Utilizing black and white, print on paper like E Ink technology Amazon’s new wireless device Kindle could change the way copy heavy publications are distributed. Kindle is an electronic book like device that uses EVDO cell coverage to wirelessly zap books, blogs, newspapers and potentially any other electronically distributed item into your hands.
Learn more directly from Amazon’s new video describing Kindle.
As if the music industry needs any more negative publicity, Universal Music Group demanded a video be pulled from YouTube citing copyright infringement. The short, video depicts a baby dancing to the Prince tune “Let’s Go Crazy” and was uploaded to YouTube by the girl’s mother, Stephanize Lenz, to share with friend and family. As the firestorm surrounding the popular video has heated up, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has stepped in to defend Lenz and filed suit against Universal.
In an era where companies are jostling for visibility on YouTube, Universal Music Group has clearly lost its way. Many companies would kill to have their products prominently featured on the most popular video-sharing site, and savvy marketers are pouring big bucks into viral campaigns on YouTube and other sites. Universal’s bullish tactics have only brought negative publicity their way, and turned the YouTube community against them.
After all, Universal set off the entire controversy by fighting someone who enjoys one of their products. Alienating your customer base is never a good idea.
Whether Universal is on the right side of the law is beside the point. Though they may win in court, they are losing among their customer base because their actions appear heavy-handed and misguided.
In addition, the implications of this legal battle could be huge for YouTube. The site features hundreds of videos of talent shows, lip-synching, and other videos that involve copyrighted music. Do these videos represent free product placement for record companies, or egregious copyright violations? Universal has publicized its view. What’s yours?
Today, Netflix officially announced it is almost ready to move online.
Convergence of Television and Internet is getting closer and closer. Netflix puts itself in the middle to be a participant in the market of allowing users to watch movies and TV shows through downloads on their PC. Although the amount of movies is limited at this point, it is important to note that Netflix is betting its entire operating income of $40MM to gain traction in this area. We see three potential strategies here: 1) become a first mover in this space to establish the Netflix brand as an ultimate online movie and entertainment destination 2) combat Blockbusters encroaching market share for online video rentals 3) set themselves up for acquisition by one of the leading TV networks, such as Viacom, Fox, who are unable to move as quickly as the pure online shops are. We saw this with YouTube, MySpace and others.
#1
DVDHD and Blu-Ray disks will be obsolete before they even get market traction. Buy or rent high definition, digitally downloaded movies and other made-for-TV programming to your TV top hard-drive.
• Apple iTV and Video iPod
• Sony PlayStation 3
• Microsoft Xbox 360
• TIVO
• Netflix, hmmm?
