The Music Biz Oracle

Top Artists for 2012 by Glitch for Bit Candy

2012-02-02T03:13:55Z

12/15/11

LA Music Blog, BitCandy will *not* have a “roll your eyes” Best of 2011 list.

Look, if I read another blog or glossy hipster pseudo creddy mag that has the ever obvious Top 20 I'm going to burn my Titus Andronicus vinyl (well, I was going to do that anyway). Really…when’s the last time you listened to Titus Andronicus? I rest my case.

The Top 20 of 2011 is child’s play. Everyone and anyone who’s into music should know the answers here. It’s too obvious. Kayne + Jay Z, Florence + The Machine, Adele, The Black Keys, Drake, Foster The People, Atlas Sound, yada yada.

But how about someone doing the hard work and predicting today what's going to be hot in 2012. Well strap my ass on backwards and phone China. This is *not* our Top 10 list for 2011! It’s a Top 10 list for 2012. And don’t expect a “Bros in Bedrooms” type of list of indie buzz stuff here. This is a non esoteric / non hipster list!

In other words, here's our "to break" in 2012 or in other words…fuck the Grammy’s this is BitCandy Awards for

Best New Artist 2012:

Bookmark this page and check back in a year.

Azelia Banks – Harlem based rapper who’s more of an alternative pop / indie artist than anything. And does she know how to make great songs? Yes she does. Mega producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Foster The People) rumored to be up for the production gig. See our article on her here.

The M Machine – Based out of San Francisco, The M Machine picks up where The Knife’s “Silent Shout” left off…which is (in my view)…amazing industrial electronic instrumentals paired at times with gorgeous songwriting. Opening for Porter Robinson in most 2012 dates. DEFINITELY catch them live to see their big massive “M” handmade light show that frames the guys playing live (and yes, they are an electronic act who does in fact, play and perform the music live). We were fortunate enough to get a sneak copy of this album in June...and wrote up a "10" review that you can check out here. Also here's a little album sampler for you.

Lumineers – the next Mumford & Songs? We think they have a big shot. We did a feature on them earlier in the year right after they blew the doors off CMJ (indie music festival in NYC). Hailing from Denver, Colorado…songs like “Ho Hey” are creddy anthems that will no doubt bring up comparisons to Arcade Fire or Mumford & Sons. Now they just need to get signed. Is Glassnote Records, home of Mumford & Songs going to make a big bid for them? Check out our full article here and/or a little taste of "Ho Hey" below.

CC Sheffield - you know her as the writer of "Escape Me" (also a featured vocalist) and Deadmau5's Grammy Nominated "Raise Your Weapon." Now this smart, electro hipster starlet is getting her shot in 2012 with Ultra Records and her own single coming out around February called “Take It Outside.” CC, you very may well be the Cat Power of electro. CC came on our radar nearly 5 years ago as she fronted the dark indie Echo Park band, Le Rev. She doesn’t look too bad either. Oh, and for the original version of "Escape Me"of "Escape Me," check out the original version from CC's band Le Rev (pre Tiesto)

Nicki Williams – this is the new pop artist that Universal is going to swing the big guns for. Think the next Rihanna, except she can and will out sing Lady “R.” And because Nicki doesn’t have the Roc Nation “mafia” around her…unlike Rihanna, Nicki won’t get shoveled a bunch of schlocky “B” level songs from the Roc Nation camp (yes that’s how it works). Or another way of looking at Nicki Williams…just imagine if Kelly Clarkson and Rihanna got together in a blender and started making out.

The Birthday Massacre - how much more can I talk about The Birthday Massacre?! Delicious goth synth rock with big juicy evil pop and amazing live (and future wife of mine, lead singer, Chibi). ..I pray that the doors open for them in 2012. They are like 1 song away. All the way from cold (most of the time) Toronto, Canada…they’re one of the best live bands I’ve seen in the last 5 years. This is one of their older songs but check out "Video Kid"

Mother Falcon - discovered by our Curator, Chris Chantily, Mother Falcon was recently signed by our publishing company and yup, Chris is participating in the future success with this band…that’s how the Curator system works at BitCandy. Got a great idea / artist find no one knows about yet? Submit it here! So, more about Mother Falcon…is there room in the market place for a 16 piece symphonic alt folk band? Hmm? Yes and yes. We think so. For lovers of early Arcade Fire meets Sufjan Stevens here we come. Most of the members are in their late teens or early 20s and some of the best players (period!) in Austin. Check out more below.

Porter Robinson – maybe this is too obvious but we wrote up about Porter about 8 months ago. At only 19 and hailing from North Carolina…Porter is DESTROYING it on the club circuit and being embraced as the new generation of dubstep / electronic artist. Things are happening fast for him and just in the last year he’s gone from 0-60 and in 2012 he might be going from 60mph-120. We shall see. Check out Porter's set here to rip your face off and melt your iPod.

BONUS:

On the list for “Best New Artist 2012” but will likely underwhelm in sales:

Lana Del Rey

The problem with Lana Del Rey is that she strives for importance and actually DOES achieve this in many cases. Unfortunately the songs Lana Del Rey writes, while having a cool vibe, and for better or worse nearly all the same dreamy droopy down tempo vocal delivery just probably won't live up the potential of the whole package. The great thing about Lana is she's making “art” pop music. But the hype is just too big and the songs just are not there in a big way to back it up to be more than a Pitchfork “Best New Music” artist.

That’s why Adele wins. She has MEGA SONGS. It’s nearly impossible to break out in a big way if you don’t have the fuel that proverbial powers the Ferrari, which is SONGS. We predict an under whelm in 2012 from Lana Del Rey, here though from an artistic standpoint, she gets our vote for Best New Artist 2012.

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Updated

Tech Top Ten by Bob Lefsetz

2012-02-02T02:09:39Z

1. Apple

iPhone 4S is a smash, holding back the Android tide, but as great as the numbers are, you miss Steve. Individuals matter. It was hard to get excited about their education presentation and it's hard to be optimistic about the future. One man can make all the difference.

But they could maintain their momentum, they could continue to matter, but I wouldn't bet on it. No one replaced John Lennon after he was shot and even though the Beatles had already broken up, once Ronnie Van Zant was gone, Skynyrd was never the same.

As for the Kindle Fire, ignore it. A flawed device that in no way impinges on the iPad. Expect more for less as the iPad matures, as was done with the iPod. The iPod dominated for its entire useful run (now over as a result of the iPhone), right now the iPhone and iPad don't dominate. They're very profitable, but they don't own the sphere. They could, but it's all about pricing.

2. Google

Owns search the way Apple owned the portable music player sphere with the iPod. The only way to beat Google is to wait for conventional search to fade, that's how Microsoft got beaten, not by a better OS or better productivity apps, but by new Internet offerings, from Google to Facebook to handsets.

Search throws off so much cash that Google can lumber into other spheres and wreak havoc. Android is riddled with security issues, but the fact that it's free allows for inroads.

Don't compete with Google on search. Microsoft did this with Bing and lost billions. Google is good enough. Until the next product comes along.

3. Amazon

Despite the negative statements above re the Kindle Fire, Bezos knows that you invest or die. If you play to Wall Street, you're already history. Ignore yesterday's reaction to the numbers, Amazon is only gaining in dominance. They've got the secret weapon of Amazon Prime and authors are wondering why they're giving up the lion's share of their revenue to publishers and are making deals directly with Amazon. Amazon may not have the cachet of Apple, but it's incredibly disruptive, just check out its cloud offerings, which aren't sexy but power so many websites. As for the coming need to pay tax...I'd rather buy from Amazon anyway. The product comes right to your door and the customer service is great. They lean over backwards re returns whereas brick and mortar makes you feel guilty for bringing something back.

4. Facebook

It's all about convincing other companies to sell on Facebook. People hate advertising, so initiatives there are flawed. Furthermore, the social graph is overrated, people will burn out on knowing everything about everybody. But if it's where you go to get the information you used to get on Google and it's easy to buy there too, Facebook has a way out.

5. YouTube

Yes, it's part of Google, but it deserves its own ranking because of its move into channels. The problem with conventional media companies is they don't want online access, or, if they do, they want it windowed after other more profitable exploitation schemes. But this isn't a problem if you're producing on YouTube, you're already in the online game. This is a very long term play, but it just might win.

