October 25, 2010
Volume XXXII, Issue 9
Digital Media Conference West This Wednesday
We hope you'll attend the Digital Media Conference West (DMCW) this Wednesday October 27th at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco, CA. Now in its second year, DMCW offers a full day of in-depth discussions and networking focused on the top business issues impacting digital media companies, including online video, social media, investments, online advertising, mobile entertainment, mobile apps, the future of news media, and the relationship between Hollywood and Silicon Valley.
The Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA) is proud to present the DMCW session entitled Content in the Cloud: What Does the Future Hold? At 2:15 PM.
From MP3tunes to Spotify to Gaikai, cloud-based services that hold on to your content - music, games, files, etc. - and allow you to stream on demand to multiple devices are popular with consumers. Recent announcements about new market entrants and speculation that Apple and possibly Google may launch their own cloud-based services have created new questions and a lot of buzz around the concept of "music in the cloud."
How are these services developing and what more needs to be done to fully legitimize cloud-based distribution channels? What kinds of marketing and promotional tactics show the most promise for profitably exploiting these uniquely consumer-based systems? What does the future hold for cloud-based entertainment content services?
Panelists will include Mick Bass, Vice President, Alliances, Ascent Media Group; Claude Tolbert, Vice President of Business Development, BitTorrent; Stephen White, Senior Vice President, Product and Content Management, Gracenote; and Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, Rovi Corporation.
Registration Opens for CONTENT IN THE CLOUD at CES
Broaden your sphere of knowledge with the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Conference Program. If you want to be on the cutting edge of consumer technology for the distribution of digital entertainment, make time to attend the CONTENT IN THE CLOUD Conference within CES on Friday January 7th and personally meet industry leaders and visionaries.
If you've already registered, it's easy to add conference sessions to your registration. Simply sign-in and choose Add Conference Tracks. If you haven't registered for CES, sign up now and start planning your trip.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and a variety of dedicated partners, including the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), work year-round to provide you with the most relevant and engaging conference tracks for the consumer electronics (CE) industry. Start filling your CES schedule now to grow your business throughout 2011.
Maximize your CES conference program experience by choosing one of its inclusive passes. For the ultimate value, the All Access Pass includes all CEA-produced sessions, as well as fourteen other exciting tracks including CONTENT IN THE CLOUD and many more.
Round out your CES plans by attending one of its free SuperSessions. Hear from industry experts as they share their insights on technology and the year ahead. SuperSessions present engaging speakers and panelists to provide valuable insights and information.
And finally, to celebrate the tenth year anniversary of the very exciting Last Gadget Standing contest at CES on Saturday January 8th, some of the best experts in the tech world will join in the fun.
Co-host, Harry McCracken, (Technologizer) will be joined by Michael Miller (Ziff Davis), Joanna Stern (Engadget), Peter Rojas( Gdgt), Patrick Houston (NetShelter), Melissa Perenson (PCWorld), John Biggs (CrunchGear), and Avram Piltsch (Laptop on Board).
Experts and readers will cull the list of entrants down to the Top 25 CES Gadgets and then, after heated discussion, arrive at the top ten gadgets. The top ten will be showcased at the Last Gadget Standing event at CES. The winner will be selected by the 500+ audience in the room. There is also an online vote where everyone is invited to select from the top ten.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 The Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA) is proud to announce our closing keynote speaker for the first-ever CONTENT IN THE CLOUD Conference within CES scheduled for Friday January 7th at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), is scheduled for January 6th-9th in Las Vegas, NV. The DCIA is an affiliated organization of the CEA.
Our Closing Keynote - The Years Ahead for Cloud Computing - will offer a comprehensive overview of the benefits and drawbacks of cloud-delivered content for consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers: expanded opportunities for new products and features at various price points; challenges for interoperability and data security; and advantages of cloud-based solutions for popular entertainment.
Our speaker will be Mark Teitell, Executive Director of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE). In addition to the issues outlined above, Mark will also speak about DECE's new consumer brand, UltraViolet.
Mark is responsible for bringing DECE's open standard for digital distribution to market with the support of the consortium's sixty member companies, including nearly every major motion-picture studio as well as top CE, technology, cable, and wireless companies.
He works closely with executives from DECE member companies to accelerate global adoption of UltraViolet by industry and consumers. Mark also plays a broad, integrative leadership role spanning strategy, product development, ecosystem business development, marketing, and operations.
Prior to DECE, Mark was a Consulting Partner at Oliver Wyman where he advised senior media and consumer technology executives on next-generation business models and new digital consumer offerings.
His experience spans the content distribution spectrum including mobile, online video, home entertainment, music, video-on-demand (VoD), IPTV, and devices. Mark also has extensive experience assessing anti-piracy strategies and tactics.
