That’s right it’s Amazon vs. Publishers! The main publisher Amazon is beefing with is Hachette Book Group. It’s one of the top five biggest book publishers in the world today. Amazon discourages readers from buying books from Hachette. But now it’s escalating. It will be very difficult to buy Hachette books for the next several months. Even the promotion of some books have been deleted. It’s being reported the same thing is happening to a German publisher called Bonnier Media Group. One publisher calls Amazon’s actions extortion. A member of The Authors Guild says, ?Amazon clearly has substantial market power and is abusing that market power to maintain and increase its dominance, which likely violates Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.”? From as far as I can tell, there has been no comment from Amazon.
This is what we at Computer Geeks have been saying for quite a while. When a company gets this kind of power, look at how easy that power can be used and abused. I don’t know who fired the first shot here, whether it was Amazon or Hachette. But what I do know is that it’s the innocent who is going to get hurt. It’s going to be the writer whose trying to make a living through book sales or it’s the consumer who wants to read that author’s books. There are several people who are always hurt by this type of fight, none of whom asked for this. So for their sakes, I hope both sides can act more like educated businessman and less like second graders and resolve this issue before everyone suffers.?The question is which side will decide to be the bigger person here?
This network guaranteed monthly pay-per-views at under ten dollars. This didn’t sit very well with cable providers, and apparently, with many fans. Then there was a renewal deal with NBC Universal, in which WWE got far less than expected, probably due to mediocre ratings.? Early this week, WWE owner Vince McMahon lost $350 million dollars, and their stocks were nearly cut in half…in a 24 hour period! Some say the WWE Network shouldn’t have been released at all. Now WWE execs are playing blame games: Vince wants to cut people out, and there are some who want Vince out.
I think the WWE Network shouldn’t have taken off without considerably more planning. It’s great to bring retro programming and low cost pay-per-view events, but do the ends justify the means? And the root problem has little to do with technology or business deals. It has much to do with content. I’ve heard many, many complaints about WWE story lines being awful and repetitive. Losing three of the top draws, CM Punk, AJ Lee and Daniel Bryan to injuries or walking out due to company disputes, isn’t helping. I think WWE should pull the plug on WWE Network immediately and the pay-per-view situation should go back to the way it was. And I can’t stress content and good stories enough. That’s what made WWE great in the 1980s. That’s what made it great in the late 1990s. Back then, you had larger than life characters telling amazing stories week after week. And they often pushed the envelope and boundaries, which gave us even more reasons to watch. It’s very different now. What will it take to get WWE back to it’s glory days? Or is it too late?
It’s been the buzz of the Internet for the last 24-48 hours. Beats Electronic headphones, founded by music mogul Jimmy Lovine and hip-hop legend Dr. Dre, might be acquired by Apple.
If this acquisition happens, Apple will cough up 3.2 billion dollars, making Dr. Dre the first billionaire in hip-hop history. Now why would any company, even Apple, pay 3.2 billion for headphones? Word is Apple is more interested in Beats’ streaming service. Music downloads decreased 5% in the last year. Some annalists say the download era is ending. If that’s the case, then this would be the perfect merge to keep Apple in the music business. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, and Jimmy Lovine founded Beats Electronics in 2006.
If this deal goes down, it’s not like Apple is taking all creativity from Lovine and Dre. It’s rumored that they will take senior positions at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA. Plus, this should be a real milestone for hip-hop. In the 1970s, it was born out of New York City ghettos. Today, it could see the crowning of it’s first billionaire. Plus, Young and Lovine will still have some control over their product. So these are good signs. But there’s another part of me that fills with worry when I hear about this merger, and other mergers. I worry about prices going up, quality and service going down, and the top not giving a care because they know there’s no competition you can go to. Is that what’s going to happen if Beats get sold?
Late in 2013, the XBox One made it’s debut in America and took the nation by storm. The XBox One craze spreads to one of the fastest rising economies in the world.
The video game franchise and their partner BesTV New Media will launch XBox One in China. It’s expected to make it’s debut in September 2014. BesTV is a mega? home entertainment technology entity based in Shanghai, China and it will lead the way in bringing this video game. This is a great feat, and an important one. China is perhaps the fastest growing gaming nation in the world today. In 2013, the gaming industry in China made over $13 billion. That’s a 38% increase from 2012. Even game producers and developers are stepping up their skills.
Not only that, a third of the Chinese population are into gaming. China has a population of over 1.3 billion. You do the math. So it makes me ask: Why wasn’t XBox One released in China when it was released in the US and others last November? I read an article saying China the second biggest economy in the world. It would make sense to have their release date in November. Think about how much XBox One could have made if this popular gaming system was sold 5 months early. Would it make better business sense to have technology products be released to all nations on the same day?
For quite some time, Yahoo has been trying to compete with Google in the video streaming game. This summer, they’re stepping it up.
Starting in July, a new Yahoo online channel will host live concert shows. Live Nation, one of America’s biggest music promoters, will back it. Major corporations, like Kellogg’s are expected to sponsor it. In addition to concerts, you’ll see interviews and after party coverage. It’s not known who will perform these daily shows. But you can expect a wide range of genres and musicians, form A-list celebrities to bands playing on your local bar venues. This is just a part of Yahoo’s streaming initiative. They’re producing original comedies such as The Other Space and Sin City Saints.
Google is still leading the online video streaming game, but Yahoo is gaining ground in a hurry. In February 2014, what streaming videos they have got 459 views, that’s a 39% increase from February 2014. So they’re serious about this source of revenue. Now I’m not a concert or music promoter by any means. But if I were them, and if I have major corporate money backing me, I’d get the biggest names I can find to start with. Since the premier is in July, why not start out with a mega summer concert premier? Put some music legends and today’s favorites on the same stage, names that most will rush to see. After you got your base down, invite smaller acts to perform on Yahoo. I’m sure they will jump at the chance of that exposure, so long as you don’t interfere with their creative freedom. That’s something else: let the artist be themselves! If people like it, they’ll support it. If they don’t, it’s not worth having them on anyway Who do you hope to see on Yahoo/Live Nation’s concert shows?
When the social media craze started in the mid 2triple000s, it took the music industry little time to embrace this medium.
One music video hub called Vevo has about 6 billion views a month and viewership has increased almost 50% in the last year. The company is owned by Sony Music and Universal Music. Nearly two-thirds of these videos are viewed on mobile devices. This was done by design: They knew mobile devices were the wave of the future. Created in 2009, they started sending artists’ videos to You Tube and other streaming sites. Much of the revenue comes from advertising.
Guess what the most watch Vevo video of all-time is? Unfortunately, it’s Justin Beiber’s “Baby”, with over a billion streams and counting. What we know about Beiber today, and prayerfully, the counting part is slowing down. Pink’s “Just Give Me a Reason” was the #1 watched video of the past year. But you can watch Vevo and find videos that are over 10, 15, 20 years old and over. That’s great news for people like me who stopped caring about new music over a decade ago (am I showing my age here?). So next time you’re on You Tube and looking for videos, check them out. I like to call it free music without the guilt; that’s a whole other debate for another time. What do you think of the Vevo revolution?
