The Onion adds RSS

Humor site TheOnion.com has not only redesigned their website, but they’ve added RSS feeds for daily and weekly content.  Consider me subscribed.

–Chris

Movin’ on up

Congratulations to Tom Biro, who I mention often, but each time deservedly.  Tom has been appointed Director of New Media Strategies at MWW Group and will focus on all sorts of new media and communication technologies.  Not only am I glad he got such a great job but I’m glad AdJab won’t be losing him and that he’s going to continue publishing TheMediaDrop as well.

–Chris

Quick Takes: 8/29/05

• According to a survey RSS use is on the rise among key influencers. To anyone who’s been paying attention for the last year at least this should come as a no-brainer. For anyone who hasn’t, now’s the time to start paying attention to this.
• Over at AdJab I noted how IDG Entertainment had started an ad-supported wiki for gamers. Steve Rubel thinks not only should companies advertise but they should get into creating (limited) content for the wiki.
• For as many times as it gets trumped in headline volume by Google, Yahoo does a lot of things right and is in line to become a “super network.”
• With so many blogs to tend to it’s inevitable that some of them will get hungry.

Is the record business changing?

Warner Music Group has announced they will begin experimenting with three-to-four song albums, abandoning the long-play record format altogether for the first time.  The goal is to stop the ever-growing (at least in the mind of record company executives) piracy of songs via services like Grogster and others.

Unless Warners in particular and the industry in general has smartened up quite a bit in the last month or so I don’t really think this is going to work or do much of anything to restore the lousy reputation the industry has. The experiment will likely be in limited markets and the CDs will probably still cost at least $9.99, even if they only contain four songs. Why? Because that seems to be the price-floor the companies have put into place, if only unofficially. The CD singles that replaced cassettes (which replaced 45s) contain the single, a B-side and then maybe two or three re-mixes of the single. And those are priced at $6-7.

Oh, and is this experiment backed up by any sort of market research? None is mentioned in the article, only that they are trying out different business models.

The article also states the shift if an attempt to shore up CD sales in light of the increasing popularity of legal internet purchases. Here’s where I think the music label is so entrenched in their current thinking that they will never be able to pull themselves out. Unless it’s because of the massive margins on CDs there is no reason to shore up the CD format. It’s been around for the better part of 20 years, an unheard of lifespan in today’s world. The CD has also become somewhat of an anachronism, something that only a select few buy as opposed to a mainstream product. Even more specifically it seems to be older demographics, the ones that either grew up with records or came of age alongside CDs that are holding on to the shiny silver disc.

If Warner Music really wants to go down the path of small “clustered” releases they would be wise to price it competitively against internet download sites such as iTunes. Reach out to the potential consumer base by selling the disc at concerts. Do something to alter the image of soulless corporations shilling the next pre-teen diva to the masses at the expense of more talented musicians.

I’ve bought music exclusively from iTunes for about four months now and plan on doing so almost exclusively. There are still some records I want to own physical copies of, but I’m right on the cusp of that demographic line. Don’t count on me or my contemporaries to keep your CD production houses in business. In fact, don’t take any group for granted. Market share is gained by innovation and kept by a mix of innovation and outreach.

Getting linked

Yesterday I got an email from Tom Biro, who not only is the Gandalf-type figure at AdJab but also runs TheMediaDrop, inviting to me join his LinkedIn network. I seemed to remember hearing about the site at some point but had never explored it further. Well thanks to Tom I started playing around in the system and discovered it can be quite useful resource.

What LinkedIn provides is a way for you to share you network of contacts and resources with other people within that network. So now I can view the profiles, work histories and interests of those people within Tom’s network.  It also allows you to post areas you might be looking for work in, be it full-time or freelance.  So if I’m, say, a reporter and am looking for an expert in movie marketing then I can search for those keywords and find someone to comment on a story I can use this resource to find such a person.

The potential for use in public relations is great since reporters are always looking for sources of information. By creating a profile and a network along with that you can put your name in front of thousands of people.  Not only are you promoting yourself but with a viewable resume and such you can actually back that up. 

From a more practical standpoint if you’re looking for work being a part of this system can do wonders.  A company in the market for a new employee in X field can look in LinkedIn for people matching their criteria, view their resume, see if they’re currently looking for work and decide on their own if they should contact the person. Imagine being a freelance writer and knowing that your resume could be viewed by a publication looking for someone covering your exact field. 

I’ve just begun creating my network (and my profile so if you search for me don’t judge by what’s there right now), which includes a grand total of four people at this point.  Thanks to Tom for pointing out this great resource and I’m sure my network will build.

–Chris

More on Google Talk

One more thing for today on the topic of Google Talk – If anyone wants to add me to their contact list they can do so.  chris-dot-thilk-at-gmail-dot-com.

Since GTalk is only available if you have a Gmail address if you need one of those feel free to contact me at the same address.

–Chris

Talking about Google Talk

If anyone is interested (and I know you all are) in my initial impressions of Google Talk you can cruise on over to AdJab.  I’ll have more to say after I continue to play around with it tonight.

–Chris

Sorting out the empire

So now that I’ve decided on a home for PRR here’s what the future holds in store for the rest of my blogs:

Think I’ve sorted this out

First off let me just say thank you to the many people who responded to me as I tried to sort out this whole blogging mess. Your input was greatly appreciated and did influence my thinking.

So here’s what I’ve decided:

• Movie Marketing Madness is staying where it is on Blogger. It’s fine and the functionality of that platform meets my basic needs for it.
• Nothing Good Will Come of This will be put out of its misery. Chalk it up as an experiment that did yield results, just not those that were intended.
• Public Relations Ramblings, though, has found a new home. You can now find it hosted on Robert French’s PRBlogs.org so update your bookmarks and RSS subscriptions because here’s the new URL: http://prramble.prblogs.org/. The PRBlogs domain gives me what I was looking for for PRR – a bit more features while not costing much (or anything for that matter). I’m not going to delete this Blogspot URL but will not be updating it further. It will remain – and be linked to off the new site eventually – as an archive.

Special shout-outs to Blake and Constantin for their leading me in that direction.

Now this feels more like it…

I don’t know what it is, but this feels right, at least for Public Relations Ramblings. I’m going to try this out and see what I can do with this problogs.org domain.

Thanks again for all the input, especially Blake, Constatin and Stephen.

More to come soon.

–Chris