As CEA exclaims, "Explore this cutting-edge technology that promises to revolutionize entertainment delivery! If the cloud touches your business, you won't want to miss these six keynotes and three panel discussions focused on cloud-managed content and its impact on consumers, the media, telecom industries, and CE manufacturers."
Our Opening Keynote - Vision for Content in the Cloud - will be presented by Geng Lin, Chief Technology Officer, IBM - Cisco Systems Alliance. Cloud computing can dramatically impact many aspects of entertainment delivery from transcoding to storage to distribution to payment collection to performance measurement. Step into the dynamic world of the cloud.
Panel Discussion 1 - The Impact on Consumers of Implementing Cloud Computing for Media Storage - will feature Todd Weaver, CEO, ivi TV; Mike Lewis, Founder, Kapost; Jason Herskowitz, VP of Product, LimeWire; Christopher Allen, General Manager, Napster; Guillermo Chialvo, Gerente de Tecnologia, Radio Mitre; Ian Donahue, Co-Founder, RedThorne Media; and Jim Rondinelli, VP of Strategic Development, Slacker. Discover how cloud storage affects users' ability to access entertainment content and to own copies of music, games, movies, and other media.
CITC Keynote 2 - Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content for Consumers: Ubiquity, Cost, Portability Improvements - will be presented by Rob Shambro, Chairman & CEO, GenosTV. Cloud-based solutions offer consumers a number of clear advantages over older methods of online content distribution. Hear them all in this important address.
CITC Keynote 3 - Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content for Consumers: Privacy, Reliability, Security Issues - will be presented by Jim Burger, Member, Dow Lohnes. What have various industries experienced with inadvertent leaks or intentional hacking of confidential data? When users go offline, how can they mitigate inaccessibility to their applications or losing data accidentally? And what happens if a cloud provider goes out of business?
Panel Discussion 2 - The Impact of Cloud Computing on the Entertainment and Telecommunications Industries - will feature Stephen Condon, Director of Market Development, AT&T; Alex Limberis, VP Business Development, Next Issue Media; Doug Heise, VP of Marketing & Strategy, Panvidea; Guy de Beer, CEO, Playcast; Mark Friedlander, National Director, New Media, Screen Actors Guild (SAG); Mark Vrieling, CEO, ScreenPlay; and Anne-Carole Nourisson, VP Licensing, Vivendi Mobile Entertainment. Content rights holders and broadband network operators are concerned that cloud storage could affect the way they manage their intellectual property (IP) and utilize network resources. Gain valuable insights on this critical issue for both industries.
CITC Keynote 4 - Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content to the Entertainment and Telecommunications Industries: Efficiency, Control, Flexibility Improvements - will be presented by Barry Tishgart, VP, Internet Services, Comcast. Cloud-based solutions provide a number of clear advantages for content rights-holders and broadband network operators over older methods of online content distribution. Explore these benefits in this strategic overview.
CITC Keynote 5 - Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content for the Entertainment and Telecommunications Industries: Infrastructure, Disruption, Accountability Issues - will be Claude Tolbert, VP, Business Development, BitTorrent. What problems do rights-holders face in adopting their internal content management processes to cloud-based media storage? What does the on-demand always-accessible nature of cloud-based entertainment delivery mean to conventional distribution systems? What new kinds of liabilities does the cloud present to participants in the distribution chain?
Panel Discussion 3 - The Impact on Consumer Electronics Manufacturers of Cloud Computing Deployment - will feature Mick Bass, VP, Strategic Alliances, Ascent Media; Sean Barger, CEO, Equilibrium; Les Ottolenghi, CEO & Founder, Fuzebox; Alexander Marquez, Director, Intel Capital; Mark Taylor, SVP, Content & Media, Level 3 Communications; Michael Papish, Product Development Director, Rovi Corporation; and David Rice, Chief Strategy Officer, Unicorn Media. Our expert panel examines the implications of remotely accessing applications and data that must be integrated into networked end-user devices. A look at servers and other edge storage hardware products rounds out the discussion.
We are pleased to provide DCINFO readers with these details in advance of this important upcoming event. Please plan now to attend what promises to be the most exciting International CES in its more than forty-year history. Share wisely, and take care.
Kontiki Raises $10.7 Million for "Corporate YouTubes"
Excerpted from Venture Beat Report by Matthew Lynley
Kontiki, a startup with clever web video technology and a storied past in Silicon Valley, announced this week that it has raised $10.7 million in its second round of funding.
Kontiki gives companies a way to publish and stream video content, much like YouTube, within an internal network by using P2P technology similar to torrent programs like BitTorrent.
The company was originally backed by the late former Netscape executive Mike Homer, who was widely mourned in Silicon Valley when he died in 2009. Kontiki got a second chance at life as a start-up, however, when it was spun out of VeriSign in 2008, which had acquired it in 2006.