Read this "New Yorker" article to open your eyes: http://nyr.kr/yXr7Ud

6. "New York Times"

In a world of cutbacks, almost no one does any reporting, that is the NYT's backbone. NYT could own news online if it were only more aggressive. Fox might be a news channel, but there's very little reporting. As for local news...forget about it.

Whether it be video or text, right wing or left, we have a lot of bloviators and very few organizations with feet on the ground.

If the NYT could reimagine itself, stop being a newspaper and start being a news outlet, stop worrying about people stealing content and start making deals to power the news on all websites, the way Google made inroads in search, it could dominate and end up being investigated for antitrust.

But no one there is thinking that big.

It's what you don't know, what you don't see that kills you.

7. Ticketmaster

It's one of the foremost e-commerce sites, traffic is incredible.

But Ticketmaster missed out on the Amazon lesson, it's thinking too small.

Remember when Amazon just sold books?

With this amount of traffic, Ticketmaster should expand into selling items beyond tickets and dispensing all kinds of information.

You can't think small when you're an e-commerce company.

Ticketmaster has to own the ticketing sphere and build upon it.

8. Samsung

Has no web presence, but rules in television and is neck and neck with Apple in phone production and is even challenging in the tablet sphere. Could it be that fast broadband and government support helped Samsung grow whereas in America the government tries to hold development back?

9. Craigslist

It's not sexy, it gets very little press, but it killed newspaper classified advertising and it owns its sphere. If it were a public company grazing for profits you'd read about it in the news every day. Is Craig Newmark one of a kind? Someone who's about the service as opposed to the money?

Let's hope not.

10. Verizon

He who controls distribution wins. FiOS may be built out, but now the company is offering bundles with cable companies. It's eating AT&T's lunch. The real play is in wireless. Verizon's got the cash and it's spending it. It owns plenty of spectrum too. Verizon may be too big for its britches, but if you're in the U.S. and you're on a competing network, you're ignorant. Verizon is so far ahead in LTE it's a joke. You want fast access everywhere. Verizon delivers this best.

Once again, it's all about investment. Verizon spent billions, the record labels cut back. If you're not willing to spend, if you're not willing to risk the wrath of Wall Street, you're going to have a very brief run.

In today's marketplace it's about owning the sphere. You've got to spend to achieve this.

TOAST

Yahoo: There is no comeback. It farmed out search, without e-mail, it would collapse. And Gmail is so much better than Yahoo mail, never mind AOL mail, because Google keeps investing, Yahoo is pulling back. As for the content...is there anything on Yahoo that's must see?

RIM: There is no comeback. Sell now, forget about it. You'll see people using BlackBerries in the future the day everybody buys a cassette Walkman.

Sony: Is it a content company or a media company or neither?

Neither. Samsung owns TV. Movie studios are all about glamor and little profit and we all know the value of record companies... Furthermore, games are moving online, Nintendo took a hit and Sony is next.

Microsoft: It's a long slow death. Windows doesn't die overnight, but there's no growth on the horizon. It was always a not invented here corporation, and without a visionary, in today's world, you're history.

Groupon/Living Social: It's all bad once the heat wears off. Merchants get ripped off and users are schnorrers who don't come back and there's a whole segment of people embarrassed to use coupons. A fad.

Best Buy: I could beat up on them, but everyone else already has. Why waste the time to overpay at a place where the help is ignorant? Their share is being eaten by Amazon and there's no new product on the horizon that will save them.

MySpace: Never coming back. Do you believe Plaxo can have a renaissance?

Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

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Producer Duo Pop and Oak Talk Sparkle, Elle Varner and Alicia Keys by Cola Janneti

2012-02-02T01:13:26Z

Singersroom.com

Date: 2012-02-01 08:23:36 | Interview By Cola Janneti

They say it's not how you start but how you finish. Andrew "Pop" Wansel, son of Philly Sound and Philadelphia International songwriter/producer Dexter Wansel, and Warren "Oak" Felder have paid their dues and now are reaping the benefits. They are following the same blueprint paved before them by some of music's greatest production duos like Gamble & Huff, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis just to name a few. Before going to Jamaica to work on Alicia Keys album, this dynamic production duo lets Singersroom into the world of Pop and Oak.

How they connected...

Pop: "We were put together by our manager, we have the same management. When we met, the chemistry was instant. We balance each other out; we both come from two different sides of the world, literally. There is a perfect balance."

On Working Elle Varner...

Oak: "Originally Elle Varner got in Pop first, on some let's do this random session type stuff. They did a couple days in New York and Philly. They ended having this amazing chemistry together. Pop and I came to New York and six weeks later her album was finished. Working with her has been a real eye-opening experience. Up until that point, I didn't think I could be a fan of somebody that quickly."

Being On The Sparkle Soundtrack...

Pop: "I had a meeting with someone at Sony Pictures, which led to us doing music for the upcoming movie "Think Like A Man." Sparkle was mentioned to me and I border-lined begged for us to be apart of that. I remember that movie, I remember that VHS tape being around my house. I remember watching it, loving the music and horn arrangements."

Working With Alicia Keys On Her Album...

Oak: "I'll say Alicia Keys is one of the most creative people I've ever had the pleasure of being around. On top of that, one of the nicest and most down to earth person. For someone who has the kind of pressure she is exposed to all the time, you don't usually get that. She is incredible, she is definitely humbling to work with."

What's Next For Pop And Oak...

Pop: "Oak has an amazing song with Wynter Gordon called "Don't Stop." It is an amazing song, a big dance record. The forthcoming Nicki (Minaj) album. Diggy Simmons, we have both of his current singles "Copy, Paste" and "Do It Like You." The Elle Varner album, we are really proud of that...I feel like it's some of our best work to date. We also have our own artists, a male quartet out of Philly who are ironically signed to Motown call MPrynt. We have a young lady out of Southside Chicago named Candice, who was featured on the song "Angel" from the latest Tyrese album "Open Invitation."

How to Fail at (Music) Blogging by Chris DeLine

2012-02-02T00:52:07Z

By Chris DeLine on November 4, 2011 in Featured / More Culture

For Culture Belly

Last week I wrote something called “How to Fail at Promoting Music Online” which was pretty much about a handful of issues I take with the way publicists and bands push music online, particularly via email marketing. It’s pretty easy to unload such unsolicited advice though, and truth be told, picking on some issues and poking fun at what appear to be obvious mistakes is kind of fun. Case in point: it’s the second time I’ve done so this year. Fun, but hardly groundbreaking stuff. What I’ve really wanted to do for quite some time though, which sort of does the same thing, is turn the focus onto the mirror rather than the window. It’s pretty easy to look outside and see what’s wrong, but it’s a little more difficult to take a serious look at yourself with the same sort of critical eye. When it comes down to it though, for every easy joke about mindless mistakes bands make or how bad at their jobs some PR monkeys are, it’s every bit as easy to look at how remarkably silly bloggers can be. Many may not be guilty of such offences and many may not confess to them, but with a strong sense of sarcasm in tow, here are a few of the ways that as a blogger, and in particular a music blogger, you’re failing at what you do.

Never Stop Documenting

Your opinion is valuable. After all, it’s on the Internet. (You’re a “freelancer,” you say? Even better!) So why not give the people you’re best and document as much as you possibly can. Why be a spectator at an event and immerse yourself in it when you can “cover” an event and document what you experienced? Why listen to an album and give yourself time to appreciate it when you can hastily gather first reactions and spit out a blog post? Don’t know anything about a band? Don’t let that stop you from blogging about them as though you have an authoritative voice on the subject. And don’t stop with your experiences you’ve just had either, document experiences as they’re happening, or even better, document experiences that you haven’t even had yet. Sometimes in order to reaffirm your place in the blogosphere it’s important to serve as the window to what might be perceived as cool by others. Re-tweet, blog, or post “content” to Facebook that might be appreciated by potential readers whether or not it reflects your personal sense of taste, or whether or not you’ve even bothered to consume, much less, appreciate it.

