Music publishers have long taken offense to websites posting song lyrics. “A recent court judgment against LiveUniverse makes it crystal clear: hosting an unauthorized lyrics site can get you in serious legal trouble,” writes Ars Technica.
LiveUniverse and its owner Brad Greenspan were hit with a $6.6 million judgment last week by a federal judge for running a lyrics site with no licenses from music publishers.
“That’s $12,500 per song for the 528 songs whose lyrics he was accused of infringing,” according to the article.
“There are thousands of lyrics sites, and many of them remain unlicensed. Music publishers started pursuing these sites several years ago, and now… they’re starting to see some real revenue come from online businesses who have taken licenses,” writes Ars Technica.
The lyrics sites may be viewed as harmless by some, but they are generating significant advertising revenue, and subsequently stealing from songwriters and publishers, according to Ross Charap, one of the attorneys representing the music publishers who sued Greenspan.
“This is an important new stream of revenue for publishers,” suggests Charap. “They got nothing from it five or six years ago, and now they get tens of millions of dollars.”
DirecTV’s new Genie system allows for multiple, simultaneous DVR recording of HD shows; eliminates the need for receivers in every room; and adds new recommendation features.
“The company’s flagship HR34 DVR has been relabeled as the Genie and makes the new software its centerpiece, with those five tuners letting even the chronically uncommitted take new recommendations as seriously as they like,” writes Engadget.
“As before, simultaneous viewing is otherwise the biggest angle: there’s support for up to eight RVU-capable TVs hooked up at once, two shows playing on one TV and up to four TVs watching the same show,” notes the post. “You’ll have to be a new subscriber to get the video recorder under the Genie moniker.”
According to the press release, the Genie system offers “up to three times more HD recording capacity than cable HD DVRs.”
“Gone are the days of scheduling conflicts, channel surfing, messy wires and boxes, missed shows and family fights over the remote,” suggests Romulo Pontual, executive VP and CTO of DirecTV.
CBS CEO Les Moonves, who recently renewed his contract until 2017, recognizes the need for the TV industry to evolve in light of new digital offerings.
“Moonves has an answer for cable and satellite operators who complain their profits are getting squeezed by continually rising content costs: eliminate low-rated channels from their lineup,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
He says having hit shows helps networks avoid high-level fee disputes that can result in channel blackouts.
Moonves said he would be interested in expanding CBS’s content portfolio by buying Sony Corp.’s film and TV studios businesses. There are, however, no specific plans in the works right now.
“With online video options growing, overall viewership of traditional TV has slipped lately, according to Nielsen. At the same time, the push by broadcasters such as CBS for a share of pay TV subscription fees has intensified tensions between entertainment companies and pay TV distributors,” explains WSJ.
“Moonves also said CBS was prepared to distribute its content directly to viewers, via apps or Web portals, in the event that a la carte pricing and cord-cutting eventually threaten the company’s business model,” the article continues.
“We like the system now and we are being adequately paid for it,” Moonves says. “But if the universe changes and they [viewers] want us to bring the content directly to them, then we can.”
The TV industry could be on the brink of collapse, Business Insider writes. Viewing habits are changing drastically, which spells trouble for TV’s traditional advertising revenue and pay subscription model.
“The explosion of options for digital entertainment — some of which, importantly, are viewed or otherwise consumed on TV screens — will gradually bleed away the attention that was once devoted exclusively to traditional TV,” suggests the article. “At some point, just as it has with newspapers, this dwindling attention will be noticed by the folks who pay all those massive TV industry bills — advertisers and consumers.”
The widespread adoption of HDTVs looks promising for the TV industry, but other devices — like smartphones, tablets, and wireless laptops — have been pulling eyes from TVs. Consumers devote less attention to their TV sets as they delve into the second screen experience.
Additionally, the television isn’t being used for the same purposes as in years past. “Specifically, they spend less time watching traditional ‘TV’ and more time watching streaming video, watching time-shifted video (DVR), and playing video games,” the article states.
Gen Y is especially representative of these changes, showing the largest deviation from traditional viewing and having the highest percentage of streaming video.
“Traditional TV viewership is changing. None of the changes are good for the traditional TV industry,” comments BI. “Someday, if attention keeps shifting, the money will follow.”
In an interview with Metro, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos suggests that government intervention may be necessary to create new patent legislation.
Patent wars have become prevalent in the smartphone and tablet industries. A patent lawsuit culture could be a significant threat to innovation and society, notes Bezos.