Instead of hosting entire videos on remote databases, users looking to watch a live stream or video pull little bits of data from machines across the company to speed up the process. Kontiki provides companies with both a way to access static video, like YouTube, and stream live video content like company meetings.
Because the service uses P2P technology, rather than traditional video hosting sites like YouTube, its video transmission speed automatically scales to how large the company is, said Eric Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer of Kontiki. That means companies don't have to buy additional servers if they continue to grow - as soon as they add a new machine for a new employee, it automatically increases the power of the network.
The funding is pegged to help further develop their web-based video publishing service, with which Kontiki hopes to triple their user base of more than 1 million enterprise customers. Enterprise video publishing looks to be about a $1.5 billion market, Armstrong said.
Most company networks aren't built to handle large-scale data transmission like video - just "burst-y" transmissions like e-mail and messaging, he said. That's where the idea for Kontiki came in when the technology was originally developed in 2000.
The Sunnyvale, CA based company has raised $15.7 million in two rounds of funding to date, and has 35 employees. The most recent round was led by MK Capital, New World Ventures, and Cross Creek Capital.
Internet TV Firm PeerTV Files for $9.6 Million IPO
PeerTV, a leading provider of Internet solutions for TV service providers, announced its intention to float on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange, by way of an initial public offering (IPO). The offer for shares will be open to institutional and retail investors. The company is seeking to raise up to $9.6 million gross in new equity capital to enable it to capitalize on the opportunities in the Internet TV market. Libertas Capital Corporate Finance Limited was Nominated Adviser & Broker to the company.
PeerTV's proprietary solutions enable TV service providers to deliver specific, live streamed channels and video-on-demand (VoD) to TV sets over the Internet. To date, the Company has been particularly successful in servicing a new breed of content providers. PeerTV's customers use its solutions and technology to deliver multi-channel niche content across the globe with appeal to specific communities, in particular ethnic or national communities looking to receive content outside of their place of origin.
PeerTV provides cost effective integrated solutions to TV service providers. Its solutions include its MX Software Application middleware (content, subscriber, and application management); its MX widget-based applications, including, set-top box (STB) management, electronic program guides (EPGs), and recommendation engines; and its PeerStation hardware which connects directly to the end user's TV. PeerTV's solution provides a robust, consistent and high-quality content distribution and delivery mechanism for content providers at a fraction of the cost of broadcast TV systems.
The Company reported revenues of over $5 million for the six months ended June 30, which compared to revenues of $3.5 million for the whole of 2009. Operating profits for the six months of 2010 were $0.3 million and net income was $0.2 million.
Video over the Internet has experienced dramatic growth as broadband usage has become widespread. It is estimated that in July 2009 alone, over 21 billion online videos were viewed in the US (source: comScore Video Metrix). iSuppli predict that the number of devices worldwide supporting Internet video will have increased from 80.5 million in 2008 to 376.5 million by 2013.
PeerTV intends to be at the center of this market and the company's offering is founded on the premise that many consumers are prepared to pay for tailored content delivered over the Internet but prefer to do so using the TV as their primary video viewing device.
PeerTV is lead by a management team with a track record in building businesses. This team includes Ronnie Jaegermann (CEO), Chaim Bechor (Co-Founder, Production and Product Development), Eatamar Drory (Co-Founder and CTO) and Rony Eizenstein (CFO). The Non-executive Directors are Malcolm Miller (former CEO of Pace Micro Technology, 1998 - 2002) and Jim McGeever.
"The Internet TV market represents a major opportunity for PeerTV. There are fundamental changes underway which will change the landscape of the TV industry. The Internet allows specialist content to be delivered directly to communities dispersed across the globe and our technology enables content providers to exploit this opportunity, " said Ronnie Jaegermann. "We see the IPO of PeerTV as a significant milestone in the development of our business providing both capital and greater profile."
StreamTransport Offers Clean Free Yahoo Video Downloader
Nowadays, more and more people upload, share, and view those wonderful videos on Yahoo! Video. However, if you want to download these wonderful Yahoo videos to save on your computer for watching again after being deleted by others, how do you realize that?
Now, you do not have to worry about it, since all problems can be solved by StreamTransport. StreamTransport is a powerful download tool able to browse and download Yahoo Video, Facebook Video, YouTube, Veoh, Boxee, Joost, CBS or other video-sharing sites at a tremendous speed.
Because this clean, free, secure web video downloader has many powerful functions, a lot of websites have offered good reviews about it, like lifehacker.com, freewaregenius.com,techpp.com, and so on. After downloading these Yahoo Videos, you can screen them on your computer or convert Yahoo Videos to portable devices, like iPad, iPhone 4, iPod Toch 4, Apple TV, Samsung Galaxy Tab, PSP, Motorola Droid X/Droid 2, Xbox 360, WD TV, or other video and audio players.