“Networking”

What is your motivation with meeting people in your same industry and/or niche corner of the blogosphere? Not entirely sure? Don’t worry about it. Treat friends like acquaintances, acquaintances like friends, “contributors” like friends, or even better: blur the lines of each so no one really knows where they stand with you. Further, considering that your own intentions aren’t always “noble,” assume that everyone you deal with has an ulterior motive. Are people contacting you only to get something from you? (Are you only reaching out to others because you want something from them?) Don’t worry about setting these double standards: Take the time to mock others you deal with on a daily basis (cough, cough) without taking a glance your own habits. Certainly just because you’re tired of people link-spamming you, asking you for some sort of “coverage” or “support,” that doesn’t mean that you can’t still do the same: Spam for re-tweets, follows, votes, or simply to “inform” others about new “content” that you’ve blogged about.

Welcome Jealousy

In addition to allowing yourself to gain no real perspective of what your personal motivations are, it’s okay to unjustly feel like every time something good happens to someone else, that it somehow takes away from your “cause.” Allow Facebook fan, Twitter follower or pageview statistics to dictate your personal value relative to your contemporaries, and allow resentment to build if you don’t feel that you measure up. Allow contempt to develop if ignorant acquaintances aren’t using the Right metrics program to monitor their traffic. Do you feel that there’s some elite group of bloggers who are undeservingly given the bulk of the industry-love and media attention, who subsequently may or may not be stiff-arming the development of others who aren’t in their clique? Toss a little more resentment into the mix. Also, you’ve been blogging for longer, so why didn’t you get to post that “exclusive” track that some other blog posted? Or if you did post something “first” only to later see other blogs posting about the same “content” long after you did, you allowed yourself to become angry at them, right? After all, whether or not they might have actually posted about the same subject on their own doing, they had to have seen your post first and didn’t cite you as a source or give you your much due link-love. Jerks. Do you feel as though you’ve been slighted or disrespected in some way? Act out! Take everything personally, strip names from your blogroll, bad-mouth bloggers behind their backs, or un-follow them on Twitter. Blogging is as much a pissing contest as it is a medium for personal expression. Never forget that.

   Compromise Your “Content”

While blogging is essentially an easy and widely used method to broadcast opinion (and pictures of cats), don’t feel that you have to be clear about what your motivation is — to others or yourself. Is your blog a business first or is it a personal platform to share your opinions (and pictures of cats)? Is your blog a medium which you use to personally “help bands,” “support artists” or “promote good music” by ~~illegally offering~~ “sharing” free mp3s? Or is it about feeding a personal sense of self-esteem that you never really bothered exploring until the invent of Blogger? Are you supporting mediocrity to drive pageviews or are you truly standing behind the “content” you’re boosting? Are you constantly striving to find new music to “post” because you need more music to post or because you want to find more music that truly resonates with you? Is the subject of what you’re blogging about good, or just good enough to blog about? Are you lowering the bar of what you’ll promote so that in the event that a band miraculously breaks out one day, you’ll be able to have your own “I was there when…” moment? Are you so caught up in pageviews and SEO-hacking that you devote just as much time to that aspect of the “blogging process” as you do “content development”? Are you blogging to feed Google, to be the “first” at posting anything, actively searching for ways to support your own relevance (year-end lists and wrap-ups in early November… why not!) or to help drive eyes to your “brand”? Which outside sources are influencing what you blog about, and how clear is it for an outsider to figure out whether your “content” is the result of a PR-push, a band letting you into a show for free, a “sponsorship,” or if it’s something that you would be blogging about regardless of any outside factors? Does it even matter? Just go with the flow: addressing any of this might end up shedding an unpleasant light on you as a true music fan.

Inconsistent Habits

Aside from blurring the lines surrounding why you’re blogging, be as inconsistent as possible with what and when you’re blogging. Abandon ideas about the “direction” or “focus” of “content” on your blog as quickly as you adopt them. Want to cover news one week? Local news the next? Local artists the next? Music videos the next? Mashups on Mondays? Electronica on weekends? Metal on Fridays? Then forget all of that and only blog about pop? Do you post a dozen marginally interesting news items, music videos, or mp3s one day then go a week without posting anything? It shouldn’t matter, right? After all, it’s your blog and you should do whatever you want with it.

   Take Your Readers for Granted

“According to Google Analytics, there are, as of this writing, over infinity active blogs on the Internet. And your article is battling all of them for attention. And you’re not just competing against other articles, or even other blogs; you’re competing against Facebook, and Wikipedia, and YouTube, and the news, and The Daily Show, and last night’s sports scores, and tomorrow’s weather, and online games, and an impossible amount of pornography. Just because someone’s sitting in front of a computer doesn’t mean they’re going to read a 2,000-word article, because they can be doing almost anything else. It’s a tough market on the Internet. Cheers gets a lot of credit for being a popular show, but Cheers never had to compete with the most comprehensive and specific library of free pornography that has ever existed in human history.”

Pay no heed to such advice because, again, it’s your blog and the mere fact that you have taken the time to grace the Internet with your presence means that you deserve to be seen. Not only that, but your readers, Facebook fans or Twitter followers should be fine with whatever inconsistencies you throw at them and support you in your online endeavors. Don’t take into consideration what might be in the best interest of readers when re-tooling the layout of your blog (It now takes three clicks to see a single article? Let’s do it: more pageviews!), or whether or not they’ll grow tired of you turning over new designs on a seemingly monthly basis. Don’t take a reader’s perspective into account when you flood their RSS reader with 20 posts one day, and none the next. Don’t bother thinking about whether or not your drunken live-tweeting of your YouTube surfing will be of interest to them. Of course it will; they wouldn’t follow you if it wasn’t of interest, right? Oh, and if you get burnt out on the upkeep of your blog’s Twitter or Facebook accounts and decide to delete them altogether, expect fans to re-emerge when you open up new accounts and latch back onto your every word. It’s not that you shunned their patronage, you were just cleaning the slate.

   Overestimate Your Own Importance

You’ve made it! People now visit your blog. A lot of people, actually. So why not give yourself a little pat on the back? After all, you’ve got x number of pageviews, y number of Facebook followers and z number of Twitter followers, and that really means something. Not just something about your blog, but something about you. Were you recognized for your work by another website? Perhaps you were invited to contribute a guest-post or two to a well-established media outlet? Maybe you were you asked to freelance by a magazine/paper/weekly/blog/website that has a strong following? Wild! Never let yourself forget that, because no matter how long ago it happened it’s still important. Why would it not be important? They picked you because you’re opinion is obviously original and your taste as a music blogger, nay, Journalist(!), is impeccable. Whether or not you say anything that’s remotely original, express anything that listeners wouldn’t actually be able to pick up on simply by listening themselves, or document your experiences with a competency that remotely reflects the level of education you claim to have isn’t really important here. What is important is that you wouldn’t have made it this far if you weren’t important. Even if no one else does, and whether or not it really exists, be the first in line to acknowledge your own “importance on the Internet.” You deserve it, buddy.

——————————————————————————————————

I know that it’s more than a little ironic to rant about bloggers who inflate their own importance by writing something that’s essentially all about me, but that’s exactly what I’m doing here. I originally started blogging about seven years ago, and started this blog a few months after that. In the following years I’ve not only made every mistake mentioned here (and plenty more), but I’ve actually grown from some of them. (That said, there are still plenty of mistakes that I continue to make. Plenty.) People are supposed to do that though, right? Make mistakes… change… grow… mature…?

All considered though, I’m all but done with what this blog has become because while certain methods and practices keep pageviews coming in, doing so doesn’t really mean anything. I guess that’s the main piece of advice that I can give here: Stop taking the things that don’t actually matter so damn serious. In the end the pageviews, followers, likes, fans, and subscribers aren’t really important if you can’t figure out what’s so special about them. It’s not about popularity or even ad revenue (the latter of which I’m thoroughly grateful for, by the way), but it’s that in a world where there might as well be “infinity active blogs on the Internet” someone looked at yours, followed you, subscribed, or liked what you did. The most important thing about this blog for me has been that many times when I began to feel invisible it’s helped me feel like I’m not, or that among an endless sea of people spouting loony opinions, that sometimes what I have to say does actually have some sort of value.

Thanks to everyone who’s contributed to that feeling. I should have said it a lot sooner. And if I did, I hope that I actually meant it. I don’t know what it means to move on, because I’ve done that before, but I’m moving on from whatever the past six and a half years have been about. Maybe I’ll try reaching my full potential or something… I don’t really know.