“Patents are supposed to encourage innovation and we’re starting to be in a world where they might start to stifle innovation,” he said. “Governments may need to look at the patent system and see if those laws need to be modified because I don’t think some of these battles are healthy for society.”
The article notes the iconic lawsuit of the patent war culture: Apple v. Samsung. “The tech giants have had mixed results in the courtroom, however, as Apple secured a significant legal victory in the U.S. but Samsung won comparative cases in South Korea and Japan, with many more lawsuits not yet heard.”
Bezos remains positive about the current consumer technology market. “I love technology, I love invention, I like rapid change, and really it’s the golden age of wireless devices and mobile devices,” he said.
Following the landmark patent suit with Samsung, Apple has lessened its reliance on its rival for iPhone parts — and now Samsung is pushing back.
“We are unable to supply our flat-screens to Apple with huge price discounts. Samsung has already cut our portion of shipments to Apple and next year we will stop shipping displays,” a senior Samsung source told The Korea Times Monday on the condition of anonymity.
“Samsung has been the top supplier of liquid crystal displays to Apple, selling more than 15 million displays in the first half of 2012 to Apple,” GigaOM explains. “But according to the same unnamed source, Samsung has sold only 3 million to Apple since then. Apple has been cutting its reliance on Samsung Display and buying similar products from other sources, such as LG and Sharp.”
“Samsung has also seen its chip orders from Apple cut,” notes the article. “Reuters reported earlier that Apple planned to rely less on Samsung for the iPhone 5′s memory chips. Then perhaps to add a little insult to injury, Apple also recently snaked a top chip designer away from Samsung. In this context, the severed panel business relationship seems like an inevitable next step.”
Samsung is likely to simply substitute Apple’s business with its own, producing displays for its own line of tablets. Amazon could also be a potential new customer for the company with its expansion of tablet offerings.
Facebook and Twitter users today are simply out to get followers, no longer focused on sharing good content. There is just too much noise created by high volume of poor-quality content.
At least that’s what the new social network Pheed is arguing as it places emphasis on providing high-quality content.
“It’s pretty simple, if you allow influencers to charge for content, high quality content will be produced,” Forbes writes. “Pheed enables users to share all forms of digital content, including text, photo, audio, video, and live broadcasts. ‘Pheeders’ then have the option to share for free or at a premium, either by applying a monthly subscription fee to their channel or setting up a pay-per-view live broadcast event.”
Just days after launching the site, Pheed has already seen 350,000 unique visitors. The company says 200 celebs and “taste-makers” have signed up for the service.
“Users can charge anywhere from $1.99 to $34.99 per view, or $1.99 to $34.99 per month. In both cases, the user selects their own pricing and owns all of the content,” explains the article. “Pheed makes money by taking half of the revenue, which covers bandwidth and storage, payment processing, and of course, Pheed’s profits.”
Pheed faces one, potentially large, obstacle: Will people actually pay to view content or subscribe to celeb content?
“Time will tell,” Forbes concludes. “Pheed has a good opportunity to succeed if it stays focused and doesn’t try to become a jack-of-all-trades. For now, it’s safe to say Pheed is a site we should all keep an eye on — its Twitter-with-a-business-model approach stands to seriously impact the social media game.”
Tablets and PCs running the new Windows 8 operating system will have access to video content via Hulu Plus, according to a post on the Hulu blog yesterday.
“Hulu announced that it will be launching its Windows 8 app on October 26, the same day that devices running the Microsoft operating system will finally become available,” reports TechCrunch.
The Hulu app will be tile-based, similar to the styling of Windows 8, and promises to make it simpler to discover and watch TV shows.
“When a user selects an episode, they’ll be treated with a menu of options, like ‘Play’ or ‘Queue,'” explains the post. “Users will also be able to ‘Pin’ shows” to their home screen, and “minimize shows they’re watching into a ‘Snap View’ and multitask, replicating the typical TV watching experience where they’re not watching TV and doing email instead.”
In related news, Engadget reports that Skype is also offering a new version optimized for Windows 8. Skype and Microsoft accounts will be linked so users who log in with their Microsoft ID will already be on Skype, and integration with the People Hub will list an individual’s Skype handle alongside other contact information.
“Just as you can pinch your Live Tiles to zoom out and make them easier to navigate, you can use semantic zoom to sift through a long list of contacts,” notes Engadget of the new functionality. “And, because Skype runs in the background, you can set up your Start Screen so that the Skype Live Tile shows notifications for things like missed calls.”