With this powerful free Yahoo Downloader, you can enjoy your favorite Yahoo Videos and download Yahoo videos simultaneously. In addition, StreamTransport can support batch download, and you can download up to five videos at the same time. StreamTransport Studio is a Professional video downloader.
The application is able to browse and download video clips from a majority of websites. You can convert the downloaded videos to iPad, iPhone 4, iPod toch, Apple TV, PSP, Motorola Droid, Xbox 360, WD TV, or other video and audio players.
Cloud Computing and Video Conferencing: What's Next
Excerpted from Computer World Report by Bernard Golden
One of the most interesting areas in technology these days is telephony, with all its flavors: voice, video, and video conferencing. And, as far as we've come, we're about to see another wave of innovation in the space.
Not only is cloud computing the mode by which these services are delivered, but also, the way they're morphing gives us clues about what is going to happen to cloud computing itself.
Let me begin by sharing an experience that illustrates just how far we've come and how fast the journey has been. Ten years ago I was on the phone with AT&T sorting out something about our service, when the rep said "I notice you make a lot of calls overseas. If you signed up for our international calling plan, your per-minute costs would go from $1.50 to $.11."
That's when I knew a revolution was occurring. When a vendor offers a way for you to save 90% on the cost of its service to you, an enormous marketplace shift is underway.
Today, I routinely make Skype P2P video calls overseas at no charge beyond my basic Internet connectivity. By the way, the quality of the calls is far better than the landline equivalent. Imagine that: Great quality. Video. Delivered for free.
And, by the way, a few years ago, when I first started using Skype, I found a lot of people inside businesses were reluctant to use it; they seemed to regard it as "personal," or "consumer-grade." Today, that reluctance has disappeared. Indeed, over the past year I've noticed that people seem to prefer Skype to regular telephony, viewing the opportunity to do video calls as providing a superior communication mode.
So I was very interested in some developments over the past few weeks.
First, Google has integrated Google Voice into its e-mail client. Motley Fool discussed this at length and speculated on its effect upon Skype. Essentially, this boils down to "can Google Voice attract users away from Skype?"
Second, speculation mounted that Cisco might buy Skype before its upcoming IPO. TechCrunch discussed this possibility.
And then Cisco launched its own personal videoconferencing service, Umi, designed to offer higher-quality video. Of course, many people noted that its $500+ equipment purchase price, along with a $25 per month fee, might make it more suitable for small businesses rather than individuals or families.
To me, these developments dramatically illustrate the impact of digitization and monopoly markets.
To begin with, telephony and its video brethren are now digital offerings, completely moved away from their analog roots. The kings of analog, AT&T and its fellow telephone companies, are suffering losses in their traditional landline businesses as people shift to mobile telephony for local calls and Internet telephony for international calls.
Phone companies make their real money today as mobile carriers and as dumb pipes that allow other companies digital content to flow through them. And even the mobile business has challenges as people want to use services like Google Voice and Skype on the device to talk cheaply. Of course, as I have observed before, being a dumb pipe is, perhaps, not an unenviable position to be in when the world wants to pour increasing amounts of fluid data through you.
The second interesting thing is the Google Voice vs. Skype relationship. There is no question that Skype is fantastic. But, it's a standalone service. More crucially, it requires a separate handle (id) to use it. That means it's cut off from all of one's other online services. Google, on the other hand, has integrated its Voice product with its email, making it convenient to handle both with a single id. As the Fool article noted, Google can do this and give away its phone service because it helps Google sell more ads.
This point is far more profound than the Fool realizes. Digitized services tend to have marginal costs near zero. If a company has an existing successful service that can be reinforced by offering an additional digital service, it makes sense for the company to offer the additional service at its marginal cost -- ie., zero. Given the very common pattern that digital offerings seem to trend toward monopoly, the motivation to add additional services to reinforce the existing, monopolistic one is irresistible, even if the move imposes collateral damage on other market players.
Even more irresistible, in fact, is to use one's monopoly profits to damage a competitor and steal its profits. A historical example of this is Microsoft's response to Netscape; Netscape's browser threatened Microsoft's dominance on the desktop. Netscape rather cheekily pronounced that its product would consign Microsoft's cash cow, Windows, to an unimportant position as a bit player supporting the all-important browser. Microsoft, recognizing the threat, offered its browser for free, which it could easily afford due to its monopoly on the desktop. Netscape, which sold software for its revenue, quickly ran out of bullets and shortly thereafter faded into history.
