Digital Music Revues Grow 8% in 2011

First rise in growth since 2004

28% of internet users still access unauthorized services

The digital music industry grew 8% last year showing the first growth since the inception of the measurement of the digital market in 2004.

Edger Berger, President and CEO International at Sony Music Entertainment, says that even Germany, the third largest market in the world, is stable for the first time in 15 years. Subscription rates are up 67 percent from 8 million users globally to 13.7 million people actually subscribing and paying for their music. Frances Moore, IFPI CEO, has started using the word momentum when talking about the large amounts of legal music distribution systems appearing in the world in the last 12 months alone. While the industry growth is up, sales are still down due to 28 percent of the internet population still using illegal methods of acquiring music material.

Full transcript below the video.

Bob

~Full Transcript~

The annual report on the state of the music industry is out and the verdict is surprisingly upbeat. Digital music revenues grew 8 percent in 2011, reaching an estimated 5.2 billion dollars according to the IFPI’s Digital Music Report. The beats the 5 percent growth posted in 2010 and marks the first time the year on year growth rate has risen since the music industry body began measuring the digital market in 2004. IFPI CEO Frances Moore has even started using the word momentum. SOUNDBITE: Frances Moore, IFPI CEO saying (English) “Well we’ve seen the spread of legal services. 23 legal services at the beginning of 2011. Here we are, 12 months later, the leading services are in 58 countries. The consumers, whether it’s downloading or subscriptions, we’ve seen consumers moving towards more legal services.” The president of global digital business at the world’s largest music label Universal Rob Wells says music subscription services such as Spotify and Deezer had a breakthrough year in 2011. SOUNDBITE: Rob Wells, President, Universal Music Global Digital Business saying (English) “The last 12 months have been significant for the music industry, especially the digital portion of the music industry. We have significant growth in subscriptions – 67 percent growth year on year, up from 8 million to now globally 13.7 million people paying for their music through subscription. The a la carte business is also growing so neither one of the two businesses are currently driving in each other’s lane.” Technology Correspondent Matt Cowan saying “While digital sales and subscriptions showed strong growth in 2011, it was still not enough to offset the loss of revenues from falling physical sales. Final numbers are not yet in for last year but it looks like a dropoff overall of about three percent. However even that is being talked about with a note of optimism. It is the slowest decline since 2004.” While no one is yet saying the music industry has turned a corner, there is growing hope that point is not too far off. Edgar Berger is the president and CEO of Sony Music International business. SOUNDBITE: Edgar Berger, president and CEO International at Sony Music Entertainment saying (English): “If you look at the biggest market, which is the U.S., it grew. If you look at the third biggest market which is Germany, it was stable for the first time since 15 years. Other markets like Sweden and Brazil growing. In the UK, Adele 21 was the most bought album in one calendar year ever. It shows that music sells.” Still, the IFPI estimates that 28 percent of internet users access unauthorised services on a monthly basis and says more action must be taken to combat piracy. Matt Cowan, Reuters

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YouTube Pushes 4 Billion daily

YouTube – ‘We need more videos!’

Google owned site useage jumps 25% in 8 months.

Despite massive plunges in stock value, Google owned YouTube increases its daily stream load 25% in the past 8 months.

The ability to use YouTube on the PC, SmartPhones and Tablets makes it the most popular viral streaming video service in the world. Youtube plans to move it’s service to television and make it available to the mainstream public. YouTube is also seeking to add high quality videos the already massive amounts of shared videos on it’s servers. Anaylists are skeptical and Conway Gittens reports from Reuters.
I look forward to your comments.