The free Skype app will be available in the Windows Store starting Friday. Microsoft will likely have more app announcements as it gets ready for this week’s release of Windows 8.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced a 3D printing competition called “New York’s Next Top Makers,” intended to strengthen the city’s tradition of innovation.
“The competition will act as a business accelerator for New York City-based entrepreneurs, inventors and makers, who will be judged by a panel of experts as well as the public and will receive assistance on the path to commercialization, including studio space, business support and mentorship from industry experts including Shapeways, Adafruit Industries, and Honeybee Robotics,” the mayor’s website explains.
“This contest will make sure New York City stays on the cutting edge of 3D printing, an exciting new industry with virtually unlimited potential, and which could completely revolutionize manufacturing,” says Bloomberg. “New York City — the center of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship — is a natural home for Shapeways, and we look forward to seeing what kinds of exciting products — and quality jobs — they can create.”
The competition will progress in four phases: Entrepreneurs will upload pitches of the their proposed products from November 2012 to February 2013. Expert judges will then select five pitches from qualifying entries. There will also be a sixth “people’s choice” entry.
“Over five months, from approximately April 2013 to August 2013, the six selected finalists will participate in a five-month design studio, to further develop their product ideas,” explains the post about the third phase. “During this process they will receive studio space provided by competition sponsor NYDesigns, as well as technical support, materials, access to equipment and mentorship.”
And finally, during the second annual Maker Week in September 2013, judges will award additional cash prizes to the most promising business.
Amazon has tested its Kindles on students in grades from kindergarten to high school and hopes to sell the devices in bulk at a discounted price to school districts, reports Yahoo Finance. Amazon would then profit as districts purchased e-books on the devices.
Amazon has increased its appeal by introducing Whispercast, a “service that lets schools manage fleets of Kindle devices from one online location,” explains the post.
Whispercast allows administrators and teachers to block websites like Facebook from the devices, while also setting up user accounts for students and grouping students by class and grade level.
Jay Marine, VP of Kindle product management explains that Amazon wants “to make it as easy as possible for everyone to own a Kindle device.” But Yahoo Finance says that while Amazon’s mission to convince children to read more is noble, the company’s primary goal is to sell more product.
E-readers provide some tangible benefits for students. The devices are small and light, as opposed to bulky books. This also makes an e-reader less intimidating, as the student may not realize how many pages they are going through as they tap through the pages, rather than flipping them.
However, e-books also have their drawbacks. E-books cannot be resold, which places financial burden on those who rely on the resale of books. Also, it is difficult to study from multiple e-books at once, as people do with physical books.
AOL has launched a beta version of its new Alto email service that works with existing email platforms and promises to “revolutionize how we interact with email,” reports Fast Company.
Bill Wetherell, senior director of UX design at AOL, talks about today’s “inbox fatigue,” which has resulted from a continued lack of innovation.
“Yes, there have been improvements — in search, contacts, storage size — but they’ve been incremental at best, and based on an outmoded architecture of lists, folders, and more lists,” notes the article. “Alto is a radical rethinking of inbox design, and features a stripped-down interface that’s spruced up by visual cues and intuitive navigation tools.”
“In Alto, many messages and files are automatically and neatly aggregated into tiles of common categories: for photos, attachments, social, daily deals, and retail. So, for example, say you get an email offer from Amazon or iTunes — Alto will automatically pull those messages into the retailers stack, seamlessly and without hassle,” Fast Company explains.
“In the social stack, notifications are culled from Twitter, LinkedIn, Path, Facebook, and more. But Alto goes the extra mile to display infographics to help users navigate through fragmented social network updates.”
Users can easily create new stacks and a “skip inbox” function that sends certain emails straight into a stack. The left hand message column has a “people” tab, which shows contact information and a social profile of email correspondents.
“The colors are softer on the eyes than Gmail’s scheme; there is less junk mail; and the myriad icons that normally overwhelm inbox screens (stars, trashcans, checkboxes, numbers) are gone, save a select few that appear upon mousing over a particular message,” suggests the article. “It’s a clean experience reminiscent of your simple, thin iPhone email message list.”
YesVideo converts physical media to digital and allows customers to share indexed footage via their Facebook Timelines. Customers can use the service to digitize old VHS tapes, 8mm, miniDV and photos — and publish to Timeline through a new feature that launched last week.
“You can submit your vintage videos at any of YesVideo’s at CVS/pharmacy, Walgreen’s, and Costco retail locations,” explains Digital Trends. The footage is then shipped to YesVideo where it is digitized and uploaded to the cloud for easy access.