Microsoft, having learned the playbook, has attempted to extend the pattern. Its online portal, MSN, was its attempt to damage Yahoo. That one hasn't worked out so well, though. Yahoo makes its money in the same way as MSN; moreover, there is no natural tie between Windows and MSN, so there is no synergy in the link. In effect, Microsoft has had to fight on a level battlefield. One might observe, though, that having monopoly profits enables investment into a market long past "rational" levels - can anyone believe that any other company would have sustained the ongoing horrific losses of the Microsoft online division, except one that has a torrent of cash flowing out of another business unit?
Turning to Google Voice, Google's plan to link it to Google mail fits the tie-in model. Indeed, the initiative is an extension to what is already a tie-in product, since Google's monopoly cash cow is its advertising. Many people criticize Google as being a one-trick pony, because the place it makes *real* money is its advertising, with all the other offerings being money losers. As one might predict, I see the situation differently. Google may be a one-trick pony, but what a trick!
And, given the economics of digital offerings, anything Google can do to increase people's interaction with its online services serves to cement and extend its monopoly profits. While its competitors suffer, its users benefit from services being provided for free or near-free.
Which brings me to Cisco's Umi offering. This is likely to be a non-starter, and it reflects the uncomfortable position Cisco is in - which is described brilliantly in "The Innovator's Dilemma". Cisco has long prospered selling extremely high capability - and eye-wateringly expensive - enterprise-and-carrier-class gear. It predicts that video will be the huge driver of Internet traffic over the next ten years. It's offered high end videoconferencing products that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, providing startlingly detailed video. But that's far too expensive for consumers.
According to Clayton Christensen, author of "The Innovator's Dilemma," companies that succeed in a high end market invariably assume that a lower end market should desire the same quality of products as the high end. Consequently, they end up delivering highly capable, very complex, expensive versions of the high end products to lower-end markets. This ignores the fact that lower-end markets don't want complex products and are far more price-sensitive than high-end markets. Christensen characterizes this dynamic as incumbent vendors overserving lower end markets. As a result, their offerings invariably end up being rejected by customers, who turn to products that the incumbent views as cheap and shoddy. In other words, Skype.
Instead of Umi, Cisco would be better served recognizing that consumers are likely to stick with the inferior -- but free -- Skype, and working on tying Skype into its high-end video conferencing products, thereby using Skype as an onramp for at-home workers to participate in enterprise-class videoconferencing. Integrating Skype into corporate identity management systems would be one step. Another would be to sell a plug-in to Skype that improves its video quality to nearer Cisco's enterprise-class product.
Turning to Google, I think the integration of Google Voice into Google mail is brilliant. The article reference earlier noted a huge swell of calls from the U.S. to other parts of the world on the launch day of the service.
What Google should do is carry more ambition than displacing Skype, which, given its installed base, will be hard work. A better approach would be to create a bigger vision for Google Voice that gives people more of a reason to displace Skype. In other words, make it better than Skype, not just a me-too Skype. Google is clearly aiming its products at businesses, so it should tune Google voice to be a business offering, rather than a product similar to Skype.
Google should extend Google voice into an online PBX product integrated into its other business offerings. There's an enormous profit pool represented by PBX hardware and software that could be drained by Google. This shift, by the way, would increase engagement with Google and thereby support its monopoly offering. And, given the economics of digital offerings, Google could probably give away or charge extremely low fees to use the PBX, making its offering compelling to small businesses.
In terms of what this implies for cloud computing, it's obvious that there is enormous money available substituting highly scalable digital offerings for their analog counterparts. Automated cloud computing can be delivered far more cheaply than traditional manually operated infrastructure, whether located in-house or at an outsourcer. Look for cloud providers to present enticing offers designed to entice companies to switch to less expensive computing methods - because the providers can make money at prices unsustainable for traditional methods.
Audiogalaxy Returns as an Audio Streaming Service
Excerpted from OnSoftware Report by Elena Santos
If you're around your thirties, you probably heard about Audiogalaxy - or even used it in the early days of P2P. Audiogalaxy was a P2P music-sharing app that became very popular between 1998 and 2001. In 2002, however, their developers had to face a lawsuit from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for allowing exchange of copyrighted material. It was the beginning of the end: later that year Audiogalaxy blocked its P2P functions altogether and rebranded as a paid streaming service called Rhapsody.
The big news is that Audiogalaxy is back, though in a different shape. The program has reinvented itself and is now a music streaming - or more accurately, placeshifting - application with which you can listen to the music stored in your computer at any time, no matter where you are.
The new Audiogalaxy has nothing to do with its ancestor. Instead of sharing music with people over the Internet, you just listen to your own music, stored in your own hard drive, thanks to Audiogalaxy's mobile apps for iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Android-based devices.
All you need to do is create a user account on the Audiogalaxy website and download the desktop client, available for Windows and Mac. As soon as the client is installed and running on your computer, your music collection is available from any other computer (with Audiogalaxy's online music player) and on your portable device as well.