(The rest of this is just personal rambling [in true blog fashion, right?] and I wouldn’t bother reading it if you’re looking for more “handy tips” on how to avoid being a dummy. Rather, it’s just here for me to help sort out my thoughts as I continue to fumble my way through a digital identity crisis.)

…Guilty as the Next…

As much as I’d like to say that band spam or “digital marketing” might be the most frustrating aspect of blogging, it’s probably the blogging culture itself that takes such a distinction. Why? Funny enough, because the landscape is filled with people just like me. In the summer of 2010 I was able to attend the Sled Island festival in Canada but by the end I was really bummed out because of the overall vibe. My conclusion was that I was part of the problem. While I was technically there to lend events coverage – as is the trade-off for access – I was not there having fun or immersing myself in beautiful moments. I was only regurgitating what had happened, be it through typed word or videos of performances. And I wasn’t alone. (Have you ever been to a concert and witnessed the band take the stage only to be greeted by a swarm of cell-phones and cameras raised to capture the moment? Ever feel sort of sick about that? Ever feel sort of sick about that only to realize that your camera’s in the air as well?) I swore off “live reviews” then and while a few local showcase recaps snuck in over the past year, I’ve largely stuck to it. While I haven’t been to remotely as many shows as I once saw (actually having to pay for these things is tougher than I’d remembered) it feels good to just be a spectator again. What I probably should have done was swear off blogging on the whole though, because again I think the way I’ve been doing things here has positioned me as a contributor to a similar problem as the one I saw up in Canada. Only it’s online. And it’s everywhere.

One of the most interesting things that I’ve picked up on over the years is how little music bloggers actually interact with one another. I don’t mean interaction through Twitter or via public meet-ups though (both are pretty good ways of making new friends, both online and off), I mean through each other’s actual blogs. Most music bloggers aren’t passionate about music blogs, we’re passionate about our music blog. But not even to the degree that it’s our favorite blog, it’s just something we expect others to find value in. The idea dawned on me one day: If I had to read my own blog, would I? For the most part I wouldn’t. Yet I expect other people to read it… Why?! This is partially what drives a lot of these issues that I listed above: a widespread feeling of over-inflated self-importance.

What follows are criticisms no different than those made of the younger culture‘s increasingly strong sense of self-importance fueled by the urge to constantly update the rest of the world of their every action and thought via Facebook and Twitter; a compulsion made that much worse every time society force-feeds the idea that we’re all special, we’re all unique individuals with something important to say, and even further inflated every time someone responds, likes, comments or otherwise shows interest in what that person’s sharing. I’m hardly an expert on the inner workings of the entire blogosphere, so whether or not this is widespread across various niches I really don’t know, but this sort of thing is really evident in the music blogosphere. Somehow music bloggers have become important not only because we have an outlet for opinion, but curious enough, because the value of what we’re doing is tied to the quality of what we’re blogging about. Curation, right…? But including a single enjoyable song on a post that features a dozen, or posting a single legitimately unique or enjoyable music video over the course of a week’s worth of slop somehow means the blogger (as a “curator”) has done an excellent job in some circles. The whole thing is bizarre.

Recently I wrote something for a friend’s zine called “Why I (Music) Blog,” with an overly-dramatic conclusion about how it’s helped save my life (yada yada yada). There’s actually a bit of truth to that, but at the time I wrote the essay I only skimmed over something that I was already really really tired of: the depressing nature of being a blogger. Not only is it depressing living tied to a screen in a room by myself for the majority of most days (which, it could be argued, is my own doing, and I get that… still a bummer), but the reality of turning a hobby into a business has its drawbacks as well. For instance, eating your favorite food every few days can be great, but what happens when you take that leap and make eating your favorite food your job? What happens when you’re in a constant dialog surrounding your favorite food with friends (or are they acquaintances… or contributors?), are hammered with emails constantly alerting you to all sorts of different brands of your favorite food, faced with an RSS feed bulging at the seems with updates from hundreds of other blogs spewing conversation of your favorite food, and are bombarded with countless Twitter and forum discussions surrounding the development, evolution, and business of your favorite food (largely between people who can’t cook to save their lives)? Sure, it all comes with the territory, but regardless of how much you once loved that food, immersing yourself into such a culture gets a little old. What’s worse is that to gain the most visibility, or succeed financially so that it’s still your job to do it all again tomorrow, it’s rarely discussion of your favorite food that is the most lucrative, but rather food that you would otherwise never waste your time with.

It should be obvious for anyone who’s checked this blog out over the years, but for me, blogging has long since become a continual push for pageviews rather than actually aspiring to showcase music that’s really good. Album reviews have been the pageview equivalent to bread and butter for years: so why not squeak out immediate reactions to an Eminem or Taylor Swift album following their leaks online, as they typically draw a good bit of traffic, and in theory ad revenue, rather than post something about a far less known act that I really enjoy? For the longest time I haven’t even been blogging about my favorite food, but food that I’ve only ever had a marginal interest in. Now the entire buffet of different flavors and aromas has lost quite a bit of its appeal. Every email from a band is as gag-inducing as day-old marked down tuna rolls from the local convenience store. They might be a hidden treasure but I’m too turned off by the idea what they might be to take that risk.

There are plenty of other downsides (having to have a basis for opinion on the entire history of a band in order to write anything about them for fear of being terrorized by commentors, or having to simply have an opinion on everything in order to keep up, for instance), but something I recently read spoke well to an issue I hadn’t even realized existed within me. In a recent entry in his Why We Fight column, Nitsuh Abebe (whose writing is genuinely as great a response as anyone’s to the accusation that “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”) explained something that he’s lost over the years: his ability to be “suckered by trends.”

“I miss my capacity to fall for everything. I miss getting caught — hook, line, sinker, reeled-straight-in — by trends, revivals, passing notions, idiot bastard styles. I am trying to re-cultivate the overwhelming enthusiasm I have had for truly, truly bad ideas.“

In August of 1998 one of my best friends and I made it our business to get out to the local electronics shop to get there just as it opened so we could be the first to get our hands on a CD on the day of its release. As the doors were unlocked, we rushed in only to find that the day’s new inventory wasn’t even stocked yet. So we had to wait for someone to go to the back and unearth a pair of discs for us. I guess there wasn’t much of a feeling that there’d be two ravenous teenagers anxiously counting down the minutes to get their hands on Korn’s Follow the Leader. Oh, how wrong they were. As unpopular as confessing to being one of those obnoxious nü-metal kids might be, that was one of the first eras of music where I can remember really feeling like I was caught up in a whole scene that was pretty awesome. Incubus’ S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was in there, as was Limp Bizkit, Soulfly and Pantera, but before long we’d drained the well dry (Cold Chamber) and moved on to the next trend. However, that wasn’t before I was also introduced to Rage Against the Machine and turned on to rap through such ridiculous and strange collaborations as Korn teaming with Ice Cube. Embarrassing? Absolutely. Regrettable? No way.

I’ve had similar moments of true fanaticism since then, of course, but after opening up the blog my perspective slowly changed from that of a fan to DIY “music critic,” and I’ve had fewer and fewer of them as each year passed. It wasn’t only that my opinion now seemed to matter, but that simply deciding who I paid attention to mattered. For all the nonsense that’s still projected at bands about the importance of getting music heard on blogs, the flip side is that bloggers start to believe that what their doing has importance. How could we not? Traffic takes off, ad revenue builds, a “fan base” develops, “contributors” reach out to you to join your team… hell, a couple years back a company flew me and a few other bloggers down to Austin for some parties (read: year-end tax write-off). All that and relatively no one has ever even heard of this blog… Point is, it’s really easy to become caught up in the same wave of hype surrounding this whole “digital music explosion” from the blogger’s side of things as it is the musician’s. So as the years passed I spent more and more time grazing on PR emails than actually appreciating music, exploring my true interests or contemplating critiques by those who have been deep in the trenches of actual music journalism since long before my fascination with camo-shorts and backwards baseball caps began. Music blogging has quickly become a cog in machine that it first appeared to be raging against. Much like nü-metal ran its course with me, so too have the days of really taking this shit seriously.

