Why doesn't Apple buy last.fm?
Personally, I don't know if Apple is ever going to relinquish their stranglehold on portable music. Their penchant for cool design and easy of use is difficult to match. However, if history tells us anything, hardware has always been a bad bet for maintaining margins and competitive advantages. The further up the stack you go, the higher the margins and more difficult it is to unseat you.
And in today's world, data is at the top of the stack, not software like iTunes. iTunes may have made it really easy to get people set up on the iPod, but its not what keeps them there. The critical mass of artists in the music store keeps them coming, but it seems to me that its only going to get easier to buy music from more sources in the future, not harder. There's nothing really that sticky about it, actually. No data, no network. I've been switching players a lot, actually.
So I thought to myself, why doesn't Apple buy last.fm and really ramp up the social network features? Scrobble everyone and provide social music functionality right there in iTunes. It would b like when AOL announced that they were building a social network on top of AIM. They already had all my friends and I didn't even have to do anything.
Imagine a MySpace competiter that already knows what music you listen to and on day one tells you who has similar tastes, on top of recommending who you should listen to. Plus, because iTunes is actually selling a ton of music, the company has the leaverage to actually get bands to start setting up camp on their last.fm artist pages. iTunes and the iPod spit out a ton of data that their software doesn't use effectively at all, and last.fm has a really neat application to make the most of that data. What if Apple made all of those little last.fm widgets their own little try and buy mini iTunes stores? I think they could get last.fm at a reasonable price relative to the kind of value they could add to it by integrating it with their hardware and software. Seems to me like a natural fit.
The Oddcast Blog: Hello world.
As if you couldn't have predicted this when I joined... Oddcast is now blogging! Check out CEO Adi Sideman's first post. I'll be adding posts from time to time as well.
The Dilbert Blog: Attacking Allies
I wonder what would happen, for example, if the United States simply declared North Korea to be an ally, and made a big fuss about it, but didn’t change much else. We could pass a law saying we’ll defend North Korea against foreign attack – knowing that no country wants to attack them anyway. We could keep our military force in the DMZ and redefine it as preventing South Korea from attacking North Korea just as much as the reverse. That would be baloney, of course, but delicious and pleasing baloney.
Two Down, Nine to Go
Remember when Tom Glavine went 9-14, 4.52 for the Mets?
Neither do I.
Last night was vintage Glavine... boring as hell to watch, and half the time, you're scratching your head about how big the strike zone gets.
And wow, this Dodger lineup is anemic. Outside of Kent, no one scares you at all.
And once again, Grady Little, thank you for starting Kuo. We didn't kill him, but 85 pitches halfway through the fifth didn't cut it.
I'd like to think they're going to sweep now, but its hard for me to imagine Trachsel showing up to play. He better, because we might see Oliver Perez in Game 4.
links for 2006-10-06
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There's one seriously missing variable here... WORD OF MOUTH. I buy the sneakers I see on MNF, and take them to the gym. 4 more people buy.
Running the Bases: Sweat the Small Stuff
Baseball is hitting, pitching, and defense, right? Oh yeah... and you have to run the bases well, too.
Lonnie Smith could have told you that.
Thank God that the Dodgers don't seem to remember the '91 World Series. I stayed up in my room way past my bedtime to watch that game... with the TV brightness down and the volume low, so it wouldn't look like the TV was on to a passerby looking at the bottom of the door.
Instead, the Dodgers had two guys get nailed at the plate on the same play and that might have cost them their whole postseason, right then and there. They should have won the chance they had against emergency starter John Maine, who did a nice, albeit short, job. Instead, they're going against a HOFer down 1-0 in a short series.
I know that Kuo dominated them in his one start against the Mets, but seriously... this is the Game Two starter? The guy's got 5 career starts. Five. And Greg Maddux is Game Three? Well, no one ever accussed Grady Little of knowing how to manage a pitching staff.
This is Bill Simmons' diary of the game.
Listening Live to the Mets
The Mets are streaming right now on WFAN.
After an injury to El Duque, John Maine is getting the call.
Six innings, three runs... that's all I'm asking for. Maine-Mota/Bradford-Heilman- Wagner.
Cross your fingers and please, step carefully around the dugout, boys.