Both the desktop client and mobile application in Audiogalaxy are nicely designed and are easy to use. The iPhone mobile app - the one I tried - works like a breeze, both under WiFi and 3G. the only requirement is that you need to leave your computer on with the Audiogalaxy desktop client running in the background, but as long as you can do that, your music will be pretty much available anywhere.
Music Service SoundCloud Raises Major Round
Excerpted from All Things Digital Report by Peter Kafka
Here's another bet on web-based music: SoundCloud, a start-up that makes it easy to share streaming music, is about to land a funding round from high-profile investors.
Sources tell me that Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures are leading a "significant" new round for the Berlin-based company. I don't have a dollar amount, but I'm told that VCs were competing fiercely to get into the three-year-old company, which raised a $3.3 million round from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures in 2009. The round hasn't closed yet.
Online music has been a black hole for investors for a very long time. So what's the attraction here?
In large part, it's because SoundCloud isn't dependent on deals with the major music labels. It's designed to let professional and amateur musicians share their own music with each other and the public, via cloud-based files that the company hosts.
Once the tunes are on SoundCloud's servers, the service makes it easy to move the stuff around the Web, via its own widget and an API that's showing up on lots of interesting sites, apps, services and devices, including Facebook and Apple's iPad. You can load SoundCloud files into Spotify, the P2P streaming music company that Index has also invested in.
The service uses the freemium model, offering most of its capabilities for free, and charging up to $700 a year for more storage and extra features.
You can also use SoundCloud to share music you didn't create and don't own-and a "private sharing" option makes it easy to do so discretely. That could leave the service open, theoretically, to copyright claims, a la YouTube.
But so far the company has signed up a million users without attracting the ire of the big labels. And recent court decisions in the Veoh/Universal Music and Google/Viacom cases seem to give user-uploaded services like SoundCloud a lot of legal leeway, at least in the US.
I'm told that the company also plans on using Audible Magic's "fingerprinting" technology, which will make it easier for copyright owners to pull content off the service.
SoundCloud, Index and Union Square all declined to comment.
Here's an example of SoundCloud at work-a 43-minute mix that Beck has posted to his website.
Cloud Computing - The Cloud as the Engine
Excerpted from Technology News Report by Simon Barrett
In part one we looked at the cloud as a data repository, in this article we will explore another use for the cloud.
The concept of using the cloud as an engine has been gaining traction for several years. In its most simplistic to understand form, it is the cloud that performs the number crunching rather than the computer on your desk.
Once again a brief dip into the history of the modern computer reveals that this is hardly a new concept. My first exposure to the cloud as the engine was in the early 1970s. The cloud was an IBM 360 series mainframe, and my local 'computer' was an ASR 33 Teletype.
By the end of the decade the Teletypes had been replaced by CRT technology. Likely the best well known IBM device ever built was the 3270 dumb terminal. It was however the real beginnings of our modern view of cloud computing. The data and processing power were remote from the device; the 3270's mission was merely to act as a "screen-formatting" agent.
If we fast forward 30 years to today, we start to see history repeating itself. More and more, the cloud as the engine is becoming the mantra. The cloud does the heavy lifting, and the local computer handles the relatively light problem of displaying the results.
From the very inception of the World Wide Web the cloud has been an engine; what is changing is the extent to how that engine is being used. In the early days of the web the engine had little to do, merely handle data look-up as people clicked on HTML links.
As the web gained popularity, so did the complexity of what a website was capable of. A new term was added to the growing list of Internet speak, the "web app," or Internet application. This essentially was a program that could be run on the cloud computer at the request of the Internet User. The early web apps were very simple affairs. Tasks such as converting temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius, or Pounds to Kilograms.
But, there was a problem looming. As the number of concurrent users increased, so did the stress and strain on the cloud computer. The battle of centralization vs. decentralization reared its ugly head once again. Anyone who has been involved in the computer industry, or read the history of it will be familiar with this cyclic shift.
The solution this time was decentralization, move the processing from the cloud computer to the box on the user's desk. A technical definition of this phenomenon is client-side computing as opposed to server-side.
To achieve this client-side ability there had to be some significant changes made. One of the fundamental problems is that there are different types of computers. A program designed for Windows will not run on an Apple, nor one running Linux. The solution was to invent a universal translator. It became known as the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). So problem solved, right?
No!
JVM is fine for simple tasks, but is not as efficient as executing a program specifically designed for one platform. I will not bore you with the technical reasons, you will just have to take my word for it.
The computer hardware industry is one that grows in leaps and bounds. At the heart of the innovation is something called "Moore's Law." First proposed in the early 1960s, it states that silicon technology will advance so that every 18 months the number of components on a fixed size silicon wafer will double. The components will be more densely packed and the components themselves will shrink in size.