Speaking of his work in radio and video, This American Life‘s Ira Glass explained in an interview a few years ago that “Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.” Even when this blog was good it still wasn’t that good (which isn’t meant to undermine the many kindhearted people who’ve shared articles here), and to keep on with the way it was going was driving me crazy because I knew it was getting worse. I was becoming more complacent with allowing that to happen despite becoming more and more aware that I can actually put something together that means something to me. That’s kind of why I invited some new folks to join in over the summer and that’s why I started posting about the UFC. Also partially just to see what would happen, but more than anything I was looking for a way to not abandon my crap. I still can’t kill this blog — I have rent to pay and to be frank, the scattered advertising and completely out of place sponsored posts still help a lot with that — but what I can kill is the process of continually stumbling through the many many many mistakes accounted for above. I’m not sure I’ll ever be done blogging, but I’m done for now. (Or is posting to Facebook and Twitter blogging?) Hope you’ve gotten something out of my little blog post here, and if you’re one of the many making the same mistakes that I’ve made, do yourself a favor and reconsider why it is that you (music) blog. I know you could have spent it with anyone, but you spent your time with me today. Thanks for that.

Pinterest Drives More Traffic Than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn Combined [STUDY] by Zoe Fox

2012-02-01T23:43:11Z

by Zoe Fox
for Mashable

Pinterest is social media’s rising star — and now has the traffic stats to prove it.

The darling network of brides-to-be, fashionistas and budding bakers now beats YouTube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace for percentage of total referral traffic in January, according to a Shareaholic study.

Pinterest accounted for 3.6% of referral traffic, while Twitter just barely edged ahead of the newcomer, accounting for 3.61% of referral traffic. In July 2011, Pinterest accounted for just 0.17% of referral traffic, proving the site’s blockbuster growth.

SEE ALSO: Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers [INFOGRAPHIC]

Facebook reigns king of referrals, accounting for more than one-quarter (26.4%) of traffic, 4.3% of which comes from Facebook Mobile. After Pinterest, Facebook is experiencing the most referral growth, gaining almost one percentage point in December.

YouTube also saw more referral traffic in January than December, rising from 0.98% to 1.05%. Shareaholic suggests the Sh*t Girls Say meme may explain this increase in referrals.

Despite the increased integration of Google+ into Google products, the social network lost some referral traffic in January, falling from 0.24% of referrals to 0.22%. Google — encompassing search, news, images and Gmail — also saw its referral traffic decline from 3.69% to 3.62% in the past month.

Given Pinterest’s monster growth, who do you think can benefit most from the social network, brands, news sources or someone else? Let us know who you think will win big with the rise of Pinterest.

BONUS:

How to Improve Your Pinterest Experience

1. Become an Expert

Just as you would curate your personal brand across other social networks like Twitter, decide what topics you're most interested in, and then dedicate yourself to those spaces. People will be more likely to follow rich, full Boards than sparsely populated Boards.

2. Use the Browser Extension

Drag and drop Pinterest's Chrome browser extension onto your Bookmarks bar. That way, every time you come across a cute pair of shoes or a kickass motorcycle, you're able to click "Pin It," choose an image (left), attach a description and add the Pin to one of your Boards.

3. Connect to Social

When you create your Pinterest account, you can choose to connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts, along with your personal website. Not only do the account widgets appear below your profile bio, but you can also choose to share your Pins across the networks, or to embed them onto your website.

4. Contributors

You have the choice to add contributors to your Board by editing a selected Board and then adding a Pinterest account. Keep in mind, however, that you have to be following at least one of the user's Boards before adding them as a contributor.

5. Likes

When you choose to Like a Pin, it will appear in a separate feed from your Boards. You may choose to keep a Like list for several reasons.

I keep a folder of Likes for those random Pins I encounter that make me laugh or pique my interest, but to which I wouldn’t dedicate a whole Board. For instance, I don't have Boards for tattoos or kitties, but I Like them nonetheless.

6. Mentions

Similar to Twitter, mention users you follow by typing “@” in front of their user names. Add the mention either to a Pin/Repin description or to a comment. The user will receive a notification.

7. Sell Pins

Add a "$" or a "£" to the Pin description and Pinterest will automatically add a price banner to the photo. The Pin will then appear in the Gifts category. Within the Pin, remember to link to the website where fans can purchase. Just remember to remove the Pin once you’ve sold out!

8. Mobile Pins

Along with the basic Pinterest Pin and Board functions, you can also take a picture with your iPhone, add a location and Pin via mobile.

9. How to Find Pinners

To find Pinners with similar taste and interests, seek out the users behind your favorite pins. Then look at the users that Pinner follows. As of now, Pinterest doesn't have a suggested users tool, so in the mean time, you have to do your own heavy lifting.

10. How to Find Pinners (Cont'd)

Another way to find interesting Pins or Pinners is by going to the Popular category to discover trending Pins. However, be prepared to encounter a wide variety of Pins. (A fork bracelet next to a bubble project?)

11. To Follow or Not to Follow?

One of the curious but potentially awesome things about Pinterest is your ability to follow a Pinner's specific boards, instead of her entire content output. Most of the time, I take a quick survey of a Pinner's taste and decide which Boards I relate to best. Then I only follow those Boards, so as not to get bombarded by irrelevant Pins.

12. Repeat Pins

Once you start combing the Pinterest feeds, you’ll encounter repeat Pins that have gone viral. Currently, there’s no way to filter out repeats just yet.

Therefore, the best way to get more eyes on your profile is to add new Pins as often as possible. Fresh content is guaranteed to get more original Pins.

13. Search Pins by Site

Go to pinterest.com/source/mashable.com to discover all the Pins that originated on our site. Once you're done taking a peek at our content, type in any website to see whether anyone has pinned from it.

Or to narrow down the search, go to the Everything category and search by topic (i.e. Women's Apparel or Geek). When you see a Pin you like, view that Pinner’s other Boards, who they follow, and so on.

You may also choose to make your Like section an unofficial wish list that friends or family members can browse for gift ideas.

If you have time to dedicate your Boards to a super specific niche, go for it! Fashion director for Marie Claire, Nina Garcia, separates each spring 2012 fashion trend into its own Board.

New Debuts Crowd The Top 10 by FMQB

2012-02-01T22:26:36Z

FMQB Thinking Ahead!

February 1, 2012

While Adele's 21 album maintains the #1 spot on the sales chart for an 18th non-consecutive week (moving another 116,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan), seven new albums still managed to debut in the Top 10 this week. Tim McGraw's latest, Emotional Traffic, bows at #2 with 68,000 sold, giving him the 14th Top 10 album of his career. Metal band Lamb of God's new effort, Resolution, opens at #3 with 52,000 sold, securing the band's third Top 10 release. Their last studio set, 2009's Wrath, bowed at a career-high #2 with 68,000 sold. The 2012 Grammy Nominees compilation enters the chart at #4 with about 52,000, just a few copies shy of Lamb of God's total. This marks the 11th Top 10 for the annual Grammy series since it launched in 1995. Meanwhile, singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson earns her best sales week and highest charting album ever as Human Again starts off at #5 with 40,000 sold. Until now, her best frame came with 2009's Everybody, which bowed at #18 by selling 23,000 units.

In the back half of the Top 10, Kidz Bop 21 falls to #6 with 33,000, and Kellie Pickler's 100 Proof opens at #7 with 27,000 sold. This gives the former American Idol contestant her third straight top 10 and her highest-charting album yet. Seal's Soul 2 release arrives at #8 by shifting just over 27,000, and Drake's Take Care sits at #9 with 26,000. Rounding out the Top 10 is Christian singer Kari Jobe, whose sophomore release Where I Find You bows at #10 with 25,000.

Also worth noting is the charity compilation Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan, as it debuts in two different slots this week. The 73-track version bows at #11 with 22,000 sold, while the Starbucks-exclusive 31-track version starts at #39 with 10,000. Sales of the albums and the individual song downloads benefit Amnesty International.

Miley Cyrus will perform "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" from the Chimes Of Freedom collection on The Ellen DeGeneres Show next Monday, February 6. It will be the first in a series of performances by artists from Chimes of Freedom, as Ellen pays tribute to the work of Amnesty International.

