Universal / NBC Lost Its “Cool”

Universal has lost its “cool.” They have lost sight of the core of their business, the fans. This isn’t breaking news, but it is disturbing to me and the way that I consult my musician clients.

The facts:

Universal now enforces that everyone on their music roster, limit streaming songs to 90 seconds. These include Myspace pages.

Universal has pulled all of its content from iTunes including hit NBC TV shows and all artists.

Universal/NBC has removed all content from YouTube and replaced it with behind the time Hulu.com.

The real facts.

The next generation of music fans get their music online. Whether this be finding new bands on Myspace, Purevolume, or whatever. They also buy music digitally so they can play them with the white ear buds on an iPod. They buy their music with iTunes, like it or not.

YouTube plays and streams more videos per day than you could even imagine in your wet dreams. They find out about movies, tv shows, bands and celebs through this little time waster. Like it or not, this is the future of video.

Much like the tv, kids like to have 1 box give them loads of choices. That is why iTunes, Myspace and YouTube are the major players in the entertainment market. I can log into Myspace and get hit from every direction by any band that I want, all without leaving the site. With iTunes, a customer can browse through an infinite number of artists, tv shows and movies and put them all into 1 shopping cart and pay with 1 pre-established account. With YouTube, they can watch whatever they damn well please and be redirected to other clips from the same genre. This generates their interest to go see a movie, DVR a tv show or check out a band live.

What they did and how they could have avoided the screw-up:

All of their music is available at other online sites, most noticeably Amazon Music. So are their hit TV shows. The problem is that no one knows this outside of tech circles and bloggers. Hulu.com and NBC Direct have been ripped apart by bloggers and media industry since its launch and the fact remains that everyone on YouTube, stayed in YouTube. They are now just watching other networks shows and then turning on the tube to their advertisers on prime time.

The Myspace thing is just ridiculous. It took Colbie Caillat apologizing to her fans via a Myspace blog to discover this bizarre finding. What now? Fans will listen to someone else on Myspace and buy their songs via iTunes. How ironic.

Conclusion

Universal, you had the fans in the palms of your hands. You were greedy and looked for more money. Who is going to pay close to $10 for one episode of Heroes when I can get the whole season on DVD for $25 in a few weeks. Oh and I have DVR too, so I can watch it whenever I want on my big screen.

Sorry Universal, you are not going to survive this new media age with actions like this. Call me I got some solutions.

Speak out and let Universal know how they snubbed the most important people in their organization, their fans and customers.

-g-ro

Steve Jobs Did It Again: Apple is Back Like It Never Left

Steve Jobs hit the podium at 10am on the dot this morning and he did not disappoint. During the morning presentation he let the audience know that this weekend would see the first glance at some new iPod's in retail stores!!!

Here are some killer new pics:








Now are you ready for some stats:

Over 3 billion songs downloaded from iTunes
Over 600,000 downloads of iTunes
Over 110 million iPods sold
iTunes is the number 1 Digital Download service in all 22 countries that it is featured in
iTunes is the 3rd largest music retailer in the US behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy
Over 6 million songs in the iTunes catalog
Shipping its 1 millionth iPhone this week!

Direct quote from Mr. Jobs:

“This last stat I want to share with you blew my mind. In the US, of all the music releases in 2006, 32 percent were digital only releases,” said Jobs. “They were not released on a CD. Wow. Look how far we’ve come: A third of the music released in this country was not on a CD. So that gives you a feeling for how far we’ve coming in the last 5 years in the digital music revolution.”

Apple took this show by horns and ran with it. I know that I'm excited and I will also not have to completely break the wallet either. The Nano will start at $149 and the 8 gig iPhone will drop $200 to $399.

Fro complete continuing coverage Mac World has you covered! If anyone gets their hands on the new Apple products this weekend let me know!

This is another breakthrough for Apple as they continue their monopoly (no matter how hard anyone tries) on the Digital Music and Hand held device market. Even with its loss of NBC this week, Steve Jobs shows no signs of slowing down. It has basically become, 'jump on the train or get run over.'

I have no beef, just that I won't switch over to AT&T for the phone. (but if you read on Mac World, they made a touch screen iPod that looks identical to the phone and is slimmer, imagine that!)

What a day Apple, what a day!

-G-Ro

Internet Music Marketing with Bedlight for Blue Eyes

Back in late July I had the pleasure of speaking with Bedlight for Blue Eyes at the Orlando stop on their headlining tour. The show was brought to Orlando by Endagon Entertainment. These 5 guys from Berkley Heights, New Jersey rocked the crowd at the Haven. Before their set, they gave me some time to chat about their online marketing plan, how their label (Trustkill) promotes their album online and through digital distribution (i.e. iTunes). Bedlight for Blue Eyes will be back in the Orlando area tomorrow night at the Social in downtown Orlando with guests Permanent Me and Scenes From A Movie.

Check the video and don't sleep on the show!!

Visit the Bedlight For Blue Eyes Myspace Page

-G-Ro

iTunes Reaches 3 Billion Downloads-1 Billion in the Last 6 Months

Yesterday the iTunes store announced the sale of its three billionth song in four years.

A mere six months ago, the popular online music store surpassed two billion songs sold. The company's success flies in the face of ongoing piracy concerns and attempts to reduce the flow of copyrighted music with DRM protection.

(information courtesy of the MarketingVox)