In layman's terms this translates to computers doubling in speed every 18 months.
It is interesting to note that while the business end of a hard drive is not silicon-based, these have very much followed almost the same growth curve.
Moore's Law also has an economic impact. You could almost say Moore for less! Component and storage prices drop while capacity increases.
This has not gone unnoticed by the cloud designers. Processing power and storage is so cheap that once again it is viable to centralize. No better example of this can be found than Google's Gmail service. It is free-to-use, and each account comes with a gut busting 7.5 gigabytes of storage. 10 years ago a 7.5 gig hard drive was the largest storage device on the market and retailed for several hundred dollars.
It is the same situation with processors, they have become so cheap that they have found their way into a huge number of household appliances and electronics, cell phones, microwave ovens, TVs, and even the lowly alarm clock
Once more we are seeing a swing back to increased use of the cloud as an engine.
There is little doubt that one of the most innovative ideas is one that comes from AMD, the Fusion Render Cloud. My good friend Charlie Boswell, the Director of Digital Media for AMD shared a few details about this product in early 2009. This article, and interview might give some insights.
The cloud as the engine is the way the industry is headed!
I was talking to Charlie Boswell recently. Make sure that your seats and tray tables are in the upright and locked position, put your hard hats on, and wearing bullet proof underwear, the Bos is about to speak! He is hot on the cloud as an engine concept. I am hoping that the Bos will select BNN as the jump off site for this new, and very exciting next step in cloud computing.
Cloud Unleashes Full Potential of Competitiveness
Excerpted from ITP.net Report
EMC claims that it can significantly improve customer service levels across the region's enterprises if they replace their existing information technology (IT) infrastructure with cloud computing.
Speaking at Cloud Confex, Valentin Pinuaga, Consulting Director for EMEA South, said that enterprise cloud computing has the key to unlock the "full potential" of an organization, as well as change the way that it communicates with its customers.
Describing it more as a business catalyst than a constraint, he says that the technology fits in well with current enterprise strategies of enabling the business to consume and capitalize on its IT infrastructure, rather than being encumbered by it. "The private cloud fosters business agility in a pragmatic and compelling way," says Pinuaga.
"It enables fast decision making through rapid access to and analysis of data and information, helping business to innovate and launch value added services faster and more efficiently. It helps companies readjust scale of operations as needed, to follow prevailing or future demand. And it does all that while safeguarding sensitive information and other business assets," he adds.
Mohammed Amin, Vice President and Regional Manager, EMC, adds: "Cloud computing enables fundamental changes in how technology resources are consumed by the business. Activity in a cloud is measured, so customers of cloud-based services can be charged on a pay-per-use basis."
Cloud Computing: 5 Things No One Will Tell You
Excerpted from Biz Tech 3.0 Report by Tony Kontzer
A few months ago, I was hired to produce an array of case studies for a planned book on cloud computing.
In the weeks since, I've interviewed companies throughout Europe and the US on their cloud strategies, and although I can't get into any of the specifics, some of the general themes I uncovered could help information technology (IT) execs who are preparing for a move into the cloud.
Mind you, most of the companies I spoke with are large enterprises, an indication that cloud computing is maturing into a viable alternative to traditional corporate IT. These companies have been turning to the cloud for all sorts of reasons, and employing a variety of strategies to accomplish the transition.
Let's face it - at this point, the business benefits of the cloud are no longer questioned. Cloud computing in its various forms delivers well-documented gains in business agility, reduction in deployment costs, and improved user satisfaction.
But what are some of the things we haven't been reading about the cloud?
1) Fears related to security in the cloud are greatly exaggerated. This isn't to say that security-conscious enterprises shouldn't do their due diligence about any cloud provider being considered. But the overwhelming majority of IT execs I've been talking to agree that the top cloud providers devote way more money and attention to security than pretty much any corporate IT department.
2) The real fears should be on the legal front. The bottom line here is this: There is way too much legal ambiguity when it comes to conducting business in the cloud. Laws are few and far between to protect cloud customers and hold cloud vendors responsible when issues arise, and IT execs are right to want to know where the possibility of legal exposure lurks.
3) For younger technologists and users, there is no acceptable alternative to the cloud. Pretty much anyone under the age of 30 who's technologically inclined will tell you that it makes no sense to deploy any application (or computing resource in general) that's not delivered as a web-based service. Whether they're right is not the issue; these are the business and IT decision-makers of the future.
4) Cloud testing centers are all the rage. As has long been the case with packaged applications, large companies need to be able to kick the proverbial tires so they'll know that the technologies they roll out will work as hoped. In these centers, enterprise customers work with cloud providers not only to see cloud technologies in action, but also to develop standards and best practices for deploying, integrating and building cloud services.