Mobile Music Ad Dollars Are Growing by Jennifer Lane

2012-02-01T22:03:25Z

By Jennifer Lane

For Audio4cast

January 31, 2012 at 7:54 am

Mobile ad dollars are growing, according to eMarketer. As smartphone usage expands, revenues from the ad-supported component of mobile music, games and videos alone will grow 52.7% this year to $433.8 million.

Two things are driving the increase – one being the growing audience for mobile music, gaming and video content. The second reason is that more and more content providers are shifting to an ad based revenue model, stimulating marketplace spending. Spending on ads for mobile music, gaming and video content accounted for 20% of the revenue in the space last year but will increase to 30% by 2015, to nearly $3.59 billion. The remainder of the revenues will be paid by subscription and download fees.

There’s a strong tolerance for mobile ads if the apps are free – new study info from Nielsen showed both that free apps are preferred by consumers and 51% of consumers say they are okay with advertising on their devices if they can access the content for free.

Monetizing mobile content with ads is becoming increasingly important for services such as Pandora. With the most downloaded free music app in Apple and Google app stores, Pandora sees the majority of its audience on mobile devices.

Music Choice Rebrands With New Name, Logo

2012-02-01T20:35:56Z

by THR staff

5:00 AM PST 2/1/2012

The music and video network, which reaches more than 50 million households through partnerships with leading U.S. cable providers, will now be known as MC.

Music and video platform Music Choice is adapting a new brand strategy complete with a new name and logo.

Starting Jan. 31, the service which boasts 45 audio channels in every genre and reaches 52 million households, will be known as MC. Its on demand and 24-hour interactive video music network will also rebrand under the tagline "Living Music.” The brand strategy was created by the firm of Siegel + Gale.

STORY: Warner Music Group CEO: Steve Jobs Got the Best of Us

Says Christina Tancredi, COO of Music Choice, in an announcement: “MC symbolizes the role music plays in our lives, not just what format to listen to. It is about the emotional connection consumers want to their favorite artists... This year we plan to roll out more product features that will allow consumers to enjoy music not only on their TV, but wherever they go.”

MC is a partnership among subsidiaries of Microsoft, Motorola, Sony and EMI Music along with several leading U.S. cable providers including Comcast, Cox and Time Warner.

Twitter: @THRMusic

Copyright © 2012 The Music Biz Oracle. All rights reserved.

Don Cornelius, ‘Soul Train’ Creator, Dead From Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound by Robbie Daw

2012-02-01T20:15:09Z

By Robbie Daw on Wed Feb 1 2012

Don Cornelius, creator of long-running musical variety show Soul Train, has died at age 75 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, reports the New York Times. Police found Cornelius’ body at his Los Angeles home on Mulholland Drive early this morning. After officers responded to a report of a shooting, the television producer was officially pronounced dead at 4:56 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter.

Chicago native Cornelius launched Soul Train in his home town as a local program, but by the following year, the pioneering series, which primarily showcased soul and R&B music, had gone national. Soul Train aired in syndication for 35 years, from 1971 to 2006, with Cornelius hosting until 1993.

Don Cornelius introduces “the fabulous Aretha Franklin” on Soul Train in 1973
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eSNE-WPBcXM

“There was not programming that targeted any particular ethnicity,” Cornelius said in a 2006 interview. “I’m trying to use euphemisms here, trying to avoid saying there was no television for black folks, which they knew was for them.”

Heavy D And The Boyz perform on Soul Train in 1988

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=roLjQKjNrDM

In 1987, the Soul Train Music Awards spun off from the popular series. Rapper Heavy D, who died in 2011, was honored at last year’s ceremony.

Personal strife appeared to plague Cornelius in recent years. In October 2008, he was arrested at his Los Angeles home on a felony domestic violence charge and released on bail. Though his wife Victoria Avila-Cornelius had filed restraining orders against him, he initially pleaded not guilty to spousal abuse. In 2009, Cornelius changed his plea to no contest and was placed on probation for 36 months.

“I am shocked and deeply saddened at the sudden passing of my friend, colleague, and business partner Don Cornelius,” Quincy Jones told the New York Times today. “Don was a visionary pioneer and a giant in our business. Before MTV there was Soul Train, that will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius. His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched.”

Do you have a special memory about Soul Train, or a favorite guest? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on Twitter and Facebook.

Katy Perry Developing 3D Concert Movie by Rolling Stone

2012-02-01T19:37:10Z

Paramount hopes to bring singer's colorful show to the multiplex

By
Rolling Stone
February 1, 2012 8:55 AM ET

Katy Perry rocks 3D glasses at the 2011 American Music Awards.
Christopher Polk/AMA2011/Getty Images for AMA

Katy Perry is in talks with Paramount to create a 3D movie documenting the singer's live show. The studio, along with Imagine Entertainment, are still in early stages of developing the project, which is largely dependent on the logistics of filming, staging and releasing the movie. A source close to the deal says Paramount hopes to follow the template of last year's Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, which now holds the box office record for the most successful concert film in the United States with a gross of $73 million.

Disney has also had great success with 3D concert movies in the recent past, with Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour and Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience both pulling in grosses that eclipsed studio expectations. Fox's Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, however, was a flop when it was released last year.

Ne-Yo Leaves Def Jam to Become Motown’s Senior VP of A&R

2012-02-01T19:18:37Z

AllHipHop.com News
by Jake Crates January 25th, 2012 @ 11:36am

(AllHipHop News) R&B’s Ne-Yo is soon to try his hand behind the desk at Motown Records. It was announced yesterday (January 25) by Barry Weiss, Chairman & CEO of Universal Republic and Island Def Jam Motown, and Ethiopia Habtemariam, Senior Vice President of Motown Records, that Ne-Yo will become Senior Vice President of A&R for the historic label.

Ne-Yo is bringing his label imprint, Compound Entertainment, over to Motown, along with three Grammy Awards and a highly anticipated fifth studio album, which will likely release in the summer as his label debut.

While at Motown, Ne-Yo will serve as a producer and mentor to label artists, along with being responsible for seeking out and signing new talent to the label.

“I’m a combination of excited, honored and terrified all at once!” said Ne-Yo in a statement. “Excited about a new beginning here at Motown, honored that I’ve been given such a prestigious title and trusted with such responsibility, TERRIFIED because I know that playing this role, in the fashion of one of my idols and career role models, Mr. Smokey Robinson. These are big shoes to fill…..but trust, I can handle it.”

Ne-Yo has been busy as of late, recently hitting the big screen as a co-star in the movie Red Tails and on national TV on NBC’s upcoming season of The Voice, as a mentor for Cee-Lo Green’s team.

“Ne-Yo is an enormously talented artist, songwriter, and producer,” said Weiss. “In fact, he’s one of the greatest songwriters of our times. His track record of success at Def Jam will always be a benchmark. But this move to Motown will provide new and inspiring challenges for Ne-Yo, as both an artist and a key member of the new senior management team that is taking form at the label in 2012,” he added.

Ne-Yo’s most recent album from 2010, Libra Scale, followed up the RIAA-certified platinum album, Year Of The Gentleman, released in 2008. The album was his third consecutive to enter the Soundscan chart at #1.

Year Of The Gentleman had several RIAA platinum hit singles, including “Closer,” “Miss Independent,” and “Mad,” and received five Grammy nominations in 2009. His track “Miss Independent” won Best R&B Song (songwriters’ award) and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

5 reasons why Facebook wont make it to 1.5billion active users by John Lynch

2012-02-01T19:02:09Z

Poasted by: Digital Ministry United Kingdom and Ireland

Written by John Lynch | January 31st 2012

Facebook is to announce its IPO dates this week with an asking price of reportedly up to $100Bil. buying the future promise as it only made $350M last year. Tipped to reach one billion active users in August this year (see graph) will Zuckerberg juggernaut continue unabated, is that the ceiling or the beginning of the end? My personal view is that it will not make 1.5Billion active users.

How fast things change in the digital arena. facebooks IPO will dwarf, the last poster boy Google, whose IPO made a paltry $27Bil in 2004. Google is still the world’s most visited website with 1 billion UV’s spending nearly 2 hours on the site per month but the average Internet user already spends nearly 4 times that amount of time on Facebook. This dwel time and data facebook has on users seems to justify the $70 to $100 Bil price tag alone, however its the prospects of a Billion plus active users thats really driving the frenzie. But will it make it to 1.5 Billion active users?

