Save the Internet
Posted by Jeremiah on 2007/02/24 • Comments?
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Thoughts on Steve
Posted by Jeremiah on 2007/02/07 •
In case you missed it, Steve Jobs publicly called for record labels to stop demanding Digital Rights Management restrictions on music. He explained the situation of distributing media in a digital age with candor and rationality. As the CEO of Apple, the company that sells the vast majority of the portable music players and digital downloads in the world, his opinion matters. alot.
Jobs is absolutely correct. Media creators cannot continue to treat their customers like felons through the use of Digital Rights Management restrictions. I opined on this before.
However, this issue is larger than not being able to play songs purchased through the iTunes Store on some sub-standard portable music player or on my non-Apple cell phone. Our ability to freely think as a society is diminishing because of intellectual property laws that favor today’s corporate profits over tomorrow’s technological advancements.
Steve is already in my personal pantheon. His message today only validates his position. The next step is to urge Congress to create like it’s 1790.
Cross-posted from JereCoh.
Major League Hubris Hurts Its Podcast
Posted by Jeremiah on 2006/09/30 • Comments?
The Wall Street Journal reported that the internet division of Major League Baseball ceased its podcast promotion in the iTunes Podcast Directory this week. Bob Bowman, chief executive of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, said Apple declined to give the MLB podcast better visibility and that the MLB podcast sometimes would appear alongside fan podcasts, which could damage its brand.
Apple makes no revenue from its free Podcast Directory in the iTunes Store, beyond supporting influence of iPod sales. Promotions in the directory are based on new subscription popularity, highest review ratings by listeners, and editor picks.
Some critics were quick to blame Apple for MLB’s move and one predicted more major media outlets will follow as they lose absolute control over their content. Bowman stated that he believed fans will be better served by visiting MLB.com.
Bowman, critics, and media giants just don’t get it. Instead of criticizing its appearance among fan podcasts, MLB should be celebrating the motivation of its customers and even promoting the best fan podcasts. Promotion is earned in this community-centric era of the internet. MLB supposed 10,000 listeners didn’t rate the podcast highly and it wasn’t popular enough to rank in the top 100 podcasts in a 24-hour period.
I’m reminded of the situation in September 1998 when ESPN shoved MLB to ESPN2 because NFL was significantly more popular. MLB objected to the hard fact that it wasn’t as popular as football. Baseball is still not as popular as football and it languishes even further when it comes to the broad range of podcast topics.
However, the wonder of podcasting is that even unpopular topics can benefit from the centralized database and automated delivery and synchronization system of iTunes. MLB only hurts itself by forcing fans to take an extra annoying step of visiting MLB.com and finding the tiny link to its podcast page to subscribe to the exact same podcast that previously was listed in the Podcast Directory.
An example of how to properly podcast is the Real Time with Bill Maher podcast by cable channel giant HBO. This was the second top podcast in the Podcast Directory at the time of writing. To promote the new show, HBO posts full length audio versions of the television show for free and without commercial interruption. Between weekly episodes, HBO posts short out-takes and rehearsal jokes. I recently subscribed to this podcast and absolutely love it. I can’t afford HBO and am not interested in most of its shows, but I love Bill Maher. More so, I discovered his new show and podcast by searching for political commentary in the Podcast Directory. It had a 4.5/5 star rating, so I subscribed immediately.
Apple is not to blame for MLB’s decision to remove its content from the Podcast Directory. Worthy content has multiple ways of becoming promoted within the iTunes Podcast Directory. Control freaks should beware or not podcast at all.