A King of Infinite Space

I just got one of those text messages that you save forever--or, at least, for the life of your existing cellphone. The problem is that this particular phone happens to be an iPhone, which means that I automatically save all of my messages, regardless of how trivial or profound they may be.

This got me thinking that, perhaps, unlimited storage is not always a good thing. After all, there used to be a time when my SMS mailbox would fill up and the decision was thrust upon me whether a particular message was worthy of salvation. A select few would progress through multiple mailbox cleanings, but it required the most genuinely sincere expression from a friend or loved one to make it for the long haul.

And now I have one that fits the bill, but it is part of a never ending chain of messages including such deep thoughts as "Don't forget street cleaning," "Come over when u can," "Getting hungry?'"and my personal favorite, "K."

The same holds true for sent messages as well. Back when I had my $30 Samsung clamshell, I chose my words carefully. No predictive text. No QWERTY keyboard layout. Just the impassioned punching of 444 (space) 555 666 888 33 (space) 999 666 88 (exclamation point). These days, I'm nearly as wordy on my phone as I am in this blog. Punctuation is a must. I even capitalize proper nouns. And forget about abbreviations (excepting "WTF" and "OMG," which I've been known to use in ordinary conversation).

Eventually, we will all become kings of infinite space, though I suspect I won't be the only one who remembers back fondly to the time when we were bounded in our nutshells and our inboxes were nice and tidy.

Searching for Cash

Apparently I'm not the only one who has no idea about Microsoft's "Live Search" search engine. SiliconValley.com reports that MS is offering cash back rewards for using their search engine, redeemable for items like cameras.

One expert said, "The issue for Microsoft still remains in that will they be able to deliver enough scale in clicks for the top lucrative keywords, since that's a function of search market share which they have a very small share of right now."

SF Musictech Redux

It's been a long week of music and technology conferences in San Francisco. It began Sunday with a meet-and-greet "speed dating" session at NARM, and has not let up for three days of action packed panel after action packed panel assessing the state of the music industry in 2008. Well, that's not entirely true...there were a few low spots in the action, but more on that later. In any event, I will fight through the conference fatigue to bring you the latest from SF MusicTech (back by popular demand).




Morning Sessions: Digital Thought Leaders, Online Video, Artist Activism, and Copyright Issues in Music Law

The great thing about version 2.0 of MusicTech is that this time around I brought a colleague with me, which means that I get to be two places at once.

I was introduced to an interesting start-up called Plugged In, which provides high definition video streams for musicians. While YouTube offers an average of 700kbps streaming speeds, Plugged In claims to provide 1.5mbps which, for the uninitiated, is staggeringly fast. The most compelling aspect of what Plugged In offers, however, is an adaptive streaming technology that (in theory) sidesteps the frustrations of buffering and packet loss by automatically adjusting the quality of video based on the fluctuations in bandwidth in the user's endpoint. I haven't tested this theory yet on my own, but the prospects are tantalizing.

In short, I can summarize everything else we've heard over five days of music industry conferences in one sentence: any revenue model that relies on the sale of little round plastic disks will soon be completely, unequivocally, 100% worthless.

Nobody is actually saying this, of course, but it is easy enough to read between the lines. As the commoditzation of recorded music pushes prices closer and closer to zero, the old school players in the music industry are being motivated primarily by fear.

Everyone has a different way of expressing this truth, and in the case of the major labels this expression comes in the form of transparent denial. And that's a-okay with me. The most commonly asked question in terms of digital and other so-called 'alternative' revenue streams is, "How do we monetize this?" If you work for a major label, the short answer is: you don't. The second most frequently asked question is, "How to we stop people from stealing our music on P2P sites?" And to that the answer is the same: you don't.

The major labels all have eloquent representatives who are very good at framing the debate around the types of questions they want to ask and answer. But ultimately this amounts to arguing over the best way to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

This is not to say that you can't make money anymore in the music industry. But lifeboats tend to be much more maneuverable than sinking ships.

Three Reasons I Use LinkedIn

A professor of mine recently asked me if I think LinkedIn is useful. Here's why I like LinkedIn:

Resume distributor. I use it to look up people I'm going to meet (for an interview, for example). It's a subtle way of essentially giving someone my resume, and seeing someone else's resume. If I meet someone at a networking event and exchange emails, by becoming my contact on LinkedIn they look at my profile - which has the same content as my resume.

Rolodex. After I meet someone, connecting to them on LinkedIn gives me a chance to reinforce the connection and keep the connection alive ("It was nice meeting you the other day..."). Down the road, if I ever want to contact that person, we each have enough information about each other to remember one another. It's an automatic rolodex in that way as well - I have someone's contact info immediately instead of having to hunt around for a business card. It's Facebook for professionals, and it looks impressive to have a bulging rolodex.

Connecting. Last reason - it actually is useful for it's core purpose, which is to connect you to the people who are two and three degrees away. Here's an example: a friend of mine wanted to talk to an attorney at a law firm to see what firm life was like. But he didn't know anyone at that firm. I looked up the firm on LinkedIn and discovered that a LinkedIn contact of mine had a LinkedIn contact at the firm. I asked my contact to email his contact at the firm, and my friend got connected. Don't get me wrong - I'd never use the LinkedIn "In Mail" to connect to someone through the site. But I definitely use it to connect to people in more traditional off-site ways.