Momentum would suggest yes. Europe is dominating the Facebook numbers, currently standing at 223 million, followed by North America at 219 million, with Asia at 202 million users. Facebook’s growth has slowed or stopped in many of its early adopting countries such as the US and the UK. However, countries such as India and Brazil have shown strong growth. Asia however is where the great overall growth will come as this is where growth in internet users alone is lifting all activity (see chart below).

But is momentium enough? How long can this go on and when will we hit 1.5 billion active users if ever. Personally I think 1.5Billion will be too big ask for the following reasons.

1. Competition will hot up this year eating into growth: We are simply at the start of the social age and I believe what we see now is just the stone age versions of what’s coming. Google+ is having a dampening affect but its the small nimble pure players that are experimenting in their dorm rooms now that will make the big impact. Admittedly there are no obvious contenders but experimentation has started including 3Degrees, Pinterest , Path and Tumbler that i know of. lets face it, people are bursting to try something new.

2. Product Fatigue. As per point one, it’s that 'shiny new thing' syndrome. Facebook is already experiencing flat or decline in mature markets for whatever reason. I would suspect that the novelty has worn off with many. Are we entering the through of disillusionment?

3. Privacy Concerns. Facebook is notorious for its poor stewartship (remember Beacon) of personal data. Its Terms Of Service are widely considered one-sided and some have gone so far as to say that they have declared war on privacy. Founder and CEO of Facebook, in defense of Facebook's privacy changes last January: "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time." The one thing about evolution is it never stops, An awareness of the value of this data may evolve to change people tune on openness or inspire companies to help consumer monitise this data?

4. Selective censorship- China keeps facebook out, others countries will beguin to cut back on ‘free’ access to facebook following the The Arab spring which highlighted the usefulness of facebook in toppling dictators. Don’t expect the remaining despots and demi-despots with big populations (Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) to allow such frank politicking on their national networks. Watch out for selective censorship just as Twitter is already doing. This has got to have an impact on use.

5. Wallstreat Acquiescence: IPO really means you have to justify the valuation and drive growth. This means lifting earnings above the 2011 $350 Million. This opens Facebook up to risky methods of increasing their earnings by leveraging users data more. This increases the chance of it messing up as it starts doing dumb things to justify a $100Bil IPO. Does anyone remember Myspace?

Combined, these factors will slow, possibly stop and in an extream situation even reverse facebooks rise, and Woooooh if it does. last week Google felt the result of this type of change stunning Wallstreat by missing its targets. This sent its stock into a nose dive and triggering a flurry of questions over what went askew. All of a sudden deeper qustions on past questionable management decisions are being re-examined, like building Google Buzz, Wave

. How fast things change in the digital arena.

3 Metrics that Will Change the Way You Market on Facebook by Amy Porterfield

2012-01-20T18:16:58Z

by Amy Porterfield

Amy Porterfield is the co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies and creator of the Facebook marketing training program, FBinfluence. You can join her on Facebook at facebook.com/AmyPorterfield or read her blog at AmyPorterfield.com.

Facebook isn’t just the largest social networking site on the web (with more than 800 million active users); it also collects a massive amount of information about those users. Through the newly revamped Facebook Insights, Page owners can access a staggering amount of information about their fans’ activities. This information gives business owners valuable insight into what they need to do to give fans a better experience and, in turn, achieve better marketing results.

But it can be challenging to sift through all that data. An easy way to avoid metrics overdose is to find and target just a few key metrics.

Below is an overview of three game-changing metrics you should be tracking, along with concrete tips for improving your Page’s performance in each area.

1. Track ”People Talking About This”

People Talking About This is one of the new metrics for Facebook Pages. Unlike other metrics on your Insights dashboard, it’s also the only one visible to the public.

This number represents the total number of people who, over the past seven days, have engaged with your Page in any way — by Liking it, commenting on or sharing a post, answering a question, tagging your Page, or responding to an event. In your Insights dashboard, you’ll also see a percentage increase or decrease next to the current number, so you can compare this week’s engagement against last week’s stats.

If you want to build a thriving community on Facebook — or if you want to turn existing fans into raving super fans — engagement is the most critical metric you can track. And People Talking About This is a good measure of overall engagement.

Luckily, the best way to increase engagement is easy: Just ask.

Ask your fans questions, request their opinions, and ask people to click. Don’t post, “I’m excited about the Superbowl this year!” Instead, write, “Click Like if you’re excited about the Superbowl this year!” You can also ask people to share your content. I might write, “If you found this tip useful, make sure to share it with your friends.” Inserting mini calls-to-action reminds your audiences to act, not just read.

Tip: Never let a post go unattended — meaning, when someone does comment, Like or share your post, reach out to him personally and acknowledge his action with a thank you, or use it as an opportunity to expand the conversation. But whatever you do, don’t leave fans hanging.

2. Track “Engaged Users”

On your Insights dashboard, you’ll see a chart in the Page Post Information area with a column called “Engaged Users.” The number represents the number of unique people to have clicked anywhere on that post. (Note: Insights only tracks this for 28 days.)

Hint: If you click on the number itself, you’ll also see a pie chart with types of clicks, including “other,” which counts the clicks not included in any other metric (clicking on someone’s name, for example). This shows you how many people are really paying attention, even if they don’t comment or click Like.

Engaged Users is another engagement-related metric, but since it tracks actual clicks, you can see how your audience interacts with your posts — and use this information to craft more engaging calls-to-action.

Tip: Target posts to your ideal audience. If you’re not getting steady, increasing clicks on your posts over time, the most likely culprit is that you’re not giving your audience members the information they need.

~To create more targeted posts, ask yourself:
~Who is my ideal audience? Age? Male/Female? Location?
~What type of information do they want from me?
~What are the main challenges I can solve for them?

Instead of guessing the answers, collect feedback online or use Facebook polls to find out more about what your audience is actually looking for.

3. Track “External Referrers”

Click on Reach (under Insights in your sidebar) and scroll down to find “External Referrers.” You’ll see a list that shows how many times people arrived on your Facebook Page from an external site during a selected date range.

All business owners should know where and how people are finding them online. While it’s important to direct traffic from social media to your main “hub,” whether it’s a blog or a static business site, bringing traffic onto your Facebook Page is also important.

Why? Because Facebook allows you to have conversations and build relationships that you just can’t have on a regular website. Those conversations can yield powerful market insights and, eventually, lead to actual sales.

Tip: Actively drive traffic to Facebook. Start by determining where your current referrals are coming from, and then ask yourself whether you’re doing all of the following.

**Am I optimizing my Facebook Page so that when Google indexes Facebook, users find my Page too? Make sure to include keyword-rich information on your “Info Tab” to help users find you easily.

**Am I doing enough outside of my website and Page to bring traffic in? One way to do this is by guest posting to blogs in your niche, especially highly trafficked blogs. In general, getting yourself out there is good, whether by webinars, teleconferences, interviews or free online trainings. Each is a great forum for driving more traffic to your Facebook Page — and you can get feedback on participant experiences when they stop by.

**Does my website account for some of my referrals? If not, make some changes to your business site. Add a Like box social plugin, include share buttons, and of course, display your social icons in a visible place on every page.

Have you started actively monitoring Insights yet? Which metrics have yielded the most valuable business insights? Share your experience in the comments.

Image courtesy of Flickr, GOIABA (Goiabarea)

Apple's iBooks Update, New Apps Power Textbook Reinvention by Kit Eaton

2012-01-20T17:36:21Z

BY Kit Eaton Thu Jan 19, 2012

At its New York event, Apple's Phil Schiller just revealed that the tech giant has big plans to reinvent the educational textbook market and the technology that underpins their use in lessons.

Phil Schiller just gave teachers a shiny new Apple.

As we'd suspected, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing has revealed that the company is planning to use the iPad--already a firm favorite in many educational establishments--as a vehicle for completely overhauling how schools and students use textbooks to enhance lessons. It starts with an overhaul of the iBooks e-bookstore that enables all sorts of dramatic interactivity with rich-media e-textbooks, and is enhanced with a powerful tool to let authors create the texts themselves.

