. After a third accusation of online copyright infringement, Eircom will disconnect a user's Internet connection.
But neither BT Ireland nor UPC Ireland sound inclined to settle. A UPC spokesperson told the Irish Times that, "There is no basis under Irish law requiring ISPs to control, access, or block the Internet content its users download" and that the ISP would fight the case in court.
The Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI) agrees. The group said, "Irish copyright law provides an avenue for the pursuit of people breaching copyright through the courts. Privacy of user communications is protected in European and Irish legislation. ISPs cannot be expected to ignore these merely because it does not suit another private party."
If other ISPs refuse to adopt the graduated response plan, Eircom will be at a competitive disadvantage, so it has been pushing the recording industry to go after the other ISPs. Eircom has not begun disconnecting users, saying that the details are still being worked out, but we suspect that the company would prefer to delay disconnections until a few of the country's other major ISPs are ready to do the same thing.
But with the European Parliament already on record opposing Internet disconnections and France's Constitutional Council taking a dim view of disconnections that happen without judicial oversight, Irish ISPs will be wary. Sure, signing on to the record industry's plan might make one lawsuit disappear, but it invites a host of other legal challenges from subscribers and consumer groups.
Spain Shoots Down Three-Strikes Idea
Excerpted from Broadband DSL Report by Karl Bode
The entertainment industry's global effort to force ISPs to boot heavy P2P users from their networks isn't going very well.
In France, the idea was shot down by France's Constitutional Council, who didn't find the punishment of no Internet connectivity fit the crime.
Now in Spain, efforts to impose three strikes rules have been scrapped by the government; and the Coalition of Creators and Content Industries, representing content companies, states they have no interest in banning "our current and future clientele" from the Internet.
The group does however still believe that reduced speed for repeat offenders is a good idea.
Musicians Pan File-Sharing Verdict
Excerpted from Online Media Daily Report by Wendy Davis
Last week, a jury found Jammie Thomas-Rasset liable for copyright infringement and ordered her to pay $80,000 for each of 24 tracks shared on Kazaa. Since the verdict was returned, it has spurred some very public condemnation of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) - and not just by copyright reform advocates.
Richard Marx, one of the musicians whose tracks Thomas-Rasset shared, said Wednesday that he was "ashamed" to be connected with the case. "It seems to me, especially in these extremely volatile economic times, that holding Ms. Thomas-Rasset accountable for the continuing daily actions of hundreds of thousands of people is, at best, misguided and at worst, farcical," he said in a statement to Ars Technica. "Ms. Thomas-Rasset, I think you got a raw deal, and I'm ashamed to have my name associated with this issue."
Musician Moby - not a fan of the RIAA - also took the organization to task over the verdict. "Punishing people for listening to music is exactly the wrong way to protect the music business," he wrote on his blog. "I don't know, but 'it's better to be feared than respected' doesn't seem like such a sustainable business model when it comes to consumer choice."
Chances seem good that US District Court Judge Michael Davis also is disappointed with the verdict. Last year, Davis set aside a previous ruling against Thomas-Rasset that found her liable for copyright infringement and ordered her to pay $220,000, or $9,000 per track.
At the time, Davis wrote that those damages were inordinately high and called on Congress to change the law, which currently authorizes damages ranging from $750 to $150,000 per infringement. "While the Court does not discount Plaintiffs' claim that, cumulatively, unauthorized downloading has far-reaching effects on their businesses, the damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by plaintiffs," he wrote.
"Thomas allegedly infringed on the copyrights of 24 songs - the equivalent of approximately three CDs, costing less than $54, and yet the total damages awarded is $222,000 - more than five hundred times the cost of buying 24 separate CDs and more than four thousand times the cost of 3 CDs."
Meantime, some lawyers are predicting that the verdict against Thomas-Rasset could ultimately backfire on the record labels because it might spur Davis or other judges to rule that the damages provided for by the statute are unconstitutional.
For instance, well-known defense attorney Ray Beckerman told Online Media Daily that the "outlandish" $1.92 million verdict serves as an example of an instance where an award authorized by the Copyright Act appears excessive.
Record Industry Losing Friends
Excerpted from Northern Star Online Report by Dan Stone
The RIAA set out to make an example of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, but made a martyr out of her instead.