5) A whole new type of IT worker is now in vogue. Out are the database administrators and helpdesk staff of yesteryear; in are the project managers and contract specialists who can help companies get the most out of their cloud environments. And extracting the cloud's full value isn't a matter of bits and bytes. It's a matter of knowing what's needed and when, and how to get the best terms in securing it.
So what's the moral of the story?
Cloud computing may be ushering in an era of change that's sometimes painful, but it's also helping IT to achieve the long sought-after goal of being able to focus on helping the business. Isn't this preferable to overseeing an expensive IT infrastructure and an unwieldy set of complex applications that may or may not provide competitive advantage? In other words, as cloud computing evolves, IT is evolving right along with it.
RIAA and File Sharer to Face-Off over Damages
Excerpted from Daily Online Examiner Report by Wendy Davis
It's been almost two years since the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said it would stop bringing lawsuits against individual noncommercial file-sharers, but winding down the cases already in the pipeline has proven fairly complicated. The major reason: Judges are struggling to figure out what kind of monetary damages are appropriate when individuals might have shared music, but did so without a profit motive.
Early next month, the RIAA and Jammie Thomas-Rasset are scheduled to face off in court for the third time, but this trial, unlike the prior two, will focus solely on how much Thomas-Rasset should pay for sharing 24 tracks on Kazaa.
At her first trial, a jury ordered her to pay $220,000, or $9,000 per track. The presiding judge, Michael Davis, later vacated that verdict because he gave the jury incorrect instructions. (He had told the jurors they could hold Thomas-Rasset liable for infringement if she made tracks available to other Web users, regardless of whether anyone had downloaded them.)
A second trial resulted in another verdict against Thomas-Rasset - this one for $1.92 million.
Davis reduced that award to $54,000 - an amount he described as "significant and harsh," but "no longer monstrous and shocking."
But Davis also said the RIAA could reject the reduction and request another trial, solely to assess damages. The RIAA offered Thomas-Rasset a chance to settle by making a $25,000 charitable donation, but she declined.
Thomas-Rasset recently filed a motion asking Davis to reconsider an argument that the $1.9 million award was unconstitutional. Had he done so, the RIAA could have appealed the decision, but there wouldn't have been a third trial. Davis rejected that motion today, setting the stage for a new trial, Ben Sheffner reports on his blog, Copyrights and Campaigns.
Meanwhile, a separate RIAA lawsuit involving a very similar issue could well end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. A trial judge in that case - a lawsuit against Whitney Harper, who downloaded 37 tracks while still in high school - ruled that Harper was an "innocent infringer" and need only pay $200 per track.
An appellate court reversed that decision. Harper is now asking the Supreme Court to take up her case. The RIAA recently filed papers opposing that request, arguing that the Supreme Court need not get involved, noting that the industry had already ended its litigation campaign - an initiative that lasted from 2003 to 2008 and resulted in legal action against at least 18,000 individuals. "Contrary to Harper's contention," the RIAA wrote, "a ruling from this court would not impact 'tens of thousands of cases' because such cases do not exist."
Coming Events of Interest
Digital Media Conference West - October 27th in San Francisco, CA. Don't miss Content in the Cloud: What Does the Future Hold? at this full day of in-depth discussions and networking focused on the top business issues impacting digital media companies.
P2P Streaming Workshop - October 29th in Firenze, Italy. ACM Multimedia presents this workshop on advanced video streaming techniques for P2P networks and social networking. The focus will be on novel contributions on all aspects of P2P-based video coding, streaming, and content distribution, which is informed by social networks.
Streaming Media West - November 2nd-3rd in Los Angeles, CA. The number-one place to come see, learn, and discuss what is taking place with all forms of online video business models and technology. Content owners, viral video creators, online marketers, enterprise corporations, broadcast professionals, ad agencies, educators, and others all come to Streaming Media West.
Fifth International Conference on P2P, Parallel, Grid, Cloud, and Internet Computing - November 4th-6th in Fukuoka, Japan. The aim of this conference is to present innovative research results, methods and development techniques from both theoretical and practical perspectives related to P2P, grid, cloud and Internet computing. A number of workshops will take place.
International CES - January 6th-9th in Las Vegas, NV. With more than four decades of success, the International CES reaches across global markets, connects the industry, and enables consumer electronics (CE) innovations to grow and thrive. The International CES is the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow featuring 2,700 exhibitors.
CONTENT IN THE CLOUD - January 7th in Las Vegas, NV. The DCIA's Conference within CES explores this cutting-edge technology that promises to revolutionize entertainment delivery. Six keynotes and three panel discussions focus on cloud-delivered content and its impact on consumers, the media, telecom industries, and consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers.
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