Schiller began the presentation by talking about how U.S. education isn't necessarily among the top-ranked in developed nations, then quickly moved onto the problems with existing school textbooks. In his mind, though, they contain great content, the books are cumbersome, get worn, have old student notes dotted in them, aren't updated frequently and don't last. Apple has the iPad which is lighter, more interactive and allows for real-time information updates--a perfect recipe.

To power the new push, Apple's releasing iBooks 2, which brings with it a host of interactivity options for supported e-books--in this case, textbooks. The books have rich media, gesture controls, and all the bells and whistles in terms of video, embedded pop quizzes, and colorful moving diagrams that a regular old paper textbook simply can't have. There are a few additional extras aimed at boosting study too: Just as students highlight paper books and write notes, they can highlight e-texts and add personal aide-memoires--Apple's system even takes all of these and automatically turns them into flash cards for revision.

Without content, however clever this is, iBooks wouldn't be powerful--and to counter reluctance and industry inertia in the current textbook publishing business, Apple's also released iBooks Author. This is a Mac application that lets writers put together exactly this sort of rich-media textbook. The interface is designed to be easy to use, with WYSIWYG elements and simple drag-and-drop functionality, so it's potentially perfect for educators and even students to use too. As part of the powerful featureset Apple demonstrated the interactive glossary feature--enhancing a vital part of most textbooks that usually ends up being boring to use.

To prove that it's serious about breaking the textbook paradigm, Apple's releasing the Author app for free.

But so as not to alienate long-established educational publishers however, Apple also has a number of big names signed up--including Perason, McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and DK Publishing--to supply professional content of their own. In a move that parents will likely welcome, Apple's pegging the top price of these books sold through its new Textbooks category in the iBookstore at $14.99.

Having dealt with school-based education, Apple also chose to tackle higher education at the same time. It's releasing a new iTunes U app--similar to iBooks, but leveraging the "700 million downloads" Apple's Eddie Cue (recently labeled as Apple's "deal maker") said have happened, and adding in features that suit university education. This includes tools for lecturers to design a class or a whole syllabus, with interactive office hours timing, and a shared "room" where teachers can post messages to classes or dole out assignments. The app has integration with the new iBooks app, so there're all the extras like enhanced note-taking.

Over 100 courses are said to have been created by a long list of universities around the world, and it too is a free app. To add extra power, K-12 schools can also sign up to use the enhanced powers of the app to boost older students' learning.

We knew education was a subject close to Steve Jobs's heart, and though he once argued that what's wrong with education (in the U.S.) "cannot be fixed with technology" it seems like Apple's tech may be poised to enable a paradigm change anyway, because where Apple treads, other firms will follow. However, there remains the question of how accessible iPad tech is to students--particularly in lower-income families or schools with stretched budgets, and skeptics will question if schools really will leap to embrace the new thinking, as it's a radical departure from the norm, and what Apple's seemingly enabling is for educators to actually work on more things to boost their lessons.

Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.

QR Codes for Marketers or Consumers? by Justin Downey

2012-01-19T19:58:25Z

4 January 2012 by Justin

Quick-Response codes are a great mobilizing idea — in theory. However, according to Forrester Research, only 5% of American consumers who own mobile phones report actually ever scanning one in the last three months. Those that did, tended to be the young, affluent, male, early-adopter demographic. So who are QR codes for: marketers or consumers?!

First off, what’s a QR Code?

QR codes let marketers make all sorts of media — print, billboards, even packaging — clickable and interactive. When scanned with a camera-ready smart phone, QR codes can call up links, text messages or even videos. They can entertain, start a purchase process or generate a lead. That makes them an efficient tool for marketers. In practice, as the Forrester research suggests, most users don’t yet know what to do with them.

Is it just “Shiny-Things” syndrome?

According to Melissa Parrish, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research: “The QR phenomenon is another instance of ‘shiny-object’ syndrome. Something becomes trendy or sexy, and marketers feel they have to jump onboard to position themselves as innovative.”

Harsh, Melissa. Harsh.

While even we would admit that QR code usage has gone a little far at times, the idea is sound. Printed QR codes are so cheap that businesses are just plastering them on any flat surface they find. Most don’t take the time to think about where the QR code is supposed to take you. Or, think about what it’s supposed to do as a campaign strategy. The thought is, “Hey, it’s cheap. Why not?!”

The Future of QR codes?

Personally, I don’t think QR codes will be the future. They are a great start, but as RFID chips get cheaper and cheaper and web technology gets smarter and smarter, marketers will figure out how to combine relevance with proximity and ease-of-action.

I’m not saying we should abandon QR codes. Quite the opposite. We should embrace them for now, but for god’s sake, make them relevant and add a clear call-to-action! For example, last spring, Macy’s did a series of national TV ads all about their QR codes. Shoppers who scanned them got information videos from clothing designers. By clearly explaining how to scan and what happens after you scan the code, QR code usage tripled — far exceeding Macy’s expectations.

So, are QR codes for marketers or consumers? They are for consumers. Marketers just need to be reminded of that.

About Justin

As President, Founder, Production Manager, Sales Director, IT Director, janitor and mad scientist for JDM, Justin Downey doesn’t get out much. Learn "5 Things Most People Don't know about Justin" and the rest of the weirdos on the JDM team.

Small Business Marketing – Having A Plan by Tara Jacobsen

2012-01-19T19:05:07Z

by Tara Jacobsen on January 18, 2012
for Marketing Artfully

So today I am working on small business marketing plans for some of our clients. While I love the thrill of coming up with new ideas, the most important part to assuring success to have a rock solid, laid out, step-by-step plan!

I am a student of time management and goal setting who uses tools everyday to make my life a little easier (I help my coaching clients with this too!). That having been said, I spend a lot of time watching other people work and it generally looks like this:
Get up sometime, have some coffee, check some emails….SHIT, there are problems
Put out a fire, stress, run late for a meeting…SHIT, I don’t have everything ready
Duck into the meeting, event or appointment, apologize for being late, apologize for not having all your stuff
Rush out, get to the office, check your voicemail….SHIT, there are problems
Etc, Etc, Etc

Instead of that, what if you had a plan for your entire business and knew every morning what the most important things were overall. These could be getting speaking events if you are a speaker, geting listings if you are a Realtor, selling product if you are in direct sales, lead generating if you are a sales person. I KNOW, sounds simple right? BUT if you think about your number one, most important job for your business, I would be willing to bet you do that MUCH less often than you think you do!

Everyday something will come up that will try to knock you off your goals. Problems, opportunities, shiney squirrels and all kinds of things are much more interesting than putting your nose to the wheel and grinding out what you need to do to succeed.

Sometimes, all it takes is someone looking at your business with a fresh set of eyes to see what you need to do to get to the next level. Sit down with us for an hour and come away with REAL action items that will get you on the road to business success.

Click the link to find out more about our 1 Hour Marketing
Coaching call. Just make sure you get your spot NOW because
space is limited… and these phone consulting sessions are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Soooo…. here is my hope for you today:
Start work everyday at the same time
If you work at home, get dressed, no jammies!
Write down the three most important things to do today BEFORE you do anything else
Have daily things you have to get done BEFORE you do anything else (blogging, social media, send personal notes, make phone calls)
THEN check your emails or voicemails! If there is something you can do in 2 minutes or less, do that, if it will take more of your time or soul, put it on the list of your todos AFTER your three important things
Get to work!

Okay, we didn’t even touch your calendar, but that is a post for another day!

If you are serious about your business and sales, you HAVE to have a plan EVERY day to stay on track and get ahead. I KNOW, your business is different. You have emergencies that you have to deal with immediately OR you HAVE to be available 24/7 OR you can’t have a calendar and a schedule because every day is different OR you are too busy to make a plan.

I hate to tell you this but that is everyone’s life. You are not different…you are just making excuses. So, vow today to start putting yourself and your business goals first and everything else will fall into place!

I KNOW, the dream of owning your own business was to be free as a little birdy, but I have to say, if you schedule and plan and stick to it, you are MUCH more free, guilt free, time free and stress free than if you are chasing your tail and running around and around after every shiney squirrel that comes along!!!