Thomas-Rasset is famous because she is the first person brought to trial by the RIAA in the "file-sharing" lawsuits. The original settlement in the case was a whopping $200,000, but was increased to almost $2 million in the retrial.
Even if you count all 1,700 songs Thomas-Rasset is accused of downloading, there's no logic behind such a massive fine. It's not like she was masterminding a piracy ring that leaked albums months before release and damaged sales.
The RIAA's barbaric bullying tactics have failed to stop people from downloading unauthorized music and the $1.9 million the RIAA might recover from suing one person - if the defendant actually can come up with that much money in her lifetime - doesn't outweigh the horrific publicity the organization has received.
How many people speed on their way to work each day? What if the police decided to fine one person out of the group almost two million dollars, hand out a few hundred tickets at $3,500 a pop, and then let the other 99.9% of the offenders get away free? It doesn't make any sense. Why should one person's life be destroyed over a "crime" that millions of people commit?
The RIAA hasn't made a statement against infringement. The group is only proving to the public that it only cares about making money and doesn't care about its patrons. If the RIAA didn't have a monopoly on major-label music, the music-buying public could - and likely would - boycott the organization's products.
Fortunately for the public, record label EMI has been considering pulling out of the RIAA for poorly representing the interests of the industry since January of last year. If record labels would back out of the RIAA, it would make a boycott possible.
Now we're left with a dilemma with Tomas-Rasset. Should the millions of people who have downloaded unauthorized music at any point in the past decade send her a few dollars to help pay the excessive fine she's facing? However, if they do, the RIAA gets their money like a schoolyard bully beating up kids for their lunch money. Thomas-Rasset is that kid who got singled out every day. Almost every other kid on the playground has lunch money, so why is the RIAA picking on her?
With this kind of behavior, it won't be long before the RIAA runs out of friends.
Pirate Party Gets Seat in Germany's Parliament
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
Following the election of a member of Sweden's Pirate Party to the European Parliament, Germany's PiratenPartei has gained its own seat in the German Federal Parliament.
Citing "concerns about Internet censorship," Jorg Tauss - who has been a member of Germany's Parliament since 1994 - left the Social Democrats Party to join the German Pirate Party.
Tomorrow Will Be Televised Episodes of Note
Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) economist Shawn DuBravac will be the guest on Tomorrow Will Be Televised (TWBT) hosted by Simon Applebaum next Monday July 6th from 3:00 to 4:00 PM US ET discussing Internet TV possibilities and the aftermath of the digital TV transition. Shawn came out in May with a study suggesting more than 10 million people are interested in buying an Internet-capable TV set between now and next summer.
On July 13th, Boxee CEO Avner Ronen will be on the show. Boxee is one of the most buzzed-about standalone set-top box (STB) ventures. Listeners can call 646-652-2906 during the program to direct questions or comments to guests. The show also replays 24/7 here and podcasts to iTunes/iPhone/iPod and Microsoft Zune.
Coming Events of Interest
Cloud Computing eSeminar - June 30th online. Ziff Davis Enterprises invites you to join virtualization experts from Dell, Intel, and VMware for an informative and interactive eSeminar that will show you first-hand how you can simplify your own IT infrastructure with proven virtualization strategies.
Social Media for Government - July 13th in Arlington, VA. Attend this conference to learn how to capture the power of social media in your organization. Hear practical advice, firsthand, on how to engage your employees and citizens by using social media from leading government agencies and organizations, including the US Department of State, National Institutes of Health, and many others.
Bandwidth Conference - August 27th-28th in San Francisco, CA. Annual gathering of music/media executives and digital music professionals. Bandwidth explores the evolving musical experience - how people discover, purchase, interact with, and are exposed to new music.
PopKomm - September 16th-18th in Berlin, Germany. With more than 843 exhibitors from 52 countries, PopKomm is one of the leading international conferences and expos for the music and entertainment businesses worldwide.
New York Games Conference - September 30th in New York, NY. Join games industry leaders - including leading video game publishers and developers, carriers, portals, technology companies, advertising execs, venture capitalists, lawyers, analysts, and many more.
Digital Hollywood Fall - October 19th-22nd in Santa Monica, CA. With many new sessions and feature events, DHF has become the premiere digital entertainment conference and exposition. DCIA Member companies will exhibit and speak on a number of panels.
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