Bob

~Full Transcript~

YouTube’s popularity continues to grow. The website owned by Google is streaming 4 billion online videos every day, which marks a 25 percent usage jump in the last 8 months, according to the company. The increase comes as YouTube pushes beyond just watching video clips on PCs. Users can watch on the go thanks to apps for smartphones and tablets. And the video sharing website also has a version of its service for television. Another push that may be paying off: YouTube’s initiative to get more highly-produced videos on the site, adding to the thousands of user-submitted videos, which can often go viral. Sticking with technology: Research in Motion has a new CEO but that’s not doing much to help out the stock. U.S.-listed shares of RIM are down some 75 percent from where they were the same time last year. Analysts are skeptical about the changes at the top of the maker of BlackBerry devices since new CEO Thorsten Heins is a RIM insider and outgoing CEOs Mike Laziridis and Jim Balsillie are staying on as board members. Conway Gittens, Reuters

Tweepi - A Twitter Tool

Manage your followers

The best third party management tool for twitter users

Tweepi is the best free third party tool on the marketplace to address the needs of managing your twitter friends and followers.

The ability to manage followers and friends has long been a difficult task for the twitter user. For a long time, tools performed the tasks of auto-following, auto-unfollowing and auto-seeking of new followers. Entire enterprises grew on the premise that taking advantage of twitter’s lax stance on the number of people you could follow. Alas, as with all everything, twitter changed their rules. I began writing about this in 2009 and here we are in 2012 and the twitter rules and regulations are more stringent than ever. The only auto-follow they do allow is the ability to automatically follow back, someone who initiates a follow on you. The twitter guidelines for automation and best practices is another good read for people intending to grow large healthy twitter accounts.

Enter tweepi, a tool to manage twitter friends and followers. An innovative, oAuth and twitter API compliant, web based system that will work as long as you can navigate to a web page. It allows you to manage and isolate people you follow that do not follow you back. It also allows you to find new followers by following people your friends follow. Grow your network at an amazing rate while keeping it clean and doing it all within the twitter terms of service.

I look forward to your comments.

Bob

About the Author:

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Tweet Tactics 2012: What is Follow Friday?

One of Two Spike Days

TweetClean Video discussing the impact of Follow Friday

Follow Friday, long the tool the Twitter user, is now a critical weapon in an arsenal to expand your social media presence in Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+

In this chapter of my Tweet Tactics 2012 Video Series, I take a substantial look at one of the two peak traffic days in twitter, Follow Friday. Follow Friday has a long standing in Twitter that is a testament to the true power of social media, the ability for the users to craft the environment. The hashtags #FF or #FollowFriday are both considered to be acceptable though I opt for the shorter #FF myself. Follow Friday began as an ‘in the know’ way for people to bump their followers lists every week. It began as a day when people were allowed to openly promote other twitter based on the etiquette of the times. The protocol became more formalized as time went on, still based on what was acceptable to the community. Follow Friday is not a Twitter sanctioned event or experience and it is not an excuse to randomly spam.

Two metrics prove the validity and consistencey of Follow Friday. The traffic to my website and the large numbers of followers I get on Friday and Saturday, versus followers I get on other days of the week. This ten minute video is part of my Tweet Tactics 2012 series. I first wrote about Follow Friday in 2009 and, as with that video, it is one of the chapters I will always allow to be free though I will accept donations for copies. The other day you want to look into as far as increasing your traffic is Music Monday and the article I wrote about it.

The importance of Follow Friday on other networks is stressed here. Using klout, I can see my retweets and influence higher on a day like Follow Friday. The klout interface lets me talk to my friends across Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and this allows my usual Follow Friday Twitter experience to become an organization wide media day for my entire social media network.  The other spike day can be seen in my video about Music Monday here.

I look forward to your comments.

Bob

About the Author:

Read more about Bob Cristello here

klout gets a facelift

Interconnected Interface Inspires

Expanded influencers grow as klout extends its reach

Beyond the perks and the new slick interface, klout takes a bold and inspired step to fulfilling it’s potential as the first online Social Media Credit Score rating company.

