New Amsterdam Media | Seth Shapiro » digital media

Blu Ray vs. HD DVD

Seth Shapiro — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:39:09 +0000

One of the realities of conducting diligence in digital media is that you shovel and enormous amount of information into your head for a job, and, for a period, become an expert in that particular patch of land. One of the other realities is that you wind up doing another job rather quickly. One of the by-products of that fact is that your cognitive faculties get adept at dumping a whole mass of information just as soon as you don’t need the info anymore. It’s the only way to make room for the new, and has the additional benefit of saving you from focusing on info which will be obsolete within 18 months anyway. The patterns and rhythms of that information remain. And if you go diving back into the same bucket of arcana, a lot of it always comes back. Which is a long way of saying that I studied the two competing high def DVD formats extensively 18 months ago, and it was pretty clear that Blu Ray was just a better technology. It was more expensive, which gave Microsoft and Toshiba a reason (good or bad) to fight it with their own McFormat, but it was bigger, smarter, more extensible, and just better at most of the things that one would buy a high def product for. Bottom line, it felt like another case of Beta vs. VHS, in which a superior Sony format is threatened with extinction largely because it came from Sony. So it was good to see that better product score the decisive win with Warner’s recent decision to go with Blu Ray. Like the beating with a stick of major label DRM, this is a good and sensible market decision. Amen.

ATAS/NATAS agree to arbitration provided result involves hanging

Seth Shapiro — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 05:25:31 +0000

The two TV Academies have yet to resolve their differences over the Emmys and digital media.

The Hollywood Reporter covers it reasonably well here, but here’s the short version:
There used to be one TV Academy. It was based in New York, as was the TV business.
Then Johnny left for Burbank. Over a period of time, the primetime industry followed. Then the LA chapter of the Academy ceded from the larger Academy, with the view that it represented the majority of those working in television. A visual representation of the conflict can be found here.

As part of the ensuing settlement, the LA Academy (ATAS) won custody of the Primetime Emmy Awards, the ones we’re all familiar with. NATAS (the NY-and-elsewhere Academy) came to preside over areas including Daytime and Technology. An uneasy truce ruled.

Then digital media came along and wreaked havoc.

If you step back, it’s a valid philosophical question: if Primetime television is delivered via new technological solutions, such as IPTV, streaming or download service, does a recogniton of merit fall under dominion of the creative guys or the technology guys? The answer is obviously both. But someone has to preside over the statue, and so the debate continues.

One day we will all undoubtedly get along. Everyone’s trying to do the right thing. Till then hopefully no one loses an eye.

Ringtone Flea Market

Seth Shapiro — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 10:21:02 +0000

Posted by Seth Shapiro

Speaking of which, analysts have speculated for some time on why profitable ringtones are more profitable than full songs. This weekend we took a stroll through the highest Google-ranked free ringtone sites. Guess what? It was cool, and slighty addictive. Mainly they were crap, civilians loading the system with UGC only their best friends would care about. But then just around the corner would be an occaisonal gem, a great Trane riff that looped just right, Beavis as Cornholio, The Munsters. Stuff that made the room say Ho!

Reminding us of what? Of a flea market, or a garage sale, or a 12 year old DJ rooting through his parents’ record collection looking for something funky to cut with.

The true spirit of hip hop is alive and well in the free ringtone cutout bin. Go see for yourself.

Music & Mobile: Don’t look to the stars…

Seth Shapiro — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 05:56:26 +0000

Posted by Seth Shapiro

… look to the numbers. Re reviving the music business via digital, a recent metric speaks volumes: the year’s mobile revs are approximately $600B. The year’s music revenues are $30B. That’s a 20x differential. And how many handsets are there vs. dedicated music players? That delta is clearly a hell of a lot bigger.

Devices = # Users and # Users = Demand. The record industry has spent decades managing by inflating prices, oligopoly and constricting supply by providing $15 albums instead of $2 singles. As we said before, how’s it working for them? Not so good.

Whoever rides the music horse in the direction that TV and mobile move will have the stronger hand. Watch.