UPDATE: WTF!! I guess the game is blacked out or something. Is it on ESPN radio? Looks like I have to pay on MLB for radio.. this is stupid. I can't get my free radio station over the web.
UPDATE 2: MLB just got my $10 so I could get the game streamed over the web, which doesn't seem to work anyway... at least the audio comes in.
October Destiny
My avatar has the low down on what I think is going to happen in the first round of the playoffs. I'd love to see this all end up in another Subway Payback...erm... Series.
Postseason Predictions
My avatar's
Postseason Predictions
My avatar's
One more time...
Sure... why not. We can play along. I can't wait until Rocky 7 where he starts selling the Rocky Balboa Grill.
Mets - Dodgers Schedule
Orel Hershiser is retired, right?
Good, then I'm not worried about the Mets playing LA.
Wednesday, the Met's will play the Dodgers in the late afternoon at Shea. Of course, the Yankees get all the primetime games. All I know is, Kenny Rogers owes me a win for walking the Braves past us in '99.
By the way, now that I'm looking at box scores for the '99 NLCS, how in the hell did Masato Yoshii start in the playoffs over Orel Hershiser? Yoshii turned it a cruddy start in game one against the D-Backs... Orel was a money pitcher... sure he was fading into the sunset, but he had a pretty similar year and his experience should have counted for more. I'm glad we're righting that by throwing El Duque in Game 1.
So El Duque goes against Derek Lowe in Game One on Wednesday at 4PM EST. Then, Thursday night, here's a matchup for you... Greg Maddux vs. Tom Glavine.
Then, they're off Friday and play Saturday. The Game Three starter hasn't been announced, but either way, I go with John Maine.
Well, this is it... Let's go Mets!
Commercialize? No. Participate? Yes.
If you are doing anything in interactive marketing, you should be reading Rohit's blog. His position at Ogilvy gives him a lot of insight into how the role of PR and marketing is changing as digital media changes.
The other day, the terms he used for the role of brands in social media really struck me.
Participate
Commericalize
At the end of the day, brands all want the same thing... influence, attention, sales... whatever. This is capitalism and we are all aware that all the free stuff on the web comes at some kind of price.
But how we encounter those brands can vary dramatically.
"Participating in a conversation" is a very human thing... and for a brand to do it, they need to act more human. This includes sharing, mutual respect, openness... all sorts of things we come to expect by the actual people around us. If brands can't do this, it is unlikely we are going to sacrifice any attention that we normally give to our friends in social media.
Every brand manager out there should take out a piece of paper and write down three ways that their brand "participates in a conversation". If they can't think of any, they should talk to people like Rohit, because they're probably commercializing.
links for 2006-09-30
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Great example of using user gen content in advertising in a way that elevates, not intrudes, on users.
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So, do you use Evite for this? Which theme?
Playing with Live Writer
I like this insert a map feature, and its sort of disturbing that I can insert a bird's eye view of the street I grew up on. So Bill Gates has been watching me by satellite this whole time, huh?
No Pedro, no problem
I think we all need to be realistic about this Pedro news.
Mike Vaccaro from the post puts it best...
"...they didn't lose PEDRO MARTINEZ... Because the truth is, the Mets haven't had the italicized, capitalized version of that player in an awfully long time. The Mets don't lose the 1969 edition of Tom Seaver, or the 1986 version of Dwight Gooden, or even the 2000 versions of Al Leiter and Mike Hampton.
When he was on the mound, the Mets felt like they were practically unbeatable. But the reality is, their winning percentage since the first day of the 2005 season is over 40 points higher on days when Martinez doesn't pitch than on days that he has. It's true. You can look it up."
The rest of the team needs to step up, like they have all year. Realistically we just need five innings... If every playoff start from someone not named Tom or Orlando was 5 innings and 3 runs, I'd be happy.
Sitepal avatars pitching Russian brides... another creative marketing usage
And you thought I was kidding.
I think we should have a contest... what is the most bizzare *legal* service you could sell with a Sitepal avatar.
I have to admit, this site is slightly compelling if for nothing else than the fact that Russian accents are sexy. I think it's a James Bond thing...
"She loves me... she stabs me in the leg with a poison tipped shoe-knife... she loves me... she stabs me in the leg with a poison tipped shoe-knife."
We've got a money back guarantee on these characters, so I'd like to issue a challenge for someone to come up with a product a Sitepal can't help sell...