Joe Fernandez, CEO of klout, took the model of his own Credit Score and how it impacted his ability to function in today’s society and built the first online Social Media Credit Score rating company. Fernandez has talked about the impact of klout on today’s job marketplace. If two candidates were sitting in front of him for a job and both had equal skills, he would find which one had made the most impact on the world wide web around his career choice. He would ask questions about articles, followings and people who would be influenced by your passion for your work. I believe that in today’s job market, any good CEO would do that regardless if he knew what social media was about or not. He said that more and more, people are putting their klout score on their resume.

My personal experience with klout has been extremely positive. You can read my original article, What Is klout?, here. I can easily focus on Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and klout is adding new services monthly. In this 8 minute video I focus on the major changes to the new klout interface. The primary change that caught my eye was the ability to import my friends lists from both twitter and facebook. With the ability to tie into accounts across multiple services it is easier to expand my overall social media presence using klout as a dashboard. I think klout is moving in the right direction as far as helping individuals increase their exposure and cement their validity in today’s social media environment.

I look forward to your comments.

Bob

About the Author:

Read more about Bob Cristello here

Attack of the Killer T-Cells

La Jolla Institute Develops Diabetes Research Technology

First ever live video of T-Cells attacking insulin producing Beta Cells

Reuters Ben Gruber reports that Dr. Matthias Von Herrath of the Diabetes Research Center at La Jolla institute, developed a technique to actually take video of T-Cells attacking insulin creating Beta Cells in the pancreas of a mouse. The method, using advanced microscopy techniques and live video, allows scientist’s to observe the cellular processes that cause diabetes in real time.

Diabetes (medically known as diabetes mellitus) is the name given to disorders in which the body has trouble regulating its blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels and is one of the world’s primary causes of blindness, heart disease, and kidney failure. Beta cells produce insulin which is a hormone that transfers sugar from the blood stream to cells that then convert it into energy. In a person with diabetes, the immune system actually attacks those Beta cells, choking off insulin production. Now that scientists can see the process, Dr. Von Herrath hopes new treatments can be developed to help the millions of people who live with diabetes

I hope you enjoy this video and look forward to your comments.

Bob

Read more about Dr. Matthias Von Herrath here
Read more about DIABETES RESEARCH CENTER, LA JOLLA INSTITUTE here

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Killer Virus Created with US Funding

The most dangerous flu virus that’s ever been created

U.S. Government asking that details be kept from the world

MSNBC’s Ron Bazell reports that the most dangerous flu virus in the world has been created with U.S. Government funding and that officials are asking for the details to be kept from the world.

Dr Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands, developed a strain of avian influenza H5N1 genetically modified to be extremely contagious. Avian influenza emerged in Asia about 10 years ago. Since then there were fewer than 600 infection cases reported in humans. Fouchier’s genetically modified strain is extremely contagious and dangerous, with the pandemic potential of killing about 60% of infected patients.

The former strain did not represent a global threat, as transmission from human to human is rare. Or, at least, it was before Fouchier genetically modified it by using ferrets to develop a transmission device compatible with humans. Due to concerns about terrorism, the U.S. Government has asked two Journals, Science and Nature, to remove information that has already been published about the research. Both journals have agreed to release redacted versions of the story in the next few months.

I hope you enjoy this video and look forward to your comments.

Bob

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read more about Dr Ron Fouchier at the Erasmus Medical Center Website here.

  About the Author:

Read more about Bob Cristello here

Soft Bodied Robots Created At Harvard

Professor Whitesides takes inspiration from the squid.

Applications from surgery to search and rescue abound.

Professor George M. Whitesides takes inspiration from the squid to develop soft-bodied robots to aid in surgery, search and rescue and operate in hostile environments.

Designed to operate in tight , narrow and hostile environments that no standard robots could enter, the flexible robot is made from a resin that is used in creating breast implants.  Currently on a short leash that pumps air in and out of the cells of the robot using a computer, the robot can easily penetrate places that current robotics technology cannot.