“While YesVideo’s primary focus is its cloud hosting service, the company sends you a DVD copy, alongside the original media,” explains the post. Additionally, YesVideo indexes the video content algorithmically and breaks it into chapters. This offers users the ability to share more manageable clips.
“YesVideo digitizes over 1.5 million videos per year, and with its indexing feature, turns that into approximately somewhere between 75 million and 150 million clips a year,” notes the post.
The company is also planning an open API in order for third-party developers to create new tools.
“This idea that you have all your home videos and access to your extended family’s old home videos and you sit down and log into your Google TV for instance or your Roku box and voila, you’ve got your home videos that you can share with your family or on your mobile device,” says CEO Michael Chang.
Last week, Yelp introduced a new consumer alert label in an effort to to crack down on fake reviews.
“Whenever Yelp catches a business paying a customer or individual for a review, the site will flag that company’s page with a notice that reads, ‘We caught someone red-handed trying to buy reviews,'” Mashable reports.
The label will remain on the page of an infringing business for 90 days. If the business continues to buy reviews, the notice will stay longer. Additionally, interested users can click on the label to see the fake reviews.
Yelp hopes the initiative will cut down the number of fake reviews by creating a strong disincentive for businesses, but Mashable notes, “It remains to be seen how successful this new effort from Yelp will be.”
“Yelp’s automated review filter is working around the clock to flag these types of biased reviews, and we believe that you deserve the right to know when this type of activity is taking place behind the scenes,” explained the company in a blog post.
The issue of fake reviews is expected to continue in the coming years. According to a report by Gartner, fake responses will rise to 10-15 percent of all social media reviews in 2014.
Amazon is positioned to make up to $1 billion in advertising over the next year, according to Baird Equity Research.
While Facebook “knows who your friends are” and Google “knows what you’re interested in finding on the Internet,” Amazon has the unique advantage of purchase history. This is an immensely valuable item to offer advertisers who want to target people who will actually buy their products.
Amazon can use its user purchase history data to help create targeted advertising on its ad-supported Kindles. Amazon can also use the data for a per-click advertising model on Amazon.com as well as Amazon-owned sites such as Zappos, IMDb, and Diapers.com, reports Wired.
Lisa Utzschneider, VP of global sales for Amazon, explains that Amazon’s advertising could help customers. “If we think about Amazon in two worlds, one world is an Amazon with ads and lower prices. Another world is an Amazon with no ads and higher prices,” she notes. “Which one would we choose?”
Amazon is the sixth most visited site in the U.S. every month, according to comScore. The top five sites all rely on advertising for revenue, but Amazon does not. It has already been successful without advertising, but if the company combines its substantial traffic with its precise user data, it could add much more value.
Additionally, the company’s demand-side platform (DSP) enables tracking of people who made purchases on Amazon, data that can be used to advertise on different sites.
“The winner in the media game is the one who can best identify a user and match that user up with an affiliation that an advertiser cares about,” suggests Jay Habegger, CEO of Boston advertising firm OwnerIQ.
At its Social Media ROI conference, Business Insider addressed the convergence of social and mobile — which it calls “smobile.”
The presentation noted statistics that look at “the continued shift of social networking to mobile, how smartphones compound the difficulties of advertising on social networks, the potential of social commerce and social discovery applications, and the players who have the early lead in monetizing social-mobile media.”
In March 2012, the number of minutes per month spent on apps rose above 120 billion, while mobile Web usage stayed pretty stagnant around 20 billion minutes per month. That said, mobile Internet is increasing as desktop Internet traffic drops off.
Social networking is one of the fastest-rising activities on mobile devices. In 2011, users spent an average of 15 minutes per day on social networking apps. In the same quarter of 2012, that number had increased to 24 minutes, the same amount spent playing games.
Business Insider reports that “37 percent of U.S. smartphone owners check social networks daily; 64 percent monthly.” Facebook has accumulated around 500 million mobile users, and 55 percent of Twitter’s usage is mobile.
Unfortunately, click-through rates on mobile ads sits at only 32 percent and only about a third of smartphone users believe advertising is acceptable. Also, mobile remains a small fraction of digital ad spending.
Despite efforts to advance social commerce, there hasn’t been much traction. It’s not enough to provide discounts based on proximity; consumers have to first be interested in the product or service. Similarly, checkins and social references to commerce sites are “tiny.”
The presentation recommended “native” mobile ads like Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories” that appear along with regular content. Ads also need to have contextual relevance.