Recording Industry and RIAA Still Don’t Get It

If you are not familiar with what Muxtape is - I will tell you. Muxtape is/was a site available to share play lists. Now this may seems simple enough, but if you ever made a mix-tape for someone you can understand the art behind a great mix-tape. ** for more resources on making a mix-tape watch High Fidelity** 

Anyways, back to the point, this was a fun way to find new music/share music/comb through your iTunes library again. But, recent newshas shown Muxtape is indefinitely shutting down because of pressure from RIAA (Record Industry Association of America).  ** the name sounds patriotic, but it really is the worst thing that could happen to the recording industry**

The RIAA police are cracking down on everyone including streaming radio and now Muxtape – and they are not worried about the trail of dead and music enthusiast they are leaving behind. Closing down Muxtape is another reason why RIAA is keeping the recording industry from evolving and keeping pace with the changing demands of purchasing music. Maybe instead of closing down resources to the industry, maybe RIAA should try utilizing them. This is not an approach to stop downloads or encourage people to buy music, but I would say quite the opposite.

RIAA is hurting the industry more than they are helping and Muxtape is just another victim. Best of luck Muxtape and whoever is next. So, watch out Pandora because you might be next.

What the F*** is Social Media? Slidecast

I came across this slide cast about “What the F**K is Social Media’” froma friend of mine and its actually pretty good. It was simply detailed so you can pass it along to anyone who is misunderstanding the term or plan out of the loop. However, the title may be a little intimidating there is no profanity (if you care about that sort of thing) I am in Utah so I have to be a little sensitive to cultural boundaries.

Check it out here: http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-social-media?from=email&type=share_slideshow&subtype=slideshow

Are Widgets Website Graffiti?

We are coming closer to a day when all sites (blog, web pages, social profiles) will have a web widget of some sort, whether it’s a custom corporate widget, shared widget, or a link to an outside widget. The fact of the matter is everyone will have one in some shape or form. The up-side of a GOOD web widget (a living app) is unmeasurable.

If you can provide value in the web widget you’re producing the sharability of it becomes great because you are now offering a value to a customer/info consumers site they other wise didn’t have and now they feel strongly enough to share youroffering and your value to their readers site which will eventually in one form or another end up back on your site while increasing everyone along the way, including your own, authority. But remember this comes down to relivant content that applies to readers objectives. They need a reason to share the information. In this chain you’re building great content and providing information for everyone, but the underlying factor here is that you’re also building stronger brand equity and brand awareness because 1- the content, but 2- you are reaching more people than ever and even people you normally wouldn’t reach because everyone in contact with your web widget is finding entertainment and value.

Be careful here because the pit fall is relying too heavily on corporate messaging and branding and not enough emphasis on the needs of the people accepting your web widget into their sphere. Nobody wants to ready branded messages and less likely to share them on their page. The key is make it functional, branded, informal, entertaining, and content rich.  

The bottom line is will this widgetprovide entertainment and brand building or it will just be graffiti on your page.

Not so Cuil

The one thing I hate about being on vacation for a long period of time is that I tend to miss technology - in general. Luckily of all the channels the resort TV received in English CNN was one of them, and hoping to get the technology fix I watched for little while and got lucky. The headline story was the launch of Cuil, the new search engine that was reported to take on Google. I was now in depression because I was totally disconnected from the world and there is a new search engine to try, but I had to wait until I got home the next day.

The inital sense I had of Cuil was, hey they have a chance if they can build on personal search and content relevance. Now with actual hands on searching and test of Cuil I am steering away from impressed. I set Cuil as my homepage so I can go an entire work day with nothing, but one search option and found myself needing other search engines to finish the task. Some of the things I found lacking was the readability of the search set, immediate direction of content flow, images that were irrelevant to search, no spelling suggestion, and to long of descriptions. Granted I know some of these short comings are because they needed to find a differentiators and the viewing window is a great thing to change because the top – down, left – right reading of traditional search is a dinosaur soon to become extinct.     

On the contrast Cuil did some things right. The layout has a lot of potential and I think when things are hashed out and people become accustom to the display it will catch on, drop-down search suggestions, the “drilldown” feature, and when the photos do relate to the search they add a nice social and familiarity element.

I think until the bugs are worked out and the suggestions are fully digested by Cuil I don’t think they will be widely adopted as a primary search tool, but the potential is there and a change is in the air. People generally don’t change something like this until their current tool no longer meets their needs or a new tool can meet their needs better, or at least make them think they are. Overall, I think this is a great start and will become a hit, but as for an initial release they are not quite there yet. Stay tuned and try Cuil for yourself because the evolution is there.