Professor Whitesides tells us that he envisions many applications for his creation.  High on his list is the use of these robots in surgical environments as an aid to the surgeon in performing intricate operates.  He further goes on to tell us to imagine an earthquake, with a building half fallen and his robots being able to enter and evaluate the situation without any risk to human life.

Post-doctoral fellow Adam Stokes, working along with the Professor Whitesides, states that while the harness is currently limiting that the robot can work in sand, mud and other places that would destroy current technology.

About the Author:

Read more about Bob Cristello here

Lied some, died some

Locked up inside some you know

This is studio cut 009 of Truth Is Overtaking Me Today, the title song on my upcoming release.

This song was written for 6 instruments.  A full sized Roland TD-6 playable electronic drum set, a Fender Rhodes, a clean Fender Stratocaster (yes a maple neck of course) , a chunky Fender Stratocaster, a Left handed Fender Bassman keyboard and a high ethereal organ sound.  I wound up using three vocals and a total of 13 tracks on a Korg D16Xd.  All keyboard parts were played on an Alesis QS6.1.

I chose to release a studio cut because a few people have been encouraging me to take the steps to move my music from somewhere inside myself and show it to the world.  Playing music is really nothing new for me and many people have told me I seem the happiest and most myself when I am playing an instrument.  I am sure you can hear many of my influences in this piece.  I wanted to write a song primarily for the keyboard that would serve as the title cut on my upcoming mini-cd.

I chose the Fender Rhodes/Left Hand Fender Bassman keyboards setup to tip my hat to Ray Manzarek who is one of my strongest keyboard influences.  I am sure you can hear The Beatles, Deep purple, Jimmy Page, Alice Cooper and Frank Sinatra.  I also hope you hear the many teachers and students who have influenced me over the years.  I also hope, you hear something of what makes me, uniquely me in this short song.  It is the way I play and write music and I had a lot of fun putting this studio cut together.

I hope you enjoy this audio and look forward to your comments.

Bob

  About the Author:

Read more about Bob Cristello here

Who is listening?

What is the bigger picture?

How to hear by listening.

I have always taught my students that music begins and ends in silence.

There is that moment, when everything is dark, and everyone in the room is waiting to see what will happen next. The lights then flood on and everything begins. Everyone knows there are many people involved in what is going on, both onstage and off. There is a start, there is a body and then an end. After the applause and the lights, you review your performance again. It is your system, your engine and sometimes you practice for hours before you go to the next gig.

These are the five things, in my opinion, you need to do in order to know you are being heard. Notice I did not include, listening. See, these five things are my opinion. Listening is something you need to do and that is just a fact.

1. Use a statistics system – New Stat Press

I swear by WordPress and I swear by statistics. There is a natural entropy as stats turn into conversions. New Stat Press is a proven effective tool to manage your master raw stats in your blog or your landing page system.

2. Listen to my twitter mentions stream

You are going to see in your mentions column if people are real, automated or just on auto-pilot. The mentions column on twitter is my single greatest source of feedback about who is listening. I also yse tweetdeck, a free tool to manage that timeline. Other tools like Hootsuite are just as effective.

3. Have one-time posting system and a daily posting system.

Post once in your bigger picture network and daily on systems like twitter that encourage it. Act within the rules and limits at all times. Set your daily sites below the system daily limits you are working with.

4. Give rewards of a social nature to your friends.

Call it Circles, Groups, Friends Lists or being Linked, everyone wants to be whatever they do for you back in return. It is a system based on reciprocity and you have to give to get. Reward people and tell it to the world. You will get the same treatment in return.

5. Keep your eye on the bigger picture.

Why is klout such a huge part of the bigger picture? For no other reason than a tool to easily acquire and follow people who have their eyes set on the same horizons that you do. You can instantly follow someone on twitter, facebook, linkedIn, Youtube, google+ and many other services for free. Not only does this help your klout score, but elevates you in the eyes of a large majority of your current audience. Also, your future audience.

I hope you enjoy this video and look forward to your comments.

Bob

  About the Author:

Read more about Bob Cristello here